Guides

Connect a cloud drive

Create your own app in the Dropbox, OneDrive, Box or Google Drive developer console, then sign in from Syncophant.

Syncophant can use Dropbox, OneDrive, Box and Google Drive. It ships no app keys of its own, so each person creates an app in the service’s developer console. That way, your sign-in goes from your Mac to the service, through an app only you control.

This takes about five minutes per service, once.

Before you start

  • Google Drive support is Experimental. Google Drive allows several items with the same name in one folder, and it can’t refuse a stale write. Syncophant does those checks itself, so a change made elsewhere at the same moment can be lost or duplicated. Google Docs aren’t files and are skipped.
  • Every service uses the same redirect URI:
http://localhost:53682/

1. Create the app

In Syncophant, choose Add Storage, then Cloud drive, then your service. Syncophant shows the same steps as below and a button that opens the console.

Dropbox

  1. In the Dropbox App Console, create a Scoped access app with Full Dropbox access.
  2. Under Permissions, turn on files.metadata.write, files.content.write, files.content.read and account_info.read.
  3. Add the redirect URI, then copy the App key.

OneDrive

  1. In Microsoft Entra app registrations, register an app for personal and work accounts.
  2. Add a Mobile and desktop redirect URI with the address above, and allow public client flows.
  3. Copy the Application (client) ID.

Box

  1. In the Box Developer Console, create a Custom App with User Authentication (OAuth 2.0).
  2. Turn on Write all files and folders, and add the redirect URI.
  3. Copy the Client ID and Client Secret.

Google Drive

  1. In Google Cloud credentials, enable the Google Drive API and create an OAuth client of type Desktop app.
  2. Set the consent screen’s publishing status to In production. In Testing, sign-ins expire after 7 days.
  3. Copy the Client ID and Client secret.

2. Sign in

  1. Paste the client ID, and the client secret for Box or Google Drive.
  2. Choose Sign In. Your browser opens the service’s sign-in page.
  3. Approve access. The browser hands the sign-in back to Syncophant on localhost, a listener only your Mac can reach.
  4. Syncophant runs its checks, including Test safe reads and writes. When they pass, choose Connect.

Your client ID, secret and tokens are saved together in your Keychain.

Good to know