The Files app and file pickers

On Android, CloudMount is a document provider in the Storage Access Framework (SAF). Every drive you’ve switched on appears as a storage location in Android’s Files app and in the file picker of any app that uses the system’s Open or Save dialogs. Those apps don’t need to know anything about CloudMount or rclone.

Finding your drives

• In the Files app, open the menu (☰) and pick the drive. It’s listed by its name, with CloudMount · 12.3 GB free underneath once CloudMount knows the free space.
• In another app’s file picker, tap ☰ or Browse, then the drive.
• The drive’s root menu has Settings, which opens the drive’s settings in CloudMount.

Each drive is one location. Drives that are switched off aren’t shown, and on the free plan only your active drive is.

Some apps don’t list cloud locations

Some apps, and some file managers including the Browse screen of Files by Google, only list storage on the phone itself. Turn on Pretend local storage in the drive’s settings to help apps that use the system picker but hide cloud locations. It can’t help apps that read the phone’s file system directly; they can’t see any document provider.

Browsing

• Folders are listed from the drive when you open them. If a listing takes longer than half a second, the Files app shows Loading this folder from … while it arrives.
• Listings are cached for 30 seconds. Changes made elsewhere, on the website or another device, show up after that. Changes made through CloudMount show up at once.
• Connection problems are retried a few times within eight seconds before you see an error. If a folder can’t load, the Files app shows This folder on … didn’t load with the reason.
• Offline: folders with offline files are shown from the offline copies, with Showing offline copies.
• CloudMount’s hidden trash folder is never listed.

Opening files

When an app opens a file, CloudMount streams it from the drive through rclone:

• Reads are random-access. A video player can seek and a PDF reader can jump to a page; CloudMount fetches the part that’s needed instead of the whole file.
• Read data is cached on the phone, so opening the same file again is quick. See Caching and uploads for the limits.
• All open files share one reading thread, so a very slow read in one app can hold up reads in another.

Saving files

When an app saves to a drive:

1. The app writes the file into CloudMount’s cache on the phone. Saving is as fast as saving locally.
2. When the app closes the file, CloudMount queues it for upload. A notification shows the upload, and keeps it running if you leave the app.
3. The file is visible in the folder straight away, with its new contents, even before the upload finishes, and even offline.

Uploads follow your upload rules, such as Wi-Fi only, and carry on after CloudMount restarts. See Uploads and transfers.

Caution

Until an upload finishes, the only copy of the new contents is in CloudMount’s cache on the phone. Clearing CloudMount’s cache in Android’s settings can lose saves that haven’t uploaded. CloudMount’s own Clear cache skips drives with pending uploads.

Creating, renaming, moving, copying and deleting

All of these work from the Files app and other apps:

• Create a file or folder.
• Rename a file or folder, including files still waiting to upload.
• Move and copy within a drive or between drives. Within one drive, rclone makes the change on the server when the backend can (see the backend’s Server-side copy and Server-side move support on its page); otherwise, and always between two drives, the data streams through the phone, using mobile data and battery.
• Delete a file or folder. Deleting a folder deletes everything in it on the drive, including uploads still waiting inside it. With Move deletions to trash on, deletions go to CloudMount’s trash instead, for 30 days.

A drive’s root folder can’t be deleted, renamed, moved or copied.

When a name is already taken

The When a file already exists setting decides what happens when you save, copy or move a file onto a name that’s taken:

• Keep both (default): the new file gets a number, file (1).txt, then file (2).txt. The number goes before the first dot, so archive.tar.gz becomes archive (1).tar.gz.
• Overwrite: replace the existing file. Folders are merged, not replaced.
• Don’t replace: refuse and report a clash.

File names

Names can contain any Unicode character except /, \ and control characters, and can’t be . or ... Characters the storage service itself doesn’t allow are stored with look-alike characters; see Restricted characters.

Recents and search

The Files app’s Recent view and its search box include your drives, with limits so the Files app stays responsive:

• Recent shows the 32 most recently modified files.
• Search matches file names (not folder names), case-insensitively, and returns up to 64 results.
• Both look through at most five folder levels and 32 folders, for at most 1.5 seconds. On a large drive, results favour files near the top.

For a thorough search, use Search all drives in CloudMount itself; see The app.

Thumbnails

The Files app shows thumbnails for images (up to 32 MB, including HEIC, AVIF and SVG), videos (one frame) and CBZ comics (the cover). Each drive’s Generate thumbnails setting is Wi-Fi only by default, which means new thumbnails are made only on Wi-Fi or Ethernet, while ones already made still show on mobile data. Always and Off are the alternatives. Thumbnails are cached on the phone, 64 MB by default.

Read-only drives

Turn on Read-only in a drive’s settings and apps can open and copy files from it, but not create, change, rename, move or delete anything. The Files app shows … is read-only in CloudMount in its folders.

When other apps lose access

Apps that you’ve given lasting access to a folder or file on a drive (for example a backup app pointed at a folder) keep a reference to it. These references stop working when you rename the drive, edit its connection, reconnect it, change its exposed folder, delete it or import a configuration, and you need to choose the folder in that app again. CloudMount warns you before you edit a connection or import, and tells you afterwards when another change reset access.

App lock and the Files app

With App lock on, your drives’ configuration is encrypted and needs unlocking. The Files app then shows a button to authenticate, which opens CloudMount. An unlock lasts about ten minutes; after that, the next access asks again, and files that were open start failing.