Which one should I use? The names are really confusing too—“Drive Client” and “Client”…I think.
My use is pointing it at an existing folder and telling it to sync with revisions too. If I rename the folder I’d expect it to also rename and keep up with the sync. Is that not a realistic expection? Seems when I renamed it the sync broke, and wouldn’t “remember” it if renamed to original name.
Seems like the cloud client is your entire library where you can check things out. The local client downloads it locally…or something.
Sorry, I know I’m overthinking it. Just coming from Synology Drive which was great. It just didn’t allow selecting ANY folder to sync—which is what brought me to Seafile Client and Drive Client. Just want the one that mimics Synology Drive AND let’s me pick any folder.
I’m sure I’m just not making any sense!
PS: I’m using a Mac and both are called “Client”…“Client for Mac” and “Client Mac”. I guess they’re both “clients” that sync in some way.
Can’t comment on anything Mac since I’m on Windows and Linux. But, I’ve always used the two programs for different reasons and often simultaneously. Not sure if the Mac client(s) have all the same features, but the underlying idea is the same:
I use the “Seafile Client” for things like Documents where I want a local copy on my system because I use those files very often and like working locally on my machine. Then whenever changes are made and I save the file locally, the Client syncs them to my Seafile Server a few seconds later. This lets me have versioning/history, etc. on the server and a local copy of just the current file on my desktop system.
I use “SeaDrive” for things like multimedia files (pictures, etc) or infrequently accessed files (maybe some old documentation or hard-to-find executables I’ve archived, old ebooks, etc.) that I only want to access when I need them and then I want it gone from my desktop but still stored nicely on my Seafile Server. This is great for old picture archives and stuff especially – I open the SeaDrive folder on my system and only the files I “open” are downloaded. They are then cleaned up on my local system after a few days by either my OS or SeaDrive (different settings) so those files don’t take up local storage but they are still available on the server.
Thus, two different “clients” for two different use-cases. Does that help?
Thank you! That makes perfect sense. The drive is like a library you check things out to read—-no changes are synced back to it. The client is for syncing and versioning. What was really confusing for me is “drive” is typically the “client” functionality in this scenario. Google drive. Synology drive. iCloud Drive etc.
Here is the original announcement for Seafile Drive client. It might provide some insight on what motivated its development and the key differences with the (traditional) Sync client.
The new Seafile Drive Client is the second client for the sync & share solution Seafile. This client makes Seafile the better alternative to the traditional network shares offering file download on-demand, no network delay when browsing files, automatic server sync of file updates and file caching for offline access.
@jk12 Glad I could help. Just one quick note – once a file is ‘checked out’ using SeaDrive, it absolutely will sync changes! Just wanted to be sure you are clear about that – it is not a read-only checkout.
Basically, SeaDrive lets you see everything and then selectively sync certain files. Seafile Client, on the other hand, “checks out” and syncs the entire library to a location on your local machine.
I know it’s years later but this is still confusing and I don’t see the purpose of the regular client at all, given that the drive client has the ability to ‘always keep on device’ just like OneDrive etc. The only thing the regular client has over the drive client, it a much nicer UI (as the drive client only has the tray icon/menu).
I feel like these should be combined into one application to reduce confusion.
The sync client allows you to sync an existing folder in your computer, without copying it. That’s the main advantage for sync client compared to SeaDrive. If you have a lot of existing files to upload to the cloud, this feature would be handy. We don’t want to add this feature into SeaDrive as it’s not how SeaDrive designed to work.
I’ve come to understand the use cases for both but strongly feel like they should be together in a single application. New users shouldn’t have to be educated on the differences between applications or have to make decisions as to which to use (and in my experience, most users will never realize they can use both at the same time).
OneDrive, a single application, offers both on-demand file access like SeaDrive does, while also syncing existing folders like the Seafile Client does. OneDrive artificially limits syncing existing folders to the Desktop, Documents, Photos, Videos, and Music folders, however.
It would be killer if SeaDrive gained the ability to sync existing folders, in an on-demand fashion, like OneDrive does. Ideally any folder, but in particular folders like Desktop, Documents, etc that most users put their files into. It’s nice that the Seafile client can do this, but that requires keeping the entire set of files locally, which can eat up users local storage space, and as mentioned before, also requires teaching users to use a 2nd application and explaining to them why and what the limitations are.