SmartFile

Files.com acquired SmartFile in 2023. Work is underway to integrate SmartFile into the Files.com platform.

To better support all customers, the aging SmartFile platform is being moved to end-of-life status as of May 2024. We intend to migrate all customers from SmartFile to Files.com's modern platform.

This transition is free of charge.

Files.com's technical and support staff are extremely experienced in upgrading customers to the Files.com platform. We've done over 3,000 such upgrades in the past 2 years.

Wherever possible, we've built tools to make the migration process seamless and free from downtime. Due to the complicated nature of certain SmartFile capabilities, however, some customers using advanced features will need to spend some time reconfiguring their automations, permissions, integrations, and settings on Files.com.

Prior to migration, we will execute a pre-migration step and allow you to see your pre-migrated site on Files.com. You may access the pre-migrated site to make any required configuration changes prior to final migration.

When the final migration happens, we will perform a final sync of settings, data, and files, and then execute a DNS change that switches your site to the Files.com platform.

Prior to your final migration, a new pre-migrated site is created and populated with your users, groups, settings and files. You can access the site to inspect the changes from the legacy SmartFile platform site to your upgraded Files.com site.

Changes you've made in your Files.com pre-migrated site to users accounts, such as their display names, email, and passwords will be overwritten with data from your SmartFile site in the final migration step. This means that if you change a user's password on the new Files.com site before the final migration, the user's password will be reset to the value it had on SmartFile. This is designed to prevent issues with your users needing to log into the site after the final migration - the credentials they used immediately before the migration are the same immediately after the migration.

You can make changes to individual users' 2FA settings on your pre-migrated Files.com site, and those changes will not be overwritten during the final migration.

Customization changes, such as branding colors, logos, custom domains, or company name, are not overwritten in the final migration step. Group membership changes made on the pre-migration Files.com site are preserved in the final migration step, allowing you to re-arrange your security framework as part of the migration.

IP addresses will change. Files.com uses a global architecture, while SmartFile's servers were located only in Indiana. If you have previously had to whitelist SmartFile's IP Addresses in any firewall settings, you need to update that list. The new IP addresses to whitelist will depend on whether you have a custom domain.

Your site's subdomain mysite.smartfile.com will automatically redirect to mysite.files.com. Both hostnames will be in the associated SSL Certificate, so SSL should work fine in both FTPS and HTTPS. If you are used to accessing SmartFile using app.smartfile.com, you will need to bookmark your site's subdomain.

If you had previously used a custom domain with SmartFile, it will be automatically migrated to Files.com. Unlike on SmartFile, Files.com automatically provisions custom SSL certificates for all custom domains (not just for "realm" customers), so your custom domain will work perfectly with FTPS. If you have a custom domain, we will assign you two dedicated IP addresses just for your site.

Files.com also supports custom SSL certificates. If you were already using a custom SSL certificate with SmartFile, it will be seamlessly migrated to Files.com.

SmartFile and Files.com are superficially similar, but there are some key differences in how each product has developed to meet our customers' needs.

Files.com is designed for case-insensitive storage of file and folder paths for compatibility with many enterprise software storage integrations. This means that filenames that differ only by uppercase versus lowercase are treated as identical by the platform. This choice was intentional, as most file interchange takes place with systems or applications hosted on other case-insensitive platforms.

On a normal SmartFile site (rather than a HyperPrivacy mode site), a home directory for a user is represented to that user as the entire contents of the account. Within Files.com, settings allow you to mimic this behavior for FTP connections, but not for the web interface. The web interface automatically detects if a user only has permission to a specific folder and will automatically select that folder upon login, preventing the need to navigate to the folder.

Users will be able to see the full path to any items they can access, even though they will not be able to interact with any files or folders that they do not have permissions to. Upon navigating to a parent folder they cannot access, users will only see folders that contain items they can access.

All files are seamlessly and automatically migrated to your new Files.com site, subject to the following notes.

File versioning is not supported on Files.com. Files will be imported using the latest version.

The decision to discontinue support for file versioning was based on a review of actual customer usage of the capability, and it seems that this feature is largely unused. We are open to potentially changing our mind on this if file versioning support is required by a critical mass of ideal customers.

If you migrate prior to any implementation of versioning, we will remove any previous stored versions and they will not be recoverable.

In SmartFile, you can define tags and attributes for your files. These are partially supported by Files.com. Your existing tags and attributes are copied during the migration process, but they are not visible within the Files.com web interface. You can use the Files.com API to access tags and attributes.

SmartFile automations that relied upon tags and attributes were not used in production by our customers. We do not plan to offer support or migration for tags and attributes within Files.com Automations.

Users who are designated as site administrators automatically have access to all file storage in your Files.com site.

In a SmartFile HyperPrivacy mode site (formerly known as "NextGen" or "Database FS"), users could be assigned a home folder, which granted them read-write access to a private storage space no other user could see. In our experience, this feature causes more confusion and inconvenience than it offers, and so HyperPrivacy Mode is not supported on Files.com. Most customers currently using HyperPrivacy Mode prefer this approach.

We will create a folder called Home and a folder inside of that for each user named for their username. Their files will be imported into that home folder.

No Shares will be migrated. We recommend you move files out of the Home tree and into a new tree in your site root that is based more on a layout that makes sense for your business.

In Files.com, permissions are assigned at the user or group level, much like normal SmartFile sites define access. The Files.com permissions model is more flexible and granular than SmartFile.

Because users are not assigned to a home directory that becomes a virtual root, you can assign multiple, unrelated folder permissions to any group or user. This means rather than making someone's home directory the root of your account and then configuring their access to only allow the folders you really want them to access, you can define user and group permissions for just the folders they need to access, no matter where those folders appear in the site.

The base file operation Permissions in Files.com are very similar to your previous site.

The Files.com "Admin" permission grants special, elevated access for a specific folder path, known as folder admin. Users with folder admin access are able to define customized behaviors for the folder, such as rules that limit what can be uploaded, retention rules, special branding options, and more.

Files.com also supports other advanced user or group permissions that in SmartFile are assigned by roles. The Files.com Platform does not support a concept of User Roles, but existing Roles on SmartFile are used during the migration process to determine the permissions of individual users on the Files.com platform.

The SmartFile role capability to create links is granted by the "Share" permission in Files.com. This allows the permission to be associated with specific paths, so a user may have the ability to share files in one folder they can access but not others.

The SmartFile roles can be granted the ability to access the activity section. They can also separately be granted access to the notification section. In Files.com, both of these features are accessible when a user or group is assigned the "History" permission.

SmartFile permissions could be used to "remove" permissions from only portion of a folder by adding a user to a Group or by adding a negative permission record. At Files.com, we have found that negative permissions make it way too easy to accidentally leak content where it isn't intended to leak. Negative permissions should be removed from your SmartFile site prior to migration; negative (empty) permissions will not be migrated to Files.com.

Files.com user permissions are more flexible and powerful than SmartFile, allowing you to mimic the end result of negative permissions using standard options. All Files.com permissions are folder based, and can be made non-recursive, so you can replicate the result by applying multiple permissions to users and groups regardless of your folder structure.

Files.com uses a slightly different methodology for granting individual users to FTP and SFTP. SmartFile uses a single flag to grant access to encrypted FTP (FTPS) and SFTP, and another flag to grant access to unencrypted/plaintext FTP.

Files.com offers a flag that provides access to FTP (regardless of encryption), and another flag that provides access to SFTP.

Site administrators can disable unencrypted (insecure) FTP for your entire site on Files.com. Files.com does not support granting access to unencrypted (insecure) FTP on a per-user basis.

Files.com does not support user disk quotas. Instead, we focus on providing visibility into how your storage is being used and allowing you to bring your own storage as needed.

All 3 of these services are supported on Files.com and you should expect all 3 to continue to seamlessly work after the migration.

Like SmartFile, Files.com custom developed its server software for all 3 services. The Files.com implementations, however, support many additional capabilities for logging, security, and customization.

Files.com allows customers to choose their SSH/SFTP Host Key. By default, your site will be configured to use the same SmartFile SSH/SFTP Host Key that has been used in the past. You can optionally choose to use the Files.com default SSH/SFTP Host Key instead.

To the extent that you can easily switch keys away from the SmartFile Host Key, we recommend doing so because Files.com does not know the procedure under which the SmartFile host key was generated nor whether it was generated in a secure manner. That key predates our ownership of SmartFile.

Additionally, once on Files.com, you will be able to further customize your installations with custom SSL certificates, custom SFTP Host keys, custom MOTD, and more.

The SmartFile platform supports sharing Folders in a non-recursive manner, and this was the default behavior. Files.com supports this feature for migrated folder links in order to provide a seamless transition for SmartFile customers. The web interface does not provide access to this option for new Share Links created after migration, although you can enable it via the API.

New Share Links created after migration to your Files.com site will be fully recursive by default.

On Files.com, Notifications and Automations are separate concepts. E-Mail notifications on SmartFile are triggered by file actions (upload, download, copy, move, and delete) on a Path, by a User, or by a Group, and this behavior is preserved during the migration to Files.com. If you have selected to only send notifications on specific actions, the limits to those specific actions are preserved on Files.com.

SmartFile also supported additional triggers for sending E-Mail notifications of non-file activity. These are very rarely used by customers for production workflows and we are taking this opportunity to sunset the availability of these unused triggers. They are: User Login, User Logout, User Create, User Edit, User Removal, Group Create, Group Edit, Group Removal, and Link (Share Link) Read/Access. You will no longer be able to receive an E-Mail notification when these non-file actions occur.

E-Mail notifications on SmartFile may be optionally delayed or batched into certain intervals. Files.com only supports the following batch windows: Every 5 minutes, Every 15 minutes, Hourly, and Daily.

You may need to update rules for spam filters to ensure you can receive important messages, such as Password Resets, Notifications of Failed Automations, Share Link Invitation Emails and Site Administration Emails

On SmartFile, system email messages came from email@smartfile.com. Once your site is migrated to the new platform, those system emails will be sent from no-reply@files.com.

Files.com does not support a concept of moving or copying a file or folder after a specific amount of time has occurred since its creation or modification. Only 3 customers on SmartFile used this capability in production. We would love to hear from you if this capability is critical to your organization, and are always willing to reconsider this position.

Files.com does support an equivalent Automation to Move or Copy files or folders after an action has occurred. We will preserve the action triggers as closely as possible to how they are configured on SmartFile.

SmartFile Retention rules map to two different concepts on Files.com.

For time-based retention rules, the equivalent concept on Files.com is the Folder Setting called File Expiration.

For action triggered retention rules, the equivalent concept on Files.com is the "Delete File" Automation.

The SmartFile API supports 2 authentication types: API Key and OAuth2. Files.com will only support API Key authentication.

API Keys are imported into Files.com by the automatic migration, but no support for SmartFile legacy API calls will be built. It appears that the SmartFile API has very little production use from ideal customers. Customers should work with our Success Team to help us understand any needs you may have about continued SmartFile API support. Such support may require an enterprise services contract.

Webhooks are not included in the automatic migration from SmartFile to Files.com. You will need to re-create your Webhooks within Files.com after your migration. Reach out to our Customer Support team for help at any time.

Files.com supports a Zapier integration. However, SmartFile Zapier integrations are not compatible with Files.com. Zapier integrations will not be automatically migrated and must be manually recreated on the Files.com platform.

In many cases, customers using Zapier will be able to use Files.com's native features such as Automations to perform required tasks instead.

Our Customer Support team is happy to help rebuild and optimize Zapier integrations, Webhooks, or Automations, as appropriate.

Certain SmartFile customers make use of SmartFile's ability to directly mount their Dropbox account or Windows Server within SmartFile. SmartFile called these integrations "Virtual Directories."

Files.com offers a similar functionality called Remote Server Mount. The Remote Server Mount functionality on Files.com is much more performant than SmartFile's Virtual Directories. Files.com also offers integrations to many more providers, including cloud storage providers and EFSS systems.

Because Files.com uses a different organizational identity, it is not possible to provide a seamless migration for your Dropbox or Windows Server connection, so those connections will not be migrated automatically.

Contact Files.com support to connect your Dropbox or Windows Server to your new Files.com account. We'll be happy to help!

Some features on SmartFile saw extremely low usage in production, and do not have an equivalent feature available on Files.com.

These features of SmartFile have very little production use and will not be supported on Files.com. If your business requires these features, we would like to understand those requirements better.

During the migration, all e-signature and annotation history will be lost.

SmartFile automations that relied upon tags and attributes were not used in production by our customers. We do not plan to offer support or migration for tags and attributes within Files.com Automations.

OAuth2 has extremely low adoption by SmartFile customers, and Files.com does not support OAuth2 API authentication. If you are one of the impacted customers, please reach out to us so that we can help you best decide how to migrate your OAuth2 API application.

The SmartFile Zapier integration is not compatible with the Files.com platform; the Files.com Zapier integration may be used instead.