rclone mount

Creates a virtual filesystem that makes your cloud storage appear as a local folder on your computer.

Quick start

Without --daemon the command runs in the foreground and the mount lasts until the command is stopped. With --daemon (Linux and Mac) it runs in the background.

# Basic mount
rclone mount remote:path /local/mount/point

# Mount in background (Linux/Mac)
rclone mount remote:path /local/mount/point --daemon

# Mount with options
rclone mount gdrive: ~/GoogleDrive \
  --vfs-cache-mode full \
  --daemon

Platform setup

Windows

Install WinFsp
Mount to a drive letter:

rclone mount remote: X: --vfs-cache-mode full

Mac

Install macFUSE
Mount to folder:

mkdir ~/CloudDrive
rclone mount remote: ~/CloudDrive --vfs-cache-mode full

Linux

# Install FUSE (Ubuntu/Debian)
sudo apt-get install fuse3

# Install FUSE (Fedora)
sudo dnf install fuse3

# Mount
mkdir ~/CloudDrive
rclone mount remote: ~/CloudDrive --daemon

--vfs-cache-mode decides what rclone keeps on local disk. With off, the default, nothing is cached and files are streamed straight from the remote. writes caches files opened for writing, so uploads go through the local disk. full caches reads as well and suits most uses.

# No caching (streaming only)
rclone mount remote: /mount/point --vfs-cache-mode off

# Minimal caching (default)
rclone mount remote: /mount/point --vfs-cache-mode minimal

# Full caching (best for most uses)
rclone mount remote: /mount/point --vfs-cache-mode full

# Writes only (good for uploads)
rclone mount remote: /mount/point --vfs-cache-mode writes

Read-Only Mount

--read-only rejects every write, so nothing on the remote can be changed through the mount.

# Prevent accidental modifications
rclone mount remote: /mount/point \
  --read-only \
  --vfs-cache-mode full

Allow Other Users

By default only the user who ran rclone can access the mount. --allow-other opens it to other users (Linux and Mac); this may also need user_allow_other in /etc/fuse.conf.

# Let other users access mount (Linux/Mac)
rclone mount remote: /mount/point \
  --allow-other \
  --daemon

# May need to edit /etc/fuse.conf:
# user_allow_other

Custom Permissions

The mount reports the permissions, owner and group given here for every file and directory; they are not written to the remote.

# Set file permissions
rclone mount remote: /mount/point \
  --dir-perms 0755 \
  --file-perms 0644 \
  --uid 1000 \
  --gid 1000

Troubleshooting

Mount Not Showing Files

mount | grep rclone shows whether the mount is still attached. -vv runs the mount in the foreground with debug logging, so every request and error is printed. Removing ~/.cache/rclone/ discards the VFS cache.

# Check mount is active
mount | grep rclone

# Try with debugging
rclone mount remote: /mount/point -vv

# Clear cache
rm -rf ~/.cache/rclone/

Permission Denied

On Linux, the user needs to be in the fuse group. Log out and back in for the group change to take effect.

# Linux: Check FUSE permissions
groups | grep fuse

# Add user to fuse group
sudo usermod -aG fuse $USER

# Logout and login again

Slow Performance

Larger caches and buffers help: --vfs-cache-max-size caps the cache on disk, --buffer-size is the memory buffer per open file, and --vfs-read-ahead reads ahead of the current position.

# Increase cache and buffers
rclone mount remote: /mount/point \
  --vfs-cache-mode full \
  --vfs-cache-max-size 100G \
  --buffer-size 1G \
  --vfs-read-ahead 512M

Mount Hangs

Unmount the mount point; if that fails, kill the rclone process.

# Force unmount (Linux/Mac)
fusermount -u /mount/point
# or
umount -f /mount/point

# Kill rclone process
pkill rclone

"Transport endpoint is not connected"

The rclone process behind the mount has gone away and the mount point is stale. Unmount it and mount again.

# Unmount and remount
fusermount -u /mount/point
rclone mount remote: /mount/point --daemon

Files not updating

Changes made outside the mount show up when the cached directory listing expires. Shorter times make them appear sooner at the cost of more requests.

# Reduce cache time
--dir-cache-time 5m
--poll-interval 1m
--vfs-cache-max-age 1h

Out of space errors

The VFS cache has reached its limit. Raise --vfs-cache-max-size or clear the cache directory.

# Increase VFS cache limit
--vfs-cache-max-size 200G

# Or clear cache
rm -rf ~/.cache/rclone/vfs/

All the mount and VFS options are covered in the full documentation.

Mount