Files

Files is the app for working with the shared folders you may use: open folders, upload and download files, copy and move them, and restore deleted files from the recycle bin. Images, PDFs, text, audio and video open in the Viewer. You need the right to use the Files app and access to at least one shared folder.

Browsing shared folders

Files in list view. Right-click an entry for its context menu.

Open Files from the Pithyx menu. The sidebar lists your home folder home first and your shared folders under it, under Shares; Files opens in your home. Your home is private: only you and the administrators can open it. Administrators also see homes, which lists every other user’s home as a folder, in the same list or tiles as any folder; a double click opens one. The homes themselves cannot be renamed, moved or deleted there, and their menu only offers Open. Click an entry to open it. A folder that cannot be reached right now (for example because its pool is offline) shows Not available. If the list is empty, you have no shared folders yet and an administrator has to create them. A shared folder marked Read only lets you look and download, but not change anything.

To move around:

• Double-click a folder, or select it and press Enter, to open it.
• Use the Back, Forward and Up one level buttons, or type a location in the Path field.
• Backspace or Alt+Up goes up one level.
• Click Name, Size or Modified at the top of the list to sort. Click again to reverse the order.
• Use Show as tiles or Show as list to change the view, and Comfortable or Compact for the row height.
• The search field (shown as “Search in” and the folder name) looks for names in the current folder.

The status line shows how many items the folder holds, or how many you selected. Long folders load in pages as you scroll. The window remembers its folder and view for the next time.

Opening a file depends on its type: pictures, PDFs, text, audio and video open in the Viewer; other files download. To choose, right-click and pick Open with…, then Viewer, Download or an installed app that declares it opens this file type. Names that start with .pithyx-upload- and the folder .pithyx-trash are internal and not shown.

Right-click an item for its menu: Open, Download, Open with…, Copy, Cut, Rename, Previous versions, Move to recycle bin and Delete permanently. Right-click an empty spot for New folder, Upload, Paste (after you copied or cut something) and Select all. Actions that change something appear only when you may write to the shared folder.

Previous versions

If an administrator switched on restore points for the shared folder, the box saves a copy once a day and keeps it for 7 days. Right-click a file or folder and choose Previous versions to see them. Pick a day, then choose Replace the current version, or restore it next to the current one with the date in its name. Restoring needs write access to the folder. If no restore points exist, the list says there are no earlier versions yet.

Restore points live on the same disks as the files. They do not replace a backup on another device.

Uploading

1. Open the folder you want the files in.
2. Click Upload and pick files, or drag files from your computer into the window. Drop them on a folder to put them inside it.
3. Watch the progress in the transfers button on the taskbar. It shows the speed and the time left, and has a button to cancel a transfer.

Things to know:

• You need write access to the shared folder.
• Files upload one after another.
• There is no limit on file size besides the free space of the pool.
• A file appears in the folder only when it has arrived completely. If the connection drops, nothing is saved and you upload the file again. There is no resume.
• The uploaded file belongs to your account on the box.
• If a name already exists, Files asks what to do (see below).

Copy, move and conflicts

The dialog when names already exist in the target folder.

• Copy and paste: select items, press Ctrl+C (or Cmd+C), open the target folder and press Ctrl+V. Ctrl+X cuts instead of copies.
• Drag and drop: dragging items to another folder or to a share in the sidebar moves them. Hold Ctrl or Alt while dropping to copy.
• Rename: press F2 or choose Rename. A name must not be empty, must not contain / and may be at most 255 bytes long.
• New folder: choose New folder, then type its name.

Copying and moving run in the background with progress and a cancel button. One request handles up to 1000 selected items. Symbolic links are not copied. A folder cannot be copied or moved into itself.

When the target already has items with the same names, a dialog titled Names already exist offers:

• Skip them: leave the existing items alone.
• Replace them: files are replaced, folders are merged.
• Keep both: the new item gets a number, for example Report (2).pdf.
• Cancel.

To download, choose Download or open a file that the Viewer cannot show.

The recycle bin

Each shared folder has its own recycle bin with the date an entry is deleted for good.

Move to recycle bin (the Del key) does not delete a file. It moves it into the recycle bin of its shared folder, or of your home. Deleting files over SMB, WebDAV or FTP does the same.

To see a bin, click Recycle bin in the sidebar and choose the shared folder. Each entry shows where it came from and when it was deleted. With Restore you get it back in its original folder; missing parent folders are created. Delete for good removes single items. Empty recycle bin removes everything in the bin of that folder. Both ask first, and you need write access.

Files stay in the bin for 30 days by default, then the box deletes them. The bin shows the period in use as a note at the top. Only an administrator can change this period.

To skip the bin, press Shift+Del or choose Delete permanently. After the question Delete permanently? the items are gone for good.

Deleting over SFTP does not use the recycle bin: the files are gone at once.

Thumbnails and the viewer

Thumbnails. Files shows small previews for JPEG, PNG, WebP and GIF images. Other types, including videos and HEIC pictures, show an icon. Previews are drawn when they come into view, and the box keeps them in a cache on the pool (up to 2 GB). Very large images are not previewed: the limits are 256 MiB per file and 50 million pixels.

The Viewer opens in its own window. It shows:

• Images: JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF, AVIF, BMP, ICO and SVG. Zoom with the toolbar, or press +, - and 0 (fit to window).
• PDF files
• Text and code files, as plain text. Only the first megabyte is shown; download the file to see the rest.
• Audio and video in the formats your browser can play.

In the Viewer, Left and Right go to the previous and next file in the same folder. For types it does not know, the Viewer asks you to download the file.

Keyboard shortcuts

Keys	Action
Arrow keys	Move the selection (Shift extends it, Ctrl moves without selecting)
Home, End, Page Up, Page Down	Jump through the list
Enter	Open
Space	Select (Ctrl+Space toggles)
Backspace, Alt+Up	Up one level
F2	Rename
Del	Move to recycle bin
Shift+Del	Delete permanently
Ctrl+A	Select all
Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+V	Copy, cut, paste
Escape	Clear the selection
Shift+F10 or the Menu key	Open the context menu

See also Access files from other devices and Shared folders.