Connected Folders on the Desktop App

Welcome to the guide on Connected Folders, a feature that gives you the flexibility and power to sync your local files with the cloud effortlessly. Let’s demystify this tool and discuss some key scenarios where it can be incredibly beneficial.

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What are Connected Folders?

Benefits of Using Connected Folders

How to Use Connected Folders

Administrator Guide

Recommendations and Supported Configurations

What are Connected Folders?

In simple terms, Connected Folders are local folders on a computer that have been linked to a folder location on your cloud storage. Once linked, these folders will automatically sync, making local files available in the cloud and vice versa. This functionality is particularly useful when certain folders cannot be moved to Egnyte drive but still need to be synced, such as "Documents," "Download," or folders predefined by other applications for data storage.

 

Benefits of Using Connected Folders

The real power of Connected Folders becomes evident in specific scenarios:

Scenario 1: Access Frequently-Used Folders Remotely

What it does?: Link your commonly accessed local folders — like "Desktop", "Documents", or "Downloads" — to the cloud.

Why it’s useful?: This ensures that the user or any authorized users can access these folders remotely, from any device, at any time.

Scenario 2: Backup Your Important Data

What it does?: Connect local folders that contain sensitive or important files to the cloud.

Why it’s useful?: Data is not only backed up in the cloud but also synchronized, adding an extra layer of security and protection against data loss.

Scenario 3: Keep Your Folders Synchronized Between Multiple Devices

What it does?: Connect commonly accessed local folders on multiple devices.

Why it’s useful?: For those who frequently work on multiple computers, whether Mac, Windows, or both, having Documents and Downloads folders synchronized across all devices allows for seamless switching between them.

Scenario 4: Working on Complex Projects Using Third-Party Applications

What it does?: Connect folders containing all project assets, to ensure seamless work.

Why it’s useful?:

Some third party applications allow working on linked assets and files making very frequent and intensive work on them.  In these cases, Connected Folders can offer performance comparable to working on a local hard drive while still ensuring all assets are synced to the cloud.

Example: Adobe Indesign.

 

How to Use Connected Folders

Connecting a Folder

To use the Connected Folders feature, simply follow these steps:

1. Right-click a folder on the local hard drive and select Connect to Egnyte... from the context menu.If this option is not visible, please contact your admin to see if this functionality is enabled for the domain (see Set Up Connected Folders via WebUI)
   
   
   
2. Choose a folder from either the Private or Shared directories, or any of its subfolders and click Connect.
   
   
3. A new folder will be created under the selected folder, named after the local folder. All files and subfolders within it will be synchronized.
   
   
   
   
4. The connected folders tab in the Desktop App UI will display the synchronization progress.
   
   
   
   
5. A special badge will appear on the local folder, indicating its connection to the cloud.
   
   
   

Connecting to an Existing Folder

Connecting to an existing cloud folder is possible and can be useful if a Connected folder was previously disconnected or if syncing contents from two computers is needed. Follow these steps for instructions:

1. Ensure the local folder has the same name as the folder you want to connect to in the cloud.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Right click the folder on the local hard drive and select "Connect to Egnyte..." from the context menu.
   
   
   
   
3. Choose a folder that is one level higher in the folder hierarchy. For instance, if the goal is to connect to the “Downloads” folder located within the user’s Private folder, select the user’s Private folder.
   
   
4. A message will be displayed that the Folder already exists in Egnyte. Users may choose to:
   • Keep both: This option creates a distinct copy of the local folder in Egnyte, syncing only the files from the currently selected local folder.
   • Merge: This option merges the contents of both folders. Files from the local drive that are not in the cloud are uploaded, and files from the cloud that are not on the local drive are downloaded. Overlapping content is synchronized based on the most recent version of the file.

 

Managing Connected folders

Connected folders can be reviewed by navigating to the Settings page of the Desktop App. From there, users can choose to view them in either the cloud location or on the local drive.

Disconnecting a Folder

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

Users will be prompted to choose whether to remove the folder and its content from the cloud or to keep it. Choosing to keep it in the cloud means the content will remain on Egnyte but will no longer be synced.

How the Files are Synchronized

Upon successfully connecting a local folder to the cloud, its contents will synchronize in the background. This means that any new files created or existing files edited and saved will automatically upload to the cloud folder. Similarly, if a file is created or edited in the cloud (using the WebUI, for instance), it will be downloaded to your local drive and updated to the most current version.

Collaboration in Connected Folders

Although files can be synchronized to the cloud using Connected folders, their primary location remains in the local file system, not in Egnyte drive itself. Therefore, there are some limitations to collaboration capabilities in those folders:

1. File Locks - In Connected folders, there are no file locks. When a file is opened, no lock is created, enabling others to access and edit it concurrently. If two users save changes simultaneously, a conflict copy is generated, requiring manual resolution.
2. Microsoft Co-Edit - The Microsoft Co-edit feature if enabled in the domain won't be available in Connected folders.

Connected folders from External drive

A new option is introduced allowing Connected Folders to be used with external devices like external drives, flash drives, and SD cards. This feature is particularly useful for handling large datasets stored on external SSD drives. 

However, there are some important limitations:

• Only NTFS and exFAT file system drives are supported.
• Connected Folders are removed, and sync is stopped if any external drive is removed, after a 5 second delay. A new connection must be established manually to resume syncing.
• After the PC or Desktop App is restarted, Desktop App waits for 1 minute for the external drive to be connected. If the connection is not detected, the Connected Folders are removed.
• For connection to be reestablished after the drive is removed or remounted, the drive needs to be the same (identified by serial number) and needs to be the same drive letter (Windows).
• External drives count against sync limit threshold.
  
  This is especially important in the case of connecting small flash drives, as the minimum requirement for sync to work is 1GB of free disk space. If the threshold is exceeded, synchronization for all Connected and Offline folders will be stopped. External drives with storage up to 250 GB are supported.

Quick Connect

Quick connect feature enables users to connect their local folders - Documents, Downloads, and Desktop to Egnyte with a single click via the Connected folders tab in Desktop App, ensuring these folders are backed up and synced to their Egnyte folder.

On clicking Connect, the Finder window with Private folder listing opens by default. Any folder inside the Private folder of the Egnyte drive can be selected to connect with Documents, Downloads or Desktop folder.

Once connected, the folder appears in the Connected folder section.

Administrator Guide

Here we cover some more advanced configuration options and how to turn this functionality on/off for your domain.

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 the WebUI settings or request your administrator to enable it.

How to Use Connected folders Using Command Line Interface

Command Line Interface can be used to access more advanced options or to set up Connected folders with Mass Deployment software.

Windows

Setting up a Connected folder

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. Here:

-a is used to specify the local path 

-r is used to specify the cloud path. 

-l is used to specify the drive label.  The drive label is usually the domain name unless modified by the user. 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"

Disconnecting A Connected folder

Here is an example of removing a connected folder using the -rm command. It requires executing the command with a local file path and following parameters:

Required parameters:

• -command connect_folder -l label
• -rm local_path
• -d (optional: removes data from the cloud) - this parameter is available starting with version 3.20

If the command is run without the -d parameter, only the local folder is removed. If the -d parameter is included, the corresponding data from the cloud is removed as well.

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

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.

Mac Desktop App Core

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

Here's an example of setting up connected folders to connect your "Desktop" and "Documents" folders to "Desktop" and "Documents" folders in your private folder. Replace "drive_label" in the two commands below with your drive label (typically your Egnyte domain name) and run them in the Mac terminal:

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

Arguments used during set-up 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.

 

Mac Desktop App 

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

Here's an example of setting up connected folders to connect your "Desktop" and "Documents" folders to "Desktop" and "Documents" folders in your private folder. Replace "drive_label" in the two commands below with your drive label (typically your Egnyte domain name) and run them 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.
• 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.  Steps on how to uninstall the Desktop Sync can be viewed here.
• 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 (i.e., 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.