File Manager

Zync’s File Manager gives each SSH connection an SFTP view and also provides a local Files view. Use it to browse directories, edit text files, upload and download items, and move data between connections.

The permission, transfer recovery and folder-size controls below describe Zync 2.36.0 and later.

Open Files

With a connection open, select Files in the workspace tab bar. You can also use the File Manager shortcut shown in Settings > Shortcuts. A remote connection opens at the server user’s home directory. The local Files view opens at your local home directory.

The path bar accepts an absolute path and supports ~ expansion. Use the back and forward controls to move through the current session’s navigation history.

Places and volumes

The Places sidebar is navigation, not a virtual listing root. Home stays the default location. On local Files, Zync lists real mounted volumes in a platform-specific section:

Platform	Section	Examples
Windows	This PC	C:\, D:\, removable drives
Windows (WSL)	Linux	Available WSL distributions
macOS	Volumes	/, /Volumes/USB
Linux	Other Locations	/, /mnt/data, /media/user/USB

Selecting a volume navigates directly to its real path. There is no fake This PC directory, and going up from C:\ or / stays at that root. Volume Places are shown only for local Files. Remote SFTP browsing does not enumerate the server’s disks.

Places reflect what the OS exposes

Zync does not require administrator access or crawl network shares to populate Places. A drive or mount must be visible to the current user before it can appear.

Browse and select

• Double-click a folder, or focus it and press Enter, to open it.
• Press Backspace to go up. Use Alt+Left and Alt+Right for history navigation.
• Choose list or grid view from the view controls. Mod+Shift+1 selects list view and Mod+Shift+2 selects grid view.
• Press Mod+F to search the current listing. Typing a letter or number also starts a file search when the listing is focused.
• Toggle hidden files with Mod+H or the File Manager settings. Dotfiles are hidden by default.
• Press Mod+A to select all visible entries. Escape clears the selection or closes an open properties panel.

Use Mod+L or press / or ~ when the listing is focused to edit the path directly. F2 renames the focused or selected item. Delete opens the delete flow for selected items. Alt+Enter opens properties.

Create and manage files

Use the toolbar or an item’s context menu to create a file or folder, rename an item, delete it, copy or cut it, and paste it into another directory. Zync checks for conflicts before a batch operation and lets you choose how to handle an existing destination.

Properties show metadata such as size, permissions, owner, group, and modified time when the backend provides it. Remote operations use the existing SSH connection, with SFTP for browsing and ordinary transfers. Some actions use narrowly scoped SSH commands, such as archive downloads or the optional Linux folder-size scan.

Folder sizes in Properties

Select one folder and open Properties to calculate its contents. The size loads there, with Cancel calculation while running and Retry calculation after cancellation or failure. Closing Properties or changing the selection cancels the old inspection. Browsing, sorting and selecting folders do not start recursive scans, and there is no Show folder sizes setting.

The result counts logical regular-file bytes, not allocated disk space or a snapshot. Scans include hidden files, skip links and stop at entry, depth, time or memory limits. An incomplete result is labelled Partial; use its information control for the reason. Selection totals and multi-item Properties use loaded regular-file metadata, not recursive folder totals.

Traversal budgets include 100,000 entries and 30 seconds; admission and connection setup are separate. Depth or memory limits can stop a scan earlier. To calculate again, close and reopen Properties. A new scan uses the same budgets, so a folder that reaches a limit may still return Partial.

Compatible Linux SSH hosts can calculate beside the filesystem using an existing Python 3 runtime at /usr/bin/python3. Nothing is installed and no sudo is used. Other supported cases use SFTP traversal. A timeout or lost connection is not proof that a scan completed.

Permissions

In a single item’s Properties, use Permissions > Refresh to read current metadata. When supported, Edit permissions lets you change ordinary Owner, Group and Others read/write/execute bits, then Apply or Discard. For folders, the execute bit is labelled Traverse: listing names and entering or accessing children are different permissions. Removing traversal can make folder contents inaccessible.

• Remote POSIX: Ordinary edits use the SSH account through SFTP. The server still decides whether that account may change the item; the editor does not grant extra authority.
• Local Linux: Editing requires Linux 6.6+ and a supported filesystem. Unsupported targets remain non-editable.
• Local Windows: Windows permissions… opens Windows Properties. Choose Security to edit accounts, permissions or inheritance using Windows authorization. Afterwards, use Refresh in Zync. Opening that window does not itself change permissions. Remote Windows and unsupported local paths do not offer this handoff.
• Local macOS: Native permission editing is not available in this release.

Ordinary mode editing affects one item, not a recursive tree. Ownership and special bits are not editable here. ACLs and hard links can affect the outcome; review the safety information and refresh after an external change rather than relying on mode bits alone as proof of access.

Administrator permission review

For a compatible remote POSIX target, expand Administrator permissions and choose Review administrator edit…. This separate operation requires existing /usr/bin/python3, /usr/bin/sudo, Linux 6.6+ on supported 64-bit x86_64 or aarch64 hosts, a supported filesystem and a sudo policy that authorizes the operation. A password prompt is shown when authentication is required; do not enter passwords into file paths or share them in reports.

This prompt authenticates with the server’s sudo policy, not your SSH private-key passphrase. Use the password that policy requires, usually the connected account’s password.

Review the displayed SSH host filesystem path and current mode before applying. That path can differ from an SFTP or chroot view. The review expires after 90 seconds and covers one ordinary-mode change only. No helper is installed, no sudo password is stored, and no root SFTP session is opened. This does not enable privileged browsing, content saving, ownership changes or recursive edits. MFA and policies requiring an interactive TTY are not supported by this flow.

Uploads, downloads, and transfers

To upload, choose Upload or drag files and folders from your desktop into the current remote directory. Multiple items can be queued together. To download, select items, choose Download, and select a local destination. Zync remembers the last chosen download directory in File Manager settings.

The transfer indicator in the status bar opens a panel with names, source and destination, progress, speed, and cancellation controls. Uploads, downloads, and cross-connection copies run as background transfers and report completion or failure in that panel.

Existing destinations

Review the conflict choice before copying:

Choice	Result
Replace folder	Replace the whole destination folder. Destination-only items are removed when replacement completes.
Combine	Add incoming items, replace matching files and keep destination-only items, including within nested folders.
Keep Both	Create a separately named copy instead of replacing the existing item.

For example, copying a folder containing b and c over a destination containing b, c and d removes d with Replace folder, but keeps d with Combine. A file-versus-folder conflict cannot be combined; use the replacement, separate-copy or skip choices offered by that dialog.

Staged file copies and whole-folder replacements write to a separate temporary sibling before publishing. The original destination stays intact while replacement data is copied. These guarantees do not cover moves or archives. Combine publishes items as it progresses, so completed items may remain after an interrupted Combine; it is not an all-or-nothing folder replacement.

Cancellation and recovery

Cancel from the transfer panel. Zync attempts to remove its own temporary copies after confirmed cancellation. If cleanup or replacement is uncertain, recovery details remain instead of deleting files based on an assumption.

Inspect recovery files checks presence and size only. It does not verify contents, choose which version to keep or change files. When safe cleanup is available, Remove temporary copy… offers a separate action. Its confirmation dialog follows Settings > File Manager > Confirm Deletion; when that setting is off, cleanup starts without another prompt. Do not manually delete an original or backup merely because a temporary copy is present.

A UI reload keeps backend transfers running. An app restart does not automatically resume an interrupted copy: inspect recovery details before retrying. Clearing a finished entry with × hides that history entry without deleting recovery files; cleared history stays hidden.

Copy between servers

Select an item on one remote connection, choose Copy to Server, then select the destination connection and directory. Data streams through Zync between the two SSH sessions without first saving a complete local copy. This is not a direct server-to-server network connection. Transfers use bounded SFTP pipelining rather than buffering an entire file. You can also drag items between connection views.

When you press Copy, Zync checks explicitly selected SSH sources before replacing its clipboard. A denied or inconclusive check keeps the previous clipboard. The check is not a recursive read of every descendant, and permissions can change before Paste. Cut can record move intent without requiring content-read access; the eventual operation still needs the server’s permission.

Download an archive

For a remote connection, select files or folders and choose Download as Archive (.tar.gz). Zync streams the archive over SSH to the local destination. The remote server must provide tar. This action is not available in local Files.

Large or sensitive transfers

Confirm the destination before starting a batch transfer. The transfer panel reports errors, but it cannot make an incorrect destination safe. For sensitive data, check both the source and destination connection names.

Edit text files

Right-click a text file and choose an editor provider. CodeMirror is the default bundled editor and is the lightweight choice for direct SFTP editing. It provides language-aware syntax highlighting, folding, completion, search and replace, and a status bar with line and column information.

Press Mod+S to save the current file back to its connection. Mod+F opens Find and Replace. Mod+G opens Go to Line. Escape closes the Find or Go to Line overlay before any editor-close action. Mod+W closes the editor after the unsaved-changes check.

Files identified as read-only open with Save disabled; Mod+S is blocked too. Use the editor’s access menu to Check permissions again after changing permissions elsewhere. Allow save attempts is an explicit override for accounts with additional access: it permits a save attempt, not a permission change or sudo operation. The filesystem can still reject it. Failed saves and permission refreshes keep your unsaved draft.

Zync also supports installable editor providers. Monaco is provided as the marketplace editor-provider plugin com.zync.editor.monaco; install and enable it from the Extensions or Marketplace view before selecting it. You can choose a provider for one file from the context menu or set the default provider in the editor settings. If a provider is unavailable or fails, Zync falls back to the built-in plain editor.

Text files only

The editor is intended for text. Use the terminal or download the file when you need to inspect binary data. If a provider has unsaved edits, Zync asks before replacing the buffer with newly loaded content.

Common settings

File Manager settings include the default view, hidden-file visibility, delete confirmation, Places collapse state, and the default download directory. Keyboard bindings can be changed in Settings > Shortcuts.

Work beside a terminal

Use Open Terminal Here from Files to open or focus a shell at the current directory. From a terminal, Open File Manager Here opens Files at the shell’s last known directory.

When Files and Terminal are visible in a split, drag a file or folder onto a shell pane. Zync pastes the safely quoted path without pressing Enter. This makes it useful for building commands without executing them accidentally.

Troubleshooting

• Remote Files will not open: Check that the SSH connection is active and that the server has an SFTP subsystem configured.
• Permission denied: Refresh the item’s Permissions. Directory traversal and ACLs can matter as well as read/write bits; inspect the item and its parent directories with your server administrator rather than granting broad access as a shortcut.
• A volume is missing from Places: Check that the OS mounted it and that your user can read it. Refresh or reopen local Files.
• A transfer failed: Read the transfer panel’s outcome and inspect any recovery paths before retrying. Check the connection and permissions; an interrupted operation may have partially completed.
• A file looks corrupted in the editor: Close it and use a binary-safe tool. The editor is not a binary viewer.

Related docs

• Split panes for opening Files beside a shell.