nextcloud-desktop/doc/navigating.rst

Using the Synchronization Client

navigating, usage

The ownCloud 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 (Ubuntu).

ownCloud Desktop Client icon

Using the Desktop Client Menu

A right click on the icon (left click on Ubuntu and Mac OS X) provides the following menu:

ownCloud Desktop Client menu

The Desktop Client menu provides the following options:

• Open ownCloud in browser: Launches the ownCloud WEB interface.
• Open folder 'ownCloud': Opens the ownCloud local folder. If you have defined multiple synchronization targets, the window displays each local folder.
• Disk space indicator: Indicates the amount of space currently used on the server.
• Operation indicator: Displays the status of the current synchronization process or indicates Up to date if the server and client are in sync.
• Recent Changes: Displays the last six files modified by the synchronization operations and provides access to the current synchronization status listing all changes since the last restart of the ownCloud client.
• Settings...: Provides access to the settings menu.
• Help: Opens a browser to display ownCloud Desktop Client Guide.
• Sign out: Disables the client from continued synchronizations.
• Quit ownCloud: Quits the ownCloud Client, ending any currently running synchronizations.

Using the Account Settings Window

account settings, user, password, Server URL

The Account window provides a summary for general settings associated with the ownCloud account. This window enalbes you to manage any synchronized folders in the account and enables you to modify them.

To access and modify the account settings:

The fields and options in this window include:

• Connected to <ownCloud instance> as <user> field: Indicates the ownCloud server to which the client is synchronizing and the user account on that server.
• Add Folder... button: Provides the ability to add another folder to the synchronization process (see Adding a Folder).
• Pause/Resume button: Pauses the current sync (or prevents the client from starting a new sync) or resumes the sync process.
• Remove button: Removes the selected folder from the sync process. This button is used when you want to synchronize only a few folders and not the root folder. If only the root folder is available, you must first remove the root from the synchronization and then add individual folders that you want to synchronize as desired.
• Storage Usage field: Indicates the storage utilization on the ownCloud server.
• Edit Ignored Files button: Launches the Ignored Files Editor.
• Modify Account button: Enables you to change the ownCloud server to which you are synchronizing. This option launches the Setting up an Account windows (See ??).

Adding a Folder

The Add a Folder ... button enables you to add a new folder to the syncrhonization process.

To add a new folder:

1. Click the Add a Folder ... button in the Account window.

The Add Folder... window opens

2. Specify a unique path and alias name to the folder or use the Choose... button to locate the new folder on your system to which you want to synchronize.

..note:: Nested synchronizations are not supported. In other words, you cannot add a folder that is already contained within another synchronized folder. In addition, you cannot add a higher level (parent) folder that contains a folder to which you are already synchronizing. By default, the ownCloud Set Up Wizard syncrhonizes your entire ownCloud account to the root folder of the ownCloud server. Due to this default setup, you must first remove the top-level folder prior to specifying new synchronizations.

3. Click 'Next' to continue.

A window opens prompting you to select a remote destination folder on the ownCloud server to which you want to synchronize.

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``Add Folder...`` window (remote destination)

4. Select a folder on the ownCloud server to which you want to synchronize your newly added folder.

..note:: A server folder can only be synchronized with a particular client once. If you attempt to sync the root directory, you cannot sync with other folders on the server. Similarly, if you sync with folder /a, you cannot create another sync with /a/b, since b is already being synched.

Editing Ignored Files

The Ignored Files Editor provides a list of preconfigured files that are ignored (that is, not synchronized) by the client and server during synchronizations. The Ignored Files Editor enables you to add patterns for 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 incidate a single character).

For additional information about this editor, see Using the Ignored Files Editor

Using the Activity Settings Window

activity, recent changes, sync activity

The Activity window provides an in-depth account of recent synchronization activity. It shows files that have not been synchronized because they are on the ignored files list or because they cannot be synced in a cross-platform manner due to containing special characters that cannot be stored on certain file systems.

You can open the Activity window in one of the following ways:

• Click 'Activity' in the left frame of the ownCloud Settings window.
• Invoke the window from the ownCloud Desktop Client menu by selecting Recent Changes > Details.... (See Using the Desktop Client Menu.)

Using the General Settings Window

general settings, auto start, startup, desktop notifications

The General settings window enables you to set general settings for the ownCloud Desktop Client and provides information about the software version, its creator, and the existance of any updates.

The settings and information contained in this window are as follows:

• Launch on System Startup checkbox: Provides the option to check (enable) or uncheck (disable) whether the ownCloud Desktop Client launches upon system startup. By default, this option is enabled (checked)once you have configured your account.

• Show Desktop Nofications checkbox: Provides the option to check (enable) or uncheck (disable) bubble notifications alerting you as to when a set of synchronization operations is performed.

• Use Monochrome Icons checkbox: Provides the option to check (enable) or

  uncheck (disable) the use of monochrome (visually less obtrusive) icons.

  Note

  This option can be useful on MAC OSX platforms.

• About field: Provides information about the software authors along with pertinent build conditions.

  Note

  Information in this field can be valuable when submitting a support request.

• Updates field: Provides information about any available updates for the ownCloud Desktop Client.

Using the Network Settings Window

proxy settings, SOCKS, bandwith, throttling, limiting

The Network settings window enables you to define network proxy settings as well as limit the download and upload bandwidth utilization of file synchronizations.

Specifying Proxy Settings

A proxy server is a server (for example, a computer system or an application) that functions as an intermediary contact for requests from clients that are seeking resources from other servers. For the ownCloud Desktop Client, you can define the following proxy settings:

• No Proxy option: Specifies that the ownCloud Client circumvent the default proxy configured on the system.
• Use system proxy option: Default setting. Follows the systems proxy settings. On Linux systems, this setting uses the value of the variable http_proxy.
• Specify proxy manually as option: Enables you to specify the following custom proxy settings:
  • HTTP(S): Used when you are required to use an HTTP(S) proxy server (for example, Squid or Microsoft Forefront TMG).
  - SOCKSv5: Typically used in special company LAN setups, or in combination with the OpenSSH dynamic application level forwarding feature (see ssh -D).
  • Host: Host name or IP address of the proxy server along with the port number. HTTP proxies typically listen over Ports 8080 (default) or 3128. SOCKS servers typically listen over port 1080.
• Proxy Server requires authentication checkbox: Provides the option to check (enable/require) or uncheck (disable/not require) proxy server authentication. When not checked, the proxy server must be configured to allow anonymous usage. When checked, a proxy server username and password is required.

Bandwidth Limiting

Synchronization of files between a client and server can utilized a lot of bandwidth. Bandwidth limiting can assist in shaping the total download or upload bandwidth (or both) of your client/server connection to a more manageable level. By limiting your bandwidth usage, you can maintain free bandwidth for other applications to use.

The ownCloud Desktop Client enables you to limit (throttle) the bandwidth usage for both file downloads and file uploads. The Download Bandwidth field (for data flowing from the ownCloud server to the client) provides the following options:

• No limit option: The default setting for the client; specifies that there are no limit settings on the amount of data downloaded from the server.
• Limit to <value> KBytes/s option: Limits (throttles) the bandwidth to a customized value (in KBytes/second).

The Upload Bandwidth field (for data flowing from the ownCloud client to the server) provides the following options:

• No limit option: The default setting for the client; specifies that there are no limit settings on the amount of data downloaded from the server.
• Limit automatically: When enabled, the ownCloud client surrenders available bandwidth to other applications. Use this option if there are issues with real time communication (for example, the use of IP phone or live streaming) in conjunction with the ownCloud Client.
• Limit to <value> KBytes/s option: Limits (throttles) the bandwidth to a customized value (in KBytes/second).

Using the Ignored Files Editor

ignored files, exclude files, pattern

You might have some 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 that is embedded in the ownCloud Desktop Client.

The Ignored Files Editor enables you to define customized patterns that the ownCloud Client uses to identify files and directories that you want to exclude from the synchronization process. For your convenience, the editor is pre-populated with a default list of typically 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 idenfify 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, but might fail to load correctly.

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.
• As of ownCloud Desktop Client version 1.5.0, 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 ignored-files-label.