Sync Settings

Windows	macOS

To set the sync preferences:

1. In the Preferences window, click Sync.

2. Define your Connect Mode preferences: Integrated or Smart Synchronization.
   The Connect Mode preference defaults to Integrated and CTERA recommends using this mode.
   Integrated: Integrated mode offers enhanced integration with the local operating system, significantly improving local, LAN, performance. Additionally, using Integrated mode has the following advantages:

   • Eliminates need for cached stubs before deletion or after renaming files.
   • Improves NT-ACL and WORM preflight checks.
   • Enhances search capabilities via Windows File Explorer an Mac Finder.
   • New status icon column for files and folders, indicating the current status for each item
   • Displays a progress bar of a file being opened
   • Significantly increases performance for opening files online.
   • Displays current client activity.
   • When using a Mac computer, online files can be cached without pinning.

   Smart Synchronization: Opened files and files marked Keep Offline on Local Disk, via the right-click menu in Windows File Explorer or macOS Finder, are copied to the local cache on the PC and can be accessed even when there is no connection to the portal. CTERA recommends setting this option in the following scenarios:

   • To mount the portal as a network drive with a drive letter.
   • To customizable cache location and external disk support.
   • For large file streaming, such as videos.
   Note

   On Windows, Drive Connect Support tools must be installed when using Smart Synchronization. The first time you create a new connection using Smart Synchronization, you are prompted to install these tools.

3. Check Index files to automatically check for changes to the files every ten minutes.

4. Check Enable buffering for faster access to buffer file contents in a temporary location which is deleted when quitting CTERA Drive Connect. Unchecking Enable buffering only affects the online cache not the sync cache.

5. Locking is currently not supported. CTERA recommends not setting Lock Files.

6. For macOS only, specify the Mount Location. Volumes are mounted in the Volumes folder in the application support directory. You can change the default to an other folder that is writable.

7. Define your Cache preferences.
   Specify the cache location if you want the cache on an external drive.

   • Windows: The external drive must be an NTFS formatted drive with support for NTFS ADS (Alternate Data Stream).
   • macOS: The external drive must be an HFS+ or APFS formatted drive.
     
     

   Purge files in cache not opened after – How long a file that is not opened remains in the cache before being evicted.

   Limit cache size to – How big the cache size is. When the cache gets to be too full, the largest files that are not marked Keep Offline on Local Disk, via the right-click menu in Windows File Explorer or macOS Finder, are evicted first until the used storage is less than the specified cache size. CTERA recommends keeping this option as 100GB.