[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":235},["ShallowReactive",2],{"en-post-137":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"description":12,"extension":228,"meta":229,"navigation":230,"path":231,"seo":232,"stem":233,"__hash__":234},"content/post/137.md","137",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":216},"minimark",[9,13,18,21,25,59,63,88,91,95,147,150,154,157,161,186,190,193,197,200],[10,11,12],"p",{},"Juggling a local disk, OneDrive, Google Drive, and a few servers, and wanting to back up, encrypt, or migrate between clouds without bouncing between clients? Rclone is a free, open source command line cloud sync tool, the Swiss Army knife of cloud storage, that copies, syncs, and mounts across more than 70 storage services with one command. This guide covers what it is, how to install and use it, and why sync demands care, including the flags that keep your data safe.",[14,15,17],"h2",{"id":16},"what-is-rclone","What Is Rclone",[10,19,20],{},"Rclone is a free, open source command line cloud storage sync and management tool, nicknamed the Swiss Army knife of cloud storage. Released under MIT and written in Go, it is hugely popular on GitHub and supports Windows, macOS, Linux, and FreeBSD. Its core idea is one command to copy, sync, migrate, and mount files between a local disk and more than 70 cloud storage services (S3, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Nutstore, and others), and between clouds. It suits developers and operators who need backup, encrypted upload, cross-cloud migration, or mounting cloud drives as local disks. Because it is a single static binary, you can drop it on a server, a container, or a laptop and get the same behavior everywhere. It is also scriptable, so the same command that works interactively slots straight into a cron job.",[14,22,24],{"id":23},"features","Features",[26,27,28,32,35,38,41,44,47,50,53,56],"ul",{},[29,30,31],"li",{},"Many backends. Native support for more than 70 storage products, including S3 object storage, major clouds, and WebDAV, FTP, and SFTP.",[29,33,34],{},"rsync-like commands. Provides copy, sync, move, mount, ls, cat, and rm, with --dry-run previews and pipes.",[29,36,37],{},"One-way and two-way sync. sync keeps one side consistent, while bisync does two-way sync with resume.",[29,39,40],{},"Mount as a disk. Mount cloud storage as a network drive on Windows, macOS, and Linux through mount or cmount.",[29,42,43],{},"Encrypt and compress. Virtual backends add client-side encryption and chunked storage.",[29,45,46],{},"Data integrity. Verifies MD5 or SHA1 throughout, preserves timestamps, and resumes interrupted transfers.",[29,48,49],{},"Server-side transfer. Move data directly between supported backends without touching local disk or bandwidth.",[29,51,52],{},"Bandwidth control. Throttle with --bwlimit and log to a file, so a big sync never saturates the link.",[29,54,55],{},"Parallel tuning. Adjust --checkers and --transfers to use more or fewer connections, and content hashes make reruns skip what already matches.",[29,57,58],{},"Encrypted config. Password-protect rclone.conf so stored tokens stay safe on a shared machine.",[14,60,62],{"id":61},"how-to-use","How to Use",[64,65,66,76,79,82,85],"ol",{},[29,67,68,69,75],{},"Install. Download the Windows 64-bit ZIP from ",[70,71,72],"a",{"href":72,"rel":73},"https://rclone.org/downloads/",[74],"nofollow"," (for example rclone-v1.xx.x-windows-amd64.zip), extract it to C:\\rclone, and add rclone.exe to PATH. Then run rclone version to verify.",[29,77,78],{},"Configure. Run rclone config, choose n, pick a type such as drive, and finish authorization or enter a key.",[29,80,81],{},"List. Use rclone lsf remote: and rclone ls remote:path to browse files with sizes.",[29,83,84],{},"Copy and sync. Use rclone copy for local to cloud, and rclone sync for one-way sync, which deletes extra target files, so preview first with --dry-run.",[29,86,87],{},"Mount. Run rclone mount remote: X: to map the cloud as drive X (needs WinFsp).",[10,89,90],{},"A practical first step is always rclone copy with --dry-run to see what would move before trusting sync.",[14,92,94],{"id":93},"supported-platforms","Supported Platforms",[96,97,98,111],"table",{},[99,100,101],"thead",{},[102,103,104,108],"tr",{},[105,106,107],"th",{},"Platform",[105,109,110],{},"Support",[112,113,114,123,131,139],"tbody",{},[102,115,116,120],{},[117,118,119],"td",{},"Windows",[117,121,122],{},"10 and above, mount needs WinFsp",[102,124,125,128],{},[117,126,127],{},"macOS",[117,129,130],{},"Single binary and packages",[102,132,133,136],{},[117,134,135],{},"Linux and FreeBSD",[117,137,138],{},"Packages for many distributions",[102,140,141,144],{},[117,142,143],{},"Form",[117,145,146],{},"Single binary, portable from a USB drive",[10,148,149],{},"Rclone is distributed as one self-contained executable on every platform, so there is nothing to install beyond placing it on PATH. On Windows, mounting a cloud as a drive additionally needs WinFsp, a small free driver, but plain copy and sync work without it. Because the binary is static, it drops neatly into Docker images and CI runners, which is why it shows up in so many automated backup pipelines.",[14,151,153],{"id":152},"pricing","Pricing",[10,155,156],{},"Rclone is completely free under the MIT license with no paid features or subscription. The team relies on community donations, and what you download is the full version for personal and commercial use. There is nothing behind a paywall, and no account is required to download or run it. Sponsors and donors fund the work, which keeps the binary free for commercial use too.",[14,158,160],{"id":159},"use-cases","Use Cases",[26,162,163,171,174,177,180,183],{},[29,164,165,166,170],{},"Offsite backup. Sync important local folders to OneDrive or Backblaze on a schedule to survive disk failure. For OneDrive, also see ",[70,167,169],{"href":168},"/post/63/","How to Use OneDrive",".",[29,172,173],{},"Encrypted upload. Encrypt files with a crypt backend before they leave your machine, so a leaked cloud account is harmless.",[29,175,176],{},"Cross-cloud migration. Move data directly between S3, Google Drive, and Dropbox without landing locally.",[29,178,179],{},"Mount a cloud disk. Map a cloud drive as X and use it like local storage, skipping the web UI.",[29,181,182],{},"Scheduled jobs. Pair a copy command with the system task scheduler to back up nightly and keep a log.",[29,184,185],{},"Cautions. rclone sync deletes extra target files to match the source, so always --dry-run first. Never leak rclone.conf or commit it to a repo. Install WinFsp before mounting on Windows. Old Windows 7 or 8 needs an older build such as v1.63.1.",[14,187,189],{"id":188},"how-it-works","How It Works",[10,191,192],{},"Rclone is led by Nick Craig-Wood as a long-maintained community open source project under MIT on GitHub. It stores no data itself but implements protocol adapters for dozens of cloud services, unifying their interfaces behind one rsync-style command set. Each backend translates the common commands into the provider specific API, which is why adding a new storage type rarely changes how you use the tool. This design lets it track new services quickly and lets users manage every cloud with one vocabulary. Funded by donations, it carries no ads and no paywall. The command line design also means it composes with standard Unix tools, so piping output into jq or tee is natural.",[14,194,196],{"id":195},"conclusion","Conclusion",[10,198,199],{},"If you need more than a sync client and want one command line to orchestrate many clouds, Rclone is nearly mandatory. It backs up, encrypts, and mounts, all from a single command, and the same binary runs on your laptop and your servers. Start with a dry run and you will wonder how you managed multiple cloud panels before. It is the tool power users quietly rely on for every backup script. Download and official resources below.",[10,201,202,203,206,207,211,212],{},"Official download ",[70,204,72],{"href":72,"rel":205},[74],"\nGitHub Releases ",[70,208,209],{"href":209,"rel":210},"https://github.com/rclone/rclone/releases",[74],"\nWebsite ",[70,213,214],{"href":214,"rel":215},"https://rclone.org",[74],{"title":217,"searchDepth":218,"depth":218,"links":219},"",2,[220,221,222,223,224,225,226,227],{"id":16,"depth":218,"text":17},{"id":23,"depth":218,"text":24},{"id":61,"depth":218,"text":62},{"id":93,"depth":218,"text":94},{"id":152,"depth":218,"text":153},{"id":159,"depth":218,"text":160},{"id":188,"depth":218,"text":189},{"id":195,"depth":218,"text":196},"md",{},true,"/post/137",{"description":12},"post/137","HnNbJNylJhaQAaqtyqvxq8340oi_IZb7zUgtzr-20z4",1794378304799]