We are replacing Desktop Sync with the Egnyte Desktop App. The Desktop App provides ALL of the functionality of Desktop Sync, including the capability to sync folders to your desktop. While Desktop Sync will continue to work, Egnyte will not provide technical support for Desktop Sync after December 31st, 2019. There are several reasons for doing this:  

  • To provide the best possible desktop experience in a single app
  • To give users access to terabytes of data from their desktop
  • To improve collaboration with global file locking 
  • To leverage Egnyte Smart Cache (FKA Turbo) for LAN-speed access to your files when you're in the office

We've recently made some major improvements to the Desktop App, so check out how Desktop Sync and Desktop App compare.

We recommend that you switch from Desktop Sync to Desktop App as soon as possible to take advantage of all the benefits the Desktop App has to offer.

To help with the transition, we've laid out five, easy steps to keep the process simple.

  1. Find location of data folder
  2. Uninstall Desktop Sync
  3. Remove synced data
  4. Install Desktop App
  5. Sync the necessary folders for offline access

For Admins or users that have local folders redirected to a synced location or file types that were excluded from sync, please review the For Admins section before proceeding to avoid data loss.

Locate Data Folder

Before you uninstall Desktop Sync, it's important that you find where your synced data is being stored since you'll need to remove it later in the process.

  1. Open the Desktop Sync icon from the icon tray on your desktop, click Settings, and expand the Advanced Settings section. Make a note of the location of the Data Folder as you'll need it later.

    The location may be different for Mac and Windows users, so please verify the location in Advanced Settings.


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  2. Please make sure your content has been synced to Egnyte before you uninstall Desktop Sync. To do this, click on the Home tab and click the Sync now button. This ensures all changes and content have been synced to Egnyte.

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Uninstall Desktop Sync

The steps you take to complete a clean uninstall of Desktop Sync will depend on the Operating System (OS). Use the steps for your OS in this article to uninstall Desktop Sync.

 

Remove Synced Data

Once Desktop Sync has been uninstalled, you can remove any unneeded data that you were syncing from Egnyte to your desktop using Desktop Sync.

If your Desktop, Documents, or other locations are redirected to your sync folder, we recommend moving those folders back to their original locations before deleting the sync folder to avoid losing your data. You can synchronize them using connected folders in the Desktop App.

  1. Navigate to the location found in step one of the Locate Data Folder section on Windows File Explorer or Mac Finder.
  2. Delete the Egnyte folder to remove all previously synced content.

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Install Desktop App


User Installation - Windows

For all of our Windows users, follow the steps outlined in this article to install Desktop App.


User Installation - Mac

Mac users will employ this article to complete an installation for Desktop App.

Admins that want to mass deploy the Desktop App can use the following articles for help completing the process: Windows Mass Deployment or Mac Mass Deployment.

 

Sync Folders on Desktop App for Offline Access

To free up disk space on your hard drive, make sure the data folder containing any previously synced data from Desktop Sync has been removed before you complete this step.

You can access all of your content from the Desktop App when you have an internet connection. However, if you want to work while offline or when you have a poor internet connection, you can select folders for offline access, so they'll always be available. This article can provide additional details on how to sync for offline access.


For Admins

If any file types or extensions were excluded from sync, or if local folders, like My Documents, Downloads, or Desktop, were redirected to a location within Desktop Sync, you'll need to complete some additional steps. These actions will ensure you've preserved the data before you delete the synced data folder.

  1. After completing the final sync, go to the Configure Folders tab, deselect all but one folder (can be an empty, "dummy" folder), and click Save.
  2. Find any local folders, like My Documents, that were being redirected to a synced folder and Restore Default or Move to a location outside of Egnyte and Desktop Sync.

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  3. Navigate to the location found in step one of the Locate Data Folder section on Windows File Explorer or Mac Finder.
  4. Any remaining content (excluded files) will need to be moved to another location to avoid data loss.
  5. Proceed to step 2 of the Remove Synced Data section.

Reporting

If you want to see how many of your users are still actively using Desktop Sync, you can find this information in the Device Dashboard.

Uninstall Desktop Sync

If you'd like to mass uninstall Desktop Sync for your users, the articles below can help.

Mass (Admin) Uninstall for Windows

Mass (Admin) Uninstall for Mac