File, Private
A Private file in Salesforce is a file that has not been shared with anyone except its owner.
Definition
A Private file in Salesforce is a file that has not been shared with anyone except its owner. The owner can see, download, edit, and delete it, but no other user finds it in their Files home, in global search, in feeds, or in any record related list. Private is the most restrictive of the file sharing states Salesforce reports for every file (Private, Privately Shared, and Your Company), and it is the state a file lands in when you upload it straight to Files home with no record or feed context.
Private is not a hard wall around the bytes. The owner can access a private file, and so can any user who holds the Modify All Data or View All Data permission, except for files inside a private library where only the owner has access. The state is a description of the current sharing, not an encryption boundary. Share the file with one person, one group, one record, or one library, and it stops being Private and becomes Privately Shared.
How Salesforce decides a file is Private
Private is one of three reported sharing states
Salesforce reports a sharing status on every file so the owner can see how widely it travels. Private means the file has not been shared with anyone besides the owner. Privately Shared means it reaches specific people, groups, or a link you generated. Your Company means every internal user can find and view it, which happens when the file is posted to a feed everyone sees, attached to a record, or published to a public group. The status is computed from the sharing that exists right now, so it changes the moment you add or remove a share. A file is not permanently Private; it is Private until the first share is added. This matters because users often assume a status is a setting they chose once, when it is really a live readout of the file's current reach. Reading the status on the file detail page is the fastest way to answer "who can see this," and Salesforce surfaces it next to the list of people and records the file is shared with so the owner never has to guess.
Who can actually open a Private file
The owner always has full control of a private file. They can view, download, share, edit, upload new versions, and delete it. Beyond the owner, two administrative permissions can reach a private file: Modify All Data and View All Data. A user holding either can find and view private files across the org, which is why Private is a sharing state and not a security guarantee. The one exception is a private library. A file published to a user's private library is reachable only by that owner, and even Modify All Data does not open it. There are three permission tiers a person can hold on any file: Owner has full control, Collaborator can view, download, share, attach, and upload new versions, and Viewer can only view, preview, and download. A private file has no Collaborators or Viewers other than the owner by definition. The first time you grant Collaborator or Viewer access to anyone, the file is no longer Private. Plan compliance controls around this: do not treat Private as a substitute for encryption or a private library when the content is sensitive.
The link that makes a file Private
Under the hood, file sharing is stored in ContentDocumentLink records. Each one ties a file (a ContentDocument) to a place it is shared, named in the LinkedEntityId field. That target can be a user, a group, a record, or a library. Two fields describe the share: ShareType, which is V for Viewer, C for Collaborator, or I for an inferred or internal share, and Visibility, which can be AllUsers, InternalUsers, or SharedUsers. A file is Private when no ContentDocumentLink shares it outward to other users, groups, records, or shared libraries. The only association is the owner's own. Add a link pointing at another user or a record and the file becomes Privately Shared automatically; no separate "change state" call exists. This model also explains a common error. Salesforce blocks creating a ContentDocumentLink for a document that lives in a personal (private) library, returning FIELD_INTEGRITY_EXCEPTION, because the platform will not let you share a file out of someone's private library through the API.
Why your upload context sets the state
The state a new file starts in depends entirely on where you uploaded it. Drop a file into Files home with no record or post attached and it starts Private, because nothing shares it yet. Upload the same file on a record's Files related list and Salesforce creates a ContentDocumentLink to that record, so the file starts Privately Shared and inherits whatever default visibility the record file setting dictates. Attach a file to a Chatter post and its reach follows the audience of that post. Publish to a shared library and everyone with library access can reach it. This is the single most misunderstood part of Salesforce files. A user uploads a contract on an Opportunity expecting it to be private to them, but the auto-created record link already shares it with everyone who can see that Opportunity. If you genuinely want a personal draft, upload it to Files home, not onto a record. The "File Privacy on Records" org setting lets admins decide whether record files inherit the record's access or stay restricted, so the default behavior is itself configurable.
Making an already-shared file Private again
You can pull a shared file back to Private from its detail page. Open Share File, then Sharing Settings (or Show All on the Shared With list), and click Make private, then confirm. The effect is broad. The file is removed from any posts it was attached to, and it disappears from every place it was shared, so it stops appearing in those users' Files home and related lists. Any "Share via link" URLs are deleted outright, and shared content deliveries become inaccessible, though the deliveries are not deleted. One detail trips people up: the file's metadata can remain visible to users who previously had access, so they may still see facts like who follows the file even though they can no longer open it. For files that originated in a Salesforce CRM Content library, the button reads Restrict access, and the file stays in that library while it is removed from everywhere else. Use Make private when a file went out too widely and you need to contain it without deleting and re-uploading.
Auditing and governing Private files at scale
Admins can find private files with SOQL by inspecting the ContentDocumentLink records for each file. A file with no link pointing at another user, group, record, or shared library is effectively Private. Reporting on file sharing helps two ways. It surfaces files that should have been shared with a record or team but were left Private by accident, which is a frequent cause of "I uploaded it but my colleague cannot see it" tickets. It also flags abandoned personal files that quietly consume the org's file storage allocation, so cleanup keeps storage in check. Because Modify All Data can reach private files, treat that permission as a privileged audit capability rather than an everyday grant. For regulated content, layer real controls on top: Shield Platform Encryption for the data at rest, private libraries to block even Modify All Data, and a documented retention process. Private gives the owner sole day-to-day visibility, but governance still depends on permission hygiene and storage monitoring around it.
How to make a Salesforce file Private
Use this to take a file that was shared too widely (or shared on a record) and pull it back so only the owner can reach it. The steps run from the file's detail page in Lightning Experience or an Experience Cloud site.
- Open the file detail page
Click the file in Files home, on a record's Files related list, or in a feed to open its detail page where the sharing controls live.
- Open Sharing Settings
Click Share File, then Sharing Settings, or click Show All on the Shared With list to see everyone and everywhere the file currently reaches.
- Click Make private
In the Sharing Settings dialog, click Make private. For a file that lives in a Salesforce CRM Content library the button reads Restrict access instead.
- Confirm the change
Click Make private again in the confirmation dialog. The file drops out of posts, related lists, and shares, and any share-via-link URLs are deleted.
Removes all outward sharing so only the owner (and Modify All Data users) can access the file.
The library-file equivalent; keeps the file in its CRM Content library but removes it from every other location.
Admin control that decides whether files uploaded on records inherit record access or stay restricted by default.
- Making a file private deletes its share-via-link URLs and makes shared content deliveries inaccessible, though the deliveries are not deleted.
- File metadata can stay visible to users who previously had access, so they may still see who follows the file even after losing access.
- Modify All Data and View All Data users can still find and view the file; Make private is not encryption.
- Uploading on a record does not produce a private file; the auto-created record link makes it Privately Shared from the start.
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
- Who Can See My File?Salesforce
- Make a File PrivateSalesforce
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on File, Private.
- File Privacy and SharingSalesforce
- ContentDocumentLink | Object ReferenceSalesforce
Hands-on resources to go deeper on File, Private.
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He runs salesforcedictionary.com to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
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