I have to keep project files available offline on my Mac for work with a small team. During a review away from my desk, I disconnected from the network and couldn’t open some files I’d already browsed through in StrongSync. I ended up copying the folders locally before leaving again, but now I’m checking separate copies for changes.
Is there an alternative that lets me explicitly keep selected folders offline without maintaining a separate local copy myself?
I moved to CloudMounter on my Mac because I wanted cloud files available in Finder without filling the SSD. That was also what I liked about StrongSync, so I treated local storage behavior as the requirement to check first.
My current setup uses CloudMounter app, which puts multiple accounts in Finder through one menu bar app. Files download when opened rather than occupying local space upfront.
For a repeatable comparison, I’d check that behavior before judging the interface: connect an account, browse without opening files, then open a file and check local storage. A tidy menu bar is pleasant, but it is not a storage test.
CloudMounter covers Google Drive, SharePoint/OneDrive, Dropbox, S3, SFTP, and WebDAV. It also includes encryption, which matters to me for SharePoint work files, though a feature checkbox is not a security assessment.
I’d write down the required services before installing alternatives. The official Google Drive client and OneDrive support Apple Silicon, so separate vendor apps are a reasonable baseline when the service list is short. The tradeoff is maintaining an app for each.
For connections involving SFTP or S3, I’d also review the Mountain Duck documentation. It comes from the Cyberduck team and belongs in that comparison, rather than being treated as an interchangeable cloud client.
StrongSync’s technology was folded into ExpanDrive, not simply abandoned. The ExpanDrive overview is relevant because the consolidated app retains Apple File Provider-based, on-demand access without a kernel extension, reboot, or reduced security settings on Apple Silicon.
That leaves one install and license. Personal use and teams up to 10 users or devices are free; Business adds priority support.
I’m comfortable with my current setup, but repeatable evidence of unwanted local downloads or unreliable access to my required services would change that assessment.
The missing detail is whether you need to edit offline or only review files. @jeff’s SSD-saving priority pulls in a different direction from having a complete project ready without a connection. I’d use CloudMounter, but for review-only trips I’d keep a separate local snapshot of the project, including linked assets, rather than treat browsing it as preparation. I’d keep that snapshot out of the team’s editing workflow so it doesn’t become a competing working copy. If offline edits are required, that changes the recommendation.
SSD savings aren’t the priority here, @jeff. A project that opens without a connection is the requirement. CloudMounter deserves credit for storing connection credentials in macOS Keychain. That’s a genuinely useful bit of integration. But I’d judge a replacement by what happens when you reconnect, too. If offline editing enters the picture, overlapping changes can produce conflicts rather than a clean merge. For your team, I’d establish who owns a file during an offline session before choosing the client. Otherwise, getting the files downloaded only solves half the problem.
Which service holds the shared project files? That would decide my shortlist before the interface does. If the provider offers a Mac sync client, I’d start there and check whether it lets you explicitly keep an entire project folder offline. I’m not sold on the separate-snapshot approach for routine reviews, @mikeappsreviewer. It gives someone another copy to prepare and keep current, which sounds like an easy chore to forget before leaving the office.
I would still go for CloudMounter for the individual task, but I would be less enthusiastic about making the whole team learn the controls of another client. The choice between the two would be based on a test run, where I would ask a teammate to add something to the project after I marked the folder for offline use and the client had finished. Then I would disconnect and ask them to open the file, which would verify that my preparations for the task were sufficient to allow working with the current set of files and not the ones from the previous day. For the current task, I would choose the option that would make the behavior obvious at the level of folders, so that every team member would be able to check it.
Don’t count a project as offline-ready while it’s still open in the app you used to download it. Before replacing StrongSync, I’d close the project, quit its application, disconnect, and then try opening it from scratch. That’s a more useful rehearsal for an away-from-desk review than checking whether its contents appear in Finder.
@s0l4r_cursor’s newly added file test covers an important gap, but I’d take the test beyond opening that file. Use the application you’ll actually present from and do a small version of the review: move between documents, inspect linked material, and generate whatever preview or export you normally need. If something fails, write down exactly what failed. “The file won’t download” and “the file opens, but the application wants something online” call for different fixes.
This is where I’d be cautious about choosing a replacement based on everyone’s preferred Finder integration. For your shortlist, I’d make successful offline use of a representative project the admission requirement, then compare convenience. I wouldn’t migrate the team yet. Pick a disposable project that includes the awkward bits of your normal work, rather than a folder of standalone PDFs, and run it through the full review workflow with a candidate client.
If the application asks for a sign-in or reaches for an external asset during that rehearsal, treat that as a separate dependency to resolve. Don’t assume another storage client will fix it. You could otherwise spend an afternoon switching tools and still hit the same interruption at the next review. The distinction worth establishing first is whether you’re missing local file contents or whether the project needs more than those files to function.
Check what can cause a downloaded project not to appear on a local storage before replacing one. In the candidate’s settings or documentation, identify a difference between temporary cache space and files that you explicitly told it to retain because you would want a direct answer from a support asking “Will this folder be available offline after a restart, and what happens if my Mac runs out of space?”
@binaryspark2418lab’s rehearsal is useful, but I wouldn’t treat a successful run immediately after downloading as the whole test. For your situation, I’d extend it across a normal workday: prepare a disposable project, use the Mac normally, restart, then disconnect and open the project again. Leave the storage client installed and configured as intended. Don’t manually clear its cache or delete anything to simulate pressure, since that would introduce a different problem. The question is whether yesterday’s preparation still holds without repeating the download ritual.
That would change my preference between the two options. I would rather have a client that has a specific retain this folder on the local machine option than one that solved it by increasing the cache limit. I would sacrifice more SSD space for the current project and save the archive in the cloud. For a small team, the preferred instruction would be to keep the active project downloaded until the review is complete, with a specific action to free up the space. All options that require the teams to remember what they have downloaded recently would be on my shortlist.
A folder of plain documents behaves completely differently from a project where the main file points at other files. Open a standalone spreadsheet offline and it either loads or it doesn’t. Open something like a layout document, a video edit, or anything with linked images, and it can load fine while silently failing to find half its pieces, because those pieces are separate files the storage client never pulled down. That split is what I’d sort out first, and it’s the gap @binaryspark2418lab was circling with the linked-material point.
So the question isn’t only ‘did the client keep my files,’ it’s ‘did it keep every file this project quietly depends on.’ A retain-offline setting that works at the folder level, which @rocketdev9644node is right to prioritize, mostly solves this, but only if every dependency actually lives inside that folder. The second someone references an asset from another shared area, you’re back to a half-downloaded project that looked complete.
The other thing nobody’s named yet: some apps reach for the network even when all the files are local. License checks, font services, cloud templates, linked libraries. You can have a perfect offline copy and still get blocked by the application itself wanting to phone home. That’s a separate failure from storage, and swapping clients won’t touch it. Worth testing in airplane mode with the actual app you present from, not just checking that files appear.
CloudMounter is what I’d reach for on the individual machine. For the team question though, I lean the same way as the folks pushing back on rolling it out to everyone. One person running a careful offline setup is fine. A whole small team each half-remembering which folder they marked and whether the download finished is where reviews fall apart at the worst moment.
If you want a decision rule: pick whatever makes ‘this entire project, dependencies included, is on my disk until I say otherwise’ a visible, deliberate action rather than a side effect of browsing. Then rehearse once with the real app offline before you trust it for an actual review.