If you’re an IT administrator, you can configure Desktop Sync for central installation purposes using the AlfrescoSync.conf file located at:

• (Windows): <userHome>\AppData\Local\Alfresco
• (For Mac): ~/Library/Application Support/Alfresco

Using the configuration file, you can update:

• timer values, such as polling and retry intervals
• sync constraint patterns for files/folders to be ignored by Desktop Sync
• disk space limits
• custom content type mappings for particular file extensions
• user interface defaults and customization (including localization)
• network access configuration
• debug logging
• timezone used in AlfrescoDesktopSync.log file

The configuration properties values are case sensitive and use the format name.subname=value, for example, syncmanager.deferFileSyncTimer=15.

Sharing files

You can configure a file sharing URL, (defined by syncmanager.quickShareURL), so that when you share a link to a file, a correctly formatted URL is provided. This link should either access Alfresco Digital Workspace or Alfresco Share.

The format for this property is: <protocol>://<yourserveraddress>/<path>/, where:

• <protocol> is set to either http or https
• <yourserveraddress> is the address of the server
• <path> is the path to access a link in either Alfresco Digital Workspace or Alfresco Share

Here are examples of how you can set the URL to access a file:

• For Digital Workspace: syncmanager.quickShareURL=https://workspace.mycompany.com/#/preview/s/
• For Share: syncmanager.quickShareURL=https://alfresco.mycompany.com/share/s/

Note: You must choose to share links either in Alfresco Digital Workspace or Alfresco Share but not both. The URL must also use an http or https protocol. If the property is left blank or not set correctly, the file sharing feature won’t be available in Desktop Sync.

For more information, see Sharing files.

User interface

Use the user interface properties to configure the Desktop Sync UI.

Enable analytics (Mac only)

Alfresco Content Services collects some anonymized information about fatal errors and basic usage which are used to help us improve the product in the future. There’s no data that could identify a customer, user, or machine. If you wish to prevent this anonymized data from being sent, change the value of the syncui.enableAnalytics property to false to turn it off.

Here are some examples of the information that’s collected:

• Application crash logs
• Event metrics for specific features:
  • Conflict detected
  • Conflict resolved: Keep my Changes, Discard my Changes, error
  • Check out: success / error
  • Cancel check out: success / error
  • Check in: success / error, Has comment: yes / no, Major version: yes / no
  • Remove Account: Initial sync finished: yes / no, Has conflict: yes / no
  • Initial sync started

Desktop Sync UI

As an IT administrator, you can control the parts of the Desktop Sync UI that users can access, so that they can’t sync content from specific areas in Alfresco Content Services.

By default, the content selection dialog (see selecting content to sync) displays My Files, Shared Files, Sites, and Company Home. If you want to hide any of these areas, change the value of the relevant syncui.show* property to false.

View and edit properties

As an IT administrator, you can control which aspects and properties that your end users can view and edit from their desktops. By default, users can view and edit general properties for files or folders, such as the Title, Name, Description, and Author (if they have the correct permissions).

You can extend this functionality to allow users to view and edit additional properties. Add the syncui.enableAspects and (optional) syncui.disableProperties settings to your central configuration file.

Note: We recommend adding syncui.disableProperties so that your end users aren’t overwhelmed by properties they don’t need to see, such as system properties or potentially sensitive values.

Here are a few examples:

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syncui.enableAspects=cm:titled,exif:exif,dp:restrictable
syncui.disableProperties.1=cm:titled|cm:title
syncui.disableProperties.2=exif:exif|exif:exposureTime,exif:orientation,exif:flash

As an IT administrator, you can also control the list of available custom types for files and folders that your end users can apply to their content from their desktops. If either syncui.fileCustomTypes or syncui.folderCustomTypes are missing from the configuration file, the custom types are fetched from the repository. Otherwise, the custom type field is populated with the values read from the configuration file.

In the Property dialog > General Properties tab, there’s a drop-down menu with the custom types that can be applied to a file or folder. This menu lists only custom types created using the Content Model Manager API.

Example:

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syncui.fileCustomTypes=My custom type (model-1:custom_type_name)

Note:

• If a custom type is applied to the file/folder from the Properties dialog, all data entered that was not saved will be discarded. We suggest you save your changes first before applying a custom type.
• If the file or folder already has a custom type applied, then the custom type drop-down will contain only sub-types of that custom type. You can’t change between unrelated custom types, as the Content Model Manager API doesn’t allow it.

Sync manager timers

Sync manager constraints

Use the sync constraints configuration section to specify desktop files and folders that should not be synced to the server, such as temporary files or work files.

Constraint rules are specified as syncmanager.constraint.<n>=<rule>, where:

• <n> is an ascending number starting at one
• <rule> is specified as <ruletype>|<parameter>[,<parameter>,...]

The available constraint rule types are:

Here is a sample sync constraints configuration section:

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# Sync constraints

syncmanager.constraint.1=FileExt|.tmp,.temp
syncmanager.constraint.2=Name|desktop.ini,thumbs.db,.DS_Store
syncmanager.constraint.3=NamePattern|~\\$.*\\.doc,~\\$.*\\.docx,~\\$.*\\.xlsx,~\\$.*\\.pptx,~\\$.*\\.xls,~\\$.*\\.ppt,~\\$.*\\.xlsm
syncmanager.constraint.4=NamePattern|\\._.*
syncmanager.constraint.5=NamePattern|^[0-9A-F]{8}
syncmanager.constraint.6=FolderNamePattern|^[0-9A-F]{8}

Disk space limits

Desktop Sync is initially configured to only sync content when the available disk space on a computer is above a specific limit (defined by syncmanager.freeSpaceLimit). By default value, the minimum amount of free space required is set to 3GB. Below this value, Desktop Sync will pause syncing, until the available disk space reaches an upper limit (syncmanager.freeSpaceRestart). When the available disk space reaches this value, syncing will restart. The default value for restarting sync is set to 3500MB (or 3.5GB).

If you wish to override the default settings, add these entries to your configuration file with new values:

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# Free space limits
    
syncmanager.freeSpaceLimit=3G
syncmanager.freeSpaceRestart=3500M

Note: Since floating point values aren’t valid, you can set a property value to 3500M (that’s 3500MB) to represent 3.5GB. Also, syncmanager.freeSpaceRestart should have a higher value than syncmanager.freeSpaceLimit.

The free space properties are specified as syncmanager.freeSpace<Property>=<value>[<scale>] where:

• <value> is an integer
• <scale> provides optional scaling using K|M|G|T for kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, and terabyte values
• add +/- in front of the <value> to specify values relative to the currently available free space: ‘+’ specifies the limit above the currently available disk space; ‘-‘ specifies the limit below the currently available disk space.

To specify a simple limit, without using any scaling, use this example:

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syncmanager.freeSpaceLimit=1073741824

In this example, the minimum amount of disk space required for content syncing is set to 1GB.

To specify relative values above the current available disk space, use this example:

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syncmanager.freeSpaceLimit=+2G
syncmanager.freeSpaceRestart=+2500M

In this example, the freeSpaceLimit is set 2GB above the available space and the freeSpaceRestart is set 2.5GB above the current available space. So if you have 3GB of free disk space and your freeSpaceLimit is set 2GB, when the free space on your hard drive reaches 5GB, sync will pause. Sync only resumes once your hard drive has 5.5GB of free space.

You can also specify relative values below the current available disk space, use this example:

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syncmanager.freeSpaceLimit=-3G
syncmanager.freeSpaceRestart=-3500M

In this example, the freeSpaceLimit is set 3GB below the available space and the freeSpaceRestart is set 3.5GB below the current available space.

Force maximum size for user sync

You can limit the amount of data that a user can select to sync by setting syncmanager.maxSyncSize to 10 bytes or more. This property is only checked in the content selection dialog. When this is set and the data to sync exceeds the limit, you’ll be notified in the content selection dialog, and the Sync button is disabled.

The syncmanager.maxSyncSize property is specified as:

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syncmanager.maxSyncSize=<number of bytes greater than 10>

Note:

• If the size is set to 0 or less than 10 bytes, then no limit is set.
• The value of the property must be an integer followed by one character: K|M|G|T for kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, and terabyte values (where 1K = 1 kilobyte = 1024 bytes).
• If the value is not set correctly, then the maximum size limit defaults to bytes. For example, if there’s an illegal character in the value, like 12W345K, then the limit will be set to just 12 bytes.

CMIS transfers

Use the CMIS transfer properties to control problems with slow or stalled data transfers when Desktop Sync is downloading or uploading content to/from the Alfresco Content Services CMIS server.

CMIS content type mappings

When files are uploaded to the Alfresco Content Services CMIS server they should have a mimetype associated with them. Desktop Sync contains a list of built-in file extension to mimetype mappings, but in some cases it may be necessary to add new mappings or override existing mappings.

The CMIS content type mappings are specified as cmis.contentType.<n>=<extension>,<mimetype>, where <n> is an ascending number starting at one.

Here is a sample CMIS content type mapping configuration section:

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# CMIS content type mappings

cmis.contentType.1=pptx,application/vnd.ms-powerpoint
cmis.contentType.2=test,application/test

Networking

Debug logging

Desktop Sync can generate a lot of debug information or error level logging information.

The log output configuration contains two sections.

Use the first section to setup the log location, default logging level, formatting, rotation, and compression.

Here is a sample logging configuration section:

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# Logging

logging.loggers.root.channel = c1
logging.loggers.root.level = error
logging.channels.c1.class = FileChannel
logging.channels.c1.path = ${alfresco.configDir}/AlfrescoDesktopSync.log
logging.channels.c1.formatter.class = PatternFormatter
logging.channels.c1.formatter.pattern = %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%c %N[%P]:%s:%q:%t
logging.channels.c1.rotation=daily
logging.channels.c1.compress=true
logging.channels.c1.purgeAge=7 days
logging.channels.c1.archive=timestamp
logging.formatters.f1.class = PatternFormatter
#logging.formatters.f1.formatter.pattern = %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%c %N[%P]:%s:%q:%t
logging.formatters.f1.times = UTC

This logging configuration will create a log file called AlfrescoDesktopSync.log in the following folder:

• Windows: <userHome>\AppData\Local\Alfresco
• Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Alfresco

The log files are rotated daily and the old log files are compressed. Only the last 7 days of log files are kept.

Use the later section of the log output configuration to enable debug output from different components of Desktop Sync. This is done by configuring individual logging levels as shows below:

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logging.loggers.l<n>.name = <logging level name>
logging.loggers.l<n>.level = <debug|error>

where <n> is an ascending index number starting at one. Both the configuration lines must use the same index number.

The available debug logging levels are:

Here’s a sample Desktop Sync logging configuration:

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# Logging

logging.loggers.root.channel = c1
logging.loggers.root.level = error
logging.channels.c1.class = FileChannel
logging.channels.c1.path = ${alfresco.configDir}/AlfrescoDesktopSync.log
logging.channels.c1.formatter.class = PatternFormatter
logging.channels.c1.formatter.pattern = %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%c %N[%P]:%s:%q:%t
logging.channels.c1.rotation=daily
logging.channels.c1.compress=true
logging.channels.c1.purgeAge=7 days
logging.channels.c1.archive=timestamp
logging.formatters.f1.class = PatternFormatter
#logging.formatters.f1.formatter.pattern = %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%c %N[%P]:%s:%q:%t
logging.formatters.f1.times = UTC

logging.loggers.l1.name = SyncManager
logging.loggers.l1.level = debug

logging.loggers.l2.name = SyncTarget
logging.loggers.l2.level = debug

logging.loggers.l3.name = DirectoryWatcher
logging.loggers.l3.level = error

logging.loggers.l4.name = SharedMacOSXFileStoreMonitor
logging.loggers.l4.level = error

logging.loggers.l5.name = CMISAPI
logging.loggers.l5.level = error

logging.loggers.l6.name = PocoSQLiteDB
logging.loggers.l6.level = error

For more details on the logging configuration, see the PocoProject documentation.

Change timezone

The default timezone used in the AlfrescoDesktopSync.log file is UTC. As an IT administrator, if you want to change this so that the log file uses your local timezone, edit the configuration file:

1. Remove the line logging.formatters.f1.times = UTC.

2. Add the following lines:

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    logging.channels.c1.formatter.times = local
    logging.formatters.f1.times = local
   

3. Restart the Desktop Sync client, and open the log file to see the changes.

Localization

Desktop Sync supports 16 languages across the user interface, notifications and right-click context menu. The language is automatically set based on your computer locale settings, but this can be overridden by adding one of the following syncui.language values:

Note: If you’re using MacOS Mojave, after switching languages (e.g. from Japanese to Spanish), the options in the content context menu in Finder will remain in the first language. To fix this, reset the Desktop Sync Finder Extension and Relaunch Finder:

1. Hold the ⌥ (alt/option) key on your keyboard.
2. Right-click on the Finder icon in your Dock.
3. Click Relaunch.

Automatic installation updates

You can manage the installation of your Desktop Sync client apps by uploading an installation file in a central location in Alfresco Content Services. This allows you to update the installed version of all your Desktop Sync clients without any manual intervention.

See Managing automatic installation updates for more.

Automatic configuration updates

You can manage the configuration of your Desktop Sync client apps by uploading a configuration file in a central location in Alfresco Content Services. This allows you to update the configuration settings for all your Desktop Sync clients without any manual intervention.

See Managing automatic configuration updates for more.

Manage sync configuration methods

As an IT administrator, you can manage the configuration of your Desktop Sync client apps via the Desktop Sync UI and a configuration file. You can choose to enable or disable the content selection dialog from the UI for all your Desktop Sync clients, while setting enforced paths to sync from the configuration file.

See Manage sync configuration for more.

Force users to sync specific paths

You can configure your Desktop Sync client apps to enforce the sync and exclusion of specific paths or Sites that are added to the configuration file. This allows you to restrict what your Desktop Sync clients sync by pre-selecting the sync folders.

See Manage enforced sync for more.

Hide specific paths from users

You can configure your Desktop Sync client apps to hide specific paths or Sites that are added to the configuration file. This allows you to restrict what your Desktop Sync clients sync by hiding those locations from view in the content selection dialog.

See Manage hidden sync for more.