OpenCloud
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In Nextcloud, the windows client has the option to select any folder from the filesystem and have it synced as part of it's syncing mechanism. This is especially useful for syncing directories of programs/tools where you are unable to choose their install/appdata location. Is this possible in opencloud, or is there any feature request open for this that I may have missed? Thanks! |
Replies: 14 comments 16 replies
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Hi @tr1plus we don't support that, and we don't plan to change that. |
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@sansbyte we tried using symlinks in the past, it does not work reliably. |
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@micbar I'm confused by your response. The suggested official workaround is to use symlinks, but you say it does not work reliably. If I'm misunderstanding you, please let me know. What I would like, and I think @tr1plus too, is the ability to select any folder on the client (via the desktop app) to sync, not just what's in the sync root. |
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No |
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Since the early Unix days in the 1970s, later formalized by POSIX in 1988, the convention is that personal files live in ~/, organized however the user sees fit. Every major operating system follows this principle. Today, the sync client requires users to move their actual data into the OpenCloud sync root, then create symlinks from the original locations pointing back to it. This inverts how sync tools normally work. Instead of telling the client what to sync, users have to restructure their home directory to fit the app. This is a real barrier to adoption. Tools like Dropbox, Syncthing, Nextcloud or rclone all allow syncing arbitrary directories from anywhere on the filesystem. None of them require moving files into a dedicated folder first. Proposal: Allow users to configure additional source directories for sync, outside the sync root, as virtually every other sync client does. |
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Indeed - that is my hope. It's not super critical for me, but would give me
some more freesom
…On Tue, 14 Oct 2025, 15:07 sansbyte, ***@***.***> wrote:
@micbar <https://github.com/micbar> I'm confused by your response. The
suggested official workaround is to use symlinks, but you say it does not
work reliably. If I'm misunderstanding you, please let me know. What I
would like, and I think @tr1plus <https://github.com/tr1plus> too, is the
ability to select any folder on the client (via the desktop app) to sync,
not just what's in the sync root.
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Remember that we have a different concept than NC. We do not have the sync connections, but the Spaces. Our experience has shown that users often get lost with randomly spread sync connections all over the desktop machine. That was our motivation to concentrate all space syncs in one directory which btw can be freely placed. |
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That is fair. But there could be some middle ground? Default setup, which would probably work for most users and would be as it is now, or advanced one, which would give you more flexibility. Because what OneDrive is currently saying is: "everything should fit into our structure and users should change all their habits (including how they install apps sometimes) to be able to use the product". That is extremely limiting. I tremendously respect what you're doing. I tried out your solution, hoping it will be a lightweight self-hosted replacement for MS OneDrive or for NextCloud. But this stops me in my track, since I can't use it for things that already exist in my different environments. I'll keep an eye on you and hope this decision changes over time. |
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The blatant disregard here for supporting real world use cases is just ridiculous. |
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It's their product and their rules. They're doing it in the way they envisioned and providing it to us for free. So, I don't think that being that upset with them is a valid reaction (but I'm also not trying to say how you should be feeling :-)). That's why other projects exist and that's the beauty of the FOSS scene. But at the same time constructive criticism is important so that developers can have it in mind if they decide to get closer to a wider user-base. |
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Symlinks work only from other directories to opencloud folder, not the other way around - if I correctly understand it. So means other apps need to be able to work with symlinks to access the files in opencloud folder - while opencloud is not able to do so. So yes, would be perfect to be able to select any folder to sync. I'm coming from seafile and this is one of the key features I like - and makes live easier for temporary sharing. |
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This is only something that would need to happen on the client right? I mean, I would find it rather bad design if the server requires the client to behave a certain way. All that needs to happen if I understand correctly is that instead of spaces, subfolders should be sync targets. |
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This is a dealbreaker for us as well. A use case we have is larger files synced to an external drive and commonly used files synced to the main ssd. Additionally, I agree that I want the source of truth for my files to be where they actually belong in my filesystem. |
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For me the biggest limitation of the current desktop clients is the fact that I can't link a space with an existing local folder/directory. That would at least allow me to synchronize the default system's directories to separate spaces by assigning my home user directory as the application root download directory. The end result would look like something below: I can see how the current approach can be useful for organizations and/or projects as the separation from system default folders may help ensure that only related files are synchronized, however as pointed out by others in this discussion this can also add friction for existing workflows that rely on system defaults or folder locations outside what is set as the application root folder. |
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I would like to suggest that if the current application architecture or the design decisions do not allow sync directories. It would be beneficial to allow client users to define the OC root directory. Current systems have multiple storage drives installed, and at least having the option to store data in the desirable drive would be highly appreciated. |
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Hello everyone, Did someone succeed to find a solution on windows ? Please help ( or share to me an other tool that allow us to sync user spaces (except nextcloud/owncloud) ) ps : and no i can't move the existing files and folder into the created opencloud folder, that should never be a solution to change windows and applications settings just for our sync solution to work Thanks by advance |
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My workaround was abandoning the software. I'm using Seafile now. Not perfect but it meets my needs. |
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Same. I had to give up on it |
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Same here. Still using Seafile. I only remain subscribed to this issue hoping the devs have a change of heart some day. |
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Same here too. |
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I know this may come across as a bit abrasive, but not being able to support existing workflows that were perfectly valid in oCIS is a pretty serious problem. With oCIS, you could do something as straightforward as what @kater162 [described here]:
and sync the contents directly where they actually belong. OpenCloud forcing that into something like:
is not some minor UI annoyance or cosmetic difference. It fundamentally breaks an existing workflow and is going to be a complete showstopper for anyone trying to migrate from oCIS while preserving their current local folder structure. This limitation just plain sucks. I'm glad I stood up a separate environment to test OpenCloud. Hard Pass |
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Sad to see this still not being considered. I too won't be able to use this software because of this limitation, and the same design has always driven me nuts in OneDrive. I've got a few different locations across 4 different drives on my system that can't move elsewhere, but all of them would really benefit from the VFS of OpenCloud.
I understand the reasoning behind it being simpler for the average user, but adding this capability as an additional feature does not mean the simpler approach needs to go away. One could simply "hide" this setup behind a "Customize my sync folders" and now the user would have both the current way of defining a singular folder, but also the advanced mode where they can cherry pick specific folders around their system. I really hope this gets reconsidered because the current sync approach with one folder, and one with multiple folders, can happily coexist, and allow more users to benefit from this project. |
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If you can give me a month or so I am in early alpha testing porting my android client over to desktop and it will have carry this type of feature over to create folder sync pairs wherever you want. My current plan is a very light weight sync client (ala Google Drive) rather than a full fledged desktop client since the web client does 90% of what I need besides keeping local directories in sync. I should mention my main use here is replacing the large amount of random sync folders I currently use sync-thing for and understand the hesitation to avoid that giant list of synced folders randomly strewn about but having one app for my personal cloud usage compared to multiple is an overall cleaner solution that bouncing between OpenCloud and sync-thing. I was mainly targeting Linux since its my main use-case personally but building for Windows as well wouldn't be a massive chore besides needing people to test since I don't have any Windows PCs in the house at this point |
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I've hacked together a solution for me in the meantime. Its a modified version of the Windows client and adds a "Add custom folder" button and allows you to pick any folder in OpenCloud and on your PC to sync together, including support for virtual files. It seems to work without issues in my case so far. Heres the download in case anyone would like to try, just be warned that it's genuinely hacked together because I do not have the time to properly take a look at this, so I'll also not be PRing this upstream. https://github.com/RyanTT/opencloud-desktop-multisync/releases |
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Ok. We understand. Our rationale for the solution we have is that it should be easier for users to "find" their synced files if all the personal and project spaces are located at one place on the client computer. That comes from the experience of a decade supporting enterprises with similar solutions: Having to pick a local folder, that is synced with another folder on the server leads to "individual" setups on different clients and to kind of fragmented sync scenarios from the POV of admins, which we want to support first class. Also, it is challenging for many users to imagine this setup logic when they start. But we understand that there is a big group of users who ask for the extra flexibility of configuring sync pairs. So we will bring that back as an extra option. Details are not yet to share, but probably we will stay with how it is now as default, but offer any kind of advanced mode where we allow to configure more individually. Please watch out for an Epic coming up that will be implemented by the team at some point, no ETA now though. |
Ok. We understand.
Our rationale for the solution we have is that it should be easier for users to "find" their synced files if all the personal and project spaces are located at one place on the client computer. That comes from the experience of a decade supporting enterprises with similar solutions: Having to pick a local folder, that is synced with another folder on the server leads to "individual" setups on different clients and to kind of fragmented sync scenarios from the POV of admins, which we want to support first class. Also, it is challenging for many users to imagine this setup logic when they start.
But we understand that there is a big group of users who ask for the extra fl…