Files Tab
The Files Tab in Salesforce, labeled Files in the Lightning Experience navigation bar, is the central place where a user sees, uploads, and manages every Salesforce file they own or can access.
Definition
The Files Tab in Salesforce, labeled Files in the Lightning Experience navigation bar, is the central place where a user sees, uploads, and manages every Salesforce file they own or can access. It opens a screen called Files home that lists files independent of any record. From here a user can upload new files, browse and filter existing ones, search by name or content, preview without downloading, and run actions like share, download, get a public link, rename, follow, and delete.
Files home is the modern home for documents in Lightning Experience, since the older Documents tab does not exist there. Each file shown is a ContentDocument, and the views are filtered by the current user's access through ContentDocumentLink records. The tab also exposes Libraries, the shared workspaces teams use to organize content, and external sources when Files Connect is set up. It is the right starting point for personal storage, drafts, and files that will be shared later rather than attached to one record first.
How Files home organizes your content
Reaching Files home from the navigation bar
You open Files home by clicking the Files item in the Lightning Experience navigation bar. If Files is not visible, it lives under the App Launcher or the More menu, and an admin can add it to an app's navigation. The page that loads is the central location for your files in Salesforce. A left panel holds quick filters and the Libraries section, while the main area shows the file list with a New button for uploads. In Salesforce Classic the same idea appears as the Files tab, though the layout and some actions differ. The Files item is a standard tab, so admins control who sees it through profiles and app assignments. Internal users, partner users, and customers can each get a version sized to what they should reach. Because the tab is record-independent, it answers a common question for new users: where do my uploaded files actually go. Anything uploaded through a record, a Chatter post, or a library also surfaces here, so Files home doubles as a single pane for everything you can touch.
The standard filters and what each one shows
Files home offers a set of built-in filters so you can switch the visible file set without searching. Owned by Me shows files you uploaded and therefore own. Shared with Me shows files other people shared directly with you, with a group you belong to, or through a record you can see. Recent shows files you viewed or worked on lately, which is usually the fastest way back to something you just opened. Following shows files you chose to follow so their updates appear in your feed. Libraries lists the shared workspaces you are a member of, and clicking one opens that library's contents. Each filter is really a saved view over your ContentDocumentLink relationships, so two users on the same screen see different results based on their own access. Salesforce decides what belongs in each bucket from sharing and ownership data, not from folders you maintain by hand. For someone juggling hundreds of files, learning which filter answers which question turns a long scroll into one click.
Uploading and why new files start private
Files home supports both drag and drop and a click-to-upload button. A file you add here has no record context yet, so it starts in a Private state and only you can see it until you share it. That makes the tab the natural spot for personal storage, work-in-progress drafts, and anything you plan to distribute after a review. Sharing later is a separate step: you can share a file with specific people, with a Chatter group, with a library, or by generating a public link for someone outside the org. Every upload becomes a ContentDocument, and each new upload of the same file creates a ContentVersion, so version history is tracked automatically. You can post a new version from the file's detail view at any time, and viewers always land on the latest one. This split between uploading and sharing is deliberate. It stops half-finished work from leaking into feeds and record pages, while still keeping the file one click away from being shared when it is ready.
Searching and filtering across many files
The tab includes a search box that looks across file names, titles, descriptions, and, for supported formats, the text inside the file itself. That content search is what makes Salesforce Files more useful than a plain attachment list, because you can find a contract by a clause rather than only by its file name. Global search reaches the same files from anywhere in Salesforce, so the Files tab is one of several doors to the same content. Alongside search, the list view can be sorted and narrowed, and you can switch between a tile layout and a list layout depending on whether thumbnails or columns help more. For libraries, the same search applies within the chosen workspace. The practical lesson for daily work is simple: even teams with disciplined library structure usually find the right file faster by typing a few words than by browsing folders. Search and filter together keep the tab usable as a file collection grows from dozens into thousands.
Previewing files without downloading
Click any file in Files home and it opens in the built-in file preview. The viewer renders common formats such as PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and image files inline, so you can read a document or check an image without downloading a copy to your device. This matters for security and for speed: fewer local copies float around, and you skip the open-in-an-app round trip. From the preview you reach the file's actions, including Download, Share, Public Link, Edit details such as the name and description, Upload New Version, and Follow. The preview also shows file details and lets you see where the file is shared. For files that the viewer cannot render, Salesforce offers a download instead. Training users to preview rather than download as a habit cuts down on duplicate files and on stale copies that drift out of sync with the version in Salesforce. It also keeps the audit trail cleaner, since views happen in place against the single stored version.
Libraries and the file management actions
The Libraries section of Files home is where shared, structured content lives. A library is a named workspace with its own membership and permissions, and many orgs use them for marketing assets, legal templates, or training material. From Files home a user with the Manage Library permission can create a New Library, edit its details and branding, organize files into the folder structure each library provides, and delete an empty library once its files are removed. Library creators receive administrator permissions on what they build so they can keep it current. Outside libraries, the tab still gives you per-file actions: share, download, get a public link, rename, follow, view version history, and delete, plus the ability to upload a new version. Sharing controls can prevent others from re-sharing a file when needed. These management actions mirror what you get from a file on a record's related list, so the skills carry over. The difference is scope: Files home manages your whole collection, while a related list manages files tied to one record.
Put the Files tab in your app's navigation
Files home is available by default, but you often want to confirm the Files tab is in an app's navigation and visible to the right users. Do this in Setup so internal, partner, and customer users each see a Files tab that fits their needs.
- Open the App Manager
In Setup, go to App Manager. Find the Lightning app whose navigation you want to change, open its row dropdown, and choose Edit.
- Add Files to the navigation items
In the App Settings, select Navigation Items. Move Files from Available Items into Selected Items so it appears in the app's navigation bar, then order it where you want.
- Assign the app to the right profiles
Open the User Profiles section of the app and confirm the profiles that should reach this Files tab are assigned. Save the app to apply the change.
- Verify and optionally tailor library access
Open the app, click Files, and confirm the filters and Libraries appear. For teams, grant the Manage Library permission so the right people can create and curate libraries from Files home.
Controls whether the Files tab shows in an app's navigation bar and in what order; set per Lightning app in App Manager.
Determines which profiles can open the app and therefore see its Files tab; lets you give internal and external users different experiences.
Lets a user create, edit, and organize libraries from Files home; without it they can view libraries they belong to but not curate them.
- The Documents tab does not exist in Lightning Experience; point users to Files home instead, and migrate working documents into Salesforce Files.
- Files uploaded from the tab start Private, so a user who forgets to share will think a file is missing when teammates simply have no access.
- Salesforce Files Sync, the old desktop sync that powered a Synced view, was retired in Spring 18; do not expect a Synced filter on modern orgs.
- A library cannot be deleted until its files are removed, so plan a cleanup before retiring a workspace.
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
- Files HomeSalesforce
- Moving Documents to Salesforce FilesSalesforce
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Files Tab.
- Files HomeSalesforce
- Manage Libraries from Files HomeSalesforce
Hands-on resources to go deeper on Files Tab.
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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Q1. What does the Files tab show?
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