idea Folders needed in Groups to organize content in ArcGIS Online Ideas

Folders needed in Groups to organize content

WadeKloos — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 16:39:52 GMT

Like My Content, we need folders in Groups to organize and manage group content. Folders could be created by the group owner and access to all folders are open to group members.

Re: Folders needed in Groups to organize content

DaveVaillancourt — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 16:59:42 GMT

I like this idea. Sometimes, when you have a lot of content in ArcGIS online groups, it can be hard to find what you are looking for. Having folders would make it easier to navigate.

Re: Folders needed in Groups to organize content

MelanieRosenberg2 — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 21:22:12 GMT

Like a shared network drive, love it.

Re: Folders needed in Groups to organize content

MartineCameron — Wed, 17 May 2017 10:32:09 GMT

I was just coming on to GeoNet to suggest this when I spotted your idea - I completely agree. It isn't so bad when you have a small group with only a little content, but for a group that holds content that is available to everyone in the organisation it becomes cumbersome and messy to find the content you need.

I think - if it were possible to implement - that the group sub folders could also possibly be left open or locked down to users like a network drive. As this would save having to create a specific group for specific users with only specific content... instead just a sub-folder within that group.

Just an idea... I really hope ESRI implement this at some point

Re: Folders needed in Groups to organize content

JeffShaw — Wed, 17 May 2017 14:10:06 GMT

Sub Group would be a more appropriate term than folder. Groups don't hold or own content - they are merely collections of people with whom the listed content is shared.

It would indeed be useful to have nested groups (e.g. division - bureau - section - team) like you do with Active Directory and other group security models.

Having content collections would also be useful, and could have nested folders. Item ownership would remain with the individual, and group/org/public sharing would determine who can see what in the collection.

Re: Folders needed in Groups to organize content

MegHoole — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 09:03:01 GMT

It would also be useful to filter group content according to owner (i.e. show me all the items in this group that Meg owns). I like the folder idea too. https://community.esri.com/ideas/14091

Re: Folders needed in Groups to organize content

Timvan_der_velden1 — Tue, 03 Apr 2018 08:50:41 GMT

In my organisation are there a lot of "read only" users and they only need acces to the core applications. They dont need any other content visible like webmaps, feature services. Just only the application. What I created is 3 group level and share only the the minimal gallery application. It works, but i will get crazy of all the groups, because i have 7 themes, with 3 groups. Is it possible to create just one group with a filter system that can do the same?

Tim

Re: Folders needed in Groups to organize content

Anonymous User — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 22:35:25 GMT

You can now create Group Categories:

Own groups—ArcGIS Online Help | ArcGIS

Re: Folders needed in Groups to organize content

RyanPaquette1 — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 19:51:16 GMT

"Groups don't hold or own content".. that's a flaw from my perspective...

I'd prefer the individual to simply be the author and saving their content in our group's folders so they are all centralized.

As is I have to pop around everyone's Arc profile

When they leave the organization I have to change ownership on all their content / move to different folders.

Had the owner been set to the group / the content been stored in a Group folder to begin with, these actions would not be required.

Re: Folders needed in Groups to organize content

AlfredBaldenweck — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 21:12:13 GMT

Enhancements have been submitted for this:

ENH-000181003 (ArcGIS Online)

ENH-000181002 (Enterprise)

Allow users to create Folders within Groups for content organization.

Justification: Managing content in a Portal environment is very unwieldy once you get more than about 10 items. The current workarounds of using the Search function, Categories, and various other filters are not as efficient nor user-friendly as navigating a folder structure. The ability to let group managers and owners create folders to organize shared content (and letting content creators pick which folder to share to during the sharing process) would make navigating group content much easier.