Converting to single-user

Why one folder per person

Early versions of ResearchOS let a whole lab work out of a single shared folder, with one users/ subfolder per person inside it. That worked, but it carried real cost. Every read had to reason about who owned what and who could see it, the app loaded everyone's data even when you only wanted your own, and a single sync hiccup on the shared drive touched all of you at once.

ResearchOS has moved to a simpler model. Each person keeps their own folder, the data stays local to them, and sharing happens directly between people who opt into it (see Sharing and permissions). A solo folder is faster to load, simpler to reason about, and entirely yours. The conversion described on this page is how an older shared folder becomes a set of those single-user folders.

The choice you see when you connect

When you connect a folder that still has two or more people in it, ResearchOS shows a blocking choice before you start working. It is role-aware, so what you see depends on whether you own the folder or are one of the other members in it. You can always pick Keep it shared for now to dismiss the prompt; the dismiss is persisted to disk so it goes away for this session, but it comes back the next time you launch with this folder, until the folder is converted.

The same conversion is also reachable later from Settings under Data maintenance, as Convert this folder to single-user, so you do not have to decide the moment you connect.

If you own the folder, make it your own

As the folder's main user you are offered Convert this folder to mine. You keep this folder and everything in it that is yours. Everyone else is packaged into their own portable copy, and their originals here move to a recoverable Trash. Before anything happens you see a preview of exactly who moves and how many records each person has, and nothing runs until you confirm.

When you confirm, ResearchOS does three things.

1. Packages everyone else into a portable copy. Each other person is copied into your-folder/_migration_bundles/<name>/. That bundle is a complete, connectable single-user folder for them, so you can hand it over and they open it as their own workspace without losing any work.
2. Moves their originals to a recoverable Trash. Once a person's bundle is copied and verified complete, their original users/<name>/ moves to your-folder/_trash/migrated_users/<name>/. It is a move to Trash, not a delete, so you can put anything back.
3. Clears the now-dangling shared links from your data. Because a single-user folder shares with no one, any sharing between you and the people who left is removed from your records. Only the sharing links change. The records themselves keep their full history, and who wrote or edited what is preserved (it simply shows as a former member on read).

When it finishes, the result screen tells you where to find each hand-off copy under _migration_bundles and reminds you that the originals are safe in _trash/migrated_users if you ever need them. Hand each person their bundle and you are done.

If you are a labmate, take your data with you

If you are one of the other members rather than the folder's owner, you are offered Take my data to my own folder instead. This copies just your data into your own portable folder and removes you from the shared folder. Everyone else stays exactly where they are, and their data is not touched. It is the same safe, recoverable mechanism, scoped to only you.

The preview shows your record count and who stays behind. When you confirm, ResearchOS does three things.

1. Your data is copied into this-folder/_migration_bundles/<you>/, a complete folder you open as your own single-user workspace. Nothing of yours is left behind.
2. Your originals here move to a recoverable Trash, and the shared folder stays intact for everyone else.
3. The moment your copy is complete, ResearchOS disconnects you from the shared folder so the app stops writing as you, and returns you to the connect screen.

A banner on the connect screen then tells you exactly where your new folder is (_migration_bundles/<you>) and how to reopen it. You can move that folder anywhere on your computer first, then click Open a folder and select it to keep working as your own workspace.

Where everything lives, and how to recover

Both paths use the same two folders inside your data folder, and both are plain folders you can browse in Finder or Explorer at any time.

• _migration_bundles/<name>/ holds each person's portable copy. Inside it is a normal users/<name>/ tree, so the bundle folder itself is a connectable single-user ResearchOS folder.
• _trash/migrated_users/<name>/ holds the original that was moved out. This is the recovery copy. Nothing is hard-deleted, so if something looks off you can restore from here.

Connecting a bundle as a folder

A bundle is a real, standalone folder. To open one, hand the _migration_bundles/<name> folder to its owner (or keep your own), optionally move it somewhere permanent on disk, then connect it like any other folder.

1. Copy or move the _migration_bundles/<name> folder to a permanent home on your computer (for example Documents/ResearchOS). It is yours to keep, so it does not have to stay inside the old shared folder.
2. On the connect screen, use Browse for a folder (or drag the bundle into the drop zone) and select that bundle folder. See Connecting Your Folder for how the connect flow works.
3. ResearchOS opens it as a single-user folder with all of that person's notes, tasks, methods, and history intact.

Crash safety, in plain terms

The conversion is built so an interrupted run can never lose data. For each person, the portable copy is written and verified complete before anything is moved out, and the single step that removes an original is never reached until that verified copy exists. If a sync stalls, a tab closes, or the browser quits midway, no data has been deleted. Reopen ResearchOS, run the conversion again, and it resumes from where it stopped and finishes cleanly.