> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.mauvely.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Organising your files

> Folders, renaming, moving, searching, sorting and the trash in Mauvely Cloud — and why some of it behaves differently from an ordinary drive.

## Folders

Create folders and nest them as deeply as you like. Every folder gets its own encryption key,
wrapped under its parent's — which is what makes sharing a folder mean "this folder and everything
under it, and nothing above it".

## Renaming and moving

Both work as you would expect, with one thing worth knowing: a **move is not a simple database
update**. Because a folder's key is derived under its parent, moving an item means your browser
re-wraps its key under the new parent and recomputes its name token. The server refuses a move that
arrives without them.

The practical effect: moving a large folder is a small amount of work in your browser, and it never
re-encrypts a single byte of file content. Renaming and moving never touch your files at all.

## Sorting and searching

Both happen **in your browser**, after decryption. The server cannot sort or search by name because
it does not have any names.

Search matches file and folder names. A very large folder takes a moment to settle after loading,
because everything has to be decrypted before it can be ordered.

## Views

**List** or **grid**. Grid shows encrypted thumbnails for images, decrypted as you scroll.

## Previewing

Select a file to preview it without downloading. Images, video, audio and text files up to 2 MB
preview inline; PDFs and everything else offer a download instead. See
[Uploading](/cloud/uploading-files#previewing-without-downloading) for why PDFs are excluded.

## Trash

Deleting moves an item to the trash rather than destroying it.

| Action                 | Effect                           |
| ---------------------- | -------------------------------- |
| **Delete**             | Moves to the trash               |
| **Restore**            | Puts it back where it came from  |
| **Delete permanently** | Destroys that one item           |
| **Empty trash**        | Destroys everything in the trash |

<Warning>
  Permanent deletion is permanent. The encrypted data is removed from storage and there is no
  copy — Mauvely could not restore it even if it wanted to, because it could not read it in the
  first place.
</Warning>

Deleting a folder takes its contents with it, and permanently deleting one removes every file
beneath it. Items in the trash still count towards your storage quota until the trash is emptied.

## What happens to shares when you move or delete

* **Renaming or moving** a shared item does not break the share. The people you shared with keep
  access.
* **Deleting** a shared item removes access for everyone. Restoring it from the trash brings the
  shares back with it.
* **Permanently deleting** removes the shares along with the file.

## A note on structure

The server cannot read your file names, but it **can** see the shape of your folder tree — how
deep it goes, how many things are in each folder, and what is inside what. That is what parent
links are, and every listing and permission check depends on them.

If that matters for something you are storing, the mitigation is a flatter structure with less
meaning encoded in it. It is recorded honestly in [Security](/cloud/security#what-the-server-can-still-see).
