---
title: "Update Employee File"
method: POST
path: "/api/v1/employees/{id}/files/{fileId}"
tags: ["Employee Files", "Public API"]
---

# Update Employee File

`POST /api/v1/employees/{id}/files/{fileId}`

Updates metadata for an existing employee file. Supports renaming the file, moving it to a different category, and toggling employee visibility. Accepts JSON or XML; only fields present in the request body are updated. An empty XML document no-ops successfully, while an empty JSON body returns 400. The `categoryId` field is silently ignored when the caller authenticated as the file creator but lacks full file permissions. Moving a file to a new category requires view/edit access to both the current and target category. Returns 403 if the file belongs to a read-only file section. Use 'List Employee Files' to obtain file IDs and category IDs.

OAuth Scopes: employee:file.write

## Path parameters

- `id` integer, required
- `fileId` integer, required

## Request body

- EmployeeFileUpdate
  - `name` string — The new display name for the file.
  - `categoryId` integer — The ID of the file category (section) to move the file into.
  - `shareWithEmployee` 'yes' | 'no' — Whether the file is shared with the employee. Also accepted as 'shareWithEmployees'.
  - `shareWithEmployees` 'yes' | 'no' — Alias for shareWithEmployee. Whether the file is shared with the employee.

## Response `200`

The employee file metadata was updated successfully. No response body is returned.

## Other responses

- `400` — The request body contains malformed JSON or XML.
- `403` — The API user does not have permission to modify the requested employee's file, its category, or the file belongs to a read-only section.
- `404` — The requested employee file or target category was not found.
- `500` — An internal server error occurred.

---

[API](https://skmtc.net/bamboohr/apis/bamboohr-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.net/bamboohr/apis/bamboohr-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc-service-staging.skmtc.workers.dev/v1/apis/bamboohr/bamboohr-api/revisions/19ebf391a399/schema)