🔄 Desktop: VFS - Files on Demand (MacOS)

[tbsbdr]

Description

Access files on-demand without downloading them locally. Save storage, speed up syncs, and work efficiently with large remote file sets.

[myg1th0b]

Should integrate as seamless as synology drive or ms onedrive using MacOS FSEvents

[Steven6291]

Is there a specific reason this is categorized as "Maybe, Someday"? My company will not switch to OpenCloud without VFS on MacOS. If I recall correctly, this was previously planned for 2025, right?

This comment is not meant to be negative in any way, but many people I know with Macs are waiting for this feature before introducing OpenCloud into their companies.

[muffn]

Windows VFS is planned for Q4 2025 and Linux VFS for Q2 2026 so I cross my Fingers that MacOS VFS will be a thing in late 2026 hopefully?

I‘m really looking forward to this, its a must for OpenCloud to be a proper replacement for OneDrive on MacOS

[changhoon-sung]

Recently, Owncloud also deprecated the VFS from their Desktop client, leaving fewer options for partial synchronization on macOS. Opencloud could serve as an excellent refuge for these users.

[g-a-c]

opencloud-eu/desktop#277 (comment)

A request from me to use the native functionality on macOS, and not anything FUSE-related? Virtual files functionality is part of the OS since 10.15 (so it's in all currently supported versions of macOS) and offers a pretty much seamless experience, integrated natively with Finder in order to be able to mark files as permanently available, temporarily available, or evicted from cache entirely.

Yes, I understand this would be more work for the developers, however it would provide a much better and closer-integrated user experience, and avoid the need for the user to maintain a FUSE installation on their device.

The issue here got closed because the scope of the linked items against that issue were changed to be Windows-only which is now implemented in 3.0. So I'll repeat my comment here where it may be more relevant.

Ultimately, I don't want every big file on my Opencloud instance to automatically be synced. And nor do I want to use the Opencloud client to pick and choose fixed sets of folders, now that a better, macOS-native way exists and works well. So having Opencloud simply have a VFS option that doesn't rely on special file extensions and just integrates natively would be great. For example I should be able to cat a file that is not yet cached but using its actual filename, and have macOS/Opencloud just work together and fetch it in the background (this doesn't seem to work with the "traditional" approach of having an .opencloud extension).

[saymen]

My school is ready to to walk away from M365. But only if VFS (files on demand) works on MacOS. That's an absolute must.

[intersales]

Windows-only which is now implemented in 3.0

Are you saying the feature you requested - I need it, too - is already working for Windows desktops? Why is it then still on the roadmap for Q4/2025 @g-a-c ?

[g-a-c]

Windows-only which is now implemented in 3.0

Are you saying the feature you requested - I need it, too - is already working for Windows desktops? Why is it then still on the roadmap for Q4/2025 @g-a-c ?

No idea - I don't work on the project, I don't know the roadmap, and the roadmap has become a little confusing to follow.

Originally there was one roadmap issue #14 which mentions VFS on all three major OSes; Windows (implementation unspecified) and macOS/Linux via OpenVFS.

I made the comment about macOS native VFS on issue opencloud-eu/desktop#277, which was not titled as Windows-specific, however someone commented that OpenCloud Desktop had implemented Windows VFS in 3.0 and issue opencloud-eu/desktop#277 was closed so by implication this issue became Windows-specific.

At some point the original roadmap issue #14 was also renamed to be Windows-specific, and #51 and this issue (#52) were opened to track the other OSes.

My current understanding (and remember, again, that I'm not part of this project and merely a user):

• Windows VFS is implemented as of OpenCloud Desktop 3.0 - maybe it's still on the roadmap because it's not actually released, last time I looked there were only release candidates
• Linux VFS is still planned in 🔄 Desktop: Files on Demand (Linux🐧) #51, no mention from the team of OpenVFS but one of the commenters has brought it up as an option (and maybe on Linux, OpenVFS is a great option, I don't know)
  • this looks like it's scheduled for Q2 2026 according to the project board
• macOS VFS is still planned in this issue, but the mention of OpenVFS is no longer present. I copy-pasted my comment above to make sure the request for macOS-native VFS is still visible, and doesn't only exist in an issue that was closed once VFS was implemented on a different platform. Because a comment in a closed issue is never getting read, and if OpenCloud are to provide VFS functionality on macOS then I believe native is the best way to go.
  • this looks like it's not scheduled according to the project board, and is marked as "requires funding". Which is a little disappointing to me personally, and I may try to find funds to donate for this feature because it's one I've been waiting for

[g-a-c]

My school is ready to to walk away from M365. But only if VFS (files on demand) works on MacOS. That's an absolute must.

@saymen see my comment above - macOS is currently marked as "requires funding". If this is a requirement for your school and you're in a position to do so (it's not clear from your comment whether you are an employee of the school, a student, etc) then I suggest that you perhaps talk with the correct person/people at the school to see if there's any funding that they can provide?

[myg1th0b]

I did not try this yet but there may be a feasible work around. The latest version .v5 from Mountain Duck can actually mount various file systems like SMB, WebDAV, etc which I understand this project provides. It utilizes Windows and MAC OS CloudStorage Components and I believe via that can actually create a similar user experience as OneDrive or SynologyDrive or many of these services. Maybe that will help somebody?

[intersales]

I did not try this yet but there may be a feasible work around. The latest version .v5 from Mountain Duck can actually mount various file systems like SMB, WebDAV, etc which I understand this project provides. It utilizes Windows and MAC OS CloudStorage Components and I believe via that can actually create a similar user experience as OneDrive or SynologyDrive or many of these services. Maybe that will help somebody?

Thanks for this tip. I tried it on Mac OS and it does the trick, works great. Please note, however, you have to pay for for-license.

[myg1th0b]

Great for confirming it works! I should probably have mentioned if you search for mountain duck on bundlehunt you will find a greatly discounted option (as of 19.11.25).

[restot]

I'm working on implementing that. Have successfully compiled the FileProvider extension and tested on-demand download and offload. An iCloud-like experience was achieved. Even had to buy an Apple developer account for it. Will publish beta release in my repo fork. Unfortunately, I don't have an ETA I'm not a Swift or C++ dev. My profile is senior dev for web, backed, so I'm relying heavily on AI. PoC and early tests were successful, and around 7k lines of code were written. Im investing quite a bit of money into it.

What remains is polishing and multi-profile support, fixing unstable logic, and making sure not to break cross-platform logic.
Lots of quirks remain to be solved.
So far, everything looks promising. I haven't hit any major roadblocks. Nextcloud's desktop client implementation has helped significantly.

With the beta release will open some sort of donation initiative to cover development costs.
Client will support macOS 26+(Tahoe), had to drop older macOS versions to speed things up.
Now I'm understand why this feature was not even in the roadmap. The amount of work that it requires is just astronomical lol.

Keep burning tokens and wish me luck :)