{"id":47789,"date":"2024-12-23T13:20:18","date_gmt":"2024-12-23T13:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/?p=47789"},"modified":"2025-10-13T02:07:35","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T02:07:35","slug":"share-public-certain-folders-ubuntu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/2024\/12\/share-public-certain-folders-ubuntu\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Share ‘Public’ or Certain Folder in Ubuntu 24.04"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This tutorial shows how to share either the Public or certain user folder for local network access in Ubuntu 24.04 or Ubuntu 24.10 with default GNOME desktop.<\/p>\n

There are quite a few applications designed for local network file sharing\/transferring, but for Ubuntu and other Linux with GNOME, there are built-in services to share user specific folder\/folders for local access.
\n<\/p>\n

NOTE: This tutorial is written for the default GNOME Desktop, while option 2 also works for MATE.<\/b><\/p>\n

Option 1: Share Public Folder<\/h3>\n

In user’s home directory, there’s by default a “Public” folder specifically designed for sharing files over local network. It is handled by gnome-user-share<\/code><\/a>, a small package that creates a dav server with Apache2 run in the background.<\/p>\n

1.<\/b> First, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to make sure you have installed the gnome-user-share<\/code> package:<\/p>\n

sudo apt install gnome-user-share<\/pre>\n
Run sudo apt update<\/code> to refresh cache if it says ‘Unable to locate package’.<\/i>
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2.<\/b> Next, launch or re-launch Settings (GNOME Control Center) and navigate to “Sharing” in left. Then, you can click “File Sharing” in right and enable the service.<\/p>\n
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That’s it. You can now try to access the ‘Public’ folder in this computer from other machines in the same network.<\/p>\n
Though, you need first to find out which port the service is listening on<\/b> by running command:<\/p>\n
lsof -i<\/pre>\n
Wait a few seconds for the command done, and \u00a0check the TCP port for ‘apache2’.<\/p>\n
NOTE: The port is NOT fixed! It changes every time you start\/restart the ‘File Sharing’ service, such as log out and log back, or connect and disconnect to VPN. It’s NOT a good choice if the Ubuntu computer is running behind firewall.<\/b><\/p>\n
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How to Access the ‘Public’ folder from other machines<\/h4>\n
For Windows<\/b> (tested in Windows 10), simply open file explorer and type \\\\server-ip-address@port-number\\DavWWWRoot<\/b> (e.g., \\\\192.168.0.104@40125\\DavWWWRoot) in address bar and hit enter. Then, input user guest<\/b> and the password you set in last step to get access.<\/p>\n
Or, right-click on “This PC” in the file explorer window and choose “Map network drive…”. Then, type the address above as the folder path and mount it on left pane.<\/p>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
For Linux<\/b> with GNOME or KDE desktop, your file manager should automatically find the shared folder. Just open file manager and look for it under either “Other Locations” or “Network”.<\/p>\n
If your Linux file manager does not show you the remote share folder, try installing gigolo<\/code> tool via the command below:<\/p>\n
sudo apt install gigolo gvfs gvfs-backends<\/pre>\n
Then launch gigolo, and go to menu “Actions -> Connect”. In pop-up dialog, choose WebDAV service, input server IP, listen port, user (guest) and connect.<\/p>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
For macOS, try this step<\/a> to get access, though I don’t have a mac computer to try it out. For Android and iOS, you need to install a dedicated app such as WebDAV Navigator from Google Play or App Store.<\/p>\n
Option 2: Share a Certain Folder via samba<\/h3>\n
If you want to share a certain folder and its content, then try samba with nautilus extension.<\/p>\n
Tips: this option also works for MATE Desktop (e.g., Ubuntu MATE, Linux Mint MATE edition). Just replace nautilus-share<\/code> with caja-share<\/code> in the command below.<\/b><\/p>\n
1<\/b>. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open up a terminal window. Then, run command to install the extension for Nautilus file manager:<\/p>\n
sudo apt install nautilus-share<\/pre>\n
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2<\/b>. Next, run command nautilus -q<\/code> to quit nautilus file manager and then re-launch it. Right-click on the target folder and you’ll see the “Sharing Options<\/b>” option.<\/p>\n
Tips:<\/b> For Ubuntu 22.04 and earlier, the context menu option is “Local Network Share”.<\/p>\n
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3<\/b>. Just click on that option will pop-up the dialog to enable folder sharing for the selected folder.<\/p>\n
If you want to grant both read & write permission, then enable “Allow others to create and delete files in this folder”. And, it will ask to confirm adding that permission once you clicked “Create Share”.<\/p>\n
To allow anyone to access without authentication from the same network, also enable “Guest access”.<\/p>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
If you got “‘network share’ return 255<\/em>” error, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to add current user to ‘sambashare’ group.<\/p>\n
sudo gpasswd --add $USER sambashare<\/pre>\n
Also run command to add a separate password to current user for share folder authenticate purpose:<\/b><\/p>\n
sudo smbpasswd -a $USER<\/pre>\n
After that, restart your computer<\/b> and re-do the last step 2 and step 3 to enable folder sharing.<\/p>\n
\"\"<\/p>\n
How to access this certain share folder:<\/h4>\n
For Windows<\/b>, open either “Run” command box or file explorer , type \\\\ubuntu-machine-ip<\/code> in address bar and hit Enter. Then, type username (your user in Ubuntu) and password (the separate password you set in previous step) to get access.<\/p>\n
For choice, you may right-click on “This PC” in file explorer, and use “Map network drive” option to map the share folder into left pane.<\/p>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
For Linux user (only tested in GNOME), open “Files -> Other Locations” and type smb:\/\/ubuntu-machine-ip<\/code> in button to connect.<\/p>\n
For MacOS, press command + K<\/b> on keyboard to open Connect to Server dialog, type smb:\/\/ubuntu-machine-ip<\/code> and hit Enter to access.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This tutorial shows how to share either the Public or certain user folder for local network access in Ubuntu 24.04 or Ubuntu 24.10 with default GNOME desktop. There are quite a few applications designed for local network file sharing\/transferring, but for Ubuntu and other Linux with GNOME, there are built-in services to share user specific […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1828],"class_list":["post-47789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-howtos","tag-share-over-lan"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}