Hmm..unfortunately, it did not maintain the settings (I'm not logged in, if it helps)
TheWilley (Souptime)
Hi! Been using your app with Backblaze and I must say it works wonders. Incredibly easy to connect my linux OS and android phone.
I'm curios however how you guys are doing in terms of development and finance. Will you guys be around in say 2 years? Does 1.99 euro a month (for a subscription) from my side help the longevity of the project?
I'm asking because I like your product and want it to be sustainable for you folks :p (edited)
Hi, thanks for your kind words!
I can only speak from my biased founder / lead dev perspective.
Our development is progressing nicely, we release frequent updates: https://github.com/s3drive/windows-app/releases and release major milestones every couple months or so.
There is a growing number of feature requests: https://s3drive.canny.io/feature-requests that currently outpace our development tempo, but for us it is a healthy sign of a growing userbase and community.
In terms of finance, we've divided our business into two (actually more than that, but for the sake of simplicity let's keep 2) major paths. Software and service. Currently S3Drive is mostly about software that users use to connect to 3rd party storage. Software development is expensive, but we're financing it from the license purchases and subscriptions that we sell. As long as this keeps expanding (which it well does) we'll be able to develiver new and new updates. Since our operational costs are low, even if our revenues are dropping, it doesn't mean we can't provide service. It would just mean that development would slow down, so new shiny features would take slightly longer to appear.
The other path that would allow us to grow and finance software development is selling S3Drive with a storage bundle. We plan to release paid storage plans over the next couple months. Profit margins are tiny, but it would allow us to speak to broader public with something you can use with login/e-mail password instead of cryptic API keys.
To keep the answer simple. Even though €1.99 is a tiny amount, as long as it's recurring and coming from multiple users, it adds up to an overall development pot that we efficiently use to deliver features...and I am really thankful for your purchase.
Give feedback to the S3Drive team so we can make more informed product decisions. Powered by Canny.
Tom
Hi, thanks for your kind words!
I can only speak from my biased founder / lead dev perspective.
Our development is progressing nicely, we release frequent updates: https://github.com/s3drive/windows-app/releases and release major milestones every couple months or so.
There is a growing number of feature requests: https://s3drive.canny.io/feature-requests that currently outpace our development tempo, but for us it is a healthy sign of a growing userbase and community.
In terms of finance, we've divided our business into two (actually more than that, but for the sake of simplicity let's keep 2) major paths. Software and service. Currently S3Drive is mostly about software that users use to connect to 3rd party storage. Software development is expensive, but we're financing it from the license purchases and subscriptions that we sell. As long as this keeps expanding (which it well does) we'll be able to develiver new and new updates. Since our operational costs are low, even if our revenues are dropping, it doesn't mean we can't provide service. It would just mean that development would slow down, so new shiny features would take slightly longer to appear.
The other path that would allow us to grow and finance software development is selling S3Drive with a storage bundle. We plan to release paid storage plans over the next couple months. Profit margins are tiny, but it would allow us to speak to broader public with something you can use with login/e-mail password instead of cryptic API keys.
To keep the answer simple. Even though €1.99 is a tiny amount, as long as it's recurring and coming from multiple users, it adds up to an overall development pot that we efficiently use to deliver features...and I am really thankful for your purchase.
Thanks for the detailed response! It's great to hear you guys are doing well in terms of development and that my subscription helps out. I noticed that alot of features are locked behind said subscription, which was my primary reason for upgrading, but honestly I would probably give you money even if everything was free, because I now daily drive this service and I want to give you something in return.
In any case, I hope the userbase continues to grow, and thanks again for this great service! Cheers!
S3Drive codebase, rather unlikely at this stage: https://s3drive.app/faq?q=opensource
Being a software provider (not a service provider just yet), this is the hidden sauce that makes us get paid, so we can develop this product.
Having said that, we run on open source, contribute back (Rclone encryption: https://github.com/rclone/rclone/pull/8105) and rely on standards compatible with open source (S3: https://github.com/minio/minio).
What would you like to achieve, if you've had the source?(edited)
Hey everyone, do you know, if it is possible to create a public link for a folder? I can create the link for a file, but for a folder I cannot see the option.
Why did S3Drive migrate on the iOS App Store? Do we need to install the new one and set it up again? Is it safe or a sign of a hostile takeover? Feels weird…
Why did S3Drive migrate on the iOS App Store? Do we need to install the new one and set it up again? Is it safe or a sign of a hostile takeover? Feels weird…
Hi, sorry for not mentioning this well ahead, but we've been talking to Apple about unlinking defunct macOS version from the iOS release for quite some time... and only now got "somewhat approved" at short notice.
In the end the only solution to our problem was to remove both iOS/macOS versions, so that's what we did.
Once you install new version your in-app purchases won't be visible (unless it was done through our website), so we'll need to have it fixed for you: https://s3drive.app/faq?q=ios_purchase
In more detail: The reason that we've had to remove the macOS version from App Store is Apple Sandbox which doesn't work with Rclone making S3Drive unusable (we don't have these restrictions with DMG release).
We've started to receive negative feedback, which started to take priority on the product page over iOS release where feedback was mostly positive 4.7/5.0.
This started to affect our iOS statistics. We've had hoped that we will be able to unlink macOS from iOS and only unrelease macOS, unfortunately Apple doesn't allow you to do that... so the only option was to remove everything and have a fresh start.
It means we yet again need to build the ranking / position and all the reviews, but waiting would only make things worse.
I am really sorry for this disruptive change to happen, but it seems it's the only path that allowed us to not look like some abandonware... and it's a shame there was no easier way to do that.(edited)
@Tom , website mentions that the hosted plans are fully S3-compatible, but you don't provide the necessary details to use this storage with other S3-enabled apps. Is the hosted storage meant to be used only within S3Drive, or can it be accessed with a third-party S3-compatible client? If it's intended for external access, could you share the endpoints and instructions for generating the required keys?(edited)
@Tom , website mentions that the hosted plans are fully S3-compatible, but you don't provide the necessary details to use this storage with other S3-enabled apps. Is the hosted storage meant to be used only within S3Drive, or can it be accessed with a third-party S3-compatible client? If it's intended for external access, could you share the endpoints and instructions for generating the required keys? (edited)
The only storage plan that's available is currently free 12GB. Even though behind the scenes technically there is a S3 compatible endpoint, this plan is not meant to be used outside of S3Drive.
Paid storage plans (except Starter) will at some point provide a way to export S3 credentials, so they can be used outside.
This is briefly outlined in last item of section: "Intended use", in our T&C: https://s3drive.app/terms
how can i change the automatic media backup file location - mines too large with over 2000 photos on!
Tom
Hi, sorry for not mentioning this well ahead, but we've been talking to Apple about unlinking defunct macOS version from the iOS release for quite some time... and only now got "somewhat approved" at short notice.
In the end the only solution to our problem was to remove both iOS/macOS versions, so that's what we did.
Once you install new version your in-app purchases won't be visible (unless it was done through our website), so we'll need to have it fixed for you: https://s3drive.app/faq?q=ios_purchase
In more detail: The reason that we've had to remove the macOS version from App Store is Apple Sandbox which doesn't work with Rclone making S3Drive unusable (we don't have these restrictions with DMG release).
We've started to receive negative feedback, which started to take priority on the product page over iOS release where feedback was mostly positive 4.7/5.0.
This started to affect our iOS statistics. We've had hoped that we will be able to unlink macOS from iOS and only unrelease macOS, unfortunately Apple doesn't allow you to do that... so the only option was to remove everything and have a fresh start.
It means we yet again need to build the ranking / position and all the reviews, but waiting would only make things worse.
I am really sorry for this disruptive change to happen, but it seems it's the only path that allowed us to not look like some abandonware... and it's a shame there was no easier way to do that. (edited)
Hey everyone, do you know, if it is possible to create a public link for a folder? I can create the link for a file, but for a folder I cannot see the option.
Hi, was looking for an iOS app that works with rclone crypt and stumbled upon S3Drive.
Just wanted to stop by and say the app is nice and works great so far. Happy to support you all and keep up the good work
Android work profile has different path for file storage, but the Android S3Drive app attempts to download to /storage/emulated/0 even when running inside work profile and therefore fails due to permission issue.
Is it possible to just tell the app to download to the "system default download directory" instead of hardcoding the path "/storage/emulated/0"?
Android work profile has different path for file storage, but the Android S3Drive app attempts to download to /storage/emulated/0 even when running inside work profile and therefore fails due to permission issue.
Is it possible to just tell the app to download to the "system default download directory" instead of hardcoding the path "/storage/emulated/0"?
Hi Chris, Thanks for that note. I will pass that to our team for fixing. Chances are we've never tested this with work profiles.
Can't promise anything at this stage, but it shouldn't be massively hard to address. I will update you once I know more about that one.
We've included hotfix to get the path to the Downloads from the Android OS directly instead of using hard-coded values. Can you please update your Android version and let us know if this is now solved?(edited)
Hi Tom,
I can now download single file which is my main use case so my problem is mostly solved. Remote to local sync also works (didn't test before the hotfix).
I still notice some issues which I'm not sure are related to work profile.
When making a folder with files and sub-folder available offline, it appears success and the folder is shown in the offline tab, but there's no transfer log and none of the files or sub-folder are actually available offline.
Download zip doesn't work most of the time. Transfer log says "Null check operator used on a null value" for most files. It happens when I select folder only, files only, or both.
And some suggestions:
Currently if I select multiple files, I can only download them as a zip file. Could you add an option to download them as separate files?
Some Android device allows multiple users, and I guess non-main users may also have different storage path. In the future you may test S3Drive under that environment as well.
Thanks again for your help. Didn't expect a fix this quick and that's convincing.
Hi Tom,
I can now download single file which is my main use case so my problem is mostly solved. Remote to local sync also works (didn't test before the hotfix).
I still notice some issues which I'm not sure are related to work profile.
When making a folder with files and sub-folder available offline, it appears success and the folder is shown in the offline tab, but there's no transfer log and none of the files or sub-folder are actually available offline.
Download zip doesn't work most of the time. Transfer log says "Null check operator used on a null value" for most files. It happens when I select folder only, files only, or both.
And some suggestions:
Currently if I select multiple files, I can only download them as a zip file. Could you add an option to download them as separate files?
Some Android device allows multiple users, and I guess non-main users may also have different storage path. In the future you may test S3Drive under that environment as well.
Thanks again for your help. Didn't expect a fix this quick and that's convincing.
I've passed the offline and zip issues as bugs and multiple files download (without zipping), as a feature request. Can't promise anything, but expect some improvements over the next few weeks. Thanks for your feedback!
Hello Tom, first of all thanks for your app, I was looking for something like this for a while!
I did just install it and it works great. I do have a few questions on the usage though.
I am mainly planning to use it as a backup and extension of my iPhone's storage, mainly the photos and videos.
I have my own AWS account and set up S3 access, which seems to work fine. However, I am not sure how to best configure S3Drive to backup my photos and videos. Ideally I'd like to maintain the folders/album structure I have on my phone.
I tried adding albums and the content gets added to "Automatic Upload", but it looses any album / folder context.
Would you have a guide or suggestion on how to do that?
KVSR_ANTS
Hello Tom, first of all thanks for your app, I was looking for something like this for a while!
I did just install it and it works great. I do have a few questions on the usage though.
I am mainly planning to use it as a backup and extension of my iPhone's storage, mainly the photos and videos.
I have my own AWS account and set up S3 access, which seems to work fine. However, I am not sure how to best configure S3Drive to backup my photos and videos. Ideally I'd like to maintain the folders/album structure I have on my phone.
I tried adding albums and the content gets added to "Automatic Upload", but it looses any album / folder context.
Would you have a guide or suggestion on how to do that?
Hi, thanks for kind words!
The reason that app puts everything to single backup location on iOS is because it tries to deduplicate photos from all selected albums. If there were multiple albums selected and duplicate photo, how do we choose from which album to delete photo and which to keep?
Our experience with iOS was that all media that sits in "Recents" album is present in other albums but grouped by some categories e.g. Favorites or Videos.
We could technically split it by album (and that's what we actually do on Android), but since most people likely backup main "Recents" album that would unnecessarily create additional directory layer.
Having said that, our experience with iOS ecosystem is limited and perhaps we've missed something in our assessment.
How do you organize albums on your phone and which one would you like to backup and which don't? ( Not asking for real album names )
We're open for improvements.
Thanks for the quick response!
That makes sense. On my phone I try to organise my photos into non-overlapping slef managed albums, but there are iOS managed albums where photos overlap quite a bit.
I suppose the only real option to handle this properly in a generic would be to manage objects / files independent of their metadata (filename, album, annotations, etc) and that may prove to be a bit of a task.
I guess what I was after for my case was a way to backup selected albums into specific bucket prefixes. Whether that results in duplicates would be a risk I'd have to take.
(I suppose there could be an async process that checks the checksum or filename, or etag, etc across my bucket and reports back any possible duplications)
To be honest I haven't spend too much time with this yet. I was just concerned about how I would manage the files on S3 if they are all in the same folder (and what happens if there should be name clashes).
KVSR_ANTS
Thanks for the quick response!
That makes sense. On my phone I try to organise my photos into non-overlapping slef managed albums, but there are iOS managed albums where photos overlap quite a bit.
I suppose the only real option to handle this properly in a generic would be to manage objects / files independent of their metadata (filename, album, annotations, etc) and that may prove to be a bit of a task.
I guess what I was after for my case was a way to backup selected albums into specific bucket prefixes. Whether that results in duplicates would be a risk I'd have to take.
(I suppose there could be an async process that checks the checksum or filename, or etag, etc across my bucket and reports back any possible duplications)
To be honest I haven't spend too much time with this yet. I was just concerned about how I would manage the files on S3 if they are all in the same folder (and what happens if there should be name clashes).
We will certainly be improving app support for managing/backing up assets, however we need to find unified way that works on all platforms and is compatible with E2E encryption (that proves to be challenging).
We're working with external project maintainers to introduce certain foundation (e.g. support for secure encrypted file hashing - https://github.com/rclone/rclone/issues/7192) that we could then reliably use for e.g. photo deduplication.
Speaking for filenames, these are retrieved directly from iOS:
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/photokit/phassetresource/1623985-originalfilename
if there may be any collision it's hard for us to tell.
To be on the safe side you could enable versioning in your bucket, so if there was any unlike event of collision you would then be to retrieve the previous overwritten version.
Something weird's happening on Android with version 1.10.4 (10100402). I noticed an icon I hadn't seen before in the S3 accounts screen next to my S3Drive account and it leads to a session list. When I end an old session everything seems to be fine, but this is probably where things break. The session is removed from the list, but when I then try to remove another one I get an error message, see screenshot. Then when I want to browse the files in the S3Drive storage it says there's a session issue, see second screenshot. After logging out and back in I can browse my files again, but in the session list the deleted session is once again listed. When I end an old session everything happens again as described.
Unlawful Cactus
Something weird's happening on Android with version 1.10.4 (10100402). I noticed an icon I hadn't seen before in the S3 accounts screen next to my S3Drive account and it leads to a session list. When I end an old session everything seems to be fine, but this is probably where things break. The session is removed from the list, but when I then try to remove another one I get an error message, see screenshot. Then when I want to browse the files in the S3Drive storage it says there's a session issue, see second screenshot. After logging out and back in I can browse my files again, but in the session list the deleted session is once again listed. When I end an old session everything happens again as described.
Hi, thanks for your report. We've already addressed this issue and will include in a next release within a couple days. The bug is that no matter which session you delete, it always deletes the actual session instead of one you selected. Not great, but next release will address that.(edited)
Ah, makes sense, it did cross my mind the first time: “Did I actually delete my current session by accident?”
Good to know you're already aware and have a fix coming!
I tried to use the Windows client, but got an error when trying to login.
"HandshakeException: Handshake error in client (OS Error: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED: unable to get local issuer certificate(../../../flutter/third_party/boringssl/src/ssl/handshake.cc:393))"
Got the the error on both the installer and the Microsoft Store version.
Hi @Chris, what's your S3 endpoint?
This error happens usually when your endpoint is using expired or self-signed certificate. If it's self-signed (or corporate) then you would need to import it to the S3Drive to make it trusted first.(edited)
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Good to know you're already aware and have a fix coming! 