Installing the Desktop Synchronization Client

Introduction

You can download the latest version of the ownCloud Desktop Synchronization Client from the Desktop App Download page. There are clients for Linux, macOS, and Microsoft Windows available.

System Requirements and Installation

System Requirements

Depending on the operating system used, some minimum system requirements need to be met. ownCloud provides Linux packages for a variety of Linux distributions, see the list of supported distros below.

Windows

  • Windows 7+
    (x86 with 32-bit or x86-64; Native WinVFS available for Windows 10 version 1709 or later)

macOS

  • macOS 10.12+
    (x86-64 or Apple M in Rosetta 2 emulation; unsupported legacy builds for Mac OS X 10.10 & 10.11 available, M1 native support planned for Q4 2022 - no issues in regard to performance or otherwise known at this time!)

Linux

  • CentOS 7.x with minimum version x=8 (x86-64)

    • Note the Python extensions for nautilus (GNOME) and its forks nemo (Cinnamon) and caja (MATE) are available only in the third-party EPEL archives which needs to be installed separately before the ownCloud package can be installed. To do so, run

      sudo yum install epel-release

  • Debian 10 & 11 (x86-64)

  • Fedora 34 & 35 (x86-64)

  • openSUSE Leap 15.3 (x86-64)

  • Ubuntu 20.04 & 21.10 & 22.04 (x86-64)

For Linux distributions, we support, if technically feasible, the latest 2 versions per platform and the previous Ubuntu LTS.

Installation on Mac OS X and Windows

Installation on Mac OS X and Windows is the same as for any software application: download the installer, double-click it to launch the installation and follow the installation wizard. After it is installed and configured the sync client will automatically keep itself updated; see autoupdate for more information.

Installation on Linux

Full installation

Linux users must follow the instructions on the download page to add the appropriate repository for their Linux distribution, install the signing key, and then use their package managers to install the desktop sync client. Linux users will also update their sync clients via package manager, and the client will display a notification when an update is available.

Linux users must also have a password manager enabled, such as GNOME Keyring or KWallet, so that the sync client can login automatically.

You will also find links to source code archives and older versions on the download page.

AppImage

Starting with Desktop version 2.9, an AppImage build of the ownCloud desktop sync client is available to support more Linux platforms. You can download the AppImage right at the Linux section of the Download Desktop App page.

Customizing the Windows Installation

If you just want to install ownCloud Desktop Synchronization Client on your local system, you can simply launch the .msi file and configure it in the wizard that pops up.

Features

The MSI installer provides several features that can be installed or removed individually, which you can also control via command-line, if you are automating the installation, then run the following command:

msiexec /passive /i ownCloud-x.y.z.msi

The command will install the ownCloud Desktop Synchronization Client into the default location with the default features enabled. If you want to disable, e.g., desktop shortcut icons you can simply change the above command to the following:

msiexec /passive /i ownCloud-x.y.z.msi REMOVE=DesktopShortcut

See the following table for a list of available features:

Feature Enabled by default Description Property to disable.

Client

Yes,
required

The actual client

DesktopShortcut

Yes

Adds a shortcut to the desktop.

NO_DESKTOP_SHORTCUT

StartMenuShortcuts

Yes

Adds shortcuts to the start menu.

NO_START_MENU_SHORTCUTS

ShellExtensions

Yes

Adds Explorer integration

NO_SHELL_EXTENSIONS

Installation

You can also choose to only install the client itself by using the following command:

msiexec /passive /i ownCloud-x.y.z.msi ADDDEFAULT=Client

If you for instance want to install everything but the DesktopShortcut and the ShellExtensions feature, you have two possibilities:

  • You explicitly name all the features you actually want to install (whitelist) where Client is always installed anyway.

msiexec /passive /i ownCloud-x.y.z.msi ADDDEFAULT=StartMenuShortcuts

  • You pass the NO_DESKTOP_SHORTCUT and NO_SHELL_EXTENSIONS properties.

msiexec /passive /i ownCloud-x.y.z.msi NO_DESKTOP_SHORTCUT="1"
NO_SHELL_EXTENSIONS="1"
The ownCloud .msi file remembers these properties, so you don’t need to specify them on upgrades.
You cannot use these to change the installed features, if you want to do that, see the next section.

Changing Installed Features

You can change the installed features later by using REMOVE and ADDDEFAULT properties.

  • If you want to add the desktop shortcut later, run the following command:

msiexec /passive /i ownCloud-x.y.z.msi ADDDEFAULT="DesktopShortcut"

  • If you want to remove it, simply run the following command:

msiexec /passive /i ownCloud-x.y.z.msi REMOVE="DesktopShortcut"

Windows keeps track of the installed features and using REMOVE or ADDDEFAULT will only affect the mentioned features.

Compare REMOVE and ADDDEFAULT on the Windows Installer Guide.

You cannot specify REMOVE on initial installation as it will disable all features.

Installation Folder

You can adjust the installation folder by specifying the INSTALLDIR property like this.

msiexec /passive /i ownCloud-x.y.z.msi INSTALLDIR="C:\Program Files (x86)\Non Standard ownCloud Client Folder"

Be careful when using PowerShell instead of cmd.exe, it can be tricky to get the whitespace escaping right there. Specifying the INSTALLDIR like this only works on first installation, you cannot simply re-invoke the .msi with a different path. If you still need to change it, uninstall it first and reinstall it with the new path.

Disabling Automatic Updates.

To disable automatic updates, you can pass the SKIPAUTOUPDATE property.

msiexec /passive /i ownCloud-x.y.z.msi SKIPAUTOUPDATE="1"

Launch After Installation

To launch the client automatically after installation, you can pass the LAUNCH property.

msiexec /i ownCloud-x.y.z.msi LAUNCH="1"

This option also removes the checkbox to let users decide if they want to launch the client for non-passive/quiet mode.

This option does not have any effect without GUI.

No Reboot After Installation

The ownCloud Client schedules a reboot after installation to make sure the Explorer extension is correctly (un)loaded. If you’re taking care of the reboot yourself, you can set the REBOOT property.

msiexec /i ownCloud-x.y.z.msi REBOOT=ReallySuppress

This will make msiexec exit with error ERROR_SUCCESS_REBOOT_REQUIRED (3010). If your deployment tooling interprets this as an actual error and you want to avoid that, you may want to set the DO_NOT_SCHEDULE_REBOOT instead.

msiexec /i ownCloud-x.y.z.msi DO_NOT_SCHEDULE_REBOOT="1"

Installation Wizard

The installation wizard takes you step-by-step through configuration options and account setup. First you need to enter the URL of your ownCloud server.

form for entering ownCloud server URL

Enter your ownCloud login on the next screen.

form for entering your ownCloud login

On the "Local Folder Option" screen you may sync all of your files on the ownCloud server, or select individual folders. The default local sync folder is ownCloud, in your home directory. You may change this as well.

Select which remote folders to sync

When you have completed selecting your sync folders, click the "Connect" button at the bottom right. The client will attempt to connect to your ownCloud server, and when it is successful you’ll see two buttons:

  • One to connect to your ownCloud Web GUI.

  • One to open your local folder.

It will also start synchronizing your files.