Preferences

General

Save Workspace

Save all mounted volumes when quitting to be restored while relaunching.

Bookmarks

Change the size of the menu items in the status bar menu. Choose between Small, Medium, and Large icons.

Sync

Connect Mode

Change the default synchronization option. You can disable synchronization by default for all bookmarks by switching to Online. Refer to Connect Mode

Sync Preferences

Index Files

Index files on the server for a mounted connection in the background after connecting to ensure you can browse all directories when offline. Enabling this option will make sure new files available on the remote storage are detected without manually choosing Reload in the context menu. When enabled, remote directories previously opened are polled for changes and new files periodically every 10 minutes.

Warning

This feature is not available in Online connect mode. You cannot browse folders or open files as soon as the server connection gets interrupted.

Enable Buffering

Choose whether the file contents should be buffered. The option allows buffering file contents in a temporary location which is only deleted when quitting the application.

  • Allows faster access when reading or writing files with random access patterns from applications in Online mode.

  • With the option enabled in Smart Synchronization mode, buffered file contents will be copied to the cache and the file can be opened when offline. Refer to Status of Files.

Temp Buffer

Buffered files are saved in %temp% for Windows or in /private/tmp for macOS.

Lock Files

Enable to prevent conflicting edits when accessing documents from a shared environment. Refer to File Locking.

Mount Location

Attention

The setting is not available in the App Store version. Make sure to change the mount location back to default before using the App Store version of Mountain Duck otherwise you may experience permission issues.

Volumes are mounted in the Volumes folder in the application support directory. You can change the default to another folder that is writable.

Note: You cannot set it to /Volumes on macOS Mojave (10.14 or later) where the directory is not writable. The setting is not available in the version from the Mac App Store. The default is set to ~/Library/Group Containers/G69SCX94XU.duck/Library/Application Support/duck/Volumes.noindex.

Show volumes on Desktop

Part of a workaround for a bug in macOS 14.4 and later displaying volumes as “/” or “:” respectively, Mountain Duck 4.15.4 no longer displays volumes on the desktop or in the Location sidebar in Finder.app by default regardless of the setting in Finder → Settings… → General. You can reverse the display of the volumes on the desktop and the Locations section in the sidebar in Finder.app using a hidden configuration option.

fs.nfs.mount.nobrowse=false

Note

Due to the bug introduced by Apple in macOS 14.4, the volume will always display as : in the Network section of Finder.app until a bugfix is provided by Apple.

Cache Location

Change the location where to store cache files required for offline access. By default the Cache folder is in the application support directory. The disk must be formatted as HFS+ or APFS.

Warning

Do not manually move, delete or modify files in the obfuscated local cache location.

Cache Limitations

Periodically free up space with cache limitations to purge unused files from the cache at regular intervals in the background keeping only a placeholder with metadata. You can choose a limit for the synchronization cache per bookmark and can select a timeframe for unused files to be purged.

The following options are available:

  • Limit by size. Limit cache size per bookmark by selecting a maximum folder size within the preference. Exceeding the maximum cache size, larger files are purged first.

  • Limit by time. Purge files not accessed within a selected period of time automatically.

Tip

Files selected to always keep offline are never automatically removed from the cache.

By default, files are kept in cache for 30 days and the cache is limited to a maximum size of 5GiB.

Attention

The settings apply separately for each bookmark. The synchronization cache gets cleared based on the chosen cache limit after Mountain Duck is started and every 24h as long as Mountain Duck is running.

Notifications

Set which type of notifications you want to receive. Alternatively, you can choose Open System Preferences to disable the notifications all together.

Notification Preferences

You can disable notifications in System Preferences → Notifications. Choose None for alert style and keep checked Show in Notification Centre. This way you will no longer be disturbed by any notification displays, but can still check back the notifications in Notification Centre anytime if required.

Profiles

Select connection profiles to be installed. Either scroll through the list or use the search function to look for a specific profile. The connection profiles will be installed after ticking the corresponding checkboxes. Installed protocols are displayed in the protocol dropdown menu in the bookmark window. To disable the connection profile simply untick the checkbox.

Profiles Preferences

Default Connection Profiles

The connection profiles for default protocols are always enabled.

Login Item

Reconnect after restarting the computer. 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.

Cryptomator

Choose whether or not your Cryptomator vaults should be auto detected and unlocked while browsing the parent folder or not by using the Auto detect and open vault in browser option.

Note

Without saving the vaults passwords using keychain, you will receive passwords prompts for the vaults after reconnecting to the server or cloud storage.

Use Keychain

Specify if you want the Save Password option enabled by default while entering the password to unlock your vault. With the option disabled you have to check the checkbox to save the password in keychain manually.

Updates

An auto-update feature will alert you when a new version is available and self updates the application. Choose Preferences → Automatically check for updates. You can also choose to update to snapshot or beta builds.

  • Snapshot builds: Include the latest changes and are published continuously. These builds are not manually tested.

  • Beta builds: Published before a release and include the latest features and have been tested but might not have release quality yet.

Windows only

You receive no update notification if your user is missing administrator permission.

Hidden Configuration Options

  • Type the defaults command given in a Terminal.app (in /Applications/Utilities) window and restart Mountain Duck. defaults write io.mountainduck <property> <value>

  • Alternatively, create a file ~/Library/Group Containers/G69SCX94XU.duck/Library/Application Support/duck/default.properties with the content formatted as property=value