Using Personal Files

What Personal Files is

Personal Files is your private storage inside Unionsuite. Every user gets a completely separate space. Files you upload are stored under your own account, and storage rules stop anyone else, including administrators, from browsing your space through the app.

Any signed-in user can use it. The Personal Files entry in the navigation menu usually appears for administrators, Regional VPs, and Branch Executive users, and you can always open the page directly. Some deployments do not enable Personal Files at all, so if you cannot find it, ask your administrator. If you are signed out, you are sent to the login page.

This space is for your own working documents. Grievance attachments belong on the grievance itself, and Mass Email PDFs go to public document storage, so neither lives here.

Finding your way around

The header bar holds an Up arrow to go to the parent folder, a breadcrumb trail starting at Files, a List view / Grid view toggle, New Folder, Upload, and a Refresh button. The status bar at the bottom shows how many items are in view, or how many you have selected.

List view shows columns for Name, Type, Size, and Updated. Grid view shows large icons or thumbnails with the name and size underneath. Your choice of view is remembered on that device. Images and PDFs show real thumbnails, and PDFs render their first page.

Use the gear (View options) popover to set Sort by (Name, Updated, or Size) and the order (A to Z or Z to A). Folders always list before files.

1. 1Click a folder to open it, or use the Up arrow and breadcrumb to move back up.
2. 2Use the List view / Grid view toggle to switch how items are shown.
3. 3Open the gear (View options) to change the sort field and order.
4. 4Click Refresh to reload the current folder.

Uploading files

Open the folder you want the files in, then click Upload and pick one or more files, or drag files from your computer and drop them anywhere on the page. Each file gets a progress chip that reads Done when it finishes and clears away on its own. Failed uploads show the error on the chip and as a toast.

If you upload a single image or PDF, its preview opens automatically when the upload starts. Storage is typically capped at 50 MB per file, though the exact limit is set on your deployment. There is no per-user storage quota enforced by the app, and each folder lists up to 1,000 entries.

File names are cleaned up automatically. Characters that storage cannot accept become underscores, accented letters are preserved, and names are capped at 200 characters.

1. 1Open the folder where you want the files to land.
2. 2Click Upload and choose files, or drag and drop them onto the page.
3. 3Watch the progress chips until each reads Done.

Organizing into folders

Click New Folder, type a name, and click Create. You can nest folders as deep as you like, with no enforced depth limit. If a name is already taken you get a message saying a folder or file with that name already exists. A folder named exactly "private" or "locked" (or ending in " (locked)") shows a small lock icon, but this is purely visual and the folder still opens normally. There is no password on folders.

When you upload a file whose name already exists, the gear popover's "When a file already exists" setting decides what happens. Keep both (auto-rename) is the default and saves the new file as "name (1).ext". Skip the new upload leaves the existing file alone. Replace the existing file overwrites it, and because there is no version history, the previous contents are gone for good.

1. 1Click New Folder, type a name, and click Create.
2. 2Open a folder and create another inside it to nest as deep as you need.
3. 3Open the gear (View options) and set "When a file already exists" to control upload conflicts.

Renaming, moving, copying, and deleting

Right-click (or long-press) any row or card to open its context menu. For files you get Open, Download, Rename, Move to, Copy to, Copy link, and Delete. For folders you get Open, Rename, Move to, Copy link, and Delete. You can also tick checkboxes to select several items, which brings up a bulk bar with Move, Copy, Delete, and Clear. Move and Copy in the bulk bar act on files, so move folders by dragging them or through their own Move to menu.

To move or copy, choose Move to or Copy to and type the destination path under your root, then click Move or Copy. You can also drag a file or folder onto another folder or onto a breadcrumb segment. Keep in mind that renaming or moving an item breaks any share links you previously copied for it.

Deleting always asks first with a red Permanent delete dialog. Deleting a folder removes everything inside it. There is no trash and no undo, so a deleted or replaced file cannot be recovered from within the app.

1. 1Right-click an item, or select several, to reach the actions you want.
2. 2Choose Rename to change a name, then click Save.
3. 3Choose Move to or Copy to and type the destination path, then click Move or Copy.
4. 4Choose Delete and confirm with Delete permanently in the dialog.

Previewing and searching

Click a file, or choose Open, to open the preview drawer. Images, PDFs, video, audio, and text files all preview in place, while anything else shows a note to use Download instead. Close the drawer with the close button, the Escape key, or by clicking outside it. If a long-open preview stops loading, click Refresh URL in the drawer header to fetch a fresh one.

Search looks at names in the current folder only and does not reach into subfolders. Type in the "Search in this folder" box and press Enter or click Search. The folder, search term, and sort are kept in the page address, so you can bookmark a view or use the browser back button. Clear the box and search again to remove the filter.

1. 1Click a file to open the preview drawer and check its contents.
2. 2Use the close button, Escape, or click outside to close the preview.
3. 3Open the folder you want to search.
4. 4Type part of a name in the "Search in this folder" box and press Search.
5. 5Clear the box to return to the full folder contents.

Sharing and downloading

To share, right-click a file or folder and choose Copy link. The link is created and copied to your clipboard, ready to paste into an email or chat. Share links work without logging in, so you can send them to people outside the app. File links send the visitor straight to the file, while folder links download the entire folder, including subfolders, as a single ZIP. Folder ZIPs are capped at 2,000 files and 500 MB.

Share links do not expire and have no download limit. There is no password option, so treat a link as confidential and prefer sharing a single file when that is all someone needs. To revoke a link, change what it points at by renaming, moving, or deleting the item, since the link is tied to its exact location. There is no separate revoke button.

To download a single file, choose Download from its context menu. The file opens in a new tab through a short-lived private link, so start the download promptly. To download a whole folder, use a folder share link, which delivers a ZIP.

1. 1Right-click a file or folder and choose Copy link.
2. 2Paste the link into an email or chat for your recipient.
3. 3To download a single file, choose Download from its context menu.
4. 4To revoke a link, rename, move, or delete the item it points at.