

# Enable Home Folders for Your WorkSpaces Applications Users
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Before enabling home folders, you must do the following:
+ Check that you have the correct AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) permissions for Amazon S3 actions. For more information, see [Using IAM Policies to Manage Administrator Access to the Amazon S3 Bucket for Home Folders and Application Settings Persistence](s3-iam-policy.md).
+ Use an image that was created from an AWS base image released on or after May 18, 2017. For a current list of released AWS images, see [WorkSpaces Applications Base Image and Managed Image Update Release Notes](base-image-version-history.md).
+ Enable network connectivity to Amazon S3 from your virtual private cloud (VPC) by configuring internet access or a VPC endpoint for Amazon S3. For more information, see [Networking and Access for Amazon WorkSpaces Applications](managing-network.md) and [Using Amazon S3 VPC Endpoints for WorkSpaces Applications Features](managing-network-vpce-iam-policy.md).

You can enable or disable home folders while creating a stack (see [Create a Stack in Amazon WorkSpaces Applications](set-up-stacks-fleets-install.md)), or after the stack is created by using the AWS Management Console for WorkSpaces Applications, AWS SDK, or AWS CLI. For each AWS Region, home folders are backed up by an Amazon S3 bucket.

The first time you enable home folders for an WorkSpaces Applications stack in an AWS Region, the service creates an Amazon S3 bucket in your account in that same Region. The same bucket is used to store the content of home folders for all users and all stacks in that Region. For more information, see [Amazon S3 Bucket Storage](home-folders-s3.md).

**Note**  
For guidance that you can provide your users to help them get started with using home folders during WorkSpaces Applications streaming sessions, see [Use Home Folders](home-folders-end-user.md).

**To enable home folders while creating a stack**
+ Follow the steps in [Create a Stack in Amazon WorkSpaces Applications](set-up-stacks-fleets-install.md), and make sure that **Enable Home Folders** is selected.

**To enable home folders for an existing stack**

1. Open the WorkSpaces Applications console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/appstream2](https://console.aws.amazon.com/appstream2).

1. In the left navigation pane, choose **Stacks**, and select the stack for which to enable home folders.

1. Below the stacks list, choose **Storage** and select **Enable Home Folders**.

1. In the **Enable Home Folders** dialog box, choose **Enable**.