No more Classic Sync + Virtual Files in V34?

šŸ“± Desktop & mobile clients šŸ’» Desktop
1

Hey there!

We used to have both Classic Sync and Virtual Files configured on our Macs, but it seems like thatā€™s no longer possible with V34.

Is there a reason why the ability to use both was removed? Would it be possible to bring this functionality back?

We used to configure it so that each userā€™s Desktop and Documents folders were synced to Nextcloud using Classic Sync, while Team folders, for example, were accessed through Virtual Files. This allowed us to make sure no work would be lost if, for example, a laptop broke down.

If this is no longer possible, is there maybe a way to sync macOSā€™s Desktop and Documents folders using the File Provider instead? I know this is something Apple allows with iCloud.

2

Hi @FabianKIX!

There is a problem on macOS we cannot resolve as third-party developers which prevents both modes from working 100% as expected simultaneously:

The most reported problems on macOS were based on this. And we also got a lot of direct reports from our support subscribers. A lot of users were struggling with this. We had to do something to improve the situation by requiring an explicit choice. We do not intend to bring it back. In the long term, the file provider is expected to replace the FinderSync integration.

Technically this is possible on the client side. The file provider framework by Apple offers the required APIs.

I think we do not have an issue on GitHub yet. I would not hold my breath for it due to other priorities at the moment (in example: the end-to-end encryption is still missing in the file provider but required to achieve feature parity).

3

Thank you very much for such a detailed and quick response!

Itā€™s sad that this functionality wonā€™t be coming back, but I can understand why this is the case.

Iā€™ll probably open an issue / feedback request on GitHub about adding NSFileProviderKnownFolders functionality. It would be nice to get this feature eventually, even though it probably wonā€™t be a priority for now.

4

I found an issue thatā€™s somewhat related to this discussion. It suggests adding support for syncing the Desktop, Documents, Downloads, and other known folders, similar to how OneDrive handles them.

Iā€™ve added a comment describing my specific use case here: