User Interface

User Interface

Mountain Duck runs in the status bar (macOS) and taskbar (Windows).

Status Bar Menu (macOS Dark)

Find the mounted volume in Finder. Choose Go → Computer or choose Finder → General → Show these items on the desktop: Connected servers to make it appear on your desktop.

Tip

Make sure there is enough space left on right side of the notch or application menu items to make sure the Mountain Duck is visible in the the system status bar. To rearrange status menus, press and hold the Command key while you drag an icon. When having multiple displays attached to your computer the status bar item may not be visible on the main display but on the secondary display.

Auto Start

You can choose to automatically open Mountain Duck when logging in. Refer to Preferences. Re-opening the application will open previously mounted volumes. If you choose Enable Login Item and Save Workspace in Preferences → General and do not manually eject the volume prior to reboot it will reconnect after login.

Bookmarks

Choose Open Connection… to add a new bookmark. To edit the connection settings of an existing bookmark, choose → Edit Bookmark.

Note

Bookmarks are shared between Cyberduck and Mountain Duck.

Nickname

The nickname determines the display of the bookmark in the menu and can be customized.

Tip

The nickname determines the name of the mounted volume in Finder.app on macOS or drive in File Explorer on Windows. Also refer to Mount Location.

Labels

Assign multiple labels to bookmarks. Bookmarks are grouped in folders in the status bar menu by their assigned labels.

Taskbar Menu Bookmark Groups (Windows, Large Icons)

Connect Mode

You can change the synchronization options for a bookmark with Connect Mode. Choose Default to use the setting from Preferences → Sync. The Online and Smart Synchronization connect modes mount a volume like a network attached disk. The Integrated connect mode synchronizes files and folders from a directory on the local disk with support from macOS and Windows.

Edit Bookmark (macOS) Edit Bookmark (Windows)

Windows Store

The connect mode Online and Smart Synchronization are not supported in Mountain Duck available from the Windows Store.

Online

Do not synchronize any file to your computer. You can only access this volume when a connection is possible to the server or cloud storage. Files are accessed on demand from the remote when opened and do not take up any local disk space.

Smart Synchronization

Directories can be browsed when offline and files opened are made available for later offline access. Upload changes in the background when server is reachable. You can explicitly make files available offline using the context menu. See Smart Synchronization.

Integrated

Version 5

Mountain Duck 5 (Beta) required for Integrated connect mode.

Local storage is managed by the operating system. The mount is not seen as a remote volume by applications but as a regular folder on disk. This option uses the tightly integrated File Provider (macOS) and Cloud Files (Windows) APIs.

Read-Only Volume

Select Options: Read Only in the bookmark to mount the volume as read-only and disallow any write operations on the remote disk.

Drive Letter (Windows)

Always assign the same drive letter to the mounted volume.

Note

The number of concurrent connected bookmarks is limited by the number of available drive letters. You can have a total of 26 drives on your system.

Filter

You can search for bookmarks with the filter input field in the menu. Bookmarks not matching the input are greyed out.

Bookmark Search Input

Bookmark Status

The bookmark can show three different status lights:

  • No light: No current connection to this bookmark.

  • Green light: Currently connected to this bookmark. The bookmark is completely synced and idle.

  • Orange light: Currently connected to this bookmark. There is at least one active process.

You can can put the currently connected bookmarks on top of the bookmark list regardless of the sorting by using a hidden configuration option:

bookmark.menu.sort.connected=true

Connect

Choose → Connect to mount the server as a volume in the Finder.app on macOS or the File Explorer on Windows. You can connect to multiple servers and have several volumes mounted. All operations on the remote files and folders can then be performed like on local files.

Tip

You can just select the menu item with the bookmark name to connect, too. If you are already connected, selecting the menu item will reveal the volume in Finder.app.

Screenshot Windows Mountain Duck

Connect Using the Command Line Interface

You can mount volumes using your command-line interface (CLI) by opening a bookmark file.

Use open -a "Mountain Duck" ~/Library/Group Containers/G69SCX94XU.duck/Library/Application Support/duck/Bookmarks/*.duck in Terminal.app

Activity

Version 5

Mountain Duck 5 (Beta) required.

Track and cancel currently running sync operations in the new Activity panel.

Edit Bookmark (macOS)

Notifications

Notifications of the connection status are posted to the Notification Center of the operating system.

  • Filesystem mounted

  • Filesystem unmounted

  • Errors: If there is a network connectivity issue while the remote server is mounted, an alert is displayed that allows you to retry the connection or disconnect and unmount the volume.

  • Sync Notifications

File Added Notification (Windows)

Disconnect

Choose → Disconnect to unmount a volume. Alternatively, eject the volume in Finder.app or File Explorer.

Choose File → Eject in Finder.app for the selected volume or control click to choose Eject.

Disconnect using command line
You can unmount volumes using your command-line interface (CLI). Use umount <bookmark nickname> in Terminal.app.

Copying Files

Drag files in Finder.app an macOS or File Explorer on Windows to move and copy files. You can also access the mounted volume with any other application and command-line interface.

Copy Operation Mountain Duck Finder Copy Operation Mountain Duck File Explorer

macOS only

Using Integrated connect mode, files dragged are moved by default instead of copied. Drag the file with the ⌥ key pressed (macOS) to copy instead.

Context Menu in Finder and Windows File Explorer

A context menu in Finder on macOS and File Explorer on Windows allows various actions on files.

Context Menu (Windows)

macOS only

Please make sure to enable the Mountain Duck Integration in System Preferences → Extensions → Finder Extensions. For macOS Ventura and later, the setting can be found in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Extensions → Added Extensions.

Sync Options

Keep Offline on Local Disk or Delete on Local Disk to manage caching status. Refer to Sync Options.

Reload

Changes from the server are not immediately visible. The folder listing in the file browser may become outdated when another application adds, removes, or modifies files on the server. Mountain Duck periodically polls for changes for open folders in Finder.app on macOS or File Explorer on Windows about every minute in both Online and Smart Synchronization connect modes. Choose Reload from the context menu to refresh the directory listing.

Windows only

Use F5 in File Explorer to refresh the folder listing.

Tip

Enable the Index Files option in Preferences → Sync to allow new files on the remote storage to be detected periodically for previously opened directories regardless of any open window for the folder in Finder.app on macOS or File Explorer on Windows in Smart Synchronization connect mode.

Share

  • Share…: Create an URL to share with someone else to allow downloading the file or folder.

  • Request file…: Create an URL to share with someone else to allow uploading files to the selected folder.

Right-click files on a mounted drive will open a menu with items to copy & open HTTP URLs or create share links of files. This will include the Origin URL, HTTP URLs and temporary signed URLs in S3.

  • Copy URL

  • Open URL

Read more about sharing options.

Mountain Duck Finder Context Menu

Versions

Quick Look or Restore previous versions of documents on servers supporting versioning. Read more about versioning.

New Bookmark

Right-click on white space within the mounted drive in Finder or Explorer to add a bookmark including the selected path.

Open in Terminal

Right-click on a folder and choose Open in Terminal to open an SSH connection to the server in Terminal for SFTP bookmarks.

Mac App Store

The setting is not available in the version installed from the Mac App Store. Refer to #7664.

Info Panel

Right-click on a file and choose Info to change permissions, ACLs, metadata, and other service provider-specific settings on a file. Refer to Info Window.

New Encrypted Vault…

Create a new Cryptomator Vault. Read more about client-side encryption.

Lock/Unlock Vault

Lock or unlock a Cryptomator Vault.

Usage Scenarios

Mirror Files to Remote Server or Cloud Storage with rsync

Use rsync or any other of your preferred tools to mirror files for example to an S3 bucket. Set the --timeout=TIME option in rsync (in seconds) if you have low bandwidth or high latency connection.

Open Remote Files in Text Editor

Sublime Text and other editors allow you to open folders to work on multiple files.

Create ZIP Archive of Files on FTP Server or Cloud Storage

Use your preferred archive utility to create a compressed archive of files already stored on the server.