Skip to main content

How to Move Resources and Folders

Moving an item into a folder is not only tidying up. A move can rewrite who has access to what you moved. When it does, passbolt shows you the result and waits for your confirmation, but it is still worth knowing what to expect before you drag anything.

Moving is a drag and drop​

There is no move entry in the resource menu. Dragging is the only way:

  1. In the passwords workspace, press the mouse button on the row you want to move.
  2. Drag it onto the destination folder in the tree on the left.
  3. Release. When the move changes permissions, the Confirm permissions dialog opens: click Save to apply the move, or Cancel to leave everything where it was. Otherwise the move is applied straight away.

You can select several resources beforehand and drag them together, and they all move in one operation.

Folders move one at a time

A multiple selection only works for resources. When you drag several folders, only one of them moves, and when your selection mixes folders and resources, only the first folder moves and the resources stay where they are. Move folders one by one.

Taking an item out of a folder​

Drop it on the title of the folders tree, at the top of the left panel. That moves it back out of any folder, to the root of your workspace.

When a move is not allowed​

Whether you may drag an item depends on where it comes from:

  • From the root of your workspace, or from one of your personal folders, you can always move it.
  • From a shared folder, you need can update both on that folder and on the item itself.

And whether you may drop it depends on the destination:

  • You need can update on the destination folder.
  • When the destination is a shared folder, every item you are dragging must be at least can update. A single read-only item in the selection blocks the whole batch.
A refused move says nothing

passbolt does not explain a refusal. The destination simply does not light up as you hover it, the item returns to its place, and no message appears. When a move does not work, check the conditions above rather than looking for an error.

What a move does to permissions​

What a move changes depends on what you are moving, and on your own access to it.

The Confirm permissions dialog​

When a move changes the level of somebody on at least one resource you own, passbolt opens the Confirm permissions dialog before applying anything. It shows the rows and badges of the share dialog, and each row gives the level that person or group will have once the move is done.

  • varies means here that the move gives that person or group different levels on different resources. Hover the information icon to see the detail. Unlike in a share, saving applies those levels.
  • The dialog is a proposal: you can still change a level, remove somebody or add somebody before you click Save.
  • Cancel abandons the whole move, and every item stays where it was.

Moving only needs can update, so a selection can mix resources you own with resources you can only update. passbolt only rewrites the permissions of the resources you own, and the dialog says so in two places:

  • A warning triangle replaces the information icon on each row whose level cannot apply to every resource. Hover it for the detail.
  • A message under the list repeats it for the whole dialog: "You do not have rights to update some of the permissions. Therefore some permissions will not be applied as displayed. Please verify them."

The move still happens when you save. The resources you can only update move too, with the permissions they already had.

Moving a resource​

Permissions are only rewritten when you own the resource. If your access to it is can update rather than is owner, the resource moves and its permissions are left alone.

As an owner, what happens depends on where the resource comes from:

  • From the root of your workspace into a shared folder: every permission is kept, and those of the destination folder are added. When somebody already has access, the higher of the two levels applies.
  • From one folder into another: what the resource inherited from the folder it leaves is removed, the permissions granted directly on it survive, and those of the destination folder are added.
  • From a folder back to the root: what the resource inherited from the folder it leaves is removed, and your own permission stays as it is.

passbolt counts a permission as inherited when the folder you leave gives the same person or group the same level or a higher one. A higher level on the resource itself counts as granted directly, and survives the move.

Moving into a shared folder gives access

By default, everyone the destination folder is shared with gets access to the resources you own in the move, and can decrypt their secrets from then on. The dialog marks the people who had no access yet with the added badge: read it before you save.

A move you regret is not undone by moving the item back. The second move applies the rules above again, which does not necessarily restore the permissions the item had before. Read the dialog before you save, or open the share dialog afterwards and adjust the permissions where needed, knowing that each person you add means a fresh encryption.

Moving a folder​

As with resources, permissions are only rewritten on the folders and resources inside the move that you own: when you own none of them, the move applies no permission changes and shows no dialog. Otherwise, when the move changes permissions, the same Confirm permissions dialog opens, and there is no separate step to choose between changing and keeping permissions.

Reorganise without changing access

Moving items inside your own personal folders, or between folders shared with exactly the same people, changes nothing for anybody. When you want to tidy up without touching access, keep the moves within one sharing perimeter.