Does rclone mount download or use data?

Help and Support
1

What is the problem you are having with rclone?
No problems, just a (maybe?) simple new-ish user question.
I'm curious if rclone mount downloads/uses data while mounting.
I attemped to mount one of my main drives, which contains roughly 90TB or so. I noticed it was taking quite a while to mount to file explorer. This was my first time attempting to mount my drive. I basically got nervous and exited the service. I was concerned it was actually downloading all the data, in order to mount it.
I'm just curious if the rclone mount command does indeed download and use data, or not.

Thanks in advance!

What is your rclone version (output from rclone version)
rclone v1.52.3

  • os/arch: windows/amd64
  • go version: go1.14.7

Which OS you are using and how many bits (eg Windows 7, 64 bit)
Windows 7, 64 bit

Which cloud storage system are you using? (eg Google Drive)
Google Drive

The command you were trying to run:
rclone mount gdrive: z:

2

rclone mount will not upload/download data on its own.
you would have to copy something to/from the z: drive.

but can use api calls to read the folder names and file names and some meta data like timestamps
https://rclone.org/commands/rclone_mount/#vfs-performance

windows file explorer, needs some tweaks to work well.
you can read more about it here
Looking for a fast and pleasant way to explore my mounted Google Drive - #7 by asdffdsa

for what it is worth, i have not used windows file explorer in 10+ years.

3

What is the folder structure like? If it is a lot of files in a single directory, that could be more taxing than multiple directories.

5

I appreciate the feedback. The folders do contain tons of files, and I had a feeling that's what was taking time. I'd rather ask experience users though and be safe than sorry lol. Thanks for the quick responses! It's good to know it wasn't eating up data with mounting.

I did come across Raidrive, and I'm enjoying that so far. But rclone is still my favorite tool of them all! :slight_smile:

6

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