Working with files

ThirtyFile works like File Explorer, or like a Mac's Finder in the Mac style. This page lists what you can do and the shortcuts that make it quicker.

The file list with the folder tree on the left
On this page
  1. Finding your way around
  2. Views, columns and groups
  3. Paths
  4. Uploading
  5. Downloading
  6. Compressing and extracting ZIP files
  7. Organising
  8. Tags
  9. Smart folders
  10. Details
  11. When the name is already taken
  12. Earlier versions
  13. Keyboard shortcuts
  14. The Mac style
  15. The trash
  16. On a phone

Finding your way around

Recent lists the files you uploaded, edited or opened, newest first, wherever they are: your own files, and files of others in shared spaces and folders. Opening means viewing a file in the browser (the viewer, the editor or the preview pane); downloads and file clients using an app password don't count. Files you can no longer open, and files in the trash, are left out.

Large folders

A folder with thousands of items opens with its first items right away, and loads the rest as you get to them: the part you scroll to, the part End or Page Down goes to, or where you drag the scroll bar. Rows not loaded yet show as grey lines for a moment, and the status bar shows Loading more items… meanwhile. The status bar counts every item of the folder, loaded or not. Only the parts near where you are stay loaded, so a folder of a hundred thousand items doesn't slow your browser down.

Selecting works on the whole folder, also on items not loaded yet:

Typing the start of a name goes to the next matching item among those loaded. Going up (or back) to a large folder shows the folder you came from and selects it, wherever it is in the list. Grouping a large folder by date or type (see below) loads the whole folder, so every group is complete.

Views, columns and groups

The View menu has the same views as File Explorer, and Columns:

In Columns, ↑ and ↓ move within a column, → goes into the selected folder's column, and ← goes back to the column before; typing the start of a name goes to it. Clicking an item in another column goes to that column. Going back keeps the columns you opened to the right, until you select something else. Selecting, opening, renaming and deleting work as in the other views, a large folder loads a part at a time in its column too, and you can drag items onto a folder in any column, or onto the empty space of another column, to move them there. Drag the right edge of a column to make it wider or narrower (double-click it to give the column its usual width again); the widths are remembered in this browser until you sign out. Group by doesn't apply to this view.

Files without a thumbnail show an icon for their kind. Programming languages and data formats each have their own (JSON, Rust and Go look different), and so do the files of common tools, recognised by their name even without an extension: Dockerfile, Makefile, .env, .gitignore, package.json, lock files, LICENSE and README. Fonts, disk images, installers, databases, e-books, design files, 3D models and certificates have icons too. In Details, point at the Type column to see what kind of file it is. A file ThirtyFile doesn't recognise keeps the plain file icon.

In Details, drag the edge of a column header to make the column wider or narrower (or select the edge with Tab and use the arrow keys); double-click the edge to give it its usual width again. Right-click a column header, or choose View › Columns, to choose the columns: Date modified, Date created (hidden at first), Type, Size, Tags (hidden at first), and where a list has them Location and Uploaded by. Restore default columns undoes your changes. When the list is too narrow for all the columns (with the details pane open, for example), Type and then Size are left out before the list scrolls sideways. On a phone the list shows the name and size only.

Sort orders the items by name, date modified, date created, type or size, from A to Z or the other way; clicking a column header does the same. Folders always come first. Names sort as in File Explorer: letter case doesn't matter and numbers count by their value (File 2 before File 10). Other characters sort by their Unicode code point, so Chinese and Japanese names follow Unicode order (hiragana, then katakana, then Chinese characters), not their pronunciation or stroke count. The order is the same in every language and for everyone, which keeps long folders loading page by page without gaps or repeats.

View › Group by puts the items in groups, each under a heading with the number of items in it:

Within a group, items keep the order the list is sorted in. Sorting the other way by the same thing (oldest first, or by type from Z to A) turns the groups around too. The view, the columns and the grouping are remembered in your browser for every folder.

Paths

A path names a folder or file the same way everywhere: in the address bar, and over WebDAV. It starts at the top, where all your spaces are, for example /My files/Reports/2026.xlsx:

The names ThirtyFile gives (My files, All files and Shared with me) show in the language you chose, and a path you type may use them in that language or in English. Letter case doesn't matter, \ works like /, and you can also paste a WebDAV address or a link to a page of ThirtyFile. When nothing is at the path you typed, or you don't have access to it, the address bar says so and keeps what you typed, so you can correct it. Recent, Favorites, the trash and other lists aren't in a space, so their paths can't be typed.

Administrators can also type a Control panel path: /Control panel/Storage locations, or the names shown in their chosen language. Copied paths from its address bar work too. For a path independent of the interface language, use /admin, /admin/storage, /admin/usage, or the other Control panel page addresses. These paths work in the Windows address bar and the Mac style's Go to folder. They require the same administrator permissions as opening the page from its menu. A recognized Control panel path takes priority over a space of the same name; open that space from the sidebar or paste its full page URL instead.

Uploading

Progress is shown at the bottom right, and each file starts being sent at once. When you upload more than 100 files, only the files being sent, paused or failed are listed, and the others are counted below them. Right-click the list to retry every failed file at once. While files are still uploading, the browser asks before you close or reload the page. Dropped files or folders the browser can't read (no permission, or removed meanwhile) are skipped, and a message says how many.

Preparing upload… appears before data starts moving. After all bytes are sent, Finishing upload… stays until the server confirms the file is stored. These stages show a waiting indicator instead of a completion percentage. Pause and cancel remain available.

If no upload data arrives for two minutes, the server stops waiting and the upload can resume from the bytes it already received. A long upload that keeps sending data has no overall time limit. WebDAV uploads use the same idle limit, but a failed WebDAV request must be sent again in full.

Interrupted uploads

If you reload the page, or close the tab or the browser while files are uploading, they show under Interrupted uploads at the bottom right the next time you open ThirtyFile in this browser, as they were added: an uploaded folder by its name, files picked together as one entry. The browser can't reopen your files by itself, so choose them again:

An upload still running in another tab isn't offered: it shows up here only after that tab is closed. Interrupted uploads are kept for 7 days, in this browser only, and only for your account (or, for visitors, for the share link they uploaded through). Only file names, folders, sizes and dates are kept, with the address of the upload on the server (for a visitor, that includes the share link), never the files themselves. Signing out removes them.

Downloading

Select one or more items and click Download. Several items, or a folder, arrive as one ZIP file. It holds the items as they were when the download started: what is added to the folders meanwhile isn't in it. If a file in a folder on the server changes size while the ZIP is being sent, the download fails rather than arrive incomplete; start it again.

Progress is shown at the bottom right. Downloads larger than 256 MB (64 MB on phones and tablets) go straight to your browser's own download list instead, so the page doesn't hold them in memory.

Preparing download… appears while a download link or the server's response is being prepared, and you can cancel during that wait. If the size is unknown, a waiting indicator replaces the percentage while received bytes are still shown. A failed preparation can be retried. Downloads handed directly to the browser, including public share downloads, show a notice: follow progress in your browser's download list.

Up to 10,000 selected items can be downloaded at once. For more, download the folder they are in: a folder counts as one item, however much it holds.

Compressing and extracting ZIP files

Both run on the server: a message at the bottom shows how far they got, and you can keep working meanwhile. Both are recorded in the activity log.

To keep one file from filling the server, a ZIP file isn't extracted when:

Organising

Moving or copying to or from a folder on the server copies the files, which takes a while for large folders. A message at the bottom then shows how far it got, and you can keep working meanwhile. The move or copy goes on on the server even if you close the page.

After you move, rename or delete items, the message at the bottom has an Undo button for a few seconds. It moves the items back, gives back the old name, or restores them from the trash. Ctrl + Z in the list does the same for the last of these actions.

Tags

Tags are coloured labels you put on files and folders to find them again, such as Urgent or Invoices. An item can have several.

Your tags are your own. Nobody else sees them, their names or what you put them on, also on items in spaces you share with others; administrators and visitors of share links don't either. Everyone can tag what they can open, with their own tags. A tag stays on an item when it is renamed, moved (also to another space), put in the trash and restored, or changed on a folder on the server by another program, and a copy you make gets the tags of the original. When you can no longer open an item, its tags no longer show; deleting the item for good removes them. Like share links, tags are kept in the database: a backup of the data folder keeps them, a backup of files doesn't.

Smart folders

A smart folder is a search you keep. It shows in the menu on the left like a folder, and whenever you open it, it lists what matches at that moment, such as PDFs changed in the last 30 days or everything tagged Urgent.

A smart folder holds no items of its own. Deleting it deletes only the saved search, and nothing can be moved into it: an item shows in it while it matches, and leaves it when it is renamed, moved or changed so that it no longer does. Your smart folders are your own, like your tags: nobody else sees them. They only ever list what you can open at that moment: when you lose access to a folder or space, its items leave your smart folders, and a smart folder that looks in a folder you can no longer open lists nothing. Like tags, smart folders are kept in the database: a backup of the data folder keeps them, a backup of files doesn't.

Details

Click Details pane in the toolbar, or press Alt + Enter, to show the details pane on the right. It describes the selected item, or the open folder when nothing is selected.

Everyone who can open an item sees its activity. Changes to sharing and permissions (who was given access, share links) are shown only to the space's managers and owners. The complete log, with filters and export, stays in the activity log.

When the name is already taken

Before uploading, moving, copying, pasting or restoring from the trash, ThirtyFile checks whether the destination already has an item with the same name (letter case doesn't count, except in folders on the server). For each one it asks, showing the size and date of both:

Tick Do this for the next conflicts to give the same answer to every remaining one, or choose Cancel to stop without changing anything. An uploaded folder whose name is taken is merged into the folder there: Replace replaces the files that have the same names inside it, Keep both keeps both of them. A copy pasted into its own folder always gets a number, as in Windows.

If the folder you are uploading to is deleted, or you lose permission to add files to it, before the upload finishes, the upload fails and the upload list says why; the file doesn't end up anywhere else.

Earlier versions

When you save a file in the online editor, replace it with an upload, or restore an earlier version, the content it had is kept as an earlier version. Select the file and open the details pane (Alt + Enter): Versions lists them, newest first, with who wrote each one and when. Open shows a version in a new browser tab, Download saves it, and Restore makes it the file's content again; what the file had until then becomes a version too, so a restore can be undone the same way.

Keyboard shortcuts

KeysAction
EnterOpen
Alt + ↑Go up one folder, with the folder you came from selected
Alt + ← or BackspaceBack
Alt + →Forward
← → (in an open file)The previous or next file of its folder, in the folder's sort order
Ctrl + L or Alt + DGo to the address bar, with the full path selected for copying or typing another path
Ctrl + F or F3Go to the search box
F5Refresh the list (the page itself isn't reloaded)
F2Rename
DeleteMove to the trash
Shift + DeleteDelete permanently, without going through the trash. It asks first, and only works where you may delete
Ctrl + X / C / VCut, copy, paste
Ctrl + ZUndo the last move, rename or delete, also after its message has gone
Ctrl + ASelect everything
Ctrl + Shift + NNew folder
Alt + EnterShow details
← → (in the Columns view)Back to the column before, or on to the column of the selected folder
↑ ↓ Home End Page Up Page DownMove through the list (also ← → in the icon view and the space tiles). Hold Shift to select as you go, or Ctrl to move the focus only and leave the selection as it is
SpaceSelect the item with the focus. With Ctrl, add it to the selection or remove it
Shift + F10 or the Menu keyOpen the menu of the item with the focus, as right-clicking it does; with nothing selected, the menu of the empty space. The arrow keys go through its items, the row of buttons at the top too, and → opens a submenu
LettersGo to the next item whose name starts with them. Type quickly to match more letters; type the same letter again for the next item starting with it
EscClear the selection, or close the preview, the details pane or the phone menu when it covers the list
? (Shift + /)Show the list of shortcuts. It's also under See more (⋯) › Keyboard shortcuts
Tab (first press on a page)Show the Skip to main content link, which jumps past the bars and the navigation pane

On a Mac, use ⌘ for Ctrl and Option for Alt; the menus and the list of shortcuts show them that way. Shortcuts don't apply while you are typing in a box, except F5.

The folder tree on the left is one stop for Tab. In it, ↑ and ↓ move between folders, → expands a folder (or goes to its first subfolder), ← collapses it (or goes to the folder above), Home and End jump to the first and last folder, and Enter opens the folder. A folder with many subfolders shows the first 100; Show more folders below them adds the next 100.

Two buttons above the menu on the left help in a long folder tree: Show current folder opens the tree down to the folder you are looking at and scrolls to it, and Collapse all closes every folder and space, leaving the list of spaces. The folders you expanded are remembered in this browser until you sign out.

The Mac style

In the Mac style (see Interface style), the file explorer is laid out like a Mac's Finder and uses its keys. The files, what you can do with them and the questions ThirtyFile asks are the same as in the Windows style: a name the folder already has always brings up the dialog described in When the name is already taken, and deleting permanently always asks first.

Its keys are Finder's, except those the browser keeps for itself (such as ⌘ + N and ⌘ + W). On a computer that isn't a Mac, use Ctrl for ⌘ and Alt for Option. The other keys work as in the Windows style (above): moving through the list, ⌘ + A, ⌘ + Z, Shift + F10, F5, typing the start of a name, Esc and ?.

KeysAction
EnterRename
⌘ + ↓Open
⌘ + ↑Go up one folder, with the folder you came from selected
⌘ + [ / ]Back, forward
⌘ + Shift + GGo to folder
SpaceQuick look; the arrow keys go to the next item
⌘ + IGet info (the details pane)
⌘ + ⌫Move to the trash
⌘ + Option + ⌫Delete permanently, after asking
⌘ + C / VCopy, paste
⌘ + Option + VMove the copied items here
⌘ + Option + NNew folder
→ ← (in the List view)Expand or collapse the selected folder; on an expanded folder, → goes to its first item, and ← goes from an item back to its folder
→ ← (in the Gallery view)The next or previous item, previewed above the strip
⌘ + FGo to the search box

The trash

Deleted items go to the trash, where they can be restored. They are removed for good after 30 days (the administrator can change this with THIRTYFILE_TRASH_DAYS, or keep them until the trash is emptied), or when you empty the trash. The trash page shows how many days apply.

The trash lists deleted items of every space you can open. Empty trash deletes only the items of the spaces you manage (your own files, and team spaces where you are a manager); it asks first, naming each space and how many items go. Items of spaces you can only view stay.

Deleting a large folder for good, or emptying a large trash, takes a while. The items leave the trash at once, and a message at the bottom shows how far the deleting got; it goes on even if you close the page. Moving a folder of many thousands of items to the trash, restoring it, or renaming it in a folder on the server also takes a few moments to finish on the server. Until then that folder can't be restored, moved or copied: you're asked to try again in a moment.

The Deleted by column shows who moved each item to the trash (on wider screens). Items deleted before ThirtyFile recorded this, or by an account that was removed since, show a dash. To see only what you deleted yourself, choose Deleted by me above the list; Deleted by everyone shows the whole trash again.

On a phone

The same site works on a phone. Tap an item to open it, and use the buttons above the list for everything else.

The file list on a phone