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.

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 or → Edit Bookmark to change properties.

Note

Bookmarks are shared between Cyberduck and Mountain Duck.

Connect Mode

  • Default: Use setting from Preferences

  • 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.

Tip

In Online connect mode, changes to a file are immediately uploaded and in sync when an application has finished saving a file.

  • Smart Synchronization: Directories can be browsed when offline and files opened are made available for later offline access. You can explicitly make files available offline using the context menu. See Smart Synchronization.

Tip

In Smart Synchronization connect mode, files are copied to a local cache for faster access prior synchronization with the server in the background.

Edit Bookmark (macOS) Edit Bookmark (Windows)

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 on macOS or drive in Windows Explorer. Also refer to Mount Location.

Labels

Note

Version 4.0 or later required.

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)

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

Note

Version 4.4 or later required.

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.

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

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

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)

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 directory listing in the file browser may become outdated when another application adds, removes, or modifies files on the server. Choose Reload from the context menu in Finder or Windows Explorer to refresh the directory listing. On Windows, you can also use the F5 key in Windows Explorer to refresh the file listing.

Note

Mountain Duck periodically polls for changes for open folders in Finder or Windows Explorer about every minute in both Online and Smart Synchronization connect modes. 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 or Windows Explorer.

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.

Attention

This feature is not supported in the version available in the Mac App Store.

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.