S3Drive - Multiple issues with your application and Google Drive

Hello, I have just bought your lifetime version and I'm trying to use it for Google Drive and Proton Drive but basically, I don't see how I can benefit from using your application. I would like to connect both Google Drive and Proton Drive as two directories or disks on my Ubuntu Linux machine. But I see nowhere in your GUI ability to do that. I can see in your settings that it allows to "Mount drive after app starts" but I see no option to select which directory or network drive it allows to write files. I want to have copies on both my cloud drives and local drive so that in case of network unavailability I have local copies (that would also serve as a backup). Where do I set it? Also, I have mounted Google Drive with rsync to my email but I don't see files that are available as "Computers" on drive.google.com that were previously synchronized with Google Drive for Desktop on Windows. I can only see files that are available on "My disk" on drive.google.com. Additionally, I wonder how I can trust your application if this is closed-source. How can you assure me that it's safe to use your application? Moreover, rsync says here https://rclone.org/drive/ that "due to the enhanced security recently introduced by Google, you are theoretically expected to submit your app for verification". Can you say something more about it? I don't want to do anything against principles of Google. I also think that other users could benefit from you writing better documentation for installation on Linux like I think it's not all the steps that you need to follow. For me the steps were - install FUSE via apt get and then install deb package. I didn't need to use any flathub or build from source. You may mention that these are alternative steps in your documentation and provide their pros and cons. Also, I don't see any guideline on your website on how to uninstall safely your application. Please provide it. I would be happy if you can provide quick answer. Thank you

Google drive

Rclone docs for Google drive

Rafal

Hello, I have just bought your lifetime version and I'm trying to use it for Google Drive and Proton Drive but basically, I don't see how I can benefit from using your application. I would like to connect both Google Drive and Proton Drive as two directories or disks on my Ubuntu Linux machine. But I see nowhere in your GUI ability to do that. I can see in your settings that it allows to "Mount drive after app starts" but I see no option to select which directory or network drive it allows to write files. I want to have copies on both my cloud drives and local drive so that in case of network unavailability I have local copies (that would also serve as a backup). Where do I set it? Also, I have mounted Google Drive with rsync to my email but I don't see files that are available as "Computers" on drive.google.com that were previously synchronized with Google Drive for Desktop on Windows. I can only see files that are available on "My disk" on drive.google.com. Additionally, I wonder how I can trust your application if this is closed-source. How can you assure me that it's safe to use your application? Moreover, rsync says here https://rclone.org/drive/ that "due to the enhanced security recently introduced by Google, you are theoretically expected to submit your app for verification". Can you say something more about it? I don't want to do anything against principles of Google. I also think that other users could benefit from you writing better documentation for installation on Linux like I think it's not all the steps that you need to follow. For me the steps were - install FUSE via apt get and then install deb package. I didn't need to use any flathub or build from source. You may mention that these are alternative steps in your documentation and provide their pros and cons. Also, I don't see any guideline on your website on how to uninstall safely your application. Please provide it. I would be happy if you can provide quick answer. Thank you

I have just bought your lifetime version

Thank you for your feedback and supporting the project!

I would like to connect both Google Drive and Proton Drive as two directories or disks on my Ubuntu Linux machine. But I see nowhere in your GUI ability to do that.

Option to start/stop mount is available in a system tray icon or: App settings in Mount section.

I can see in your settings that it allows to "Mount drive after app starts"

Given that app supports only single mount at the time, when app starts it will mount your lastly used profile. Option to use mount was implemented before multiple profiles were implemented and it requires some changes in order to e.g. selectively configure mount settings per profile.

I see no option to select which directory or network drive it allows to write files.

By default app mounts your whole directory structure. We will support multiple mount configs and directory prefixes in the near future. We may also implement read only paths. Can you please create a feature request? https://s3drive.canny.io/feature-requests with a quick info about your use case?

I want to have copies on both my cloud drives and local drive so that in case of network unavailability I have local copies (that would also serve as a backup).

If you need local copy of your cloud drive then better and more reliable option would be to use Sync instead of mount. You would then configure S3Drive Sync, from your remote cloud to local directory. Selected mode would either be Copy or Sync, but be careful if you think of backup, because Sync mode would try to make local copy exact which means files will be deleted locally. If you've deleted files remotely by accident then this change will propagate locally. You may configure two separate modes. Copy, that would run normally every x minutes/hours/days, and Sync that you would run manually as you wish to "cleanup" local directory. (edited)

8:45 AM

Additionally, I wonder how I can trust your application if this is closed-source. How can you assure me that it's safe to use your application?

Source code availability doesn't guarantee trust, but makes it easier to build. You can never be sure if compiled version matches the source code anyway unless you put the burden of proof on yourself. Just for the sake of comparison. You've mentioned Proton Drive which has open sourced its clients, but kept their back-end proprietary. It seems that Proton (including mail) doesn't offer reproducible builds: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/comments/1d3bb8v/reproducible_builds/ so you can't verify if binary matches the source code. In that case open-source value isn't that great unless you build from source code yourself. Finally if you manage to build it you then realize it only work on closed-source systems, Windows or macOS (Web can used, but it's limited to what browser allows). Don't get me wrong. We would love to open-source our product: https://s3drive.app/faq?q=opensource, but currently it doesn't seem viable business path. Competitors made their back-end proprietary, so even though you've client source code, it's only compatible with back-end that you can't run yourself. Essentially they vendor lock-in you into their ecosystem and the source code aims to be mostly a marketing exercise. With S3Drive as it is, there isn't data back-end that we lock users in. It is compatible with multiple back-ends and open protocols, so user can connect where they want. If they're not happy they can move/decrypt their data and go somewhere else. The same cannot be always said with other competitors. You've lots of freedom with S3Drive that you don't have with other products. If we've open-sourced our clients we would literally "reveal" the only piece that we are able to sell to fund the future development of the project. (edited)

8:45 AM

How can you assure me that it's safe to use your application?

We're running this product for more than 2 years already: https://s3drive.app/changelog, we're self-funded, registered business, not dependent on external funding, not using tracking and not using advertisment anywhere even in free version. We're dedicating resources to improve encryption security for general public (including us): https://github.com/rclone/rclone/issues/7192 by implementing secure sharing, file hashing and truncation protection.

Moreover, rsync says here https://rclone.org/drive/ that "due to the enhanced security recently introduced by Google, you are theoretically expected to submit your app for verification". Can you say something more about it? I don't want to do anything against principles of Google.

I think that Google is fine with Rclone way of doing things, but currently connection goes through single integration ID. Google may decide to block that ID (especially if some user screws up, abuse etc.) rendering Rclone not working for anyone. In order to protect you from potential interruption (I am not sure if it ever happened though), you can configure your own ID: https://rclone.org/drive/#making-your-own-client-id I believe that Google has likely different abuse prevention mechanisms (e.g. per user login), so perhaps this ID is only technicality which Rclone solved for you.

I also think that other users could benefit from you writing better documentation for installation on Linux like I think it's not all the steps that you need to follow. For me the steps were - install FUSE via apt get and then install deb package. I didn't need to use any flathub or build from source. You may mention that these are alternative steps in your documentation and provide their pros and cons.

We aim to improve our documentation, we also in parallel put lots of effort to improve product, so certain steps are either self-explanatory or documented in-app.

8:45 AM

Also, I don't see any guideline on your website on how to uninstall safely your application. Please provide it.

Good idea, we will provide that. The universal and secure way would be to delete all profiles first and then uninstall the app. There are couple other locations (platform dependent) where some settings are stored, but these are not sensitive / critical. We'll make a per platform list of potential file paths where user might want to clean things up (e.g. Logs or Sync settings).

Thank you once again for your feedback and giving us a chance. We're really keen on improving the whole ecosystem and whilst not everything looks is shiny at the moment, we're gradually polishing things up. I've also wanted to let you know that in case you're unhappy with S3Drive you've right to request a refund within 14-days from the date of purchase. (edited)