Local Storage

Table of Contents

Introduction

Using local storage is a security risk, only use it if you know what you are doing.

Local storage provides the ability to mount any directory on your ownCloud server that is:

  • Outside of your ownCloud data/ directory

  • Both readable and writable by your web server user

Details

As this setup diffuses the difference between ownCloud Admin and sysadmin, this is a significant security risk and therefore off by default.

  • Only enable local storage if ownCloud Admin and sysadmin are the same person on purpose.

  • A local ownCloud mount does not work well with external storages like SMB or FTP mounted in the Linux filesystem. If such a Linux mounted storage goes away, ownCloud is likely to see the underlying empty mountpoint as a perfectly valid folder and will silently propagate content deletion, instead of forwarding error messages to the end users.

In any case, local storage is only configurable via the ownCloud admin settings. Non-admin users cannot create local storage mounts.

See Set Correct Permissions for information on correct file permissions, and find your HTTP user PHP Version and Information.

To enable Local storage, you must first enable it by editing your ownCloud installation’s config/config.php file adding the following configuration key:

'files_external_allow_create_new_local' => 'true',

To manage local storage, navigate to Settings  Admin  Storage. You can see an example in the screenshot below.

Manage local storage in ownCloud

  1. In the Folder name field enter the folder name that you want to appear on your ownCloud Files page.

  2. In the Configuration field enter the full file path of the directory you want to mount.

  3. In the Available for field enter the users or groups who have permission to access the mount; by default all users have access.

See External Storage Configuration for additional mount options and information, and External Storage Authentication mechanisms for more information on authentication schemes.