idea Enable subfolders in ArcGIS Online in ArcGIS Online Ideas

Enable subfolders in ArcGIS Online

JohnNergeBrooklynPark — Mon, 01 May 2023 13:47:41 GMT

Saw some older posts on this but decided to start a new one to hopefully get some fresh perspectives.

It would be really usefult to be able to create subfolders within ArcGIS Online's My Content section. I feel like this is a pretty universally standard capability among online hosting tools like OneDrive, DropBox, Google Drive, etc.

With as much as ArcGIS Online has grown over the years, it would be really valuable to be able to use subfolders to organize projects. One example would be if you're, say, building an Instant App that's sharing results from a Survey123 survey via one or more hosted feature layer views. In that situation, it be great to be able to have a folder structure like so:

Main project folder
- Survey subfolder for form and default feature layer and views
- Instant app subfolder for web map and app
- Feature layer view subfolder for views used to share the data publicly
- Subfolder for experimental/not in use stuff like trial instant apps etc.

I'm guessing people have many projects where there are 10+ items in a folder, and it can get really tricky to figure out which thing is which without the ability to better organize all the items.

Is this something Esri is open to implementing/ArcGIS Online users want?

Re: Enable subfolders in ArcGIS Online

Katie_Clark — Mon, 01 May 2023 13:59:40 GMT

Would love to have this functionality. I own several thousand items in my AGOL account, and additional folders would definitely help to keep things organized!

This functionality would be useful in many ways, but one specific use-case for me would be to have sub-folders within project folders that I would call "Archived". This would be for things that we want to keep hosted in AGOL for people to easily be able to reference, but it's not the current year's map/data.

Another option for the above scenario would be to be able to mark something as "Archived" the same way we can mark as Authoritative or Deprecated. But the subfolders idea would be very useful as well, regardless!

Re: Enable subfolders in ArcGIS Online

RobertThomsonErase — Mon, 01 May 2023 14:07:53 GMT

I'd love it instead of having so many folders in the root. For example I could have Transportation with sub-folders Sidewalk, Asphalt, Curbs, etc.

Re: Enable subfolders in ArcGIS Online

Leahr — Mon, 01 May 2023 15:01:27 GMT

Folder organization is such an essential tool for any serious project data management. John makes a great point!

Re: Enable subfolders in ArcGIS Online

ArmstKP — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 19:28:45 GMT

YES YES YES!!

Re: Enable subfolders in ArcGIS Online

PeterKnoop — Sun, 04 Feb 2024 15:54:38 GMT

For reference, one of the earlier posts on this topic with a lot of examples and kudos is Additional Folders/ Sub-Folders in My Content.

Re: Enable subfolders in ArcGIS Online

JohnNergeBrooklynPark — Sun, 04 Feb 2024 19:28:08 GMT

Thank you for linking this to that one, Peter! Also Esri, over 300 kudos and it's been a topic for over a decade?? I am not a troll, so I'm not gonna come down hard on this online. But I do think it's high time for an ArcGIS Online content management overhaul.

Re: Enable subfolders in ArcGIS Online

MDB_GIS — Fri, 16 Feb 2024 22:39:17 GMT

How this extremely basic quality of life feature has not been added yet is crazy. My organization doesn't even use AGOL much, but our directory is still cluttered because some dashboards and apps can contain 10-20 individual components. Having the ability to better sort that data is crucial.

Re: Enable subfolders in ArcGIS Online

Spencer_Taylor — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 19:59:59 GMT

This is a needed feature especially in light of changes ESRI is making to licensing for AGOL users.

Re: Enable subfolders in ArcGIS Online

cloopadoop — Tue, 26 Nov 2024 15:18:35 GMT

Organization, nesting, and structural clarity are *a nightmare* in every corner of Esri's offerings. It'll send a body into fits of crass language.

Make subfolders, for the love of sanity.

Re: Enable subfolders in ArcGIS Online

JeffBishop — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 17:14:08 GMT

ESRI? You there?

@B_McGilvery

Re: Enable subfolders in ArcGIS Online

MappyIan — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 16:26:02 GMT

"Make subfolders, for the love of sanity." - I echo this comment from @cloopadoop completely. We need subfolders. It's mental that they're still not available in ArcGIS Online. Organising content with a flat folder structure is a total nightmare once you have more than a handful of items.

Re: Enable subfolders in ArcGIS Online

fjramos — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 14:15:12 GMT

Adding a comment to keep this idea active.

Re: Enable subfolders in ArcGIS Online

Catherine_Hodde-Pierce — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 13:21:04 GMT

This is the number one request I get from users, and the lack of subfolders is one of my biggest complaints with AGOL.

This is seriously more of a need than a want for end users.

Re: Enable subfolders in ArcGIS Online

JamieWallace — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 14:17:16 GMT

For a company that values data management so highly, it's absolutely insane to me at the lack of management available within Arcgis Online. I understand the concept of groups, but it does little when opening that user's "page" or saved items and unless you can just remember the name, it's a crap shoot. Also using tags is so broad of a way to organize things. The data we have is vast and would require so many tags to differentiate that it would be impossible to remember them all without referencing a document that you create that references all the tags. After going full online, this is the biggest and really only full on disappointment.

Re: Enable subfolders in ArcGIS Online

Bud — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 11:07:54 GMT

As an AGOL novice, my last resort workaround is to use the project name as a folder prefix so that folders for the same project are grouped together alphabetically. That lets me split up the AGOL items into separate folders.

ProjectA - External Map
ProjectA - Internal Map
ProjectA - Survey

Re: Enable subfolders in ArcGIS Online

MeganEngel2 — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 18:26:52 GMT

Still waiting on AGOL sub folders!

Re: Enable subfolders in ArcGIS Online

MeganEngel — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 18:29:21 GMT

Would Love some subfolders in ArcGIS Online for content management!

yes i posted this under my org acct and personal acct