This guide explains how kDrive shares Infomaniak are displayed according to the type of share and the application used (Web or Desktop), including internal shares (between users of the same kDrive) and external shares (to users outside kDrive).

Preamble

• Internal shares (between users of the same kDrive, point A below) can be synchronized on the desktop app.
  • Shared folders appear in a “Shared” folder on the desktop app and can be enabled/disabled in the synchronization settings.
  • Do not move or rename the “Shared” folders locally — this can break the synchronization.
• External shares (to users outside kDrive, point B below) cannot be synchronized on the desktop app.

A. Internal shares (between users of the same kDrive)

It is possible to share files or folders from your personal folder with other users of your kDrive, without going through the Organization Folders (shared folders). This allows you to precisely control access to your private data.

Steps to share a folder/file internally

1. In the kDrive web interface, one of the kDrive users right-clicks on their folder or file to share:
   
2. Select “Share the folder”:
   
3. In the “kDrive Users” tab, enter the name of another user of the same kDrive:
   
4. Choose the permissions:
   
5. Close the sharing window.

Behavior in the desktop app

When an internal share is made as above, a folder named “Shared” automatically appears in the local tree of the desktop app for the user concerned, here on macOS:

This folder contains all shared items and will therefore be synchronized with any subsequent changes made by the user who shared their data.

You can enable or disable the synchronization of this folder from the desktop app settings, by clicking on the chevron next to the name of the synchronization folder (kDrive2 in the example below) to expand the tree of synchronized files, and by deselecting the “Shared” folder (do not forget to validate the change):

B. External shares (to users outside the kDrive concerned)

You can also share files or folders with people who are not part of your kDrive. These shares are called external shares.

Warning: The external user must have an Infomaniak account (free or paid) to access the share. This is not a public link accessible to anyone.

Steps to share a folder/file externally

1. In the kDrive web interface, one of the kDrive users performs a right-click on the folder or file to be shared (for example, a subfolder of an already shared folder (at point A above) will be shared, this has no impact).
2. Select “Share the folder”:
   
3. In the “kDrive Users” tab, enter the email address of the external person (faq@ik.me in this example):
   
4. Click on the email address to add it, choose the permissions of the user and an optional message, then click on the button at the bottom right:
   
5. Select “External User” and click on the button at the bottom right to send the invitation:
   
6. Close the sharing window.

Behavior in the Web (and desktop) app

As long as the user does not check their emails, nothing will happen, the kDrive will not appear to them, neither on the Web app nor the desktop app:

The user faq@ik.me will therefore need to check their emails:

Once the sharing is accepted:

• The user is redirected to the shared data page in a restricted kDrive:
  
• To find them later, it may be necessary to first display “All Organizations” to make the sharing reappear, as it is not necessarily linked to the kDrive of the Organizations already accessible to the user:
  
• Then, the shared data will be visible in the “Shared with me” item:
  

These external shares are NOT synchronizable via the desktop app. No “Shared” folder appears locally for these shares.

The external user accesses the files only via the kDrive web interface (after logging into their Infomaniak account).

This ensures the security of data shared with third parties while limiting the synchronization load on local machines.

This guide explains the operation of the blacklist (blacklisted) in the desktop app kDrive (macOS / Windows / Linux) and in which cases certain local files or folders are no longer taken into account for synchronization.

Preamble

• A file or folder placed on the blacklist by the application has a suffix in its name of the form _blacklisted.
  • This means that the application ignores this item during synchronization operations and are therefore not transferred to kDrive Web.
  • This mark remains active as long as the cause of the block has not been corrected.
• If an excluded folder cannot be deleted locally, it may be automatically added to the blacklist.
  • In this case, you can either delete it manually, or reactivate its synchronization in the application settings.
• Once the problem is resolved (for example after deleting a duplicate, correcting permissions, or reactivating an excluded folder), simply remove the suffix _blacklisted from the name of the item to have it taken into account again in the synchronization.
• These mechanisms ensure the stability of the synchronization process and prevent repeated errors related to inaccessible, duplicate, or system-incompatible files.

Examples of blacklisting

In some cases, a local item may be placed on the blacklist:

• Dehydrated placeholder (Lite Sync only): a placeholder file (not fully downloaded) is added to the blacklist to prevent it from being sent to kDrive Web.
• Already existing creation on the remote drive: if the creation of a file or folder fails because an identical item already exists on kDrive Web, the local item is marked as blacklisted.
• Insufficient server-side permissions: when a file or folder is created locally but the backend refuses to propagate it (for example in Common documents), the local item is placed on the blacklist.
• Folder excluded from synchronization: if a folder has been unchecked in the kDrive desktop interface, the application attempts to delete it locally if it is still present. If this fails, it is placed on the blacklist.

A blacklisting can also occur due to incompatible file names: characters such as the tilde ~, the slash /, the backslash \, certain system files such as System Volume Information or certain temporary or technical extensions (.idlk, .parms.db, .directory, ._*, etc.).

Rename these items before restarting synchronization.

Correct an item blacklisted

To recognize them:

• Identification: the suffix _blacklisted in the name of the file or folder indicates that the item is ignored by synchronization.
• Resolution: correct the cause of the block (for example access permissions, an existing duplicate on kDrive Web, an exclusion parameter, or a placeholder status), then rename the item to remove _blacklisted if you want it to be synchronized again.

To avoid them:

• Check your access rights before creating or modifying files in shared spaces, organizational folders, or Common documents.
• Avoid duplicates when creating or moving files between your computer and kDrive Web.
• Do not uncheck a folder in the desktop application if you continue to add items to it locally.
• With Lite Sync, download the file completely before modifying it instead of working on a dehydrated placeholder.