Add users, organise them in groups, set per-user storage quotas and handle leavers safely - all from one visual admin page.
A cloud with one account is a folder. A cloud with the right users, groups and quotas is a system the whole family or office can rely on. Classic ownCloud manages all of it from one admin page in the browser - this guide shows the order to do it in, and the one leaver mistake to avoid.
Log in as admin and open the Users page - in classic ownCloud this is one visual list where everything about people is managed, no commands anywhere near it.
Groups are how you stop managing people one by one. Put family in one group and office colleagues in another, and sharing "the project folder with the office" becomes one click on the group instead of six clicks on six names. In a small office, classic ownCloud also lets you appoint a group admin - a team lead who can add and remove their own team members without holding the full admin account. Share that power carefully; it is real power over real accounts.
One user syncing a lifetime of phone videos can fill the whole server disk - and then everyone's cloud breaks at once. The Users page lets you set a storage quota per user.
A quota is not distrust. It is how a small disk serves many people without one accident becoming everyone's emergency.
A family member moves out, an employee leaves - the instinct is to delete the account immediately. Resist it for one step: disable the account first. A disabled user cannot log in or sync, but their files still exist while you decide what must be handed over. Delete only after the files are transferred or confirmed worthless - deletion in ownCloud takes the files with it, and "we deleted the only copy" is a sentence nobody wants to say in a small office.
The video gets your server running - this page turns that fresh install into a multi-user system.
Watch Full VideoThere is no small fixed number waiting to trip you - the real limits are your disk, your quotas and, on shared hosting, your plan. A home or small office with a handful to a few dozen users is exactly the size classic ownCloud is comfortable with.
No. Each user sees their own files plus whatever has been deliberately shared with them. That separation is the core design of ownCloud - which is also why every person needs their own account instead of sharing one login.
They are deleted with the account. That is why this guide says disable first, hand over what matters, and only then delete. If someone else needs the files, share or transfer them before the deletion, not after.