Can I have files on the server and only have a virtual file on the client

šŸ“± Desktop & mobile clients
1

Hello

If I recall OneDrive and GoogleDrive let you have option to see the file in the folder and then only download when needed, can NextCloud do the same ?

Second: is there an option to say that if a file has not been access e.g. 1 month, then it ā€˜movedā€™ to the the server and only a virtual link is on the client to save space ?

Kind Regards

Steen

2

Depends on the CLient

3

What do you mean ?

is it only windows client, mac or linux or ?

4

Well you ask questions with regard to the use of clients but never tell us what clients (OS and Version of client) you are using.

5

I would assume that all desktop clients have the same features as there is nothing in the documentation that indicates that there are differen features for each clinet type / os

But my interets is in Mobile, IOS, Mobile Android, Mac, Windows and Linux - all latest version available.

6

For the desktop client, they started with the VFS feature in Windows, then they implemented it in macOS, for Linux I donā€™t know the status, if there is already an experimental version (overview VFS on Linux: VFS on Linux Ā· Issue #3668 Ā· nextcloud/desktop Ā· GitHub).

For the mobile clients, as far as I know, it always uses more or less virtual files since there is less memory, and you can just choose stuff you want to cache locally.

7

Even Linux-AppImage 4.0.6-x86_64 does not offer VFS feature

8

After more digging, I found out that there is 2 different clients for MacOS, when I initial downloaed my Mac clinet, it was not really that clear that there is 2.

I also just tried to install the Windows client on a new VM, and during the initial setup, there was an option to have virtual files, but after, there is nothing in the settings that indicate or can change the VFS - at least not on the windows client.

According to that, installing the vfs version should work without breaking the current sync sinstallation, so I will try that.

I have still not 100% found out if / when / how a file becomes a virtual file.

In the perfect scenario - IMO - one would have some settings to speify if folders should support VFS and when files inside would become a virtual file.

E.g. I create a document in my NextCloud folder, when will that document be moved to the server and only be a virttual file on my client, if ever ?

9

at least in Windows they are using OS API which decides itself when the files should become placeholder, based on available space, last access etc.

For OneDrive a setting/policy exists to force switching files to placeholder after some time, I donā€™t know if it applies for NC client as well but as it uses same API I assume it does.

The user also can actively change the file/folder to always remain available locally or become a ā€œcloud fileā€ (vfs placeholder).