Windows Explorer: Overwriting files on SFTP not working in vfs-cache-mode

Help and Support
1

Hi,

first I have to say that I’m really impressed by this project. In the last days I have tested all available mounting-tools for Windows (free and comercial), and rclone is by far the fastest - no competition - it’s like working on a local disk. But I have a problem when trying to overwrite existing files on the SFTP-remote with Windows Explorer.

With this command line I can overwrite existing files but I can’t edit files:
“rclone mount webspace: Z:”

With this command line I can edit files but it’s not possible to overwrite existing files in Windows-Explorer:
“rclone mount webspace: Z: --vfs-cache-mode writes”

… “full” and “minimal” are also not working. After the error-message, the file on the remote gets deleted automatically. The cmd error message is “IO error: cache open file failed C:Users*username*\Appdata\Local\rclone\vfs\webspace…” and the Windows error message is an e/a error (0x8007045D). I have also tried another cache-dir, but it’s not working.

Please help! After trying rclone it would be hard to spend money on a slower option.

Best regards and keep up the good work

2

:smile:

Can you try the latest beta? And if that doesn’t fix the problem then run rclone with -vv --log-file rclone.log and post the log too please? Also I’d like to know exactly how you are overwriting the files so I can try to replicate it.

Thanks!

3

:star_struck: … overwriting and editing files works fine with the latest beta! Awesome!!! No more filezilla … as a webdeveloper this makes my life much easier. Thank you so much!

But I have one last question. It’s not a big deal for me, but when overwriting files in Windows-Explorer there is no dialog that ask’s the user if the files should be overwritten or not. The files on the remote just get overwritten and that’s it. In the API documentation I read that you can pass parameters to the WinFsp-Api. Is there a possibility to enable that?

Here’s my Windows-vbs to mount a rclone remote. I use it like a drive-shortcut. It’s a very simple script but maybe some other Windows-Users will find it useful. Just configure the upper part of the script. It calls rclone in the background and opens the Windows-Explorer after that. If the remote is allready mounted it just opens the Explorer. I’m no vbs-Expert, but it’s working:

Dim rclone_path
Dim drive_letter
Dim rclone_remote_name
Dim start_path
Dim test_time

'Setup ---------------------------------------------------
rclone_path = “C:\rclone”
drive_letter = “X”
rclone_remote_name = “webspace”
start_path = “”
test_time = 30
'---------------------------------------------------

Set fso = CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”)
Set oShell = CreateObject (“WScript.Shell”)

if (fso.FolderExists(drive_letter & “:”)) then ’ drive-letter exists -> just open Explorer and exit
oShell.run drive_letter & “:”
WScript.Quit
end if

oShell.run “cmd.exe /C “&rclone_path&“rclone mount “&rclone_remote_name&”:”&start_path&” “&drive_letter&”: --vfs-cache-mode minimal”, 0

Dim i
i = 0

Do

if (fso.FolderExists(drive_letter & ":\")) then 
	oShell.run drive_letter & ":\"
	Exit Do
end if

i = i + 1

WScript.Sleep 500

Loop Until i = test_time

WScript.Quit

4

Hooray!

I would have thought that was Windows Explorer’s job to be making those dialogs? Do you think there is something rclone is doing which is preventing those prompts?

Puzzled!

5

I don’t know … I hope this is not an ironical question. Sometimes I dont get the irony because english is not my native language (I’m from germany). I havent read much about winfsp and the whole fuse-thing.

I’ve also found another problem. When copying or moving bigger files in Windows-Explorer you don’t see a progressbar and until the operation is finished you can’t do anything on the remote (like deleting other files). I havent noticed this so far because I was just working with smaller files. Seems to be the same problem … no OS-dialogs.

Best regards

6

OK … I got it. I read that that winfsp is an alternative filesystem, so I will never see any OS dialogs. That’s sad because the read-speads of rclone are superior to everything else I have tested. Sad … then I will have to look for an alternative.

Best regards and all the best with your project

7

No irony or sarcasm, just a genuine question. I hardly ever use Windows (I develop on Linux mostly) so I would have thought it is Window’s job to make dialogs.

Did you have a link you could share with that info in? I can ask the developer of WinFSP what he thinks.

8

Oh … then I got it completly wrong. Sorry for that! I havent read that OS dialogs are not possible. It was just an idea when I read the word “alternative”. I’m an experienced webdeveloper but when it comes to local stuff, i’m a lazy, superficial user who expect that everything has to work - like most of the people :slight_smile: You cant be an expert in everything … that would be nice, but life is to short. I dont think that I’m very helpful, so I think it would be a good idea to ask the developer of winfsp if dialogs are possible.

I just can tell you one thing: If OS dialogs are possible it would take rclone to a completly new level on windows. If you get access to a windows computer, you should try out tools like netdrive, mountain duck or swish and then you will see why rclone is superior. They are much slower, they dont have command line tools and most of them are not cross platform. If it should work with the OS dialogs I would suggest to make a quickstart-package for rclone (an installer that bundles rclone, winsp and rcloneBrowser). You could reach more people and enlarge the community and that’s always a good thing.

Best regards