Personal user folders ("My Files")

nextExplorer can expose a per-user home space alongside your shared volumes. In the UI this appears as a separate entry labeled “My Files”, and it uses the same Folder View, search, favorites, editor, and ONLYOFFICE integrations as your other folders.

This section explains how it works and how to enable it.

How personal folders work

• Each authenticated user gets a private directory under a common root (USER_ROOT).
• Logical paths for personal items always start with personal/:
  • Example: personal, personal/photos, personal/docs/report.docx.
• The backend maps those logical paths to the filesystem:
  • Volume paths: Projects/file.txt → <VOLUME_ROOT>/Projects/file.txt.
  • Personal paths: personal/docs/file.txt → <USER_ROOT>/<userFolder>/docs/file.txt.
• The <userFolder> name is derived from the user’s identity (id / username / email) and sanitized so it is safe as a directory name.
  • You can control which identity fields are preferred with USER_FOLDER_NAME_ORDER (see below).
• Access control rules, favorites, search and previews work on the logical path:
  • You can define access rules for personal/... if you want to further restrict or hide parts of the personal tree.

On the frontend:

• When the feature is enabled the sidebar and Home screen show a translated “My Files” entry (drives.personal in i18n).
• Clicking it navigates to /browse/personal, which uses the existing Folder View UI and APIs.
• The standard Share workflow also works from within My Files: when you share items under personal/..., links resolve back to the owner’s personal folder while still respecting Access Control and share settings (read-only/read-write, password, expiration).

Enabling personal folders

Personal folders are controlled entirely via environment variables on the backend.

Required environment variables

In addition to your usual VOLUME_ROOT/CONFIG_DIR/CACHE_DIR settings, configure:

USER_DIR_ENABLED=true
USER_ROOT=/srv/users
USER_FOLDER_NAME_ORDER=id,username,email_local

• USER_DIR_ENABLED:
  • Default: false.
  • When true, the backend exposes the personal/ namespace and the frontend shows the “My Files” entry (via /api/features).
• USER_ROOT:
  • Default: <VOLUME_ROOT>/_users when unset.
  • Root directory on disk where all per-user folders are stored.
  • For each user, nextExplorer creates (or reuses) a subdirectory under this path when they first access their personal space.
• USER_FOLDER_NAME_ORDER:
  • Default: id,username,email_local.
  • Controls how <userFolder> is chosen for personal folders. Valid values: id, username, email, email_local, displayname.
  • Example (reuse existing Linux home directories): set USER_ROOT=/home and USER_FOLDER_NAME_ORDER=username,id.
  • The order is a preference, not a formula. The first account to be given a name keeps it, and an account whose preferred name is already taken walks down the rest of the order to the next free one — id is always last, and ids are unique, so it always ends somewhere. Nothing about username or email_local is unique on its own (bob@a.com and bob@b.com both yield bob), and without this two accounts would share a folder and see each other's files.

Note: the name an account is given is kept. Changing USER_FOLDER_NAME_ORDER afterwards applies to accounts created from then on, and leaves the existing ones where they are — so the change cannot silently take a folder away from whoever is using it.

To move existing accounts to a new order deliberately, move or rename their directories on disk, then clear the assignment so it is worked out again at their next sign-in:

UPDATE users SET personal_folder_name = NULL;

Where two accounts then prefer the same name, the first to sign in gets it. Assign the names yourself in the same statement if that matters.

Note: The personal folder UI will not appear unless USER_DIR_ENABLED=true. The app also refuses to resolve personal/... when this flag is off.

Example: development compose

The included docker/docker-compose.development.yml shows a development-friendly setup:

services:
  backend:
    # …
    volumes:
      # Shared volumes
      - /Users/you/projects:/mnt/Projects
      - /Users/you/Downloads:/mnt/Downloads
      # Config & cache
      - /Users/you/Downloads/config:/config
      - /Users/you/Downloads/cache:/cache
      # Personal user folders on the host
      - /Users/you/Downloads/user_vols:/srv/users
    environment:
      - VOLUME_ROOT=/mnt
      - CONFIG_DIR=/config
      - CACHE_DIR=/cache
      # …
      - USER_DIR_ENABLED=true
      - USER_ROOT=/srv/users

With this configuration:

• All shared volumes still live under /mnt/* and show up under Volumes.
• Each authenticated user gets a private home under /srv/users/<userFolder>/….
  • The userFolder name is derived from their id/username/email and is created automatically.
• In the UI, users see a “My Files” entry that opens their own personal root (personal).

Example: production compose

To enable personal folders in a production deploy (see the full example in Deployment):

services:
  nextexplorer:
    image: ghcr.io/cerede2000/explorer:latest
    environment:
      - NODE_ENV=production
      - PUBLIC_URL=https://files.example.com
      - SESSION_SECRET=please-change-me
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      # Personal folders
      - USER_DIR_ENABLED=true
      - USER_ROOT=/srv/nextexplorer/users
    volumes:
      - /srv/nextexplorer/config:/config
      - /srv/nextexplorer/cache:/cache
      - /srv/data/Projects:/mnt/Projects
      - /srv/data/Media:/mnt/Media
      # Personal home folders on the host
      - /srv/nextexplorer/users:/srv/nextexplorer/users

Permissions and access control

• Personal folders are designed to be per-user homes.
• By default, access control rules (Settings → Access Control) apply to logical paths:
  • You can create rules targeting personal or personal/<subpath> if you want to further restrict access.
• Favorites and quick access:
  • Users can favorite folders under both volumes and personal/....
  • Favorites store the logical path (e.g. personal/docs), so they continue to work even if you adjust underlying mounts.

Behavior when disabled

If USER_DIR_ENABLED is false (or unset):

• The backend rejects personal/... paths and does not create user folders.
• The /api/features endpoint reports personal.enabled=false, so:
  • The sidebar and Home view do not show the “My Files” entry.
  • All existing volume behavior remains unchanged.