Cloud Drive for Mac (Mac Drive)

See also Cloud Drive for Mac Release Notes.

Unlike the drive contained in the legacy Mac Tools package, which used the OSXFUSE software package to integrate with Mac Finder, this new and improved Mac Drive uses Apple's new File Provider technology.

After logging in be sure to enable the Cloud Drive and watch out for subsequent prompts when you launch Mac Finder.

All basic file and folder operations are supported:

• Creating folders
• Copying folders
• Moving folders
• Renaming folders
• Deleting folders
• Creating files (upload)
• Updating files (upload)
• Copying files
• Moving files
• Renaming files
• Deleting files

Also supported:

• Locking
• File Sharing
• Marking files/folders to download (cloud icon)
• Offline Use
• M-Stream support
• Pre-configuring the File Fabric endpoint

The Cloud Drive is continually evolving, and new features are being worked on and added, with the aim of achieving relative feature parity with other desktop components. Some of the planned feature enhancements include (in no particular order):

• Packaging
• Branding
• Business Groups access
• Tags
• Notifications
• Additional audit log entries
• Cache management

The Mac Cloud Drive can be used side by side with Cloud Files and with the sync feature of the legacy Tools. Using new Mac Cloud Drive alongside the legacy OSXFUSE based Mac Cloud Drive is not recommended.

Many applications, for example: AutoCAD, Word and Excel, allow references to other files to be embedded in their respective document file types. Where these paths are relative to the main document, they will often but not always be found and loaded successfully when the main document is opened in its editor (e.g. AutoCAD for .dxf files) from the Cloud Drive. Absolute paths can also work in some circumstances, but some configuration may be required to achieve this. For help with specific cases please contact Support. Note that the only solution in some cases may be to update the internal references to the external files.

The drive can be accessed under “Locations” from the Mac Finder. Users or applications can browse through the drive, opening and editing documents.

File and folder metadata is cached the first time a folder is accessed speeding up subsequent access.

If this folder is open within a Finder window the drive will periodically check with the server for updated metadata.

Files that are opened through the Finder or by applications are automatically downloaded by the drive into local cache. If a file is already in cache the drive checks to see if a later version is available on the server and downloads it if needed.

An icon within finder shows if the file is available in the cloud but not downloaded, or if an update has been made to the file but not yet uploaded. No icon is shown for items that are cached locally.

Some file types that are opened through the drive are locked. This is indicated with red lock in Finder.

The Mac Drive currently supports automatic locking for:

• MS Office — .docx and .pptx
• PDF — When opened with Preview
• Text Files — When opened with TextEdit
• Adobe Indesign — When Indesign opens and updates the file's last accessed time.

Files can also be locked and unlocked via the Finder “Quick Actions” menu for a file.

Files and folders can be shared from within Finder through the “Quick Actions” menu “Share With Email or URL”.

Files and folders downloaded to the drive are available for read & write access when no network connection is present, or the server is not accessible. The user can browse folders with items not available offline since metadata is also cached.

To download a file or folder use the Finder menu to “Download Now”.

When the server connection is re-established, changes that have been made are synchronized. This includes new, updated and renamed files and folders. Local changes that have not been uploaded are indicated with a cloud icon with an exclamation point.

If a file or folder was modified while offline but the parent folder had been deleted that parent folder is recreated so that the modified information is not lost.

Same file changed by offline user and online user: Offline user’s file should be renamed in the format:. Budget - Conflict - Jo Smyth Macbook Pro.xlsx.

Version 2.1 and greater enables IT Administrators to configure the Mac Drive via commercial provisioning software, like JAMF. The available configuration options are:

Customers wishing to deploy these, should deploy these as a Plist-based configuration profile to the end-user devices.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
	<dict>
		<key>endpoint</key>
		<string>https://naa.example.com</string>
		<key>restrictEndpoint</key>
		<false/>
		<key>AllowSelfUpgrade</key>
		<true/>
	</dict>
</plist>

This configuration should be pushed to the following Preference Domain:

com.vehera.storagemadeeasy.enterprisefilefabric

Instructions for installing the above Plist file onto end-user devices will vary by the software you are using. An example of configuration with JAMF can be found here: https://docs.jamf.com/technical-articles/Deploying_Custom_Configuration_Profiles_Using_Jamf_Pro.html

Logs can be accessed from Settings > About > Open Logs Directory.

Finder will open showing logs for the week for the current user at:

~/Library/Containers/Nasuni Access Anywhere/Data/Library/Logs/Nasuni Access Anywhere