Pydio Quick Start

Pydio

Pydio is a powerful file sharing web app. It supports multiple users, per-user permissions, easy link sharing, and more. It can be used to share files privately with colleagues or clients, collaborate on projects with coworkers, or replace the functionality of an FTP site.

There is also a mobile app available in the Apple and Android app stores.

The full documentation for Pydio is at http://pyd.io and the Pydio channel on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNEMnabbk64csjA_qolXvPA has several how-to videos.

This article contains just a few tips on getting started and doing some common tasks. Please see the above resources for more detailed information.

Create New Users

After the initial setup, your Pydio install will have one user defined, the admin. Log in as admin and create a user for yourself and anyone else who needs access. It's better to have individual users and passwords than to share a single login.

• Log in as the admin user
• In the upper right corner there is a pulldown menu, select Settings
• On the left click Users & Groups, then click New User
• Enter the username and password. Be sure to write down the password so you can give it to the person who needs it. Click the little right-arrow icon to go to the next screen.
• On this screen you can enter the user's name, email address, etc. For now leave the Role and Profile settings at their defaults. When finished, click the Save button in the upper right corner to save these settings.
• Along the top of the screen are "tabs" which correspond to the parts of the settings you have visited. Right now you should see a tab for "Users & Groups" and another for the user you just created. Click "Users & Groups" to get back to the user list. From here, you can click New User to add another if needed.

Reset a user's password

• Log in as admin and go to Settings > Users & Groups
• Select the user, then click the Edit button.
• If you want to assign a new password, click the Changed Password button
• If you want the user to be forced to pick a new password, click the Force Password Change button. (There's no visual feedback when you do this -- but the next time the user logs in they will have to pick a new password. They will need their old password in order to get in to do this.)
• By the way, if you need a secure way to send users their passwords, https://burnlink.swcp.com is a good way to do this. (This is not part of Pydio -- it's a general purpose tool that is made for this type of situation).

Upload a file, share it with someone

When you log in as a regular user, you will see the "My Files" workspace. Enter that workspace, which will be empty except for the recycle bin. To upload a file, you can either click the Upload button in the upper right, or (on most systems) you can drag-and-drop a file from your desktop onto the workspace and it will be uploaded.

If you want to share a file, select the file in the workspace, then click the green Share button on the right. On this screen:

• Description: if you need to describe the file, put a short note here
• Link Handle: If you enter a word here, it will be used in the address of the link to the file. If you leave it blank, the system will generate a random handle. For example, with a handle it might be http://yoursite.com/files/data/public/q3numbers vs. http://yoursite.com/files/data/public/802381
• Security: Here you can set several things:
  • Password: a password that people will have to enter to retrieve the file.
  • Expire in Days: If you want the file to be shared only for a limited time, enter the number of days here.
  • Allowed Downloads: If you want the file to be downloadable only a certain number of times, enter a number here. After the limit is reached, someone who tries to access the link will be told it is gone.
  • Access Rights: "Download" should always be checked here. You might or might not want "Preview" to be allowed. If the files is a picture (JPG or PNG for instance) and Preview is checked, then anyone accessing that link will be able to see the picture without actually downloading it. Sometimes that is fine, but if you wanted to limit the number of downloads, you should uncheck Preview, so that the only way to see the picture is to download it. That way everyone who sees the picture will count against the total number of allowed downloads you specified.
• Click "Generate Link" to get the link. Then you can cut-n-paste the link and send it to anyone you like. There is also an "Invite" button which will have Pydio email the link for you.