About
Search
Welcome to M-Files Empower – our new support experience. We'd love to hear what you think!Give feedback
Home/System setup and customization/Environment setup and maintenance/Managing vaults/Creating a vault

Creating a new vault

Last updated on 27 March 2026

Admin

Creating a vault in M-Files Cloud

In M-Files Cloud, you can create a vault in M-Files Manage. For instructions, refer to Creating a Cloud Vault in the M-Files Manage user guide.

Creating a vault in on-premises environments

If you want to create a new vault in a language other than the currently selected software language, you must first change the software language and restart the M-Files Server service with Windows Task Manager before you create the vault. For instructions on changing the software language, see Selecting the software and vault language.

See Important tasks after installation, vault creation, or vault migration for a checklist of tasks that we recommend to be done with vault creation.

To create a vault:

  1. Open M-Files Admin.
  2. In the left-side tree view, expand a connection to M-Files server.
  3. Click Document Vaults.
    Result:The Document Vaults list is opened in the right-side pane.
  4. In the task area, click New Document Vault.
    Result:The Document Vault Properties dialog for a new vault is opened.
  5. In the Name field, enter a name for the new document vault.
  6. Use the Primary language and Secondary language drop-down menus to select the primary and secondary languages for full-text search features.

    These selections affect, for example, the way inflected or irregular forms of words or compounds are dealt with in searches. If the document vault is to contain material in several languages, it is recommended to select the language that is used most as the primary language and a less commonly used language as the secondary language.

    Selecting a language or languages improves the probability of finding the right search results. Even if a certain language was not selected as the primary or secondary language, the full-text search will nevertheless return results if words in this language were used in the search.

  7. Optional: Click Import... to change the vault icon to facilitate finding the right vault if you are using multiple vaults.
    1. In the Change Icon dialog, select an item from the list or click Browse... to search for a different icon.
    2. Click OK once you have selected the new icon.
      You can revert back to the default icon by clicking Use Default.
  8. Optional: Change the advanced settings on the Advanced tab.
  9. Click OK once you are done.
You should now have created the document vault and it should appear on the left-side tree view of M-Files Admin under Document Vaults.
Note: When you create a document vault, M-Files automatically creates an ID for it. The ID can be changed later in the Document Vault Properties dialog of the vault by clicking the Change Unique ID button.
After you have created the vault, the users of the vault must add a connection to it. For instructions, see Adding a vault connection.
Related content

Still need help?

Ask the M-Files Community
Submit a Support Request
On this page
Creating a vault in M-Files Cloud
Creating a vault in on-premises environments
Popular links
What is enterprise content management?Business process managementCollaboration solutionsSolutions by industryKey capabilities
About M-Files
Contact usSchedule a demoCareersTrust CenterPrivacy policySecurity Hall of Fame
Resources
Customer Support PortalPartner HubDeveloper PortalUser guideM-Files CommunityTerms and conditions