In this step-by-step plan, we describe how to migrate from the SURFdrive Desktop Client to the Nextcloud Desktop Client.
What to check before you start...
Check the status of your Desktop Client before the migration of your environment is planned. Do you see a green check-mark? If not, checkout Step 1 below to make your desktop client healthy.
Check if the data in your online SURFdrive account is the same as the data you have stored on your laptop in your SURFdrive folder.
Avoid data loss at all cost: make a copy of your local SURFdrive folder and store elsewhere in a safe location. If you work with sensitive data, discuss with your IT department if and where you can store a copy of your data.
Before setting up a new sync connection, check if you have enough storage space. If not, clear up you local storage of setup a sync connection with Virtual File System (VFS) enabled (supported for Windows only). Using VFS, you will only download the data from the server once you try to open the file locally. See step ... for more information about setting up VFS.
Steps to take before 31-10
Steps that had to be completed before 31 October are no longer possible. Please proceed to step 4.
1. Make sure your existing SURFdrive Desktop Client is healthy before the migration.
Before you start, make sure your existing Desktop Client is in a healthy state.
Open the SURFdrive Desktop Client. Left click on the SURFdrive icon in your taskbar, or ricght click and choose "Show SURFdrive" from the menu.
1. Open the SURFdrive Desktop Client. Click on the SURFdrive icon in your taskbar and choose "Show SURFdrive" from the menu.
Open your Desktop Client, to verify the current state. Ensure your Desktop Client displays a green tick:
Healthy
Not healthy (sync conflict)
Not healthy (logged out of account)
No need to take any action, your client is healthy!
Resolve your conflict files.
Log in to your account and check the state of your client again.
Make sure your Desktop Client displays a green tick before proceeding to the next step
Find out why your Desktop Client is not healthy.
- In the Desktop Client, go to the `Activity` tab.
- Go to the `Not Synced` tab
- Check the list of action points here, to get your Desktop Client healthy again.
Resolve conflict files
Rename file names, if non-allowed characters have been used
Move files out of the sync folder, when non-allowed extensions have been used
- Sometimes restarting your computer will help
2. Save a copy of your SURFdrive folder
Steps that had to be completed before 31 October are no longer possible. Please proceed to step 4.
Save a copy of your data!
3. Check if you have enough storage space available to setup a new folder sync connection
Steps that had to be completed before 31 October are no longer possible. Please proceed to step 4.
On Windows: go to Settings > System
, then select Storage
.
On Mac: go to the Apple menu 
> System Settings, then click General 
in the sidebar and navigate to All Volumes
Not enough space available to sync your entire SURFdrive account?
If you work on a Windows machine and do not have enough storage space available, make sure that you setup a new folder sync connection with Virtual File System (VFS) enabled. Using VFS, you will only download your data from the server once you try to open the file locally, so you do not need a lot of local storage to setup a new folder sync connection. See step 6 for more information about setting up your environment with VFS enabled.
If you are using Mac, setting up a new folder sync connection with your SURFdrive account means that you need to have sufficient local storage available on your machine. If you do not have sufficient storage available, you can either remove redundant data from your machine or you can decide to only synchronize a subset of your data. See step 6 in this page for more information on how to select sub folders to sync.
Steps to take after 3-11
4. Remove your current SURFdrive folder sync connection and configuration, and uninstall the SURFdrive client app
Once SURFdrive has migrated to the new software backend, so from November 3 onward, you can uninstall the SURFdrive Desktop Client. To do so, follow the steps in the window below.
You should see that you are not logged in to SURFdrive anymore:
- Remove the account from the SURFdrive client:
- Now you can navigate to your Settings → Apps → Installed apps on Windows or Finder → Applications → SURFdrive on Mac and press uninstall:
- Remove your old SURFdrive configuration profile by removing this folder:
macOS
$HOME/Library/Preferences/surfdriveWindows
%APPDATA%\surfdrive
If you already stored a copy of your SURFdrive folder elsewhere as was suggested in step 2, you can now proceed and remove the old local SURFdrive folder.
If you did not keep a copy of your SURFdrive folder AND have enough storage space available to set up a new folder sync connection, you can keep the SURFdrive folder as an extra copy.
5. Download and install the Nextcloud Desktop Client
Proceed from here after the migration!
Only proceed with the Desktop Client installation after the migration of your SURFdrive environment has been carried out.
After the migration, your SURFdrive Client stops automatically and will no longer be able to connect to your SURFdrive account.
Download the Nextcloud Desktop Client for Files from the Nextcloud website (under Nextcloud Files); https://nextcloud.com/install/#desktop-files
For Linux users please visit the following page in the Nextcloud Forum for information on specific packages for your Linux Distribution. https://help.nextcloud.com/t/linux-packages-status
Do you already have the Nextcloud Desktop Client ?
If you already have the Nextcloud Desktop Client installed, proceed to the next step (step 6) and follow the instructions to add a new Nextcloud account as described in scenario 2.
Having problems with the installation? Check the Nextcloud Documentation
See the Nextcloud documentation for more installation tips or consult your IT Service Desk. https://docs.nextcloud.com/desktop/latest/installing.html
6. Setup a Nextcloud client folder sync connection to your SURFdrive
There are two different scenario's possible for migrating from your SURFdrive desktop client to the Nextcloud desktop client.
Scenario 1: You are a SURFdrive user and are not yet using the Nextcloud desktop client
If you are using the SURFdrive client to connect to your SURFdrive, follow the steps below to connect to your SURFdrive account in your newly installed Nextcloud client:
- After installing, open your Nextcloud Desktop Client from your taskbar.
Do you receive a prompt to import a previous desktop client (legacy import)? Open the expand window below to see what steps you should take.Press "Skip" to setup a clean Nextcloud client configuration.
We recommend creating a new sync configuration to reduce any risk of data loss. So press "Skip/Overslaan"
After opening the Nextcloud Desktop client, it will ask you to login.
Press "Login" and fill out your SURFdrive server address: https://surfdrive.surf.nl
When you press "Next", a local web browser will open and you are asked to login using your SURFdrive credentials.
After logging in, you will have to grant your desktop client access to your SURFdrive account by pressing "Grant access".
- After granting access to your account, you can choose the desired folder you want to sync your SURFdrive files to. You can also select if you wish to Sync all your files and folders, Choose what files and folders to sync, or to use Virtual Files (Windows only). Afterwards, you can press connect.
Choose a new folder
By default, a folder named "Nextcloud" will be created and selected, but you can also create and select a different synchronization folder. We recommend to not select your existing SURFdrive folder, but to create a new folder with a different name.
If you choose a folder that is not empty, a warning will pop-up: "Warning: The local folder is not empty. Pick a resolutional".
In this example, a folder named Nextcloud already existed because there was already an existing folder sync connection with a different Nextcloud instance for this folder name. Therefore a folder with the name Nextcloud3 was suggested by the client:
Edit your existing configuration
Scenario 2: You are a SURFdrive user and are using both the SURFdrive desktop client as well as the Nextcloud desktop client (e.g. for Research Drive)
If you already have the Nextcloud Desktop Client running, you can simply setup a new connection in the desktop client.
In that case, we will need to add a new connection. Follow the steps below to set this up:
- Open your Nextcloud Desktop Client from your taskbar.
- Choose `Add Account` from the account menu at the top left
- Click login and in the next screen by server address, enter the web address of your SURFdrive environment.
A browser will open, to log in to your SURFdrive account.
Login with your existing account credentials and authorize the Desktop Client to access your account. - Choose the desired folder you want to sync your SURFdrive files to:
Choose a new folder
By default, a folder named "Nextcloud" will be created and selected, but you can also create and select a new synchronization folder. If you select your existing SURFdrive folder, two warnings should pop up:
- Warning, The local folder is not empty. Pick a resolution!
- Please choose a different location. Path\to\surfdrive is already being used as a sync folder
We recommend creating a new folder, or that you go with the default Nextcloud folder:
Configure your existing connection