Connected Folders on the Desktop App

The Desktop App enables you to establish connected folders, which are local folders on your computer that sync with designated folders in the cloud.  Setting up connected folders is particularly useful for linking library folders such as your Desktop, Documents, Pictures, and Downloads folders with folders in the cloud.  Any changes made to either folder are synchronized in real-time, allowing offline access to files.

From the start, Egnyte supported the ability to sync an online folder to a user’s desktop. One of the benefits of doing this is increased performance when working with large files, and it allows access to files when offline. A Connected Folder operates in reverse, automatically syncing a folder within a user's existing file structure to the Egnyte Cloud. You choose which folders to connect and where they sync to in Egnyte, typically the user's private folder.

Connected folders do not alter the user's current file structure, and users can continue working as usual once a folder is designated as connected. The folders are automatically synced to Egnyte without any additional steps required.

Set Up Connected Folders via WebUI

If the "Connect to Egnyte..." option is not visible in your context menu, make sure that it is enabled in your WebUI settings or request your administrator to enable it.

How to Set Up Folders for Connected Folders

To setup folders for the Connected folders feature, simply follow these steps:

1. Right click a folder on your local hard drive
2. Select "Connect to Egnyte..." from context menu
   
   
3. Choose a folder to which you want to connect and click "Connect"
   
   

To review your connected folders, head to the Settings page of the Desktop App. From there, you can easily choose to view them in either cloud or local storage.

Disconnecting Connected Folders

If you need to disconnect a folder, simply select the checkbox next to it and click the "Disconnect selected" button.

How to Use Connected Folders Using Command Line Interface

Desktop App for Windows

To set up Connected Folders in Desktop App for Windows, open the command line tool and paste in the provided code after making the necessary changes.

Here's an example of setting up a connected folder connecting C:\Users\%username%\Desktop with a folder called "Desktop" in the user’s Private folder using -a to specify the local paths and -r to specify the cloud paths. In our example, the drive label is Selkirk. If there is a space in your drive label, you'll need to encapsulate the label name in quotes:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Egnyte Connect\EgnyteClient.exe" -command connect_folder -l selkirk -a "C:\Users\%username%\Desktop" -r "/Private/::egnyte_username::/Desktop"

Below is an example of disconnecting a folder using the -rm option:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Egnyte Connect\EgnyteClient.exe" -command connect_folder -l selkirk -rm "C:\Users\%username%\Desktop"

In Windows, %username% will resolve in the currently logged in users' space.

The command-line tool in Windows will not confirm that the action was successful.  Go to the Connected Folders tab in the widget to verify if a connected folder was added or removed successfully.

Desktop App Core

To set up connected folders in Desktop App Core , open "Terminal" and paste in the provided code after making the necessary changes. 

In the following example, setting up connected folders to connect your Desktop folder to the Desktop folder in your Egnyte private folder. Replace 'drive_label' in the commands below with your drive label (typically your Egnyte domain name) and run it in the Mac terminal:

egcli connected-folders add --drive <drive> -lp “~/Desktop” -cp “/Private/::egnyte_username::/Desktop”

Arguments Used During Setup of Connected Folder via CLI

 -d, --drive <drive>     Label or UUID associated with drive.
 -lp, --localPath <lp>   Local path for which to establish the connection.
 -cp, --cloudPath <cp>   Cloud path for which to establish the connection.
 -c, --child             Add path as a child.
  -h, --help              Show help information.

Desktop App for Mac

Learn more about the Command Line Interface tool for Mac here.

In the following example, setting up connected folders to connect your Desktop folder to the Desktop folder in your Egnyte private folder. Replace 'drive_label' in the commands below with your drive label (typically your Egnyte domain name) and run it in the Mac terminal:

/Applications/Egnyte\ Connect.app/Contents/MacOS/EgnyteDriveCLI connected-folders add drive_label ~/Desktop /Private/::egnyte_username::/Desktop

Recommendations and Supported Configurations

• Connected folders can be set up through Mac Finder/Windows File Explorer or from the command-line tool. Any user can set this up on their own, or Admins can set it up through Mass Deployment.
• Only folders in internal hard drives or partitions should be used to set up connected folders. Folders in external hard drives, network shares, USBs, SD cards, or any other storage locations outside of internal hard drives are NOT supported.
• The local folder path must not end with a backslash (e.g., "C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\local\").
• If using connected folders to sync user's library folders (Desktop, Documents, Downloads, etc.), we recommend connecting to a location within the user's Private folder in the cloud to ensure sufficient permissions exist to keep content in sync.
  • Multiple local folders can be connected to the same folder in the cloud; however, it is not recommended. 
• If you are currently using Desktop Sync to redirect users' library folders to the cloud, we recommend uninstalling Desktop Sync before installing and setting up connected folders on the Desktop App. This will prevent any unintended conflicts in two different sync engines synchronizing the same content.
• The automatic locking mechanism will not take effect when accessing content from the connected folder on the hard drive. However, automatic locking will still occur when accessing the same folder from inside the drive added by the Desktop App.
• You can use extension filtering rules and permissions to control what is synchronized from connected folders.
• There are absolutely no changes made to the existing file structure on the user's machine. Users don’t have to do anything different once a folder is designated as a Connected Folder. They work as normal, and the folders are automatically synced to Egnyte. If you move, rename, or delete a connected folder locally, the corresponding folder in the cloud is not deleted, but the link is broken.
  
  

  Deleting files or sub-folders inside the connected folder will delete the corresponding files or sub-folders in the cloud.

   

• If you move, rename, or delete a connected folder in the cloud, the Desktop App will attempt to re-create the folder in the same location. If re-creating the folder is not possible (for example, due to permissions), the link between the local folder and the cloud folder is broken, and content in the local folder will remain.
• Connected folders are not deleted from the machine when a remote wipe is triggered.
• You can still set up connected folders if the ability to sync content for offline access is turned off.
• The supported maximum number of files is up to 500,000 files in all connected folders for each local user on each instance of the Desktop App. There is no limit to how many connected folders can be set up.

Learn more about Connected Folders by watching a Quick Tip on Egnyte University: Connected Folders.