Sharing with a link when users becomes inactive

ℹ️ Support
1

Nextcloud version (eg, 20.0.5): 22.2.5
Operating system and version (eg, Ubuntu 20.04): Debian 10
Apache or nginx version (eg, Apache 2.4.25): not relevant
PHP version (eg, 7.4): 7.3

I’m more like asking a “usage” question.

Users in Netxcloud are creating links to share files or folders. Links are sent via email, or displayed on some website or added to some document… The user that did create the link leaves the company, his·her account is de-activated and suddenly all the links he·she did create do not work anymore.

I was wondering if it was possible to create links that would not expire when user that created them is deactivated or even suppressed. I see 2 possibilities to circumvent this, first is to create links with a specific generic user (but we would have to change its password when a user leaves the company), second option is to avoid de-activation of the user account, we could just change the password so he cannot connect anymore. In companies with a big turnover that would result in a big list of “active” users, not completely satisfaying.

Or there should be some kind of review when de-activating a user, like a screen with a list of existing links and a possibility to change their property to another user ?

All these questions are of course without real object if there is another reason for these links to stop working, but this is the best explanation we found for links that suddenly stopped working, forcing us to recreate them with another user.

Pierre

2

The problem is that links are normally user related. This deviates from previous ways of thinking. All data a user shares to other users belongs to the first user and not to the other users.

The better approach in your case ist probably the use of the app Group folders (video). Groups folders are more like “network drives for more users”. Then the user can without any problems leave the Nextcloud.

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3

Hello
Thanks for your kind answer. I already figured this out, meaning we are already using Group Folders and the shared links I’m talking about are already from a Group Folders folder, the user is an authorized user of said group and folders, but when deactivating that user, links do not work anymore.
Unless again if I’m doing something wrong because you seem to be thinking that those links should remain …
Pierre

4

Two ideas:

a.)
Perhaps you can use the app ShareRenamer for your customer. Then you can re-use the name after a user leaves your Nextcloud. (Nextcloud 22 and Nextcloud 23)

b.)
Maybe the app Guests is a cool app for you. The problem is the fact that the share is also gone for this guest user. But the next Nextcloud user can share again and assign it to the customer (guest user).

5

Hello,
Thanks, interesting links, I’ll look into them, the first one seems an interesting option, I’ll make some tests and get back to the community here in case a similar question arises in the future.
Pierre.

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