Sync network drive

Troubleshooting
1

I’ve read in some forum that odrive allows pointing to a folder in the network to be a sync folder.
But when I right-click a network folder, the “Sync to odrive” option doesn’t show on the context menu.
But if I right-click a c: drive folder, then “Sync to odrive” shows on the context menu.

So, is it possible to have odrive sync from a folder on the network?
That’s the sole reason I installed it.

Attempts with other cloud services:
Dropbox
Error with selected folder
This folder is on a network media

Amazon Drive
Select a different folder
This location is not supported. Please select another folder.

OneDrive
Your OneDrive folder can’t be created in the location you selected.
Please choose a different location

Syncplicity
Syncplicity is not supported on external storage devices or mapped network drives. Please select a different location to sync this folder.

Google Drive
The location selected for your Google Drive folder is not writable. Please fix this or choose another location for your Google Drive folder.

2

Hi @ricardom,
Make sure the network folder is mapped to a drive letter. odrive cannot sync a UNC network path.

If you already have a drive letter then this is an issue that has been reported in the past, but we have never been able to reproduce it. It seems that a unmount, reboot, and remount could fix the issue, as stated here:

Can you give that a shot?

3

Hi
Which of the odrive’s supported cloud services will allow me to have a sync folder on the network?
All that i have listed before on this thread wont allow me to have the sync folder on the network.
Do u have any instructions to send me on how to have a sync folder on the network by using odrive?

4

Hi. I followed the instructions above and after unmounting, rebooting, remounting, indeed, the right-click over the mapped drive’s folder showed the Sync to odrive.

However, the behaviour still isn’t desirable.
What odrive did was to copy the folder into my c: drive Dropbox’s folder.

The reason why I need a sync folder to be sitting on the network is storage.
I can’t have the sync folder on my PC. It must be on the network without being copied to my PC by odrive.

Is it possible to have the sync folder living on the network?

5

Hi @ricardom,
If you are seeing the same files appear in odrive\Dropbox on your C: drive, make sure you do not have that folder set to sync automatically. To resolve this quickly you can right-click->unsync the corresponding folder in odrive\Dropbox.

For example:
You have setup “sync to odrive” for Z:\myfolder and you are syncing with Dropbox\myfolder in the cloud.
When those files upload they are going to also be accessible from C:\Users\ricardom\odrive\Dropbox\myfolder.
If you unsync C:\Users\ricardom\odrive\Dropbox\myfolder you will not get the duplicate data.

Also keep in mind that if you still have the Dropbox desktop application running, alongside odrive, it will be downloading anything that you upload to Dropbox. odrive is meant to be a replacement for the these other desktop applications, so when you have it installed you do not need to run the Dropbox desktop client anymore.

More information:
Auto sync settings: https://docs.odrive.com/docs/sync-your-odrive#section--sync-all-files-and-subfolders-
Unsync: https://docs.odrive.com/docs/manage-disk-space#section-unsync-old-files
Sync to odrive: https://docs.odrive.com/docs/manage-sync#section-sync-external-folders

6

Hi Tony

Thank you for your help.

I created a folder on the network.
I asked other people to create folders inside this network folder.
Odrive synched it.

But it’s not synching deletions.
How do I make it sync deletions too?

Network folder [other 2 should mirror this
Marketing
Product
Steve

Online on odrive
a
Marketing
Product
Steve
Test

Local odrive folder
Marketing
a.cloudf
Product.cloudf
Steve.cloudf
test.cloudf

I was right-clicking the Library folder (that’s the name of the root folder) but I don’t see any option for Sync Settings for me to choose broadcast deletions

I’d like the web to show a mirror of what I have locally.
I’m a bit intrigued that it didn’t sync the deletions.

Missing web download-all button
Also, I generated a link and opened it on a browser, without signing in, and I can see the download button:

But I shared the link with a colleague, and this button doesn’t show for him.
Do you know why?

Also sometimes I’ve clicked on this button multiple times and I get no response.

Generate shareable links via web
On Dropbox I can apply some folder settings.
We have a business account.
I can choose which folders can be access by external people.
But now that I had to close the Dropbox software because I’m using odrive, I had to do these folder settings online

I’d like the odrive web interface to allow for generating shareable links but I couldn’t find this feature.

The idea is to have a repository in the cloud synched with a network folder (maintained by different people) and for our sales people to access the repository online and right click certain folders to share the links with their clients.

Generate shareable links locally
Other people who will assist in populating the repository may also need to generate shareable links.

Do you suggest any scenario?
Maybe have a separate Dropbox account just for the repository for different people to use this Dropbox account via odrive?

7

Hi @ricardom,

All local deletes are held in the odrive trash until a user empties it. It is a mode of protection against inadvertent deletes. There is an option to set auto-trash in the odrive menu on the desktop client. See here for more information: Sync Changes

The download all link on the web client will only work for Google Chrome browsers. It is likely that the user you sent to is using a different browser.

You can create a shared link from the web browser by clicking on the “V” at the right of the item listed. That shows a dropdown window with the options: “Delete”, “Rename”, and “Share”. Click on “Share”.

Generating shared links locally is done via a right-click → “Share Link”. I may not be understanding this request fully, though. Can you explain the setup and use case in more detail?

8

Hi Tony
Thank you for your help.
My communication was a bit crippled via this web based form because I don’t know how to paste screenshots here.

But I didn’t use any browser.
I had the original network folder that was synched both online to odrive and to the local Dropbox folder.
When I deleted files on the original network folder, I was expecting deletions to replicate online on odrive and also on the local Dropbox folder.

So there was no browsers involved.
I only deleted files via Windows Explorer on the original network folder.
File creations were being replicated on the other 2 locations.
But file deletions were not being replicated.

9

Hi @ricardom,
Did you take a look at the link I posted above for the odrive trash? This is an option in the odrive menu on the desktop client.

You asked multiple questions in the previous post, so maybe my responses got a bit jumbled together. I have adjusted the original post. Please take a look at let me know if you have any questions.