A system and method are provided for synchronizing read-only folders from a cloud-based server. Users can set read-only permissions when sharing folders with other users. The read-only permissions are enforced by client devices of the users downloading content of the folders from the server. To prevent local changes made by a user having read-only access to a folder from being overwritten, the user's client identifies modified folders as local content. After identifying a modified folder as local content, the client may retrieve the original folder from the cloud-based server.