Egnyte currently offers two applications that allow you to access files from the cloud right from your desktop: Desktop Sync and Desktop App. 

  • Desktop Sync syncs and stores Egnyte content locally on your computer.
  • Desktop App allows you to access all files and folders that you have access to in the cloud without having to store every file on your computer. The Desktop App also allows you to sync content locally for offline access and take advantage of almost all of the features Desktop Sync had to offer. 

As you've heard, Desktop Sync will no longer be supported after December 31st, 2019. There are several reasons Egnyte has decided to drop support for Desktop Sync:

  • To provide the best possible desktop experience in a single app where users can easily access content they need, online and offline.
  • To focus on creating new capabilities that wouldn't be available with Desktop Sync. 

Differences

 

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Desktop Sync

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Desktop App
Access all files without needing to store everything No Yes
Automatically lock open files in the cloud to prevent conflicts No Yes
Sync selected folders for offline access Yes Yes
Access multiple Egnyte domains from the same machine No Yes
Support for multiple users per machine  No Yes
Update files in real time  Yes Yes
Works with 3rd party integrations No Yes
Desktop folder redirection Yes Yes
Non-Desktop folder redirection Yes Yes
Choose folder location for synced files Yes Yes
Ability to exclude specific subfolders from sync Yes Yes
Set maximum upload and download sync rate Yes Yes
Stop/pause sync and go offline to control bandwidth usage Yes Yes
Sync schedule Realtime and scheduled Realtime only
Search* Native search that requires download of content to be searched Cloud-based search that does not require download of content to be searched.
Selecting folders to sync
 Folder selector user interface (UI) Select and deselect folders directly from File Explorer or Finder
Language support No Yes
Automatically connect to on-premises Smart Cache devices No Yes
(Admin feature) Control access through device entitlement Yes Yes 
(Admin feature) Remote wipe Yes Yes

*To access search for the Desktop App, head to the icon tray (Windows) or icon bar (Mac) and click the Desktop App icon to open the menu. The home screen will show you your recently accessed files and provide a search bar. From here, you can search for all content available in the cloud. If you need to narrow down your search, you can use advanced search options, like the wildcard search, or go to the Web UI to take advantage of all search options, like filters.


How to Switch from Using Desktop Sync to Using the Desktop App

Check out the Transition from Desktop Sync to the Desktop App article for more information.

Windows

  • Step 1: Upgrade to the latest version of Desktop Sync
    If you're not yet on the latest version of Desktop Sync, we recommend upgrading to the latest version for the best experience.

    Standard silent install script
    msiexec /i EgnyteDesktopSync_x.x.x.msi /qn 

    For more information about mass deployment, please review this guide.
  • Step 2: Mass uninstall Desktop Sync
    Please ensure you are running under user account that has admin privileges. Examples of uninstalling script in command-line:

    Standard silent uninstallation with no restart
    msiexec /x EgnyteDesktopSync_x.x.x.msi /qn /norestart

  • Step 3: Mass install Desktop App
    The example script below will silently install the Desktop App. In the example provided, every local user on the machine will have one drive added to acme.egnyte.com with Z as the drive letter and 'acme' as the drive label. The script also forces a mandatory restart of the machine.

    msiexec /i EgnyteConnect_x.x.x.msi ED_SILENT=1 ED_DRIVE_DOMAIN=acme ED_DRIVE_LABEL=acme ED_DRIVE_LETTER=Z /qn /forcerestart

    For more advanced install and configuration options, please review this Windows mass deployment guide.

Mac