Current best practices rclone mount on Mac

Help and Support
1

hello all, LONG time rclone user, working on setting up some SFTP mounts on mac tahoe 26.1, using macFuse 5.1.1 for the first time in a very long time on Mac

rclone v1.71.2

  • os/version: darwin 26.1 (64 bit)
  • os/kernel: 25.1.0 (x86_64)
  • os/type: darwin
  • os/arch: amd64
  • go/version: go1.25.3
  • go/linking: dynamic
  • go/tags: cmount

having some odd behaviour I'm trying to full replicate and post debug for, I wanted to validate if the below makes sense:

rclone mount mount1/home/ubuntu ~/rclone/mount1 --poll-interval 1m --config="/xxx/rclone.conf" --transfers 4 --buffer-size 64M --allow-other --umask 002 --dir-perms 0777 --file-perms 0777 --multi-thread-streams 4 -vP --volname mount1 --dir-cache-time 60m --ignore-checksum --vfs-cache-mode full --vfs-fast-fingerprint --vfs-read-chunk-size 4m --vfs-read-chunk-size-limit 64m --vfs-write-back 10s --vfs-cache-max-age 24h --dir-cache-time=1s --allow-non-empty --noapplexattr -vvvvv'

[mount1]
type = sftp
host = xxxx
user = ubuntu
key_file = /xxxx/xxx.pem
known_hosts_file = /xxx/.ssh/known_hosts
shell_type = unix
md5sum_command = md5sum
sha1sum_command = sha1sum

thanks

2

hi,

perhaps that might be rclone mount mount1:

can you post the top thirty lines of the debug output?

3

yes I was just editing for anonymity there is a : there, here are the top 30 lines

2025/11/15 17:12:12 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "mount1:/home/ubuntu"
2025/11/15 17:12:12 DEBUG : Using config file from "/Users/XXXXX/.config/rclone/rclone.conf"
2025/11/15 17:12:12 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: New connection 192.168.1.68:50474->XX.XX.XX.XX:22 to "SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_8.9p1 Ubuntu-3ubuntu0.13"
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: Shell type "unix" from config
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: Using root directory "/home/ubuntu"
2025/11/15 17:12:13 INFO : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: poll-interval is not supported by this remote
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: vfs cache: root is "/Users/XXXXX/Library/Caches/rclone"
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: vfs cache: data root is "/Users/XXXXX/Library/Caches/rclone/vfs/mount1/home/ubuntu"
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: vfs cache: metadata root is "/Users/XXXXX/Library/Caches/rclone/vfsMeta/mount1/home/ubuntu"
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote ":local,encoding='Slash,InvalidUtf8,Dot',links=false:/Users/XXXXX/Library/Caches/rclone/vfs/mount1//home/ubuntu"
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : :local: detected overridden config - adding "{_n3aE}" suffix to name
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : fs cache: renaming cache item ":local,encoding='Slash,InvalidUtf8,Dot',links=false:/Users/XXXXX/Library/Caches/rclone/vfs/mount1//home/ubuntu" to be canonical ":local{_n3aE}:/Users/XXXXX/Library/Caches/rclone/vfs/mount1/home/ubuntu"
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote ":local,encoding='Slash,InvalidUtf8,Dot',links=false:/Users/XXXXX/Library/Caches/rclone/vfsMeta/mount1//home/ubuntu"
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : :local: detected overridden config - adding "{_n3aE}" suffix to name
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : fs cache: renaming cache item ":local,encoding='Slash,InvalidUtf8,Dot',links=false:/Users/XXXXX/Library/Caches/rclone/vfsMeta/mount1//home/ubuntu" to be canonical ":local{_n3aE}:/Users/XXXXX/Library/Caches/rclone/vfsMeta/mount1/home/ubuntu"
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : Mounting on "/Users/XXXXX/rclone/mount1" ("mount1")
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: Mounting with options: ["-o" "attr_timeout=1" "-o" "fsname=mount1:/home/ubuntu" "-o" "subtype=rclone" "-o" "max_readahead=131072" "-o" "atomic_o_trunc" "-o" "daemon_timeout=600" "-o" "allow_other" "-o" "volname=mount1" "-o" "noappledouble" "-o" "noapplexattr"]
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: vfs cache RemoveNotInUse (maxAge=86400000000000, emptyOnly=false): item license/backup/office365-users.py not removed, freed 0 bytes
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: vfs cache RemoveNotInUse (maxAge=86400000000000, emptyOnly=false): item license/backup/slackexpire3.py not removed, freed 0 bytes
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: vfs cache RemoveNotInUse (maxAge=86400000000000, emptyOnly=false): item license/backup/shared-licenses.py not removed, freed 0 bytes
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: vfs cache RemoveNotInUse (maxAge=86400000000000, emptyOnly=false): item license/backup/office365-licenses5.py not removed, freed 0 bytes
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: vfs cache RemoveNotInUse (maxAge=86400000000000, emptyOnly=false): item license/backup/office365-userlist.py not removed, freed 0 bytes
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: vfs cache RemoveNotInUse (maxAge=86400000000000, emptyOnly=false): item license/compare-okta-365.py not removed, freed 0 bytes
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: vfs cache RemoveNotInUse (maxAge=86400000000000, emptyOnly=false): item license/backup/okta-deactivated.py not removed, freed 0 bytes
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: vfs cache RemoveNotInUse (maxAge=86400000000000, emptyOnly=false): item license/mailboxes_with_licenses.csv not removed, freed 0 bytes
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: vfs cache RemoveNotInUse (maxAge=86400000000000, emptyOnly=false): item license/office365-audit2.py not removed, freed 0 bytes
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: vfs cache RemoveNotInUse (maxAge=86400000000000, emptyOnly=false): item license/okta-idle2.py not removed, freed 0 bytes
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: vfs cache RemoveNotInUse (maxAge=86400000000000, emptyOnly=false): item license/slack_expire.csv not removed, freed 0 bytes
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: vfs cache RemoveNotInUse (maxAge=86400000000000, emptyOnly=false): item nuke/nuke2.txt not removed, freed 0 bytes
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: vfs cache RemoveNotInUse (maxAge=86400000000000, emptyOnly=false): item license/backup/okta-idle2.py not removed, freed 0 bytes
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: vfs cache RemoveNotInUse (maxAge=86400000000000, emptyOnly=false): item license/compare-okta-dropbox.py not removed, freed 0 bytes
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: vfs cache RemoveNotInUse (maxAge=86400000000000, emptyOnly=false): item nuke/365-nuke.py not removed, freed 0 bytes
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: vfs cache RemoveNotInUse (maxAge=86400000000000, emptyOnly=false): item org/org_chart.png not removed, freed 0 bytes
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: vfs cache RemoveNotInUse (maxAge=86400000000000, emptyOnly=false): item license/backup/compare-okta-365.py not removed, freed 0 bytes
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: vfs cache RemoveNotInUse (maxAge=86400000000000, emptyOnly=false): item license/backup/office365-licenses.py not removed, freed 0 bytes
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: vfs cache RemoveNotInUse (maxAge=86400000000000, emptyOnly=false): item license/backup/slackexpire.py not removed, freed 0 bytes
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: vfs cache RemoveNotInUse (maxAge=86400000000000, emptyOnly=false): item license/dropbox-team.py not removed, freed 0 bytes
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: vfs cache RemoveNotInUse (maxAge=86400000000000, emptyOnly=false): item license/office365-shared4.py not removed, freed 0 bytes
2025/11/15 17:12:13 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@XX.XX.XX.XX:22//home/ubuntu: vfs cache RemoveNotInUse (maxAge=86400000000000, emptyOnly=false): item license/okta-find-fl.py not removed, freed 0 bytes

4

2025/11/15 17:16:36 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@xx:22//home/ubuntu: Init:

2025/11/15 17:16:36 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@xx:22//home/ubuntu: >Init:

2025/11/15 17:16:36 DEBUG : /: Statfs:

2025/11/15 17:16:36 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@xx:22//home/ubuntu: Server has VFS statistics extension

2025/11/15 17:16:36 DEBUG : sftp://ubuntu@xx:22//home/ubuntu: About path "/home/ubuntu"

2025/11/15 17:16:36 DEBUG : /: >Statfs: stat={Bsize:4096 Frsize:4096 Blocks:15195694 Bfree:9557536 Bavail:9557536 Files:1000000000 Ffree:1000000000 Favail:0 Fsid:0 Flag:0 Namemax:255}, errc=0

2025/11/15 17:16:36 DEBUG : /: Statfs:

2025/11/15 17:16:36 DEBUG : /: >Statfs: stat={Bsize:4096 Frsize:4096 Blocks:15195694 Bfree:9557536 Bavail:9557536 Files:1000000000 Ffree:1000000000 Favail:0 Fsid:0 Flag:0 Namemax:255}, errc=0

2025/11/15 17:16:36 DEBUG : /: Statfs:

5

ok, so how can we help you?

6

just wondering if the mount settings are optimal for Mac to mount SFTP based on people’s experiences

7

There are no “optimal“ settings. But for most people default is the best option.

You have used multiple flags to fine tune your mount. I am guessing that to meet your very specific requirements (which you do not say what they are).

If things work as intended I would say that there is no need to try to solve non existing problems.

8

quick update, here are the settlings I settled on that seem stable - I also moved the cache folder out of the default location on the Mac - thanks

clone mount mount1:/home/ubuntu ~/rclone/xxx--poll-interval 1m --retries 5 --retries-sleep 10s --low-level-retries 20 --cache-dir="~/rclone/cache/xxx --config="/xxxx/rclone.conf" --transfers 4 --buffer-size 64M --allow-other --umask 002 --dir-perms 0777 --file-perms 0777 --multi-thread-streams 4 --volname XXX --dir-cache-time 60m --vfs-fast-fingerprint --ignore-checksum --vfs-cache-mode full --vfs-read-chunk-size 16m --vfs-read-chunk-size-limit 64m --vfs-write-back 10s --vfs-cache-max-age 24h --dir-cache-time=30s -v