nextcloud-desktop/doc/navigating.rst

================================
Using the Synchronization Client
================================

.. index:: navigating, usage

The ownCloud Desktop Client remains in the background and is visible as an icon 
in the system tray (Windows, KDE), status bar (Mac OS X), or notification area 
(Linux).

.. image:: images/icon.png

The status indicator uses overlay icons to indicate the current status of your 
synchronization. The green circle with the white checkmark tells you that your 
synchronization is current and you are connected to your ownCloud server.

.. image:: images/icon-syncing.png

The blue icon with the white semi-circles means synchronization is in progress.

.. image:: images/icon-paused.png

The yellow overlay icon with the parallel lines tells you your synchronization 
has been paused. (Most likely by you, by opening the client and clicking 
Account > Pause.)

.. image:: images/icon-offline.png

The gray icon with three white dots means your sync client has lost its 
connection with your ownCloud server.

.. image:: images/icon-information.png

When you see a white circle with the letter "i" that is the informational icon, 
so you should click it to see what it has to tell you.

.. image:: images/icon-error.png

The red circle with the white "x" indicates a configuration error, such as an 
incorrect login or server URL.

Using the Right-Click Menu
--------------------------

A right-click on the icon opens a menu for quick access to multiple operations.

.. image:: images/menu.png
   :alt: the right-click sync client menu

The Desktop Client menu provides the following options:

* Open ownCloud in browser
* Managed folder
* Open folder [your local sync folder]
* Up to date
* Recent changes
* Settings
* Help
* Sign out
* Quit ownCloud

Using the Account Settings Window
---------------------------------

.. index:: account settings, user, password, Server URL

Click **Settings** in the right-click menu to see a summary of your ownCloud 
account settings. This shows which ownCloud account you are connected to (or accounts, if you have more than one) your 
quota status, and a window for managing your synchronization settings.

.. image:: images/client6.png
   :alt: Account settings window

At the top of the window are tabs for each configured sync account, and three others for Activity, General and Network settings.

The Activity window contains the log of your recent activities, including files 
downloaded and deleted.

The General window has configuration options such as Launch on **System 
Startup**, **Use Monochrome Icons**, and **Show Desktop Notifications**. This 
is where you will find the **Edit Ignored Files** button, to launch the ignored 
files editor, and two new features: **Ask confirmation before downloading 
folders larger than [folder size]**, and **Add an Account**. 

Multi-Account Support
---------------------

You may now configure multiple ownCloud accounts in your desktop sync client. 
Simply click the **Add an Account** button on the General tab, and follow the 
account creation wizard.

Editing Ignored Files
---------------------

The :guilabel:`Ignored Files Editor` provides a list of  files that are ignored 
(that is, not synchronized) by the client and server during synchronizations. 
You may add additional files or directories that you want to exclude from the 
synchronization process. In addition to using standard characters, the Ignored 
Files Editor enables you to use wild cards (for example, using an asterisk ‘*’ 
to indicate multiple characters or a question mark ‘?’ to indicate a single 
character).

For additional information see `Using the Ignored Files 
Editor`_

Using the Network Window
------------------------

.. index:: proxy settings, SOCKS, bandwith, throttling, limiting

The Network settings window enables you to define network proxy settings, and 
also to limit download and upload bandwidth. New to version 2.0 is the option 
for automatic bandwidth limits.

.. image:: images/settings_network.png

.. _ignoredFilesEditor-label:

Using the Ignored Files Editor
------------------------------

.. index:: ignored files, exclude files, pattern

You might have some local files or directories that you do not want to backup 
and store on the server. To identify and exclude these files or directories, you
can use the *Ignored Files Editor*.

.. image:: images/ignored_files_editor.png

For your convenience, the editor is pre-populated with a default list of typical 
ignore patterns. These patterns are contained in a system file (typically 
``sync-exclude.lst``) located in the ownCloud Client application directory. You 
cannot modify these pre-populated patterns directly from the editor. However, if 
necessary, you can hover over any pattern in the list to show the path and 
filename associated with that pattern, locate the file, and edit the 
``sync-exclude.lst`` file.

.. note:: Modifying the global exclude definition file might render the client
   unusable or result in undesired behavior.

Each line in the editor contains an ignore pattern string. When creating custom
patterns, in addition to being able to use normal characters to define an
ignore pattern, you can use wildcards characters for matching values.  As an
example, you can use an asterisk (``*``) to identify an arbitrary number of
characters or a question mark (``?``) to identify a single character. 

Patterns that end with a slash character (``/``) are applied to only directory
components of the path being checked.

.. note:: Custom entries are currently not validated for syntactical
   correctness by the editor, so you will not see any warnings for bad
   syntax. If your synchronization does not work as you expected, check your syntax.

Each pattern string in the list is preceded by a checkbox. When the check box
contains a check mark, in addition to ignoring the file or directory component
matched by the pattern, any matched files are also deemed "fleeting metadata"
and removed by the client.

In addition to excluding files and directories that use patterns defined in
this list:

- The ownCloud Client always excludes files containing characters that cannot
  be synchronized to other file systems.

- Files are removed that cause individual errors three times during a synchronization. 
  However, the client provides the option of retrying a synchronization three additional 
  times on files that produce errors.

For more detailed information see :ref:`ignored-files-label`.