General

  1. What are groups for?
    Groups allow for data sharing with other users. With groups, you use the full potential of Mailfence secure email.

    Sharing is done in two ways:

    • Each group has its own space: group Documents, group Calendar, etc. All group members may access this common space.
    • Your private data can be shared with the group members.
    Belonging to a group has the following consequences:
    • You can view the busy time slots (but not the event details) in the group members Calendars
    • You can chat with group members with Instant messaging (if available) and see whether they are currently online.
    • You can send Documents to a group member drop folder.
    • The following data from your Personal data are displayed to members: last name, first name, organization, email address and picture.
    Of course, other members get the same privileges.
  2. Create simple groups
    Create groups including only the people with who you actually share information.

    It is better to create several small groups with a simple sharing pattern (access rights identical for all group members) than a single large group with a complex access rights pattern (each group member has different access rights).

  3. Simple groups example
    A company with 10 people: 1 director, 1 secretary, 3 salesmen and 5 workmen.
    • One group with the 10 people. Information useful to all will belong there. Everyone will be able to view the busy time slots in the personal calendars. Additional access rights will be set in the personal calendars so that, for instance, the secretary can completely manage the director calendar (view details, add, edit and delete events).
    • A sales group, the director being the administrator. The members are the 3 salesmen and the secretary.
    • A production group, the director being the administrator. The members are the 5 workmen and the secretary.
    • A group for the director and the secretary: it will contain more confidential data
    Additional groups may be created in case other sharing patterns are necessary.
  4. Access to group data
    Select the group name in the context selector, which default value is "Private".
  5. Groups and subscription
    Each member of the group has a personal username and a personal subscription. In the context of a group, the subscriptions of the members do not matter: all subscriptions enable you to join a group and all members of a group can have different subscriptions. The fact that a person belongs to a group has no influence on the subscription: it remains unchanged.

Groups you administrate

  1. Definition
    The administrator of a group is the person who manages the group. When you create a group, you are automatically the administrator of this group.

    The administrator is the only one able to add, edit or delete content in the group tools (calendar, documents, etc.), but he may give these rights to certain or all members of the group.

    The administrator of the group it not authorized to leave the group, unless he has chosen a new administrator.

  2. Create a group
    Step 1: create the group
    1. Go to the Settings, in the Groups section.
    2. Click on Create a new group
    3. Choose an explicit group name. This name must be unique.
    4. You can enter a description, that will inform the members about the group purpose and/or the contents.
    5. Choose whether to publish the group in the group directory. By default, the group is not published.
    6. Choose whether to publish the group members list. This makes sense only if the group has been published.
    7. Choose whether to open the group. This makes sense only if the group has been published. In this case, anyone will be able to become a group member.
    8. Click on Save to create the group.
    You're not done yet, because at this point your group has no members and no data.

    Step 2: invite members

    1. Click on Invite.
    2. Select members among Contacts: existing group members, private contacts or group contacts.
      If future members don't appear in the Contacts, create them by clicking on Create new Contact.
    3. Members get an invitation email. They have to accept the invitation to join the group.
    4. People who have accepted the invitation appear in the group members list.
      To send a reminder to people who haven't answered to the invitation, go to to the Pending invitations section, and choose Send again in the Actions for this person.
    Step 3: contents and access rights
    Creating the group has created group tools: the group has its own Documents, Calendar, etc.
    As the group administrator, you are the only one allowed to add contents to the group tools at this point.
    1. In each tool, create the folder structure if applicable and set-up the access rights according to your needs. You will find detailed help over access rights in each tool help section
    2. Add your own contents to the group.
  3. Modify a group
    The group administrator can modify the group settings, except for the group name.

    Display the group Actions in the left part of the screen and select Details.

  4. Add members
    The procedure described in the "Create a group" section can be used anytime.
  5. Remove members
    When a member is removed from the group, he can't access the group tools anymore. However, the contents he added in the group remains available to group members.

    In the members list, display the member Actions and select Remove.

    If you wish to remove all members in a single operation, display the group Actions in the left part of the screen and select Remove all members.

  6. Delete a group
    Beware: deleting the group will delete all contents in the group tools.

    You can delete the group only if all members have been removed first.

  7. Group capacities
    Just like a private environment, a group environment has capacities (GB for documents, for instance). These capacities are set by the subscription of the group administrator. Therefore, the group administrator will generally have the highest subscription.

    Example: a subscription has a capacity of 10 GB for Documents.

    • The administrator has 10 GB for their own private documents.
    • Each group created by this administrator has a capacity of 10 GB for Documents. In other words, the documents placed within the group by all members (including the administrator) cannot exceed 10 GB.
    • If the subscription allows the creation of 3 groups, the total capacity for the Documents is 40 GB: 10 GB for every group and 10 GB for private documents of the administrator.
    The capacities for the private environments of the members of the group are set by their own subscription.
  8. Conditions to create a group
    The maximum number of groups you may create is set by your subscription.
  9. Maximum number of members
    Every group has a maximum number of members. It is set by the subscription of its administrator.
  10. Number of administrators
    A group has only one administrator (at a time).
  11. Change the administrator
    The current administrator can resign by choosing a new administrator among the members of the group. To do so, display the list of group members and click on Becomes administrator.

    Warning: As the capacities of the group (number of groups, number of members and capacities for the objects of the group) are set by the subscription of its administrator, ensure that the new administrator has a subscription with sufficient capacities.

Group data

  1. Access rights in group tools
    The group administrator, assisted by their optional co-administrators, decides who may add and/or delete content in the group. By default, only the group administrator and co-administrators may add and delete content.

    A member who adds contents decides who may edit it. By default, only this member may do it. Therefore, group administrators may not always edit the content added by a member. However, they always may delete it.

  2. The "All group members" checkbox
    If you select the box: "All members of (group name)" (after you have clicked on Access), the members who may join the group later will have the same rights as the current members.

Co-administrators

  1. Definition
    The group administrator may add one or more co-administrators to help him/her with the group management. For instance, a director, who is the group administrator, can add their secretary as co-administrator so that he/she can help setting up the access rights in the tools.

    A group co-administrator can:

    • Add and delete content in the whole group environment: Calendar, all folders within the Documents, etc.
    • Change the access rights at tool level (ex: Calendar) and at folder level (ex: Documents).
    The secretary cannot do the other operations, which remain the privilege of the group administrator: change the group settings, etc. The secretary cannot add or remove group co-administrators neither.
  2. Add a co-administrator
    In the group members list, display the member Actions and select Set as co-administrator.
  3. Remove a co-administrator
    In the group members list, display the member Actions and select Remove as co-administrator.

    The co-administrator loses all the rights he received when he was added as co-administrator. But if specific rights had been given to him before (ex: add content in a given folder), he will keep them.

Groups you belong to

  1. Search for a group
    Click on Find a Group in the menu bar. Use at least 2 criteria amongst the following:
    • Group name: enter at least 3 consecutive letters which must appear.
    • Activity: determine if it is a business group or not.
    • Sector: if it is a business group, specify the business sector.
    • Language
    Note: The private groups never appear in the search result.
  2. Join a group
    The procedure is specific to each type of group:
    • Open groups
      They are listed in the group directory. Make a search and click on Join.
    • Closed Groups
      They are also listed in the group directory. Make a search and send an email to the group administrator whose email address appears in the group description
    • Private Groups
      These groups cannot be searched: you must be invited by the administrator to join one.
  3. Leave a group
    Before you leave a group, make sure to remove the specific access rights you have granted to some group members: read your events details, add events to your calendar, access your mailbox, etc. Once you have left the group, you won't be able to withdraw these specific rights.

    To leave a group, select Leave this group.

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