What kinds of problems can odrive help me with?

What’s the main thing you guys do?

odrive is a universal sync app that allows you unify, encrypt, and sync any storage. We are not a storage provider, but we do help you manage your files in cloud storage and enable you to fully move to the cloud in a safe and organized manner. The Infinite Sync feature allows you to access even large sets of data in the cloud efficiently by first presenting your files as placeholder cloud files that don’t take up any space. File content is only downloaded when you need to access the file.

Read our Medium publication to see what we’re about and what we’ve been up to lately.


Examples of some specific problems that odrive helps you solve:

  • I have a ton of cloud storage accounts and I wish I could just have one client installed and get everything from one place.
    Just use odrive to consolidate your cloud storage so that you can access everything through one odrive account. You don’t need to keep any other sync clients installed. See this list of all the different kinds of storage you can link with odrive.

  • Can I sync multiple accounts of the same type (e.g. Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc.)?
    Yes! See this post.

  • How do I use sync if I have more files in cloud storage than my computer’s hard drive can handle?
    odrive has placeholder files which represent files and folders you have in the cloud in Finder or Windows Explorer without taking any local disk space. Simply double-click on a placeholder file to download and open it. Double-click on a placeholder folder to open it. Alternatively, you can use right-click --> Sync to recursively open folders and download files within them (always download, never download, or download if under a certain size you specify).

  • I’m running out of space on my hard drive. How do I reclaim space?
    odrive connects you to your cloud storage accounts, so you can move your files to the cloud. Once they are there, you don’t need to keep them on your local hard drive but you can use odrive to get access to them conveniently if and when you need them. Take a look at odrive placeholders, which represent files and folders you have in the cloud in Finder or Windows Explorer without taking any local disk space.

  • How do I keep my cloud storage provider from looking at my files?
    We have a Premium plan Zero-knowledge Encryption feature which lets you encrypt files in the cloud using a key that only you have. The cloud provider and odrive’s servers never see the key.

  • Can I share files from storage accounts that I’ve linked to odrive?
    Yes, you can share weblinks (optional password and expiration time) to files and folders. You can also invite another person to share storage so that they can access the same storage with their own odrive account.

  • Can I use odrive to sync files with Linux?
    We have a command line Agent available for Mac, Windows, and Linux.

  • Can I sync files on my computer to a specific location in the cloud without having to move them into my odrive folder?
    The Premium plan includes a right-click --> Sync to odrive option which lets you set up a sync relationship between a folder on your computer (outside of the odrive folder) with a folder from any storage you’ve linked on odrive. That way you can leave the files in place. See the usage guide section [here] (https://docs.odrive.com/docs/manage-sync#section-sync-external-folders) for more information

  • How do I set up two computers to have the same Desktop, Documents, and Download folders?
    Use the Premium plan’s right-click --> Sync to odrive option above (see prior question) on each computer to set up a sync relationship between your computer’s folder against the same location in the cloud. So for instance, each computer has its Desktop folder sync to the “Common Desktop” folder on your Google Drive.

  • Can you help me with getting my large file uploads to my cloud storage to work? It keeps hitting network faults and restarting.
    We have an infinite file size feature which lets you break up large files into smaller files behind the scenes. This will help you get your large files up even if the network is spotty or if your storage provider has file size limits.


More Information About How odrive Works

  • Why don’t all of my files sync to the cloud or sync down to the client?
    Typically, there are three reasons for this. (1) Sometimes certain files added to the desktop client are ignored by sync and will not go to the cloud. These are typically temporary or system files which really don’t make any sense to sync. See the usage guide for more details. We plan to also implement a user-configurable exclusion list soon, too… see this thread. (2) Additionally, some files make it into our Not Allowed list (go to your tray icon menu to see if you have any items there). This can be due to either having illegal characters that are disallowed by your storage provider or trying to upload to a read-only location. (3) Finally, some files that you have in the cloud may not show up on your computer if they are illegal on your computer’s OS. Also, if you have more than one file with the same name in the same location (allowed by some services on the web but not possible to display on Windows/Mac/Linux), we may only show one of those files. See [this section of the usage guide] (https://docs.odrive.com/docs/sync-source-changes#section-duplicate-names-and-illegal-characters) for more information.

  • Can I turn a file back into a placeholder file once I’m done with it?
    Yes. We have the Premium plan Unsync feature which lets you do it in-line. You could always unlink and relink the source if you want to go back to placeholders entirely with the free version of the product.

  • Can I move my odrive folder to a different disk that has more space?
    Yes, you can go to the tray menu to select the move odrive folder option.

  • I deleted some files on my computer but they still exist in the cloud when I go to the storage provider’s web client. Why?
    See the Trash feature, which is explained in more detail here.

  • How do I see what features are premium vs. free?
    Take a look at this post here.

  • How do I get help with other problems?
    See the usage guide and also the I have a question and Troubleshooting categories of this forum!

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What kinds of problems can odrive help me with? .