First you need to find user id, and add user id to files table. You should try something like this:

$user = User::find(1);
$user_id = $user->id;

// now that you get user id add it to Files:

$file = new Files();
$file->user_id = $user_id;
...
$file->save();

Or if you use Sentry you can get user ID by

$user = Sentry::getUser();
$user_id = $user->id;

Later you can access user files by:

$user = User::find(1);
$user->files;

Thanks for that but i'm still struggling. how should i be pulling in the user id? in your example the ID is hard coded.

in my files model i have tried the following:

      {
      	$object = new Object;
	$object->user_id = Auth::user()->id;
	$object->hash = 'testing';
	$object->file = 'some-file-name.jpg';
	$object->save();
      }

but it fails. if i hard code the userid it works:

$object->user_id = '1';

Are you logged in? If you are not logged in than Auth::user()->id is probably NULL.

Try to first check with "Auth::check()" is user logged in.

Yes i've done an Auth check it's not working. I can access Auth::user()->id from the view but not a controller.

As a quick fix i'm saving the ID in the form, then when posted is passed back to the controller but i would ideally like to be able to grab the users id straight from the controller.

looks like your relationships are inverted. Should be

public function files() { return $this->belongsTo('User'); return $this->hasMany('File'); }

public function user() { return $this->hasMany('File'); } }