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Access methods

Desktop sync

The desktop sync app keeps the files on your computer and the files in your FileRun account the same. You work in the programs you already use, saving into an ordinary folder, and the app carries every change up to the server in the background. Anything that changes in FileRun, whether you did it in the browser or somebody shared it with you, comes back down the same way.

Important

The API has to be enabled in FileRun's control panel before any app can connect, and your installation has to be reachable over https:// with a trusted certificate. See Requirements.

Connecting the app

On the first run you are asked for the address of your FileRun installation. The app opens it in your browser, you sign in there as usual and approve the connection with a click, and that is the whole of it.

There is no password to type in. When you approve the app, FileRun creates a set of credentials for that computer by itself and hands them to the app; you never see them. The connection is listed under Account settings → Connected apps, which is where you cut that computer off again. Revoking the entry stops that one computer and leaves your other devices alone. See App passwords.

Because the sign-in happens in the browser, your second factor applies to it like it does to any other sign-in.

You can connect several accounts at the same time, on the same computer: another account on the same server, or an account on a different FileRun installation. Each one gets a local folder of its own.

Choosing what to sync

You can sync your entire account, or pick particular folders. Folders shared with you and the storage locations your administrator attached to your account appear alongside your own files, and you can choose them as freely as the rest.

The choice is not final. Settings and then Choose what to sync reopens the list at any time, and a folder you clear is removed from the computer while staying untouched on the server.

You can also add the same account twice with different local folders, to keep, say, your documents under your user folder and a large media folder on a second disk.

The virtual drive

Syncing normally means a full copy of everything on the computer, which is fine for a working set of documents and impossible for an account with a few terabytes in it. The app can instead present the account as a drive where the files are there but their contents are not.

Every file and folder shows up in Windows Explorer or the MacOS Finder with its real name, size, type and date, and can be searched, sorted and opened like anything else. What is missing is the data: nothing is downloaded until something asks for it. An account of any size takes up next to no space this way, and setting it up is instant, since there is no initial download to wait for.

When you open a file, the app fetches it at that moment and the program you opened it with gets an ordinary file. It then stays on the computer for next time, until you free the space again.

Turning it on

The app offers it when you add a folder, as the option to use virtual files instead of downloading the content immediately, and it can be switched on later for an account that is already syncing, from the app's settings. Windows and MacOS are the platforms where this is supported; on Linux the feature is still experimental.

Deciding what stays on the computer

The right-click menu in your file manager holds the two commands that matter:

  • Always keep on this device pins a file or a whole folder. It is downloaded and kept, and later changes are brought down as they happen, so it is there when you are offline.
  • Free up local space does the opposite and returns a downloaded file to the server, leaving its name in place.

Tip

A file that has not been downloaded needs the server to open. Before traveling, pin the folders you will want on the plane.

From your file manager

The app adds a small badge to every icon: a tick for what is in sync and present on the computer, a cloud for what is only on the server, arrows for what is being transferred, and a warning marker for anything that could not be synced. Files show the same type icons as FileRun's web interface.

The right-click menu also lets you share without opening a browser. You can create a link to a file or a folder, protect it with a password, and copy a private link that opens the item in FileRun for people who already have an account. The app shows you when an item is already shared with a link, and tells you when your account is not permitted to share at all.

For anything beyond what the app offers, open the item in FileRun's web interface.

Seeing what it is doing

The app's window has an activity view with the recent changes on the computer and the ones on the server, so you can see what came down and when. A separate list collects everything that was not synced, each entry with the reason, which is where to look when a file seems to be missing on one side.

Syncing can be paused for an account or altogether, and resumed when you want it to catch up. FileRun also tells the app when the installation is in maintenance, and the app waits instead of reporting errors.

Starred items are shared with the web interface as well: what you star in FileRun shows up in the app, and the other way around. See Starred items.

Keeping it out of the way

The app is meant to be unattended, and its settings exist so that it can be:

  • Bandwidth limits for uploads and downloads, either a fixed rate or a share of what is available, so that a large transfer does not take over the connection. Proxy settings live next to them.
  • Excluded files, an editable list of name patterns that are never synced. Temporary files and the junk file managers leave behind are excluded already.
  • A confirmation before large folders, so that adding a shared folder of several gigabytes asks first rather than filling the disk. External storage locations can be made to ask as well.
  • A warning before mass deletions. When a sync would remove an unusual number of files on either side, the app stops and asks instead of going ahead.
  • Start at login, on by default, and notifications you can turn off.

What happens on the server

Syncing is not a special path through FileRun. It goes through the same rules as everything else:

  • Deleted files go to the trash. Removing a file on your computer moves the server copy to FileRun's trash, and you can restore it from the web interface. The app itself does not offer restoring.
  • Replaced files keep their history. Saving over a file leaves the previous content as an older version, which you can browse and restore from the web interface. See File versioning.
  • Transfers count against your quota while they run and not only once they finish, so an upload that would not fit fails early. See Storage quotas.
  • Large files are sent in pieces, and a transfer that breaks off resumes where it stopped instead of starting again.
  • Everything is logged to your activity log, large uploads included, which record their start and their progress.
  • Some files are refused, and they are the ones FileRun would refuse anywhere: names containing a backslash or a slash, names reserved by FileRun, and file types your administrator has blocked. They appear in the app's list of items that were not synced.

When the same file changes in both places

If a file changed on the computer and on the server since the last sync, the app does not choose for you. It keeps both: the server's copy takes the original name, and your local one is renamed to include the words conflicted copy and the date. Open the two, decide which one you want, and delete the other.

For a document several people work on at the same time, FileRun's collaborative editing is the better tool, as everybody edits the one copy on the server instead of two copies on two computers.

Other ways to connect

  • Mobile apps for phones and tablets.
  • Third-party software through FileRun's WebDAV interface, when you want a different client or a scripted transfer.

Tips for performance

Add the following inside the configuration file. Note that it will disable e-mail notifications which are sent to other FileRun users when you download files which are found in other user's folders.

 1$config['app']['logging']['skip_receive_download'] = true;

Troubleshooting

If you are getting The server did not acknowledge the last chunk (No e-tag was present) while using Cloudflare, you will need to disable the Cloudflare proxies, disable Rocket Loader or any other speed enhancers.

If the app downloads everything again every time the server restarts, and FileRun runs in Docker, the device ID of the volume mounts is changing. See the Docker page for the setting that fixes it.