Live file system or Virtual file system
Choose whether your files are kept on your PC all the time or downloaded when you open them, and how to control which files sync.
The two modes#
The setting is under Settings → Folders → File availability, and it applies to the account you are looking at.
| Live file system | Virtual file system | |
|---|---|---|
| What is on your PC | Every file in the folders you choose | Your whole account, but only as placeholders until you open them |
| Disk space used | The full size of those folders | Only the files you have opened or chosen to keep |
| Working offline | Everything you sync is available | Only files you have opened or kept on this device |
| Choosing folders | You pick which folders sync | You see everything, and pick what to keep offline |
Live file system is the better choice if you work offline a lot, or if other programs need to read your files without waiting for a download. Virtual file system suits a large account on a small disk, since you can browse everything without downloading it, and a file downloads by itself as soon as you open it.
Either way, anything you add or change syncs back to your server.
Switching modes#
Changing File availability switches the account over, and you do not lose anything by doing so.
- Live to virtual: Nimbo first compares your folder with the server, which can take several minutes on a large account, and nothing is changed until you confirm. It then offers to Keep my files, which turns the files already on your PC into downloaded virtual files rather than fetching them again. Start fresh… instead removes the local copies and leaves everything online-only. Use it with care, because anything in the folder that never reached the server is lost.
- Virtual to live: Switch to normal files turns your files back into ordinary files, in place. Files you had already downloaded are converted straight away, and the rest download through normal syncing afterwards. Your previous sync folders are restored.
Leave Nimbo running until a switch finishes. You can carry on using your PC in the meantime.
Choosing folders (Live file system)#
In live mode, Settings → Folders → Synced folders lists what syncs. Click ＋ Add folder to sync another folder from your Nextcloud, or choose to sync your entire Nextcloud. Choose folders… next to a synced folder lets you untick subfolders you do not want on this PC. Unticking a folder never deletes anything on the server.
Keeping files offline (Virtual file system)#
In virtual mode your whole account shows up in your sync folder, and each file downloads when you open it. To keep something available offline, right-click it in Explorer and choose Always keep on this device. To remove the downloaded copy and get the space back, choose Free up space, and the file stays in the folder as an online-only placeholder.
Settings → Folders → Keep on this PC (offline) does the same as Always keep on this device, from a list of folders. It was called Available offline before v0.1.8.337. Ticking a folder there downloads everything in it and keeps it up to date. Unticking it doesn't remove the files already downloaded, to get that space back use Free up space in Explorer. The list shows folders once you have opened them in Explorer.
Note: At the moment, keeping a folder on this device only reaches subfolders you have already opened in Explorer, so subfolders you have never browsed into are left online-only. Opening those subfolders once in Explorer before choosing Always keep on this device works around it. This is being fixed.
The Synced folders list and Choose folders… only apply in live mode. The Keep on this PC (offline) list only applies in virtual mode.
Explorer status icons#
In virtual mode, Explorer's Status column and file icons show Windows' own cloud icons:
| Icon | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Blue cloud | Online only, downloads when you open it |
| Green tick outline | Downloaded, can be freed up again |
| Solid green tick | Always kept on this device |
| Circular arrows | Waiting to sync |
A folder can keep the circular arrows for a while after everything in it has downloaded, because folders are marked as up to date in a separate pass. This is only the icon, and the files themselves are fine.
In live mode, Nimbo adds small badges to the corner of each file's icon to show that it is synced, syncing, shared or has a problem. The badges are installed by Nimbo-Setup.exe. If you installed Nimbo another way, Settings → Folders shows Enable badges…, which sets them up after Windows asks you for permission once.
If icons or the right-click options are missing straight after installing or switching mode, restart Explorer (or sign out of Windows and back in), since Explorer only loads them when it starts.
Files that do not sync#
Ignore patterns. Under Settings → Exclusions → Ignore patterns you can add patterns for files and folders that should never sync, such as *.log or node_modules. A name without a slash matches at any depth, and a name with a slash, such as build/out, matches that path. Ignored items are left alone on both sides, so they are neither synced nor deleted. Large development folders such as node_modules and .git do sync unless you add them here, and it is worth excluding .git if you work on the same repository from more than one computer.
Nimbo always skips temporary and lock files, operating system clutter and other sync clients' journal files, none of which are your own data.
Web server files. Most Nextcloud servers refuse web server configuration files (.htaccess, .htpasswd and .user.ini), so Nimbo does not sync them by default. If your server accepts them, add them under Settings → Exclusions → Allowed filenames and restart Nimbo. Disguised file types is an alternative for names your server refuses: Nimbo stores those files on the server under a different name and shows them on your PC under their real one.
Conflicts#
A conflict happens when the same file is changed on your PC and on the server before either change has synced. What Nimbo does is set under Settings → Sync → Conflicts:
- Ask me each time (the default) shows a notification and lists the conflict in the Conflicts tab of the Sync status window, where Keep mine or Keep server decides which copy stays.
- Keep both versions gives the server's copy the original name and saves yours next to it as
name (conflicted copy <date and time>), on your PC and on the server. - Keep the newest keeps whichever copy was changed most recently.