Mountain Duck is a desktop client that mounts servers and cloud storage such as SFTP, WebDAV, S3, Google Drive and OneDrive as a disk in Finder or File Explorer, letting any application open and save remote files as if they were stored locally.
Mountain Duck is a desktop application that mounts remote servers and cloud storage as a usable disk in Finder on macOS and File Explorer on Windows. Instead of uploading and downloading through a separate file browser, you connect once, pick a bookmark, and the remote location appears like any other volume, so text editors, image tools, code editors, and backup scripts can open, edit, and save files directly. It builds on the Cyberduck foundation, which means FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, SMB, Amazon S3, Azure Blob, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Backblaze B2 are all reachable from the same interface. Smart Synchronization keeps directories browsable offline, caches opened files locally, and uploads changes in the background, making remote storage practical for everyday work.
The appeal is strongest for people who already pay for remote capacity but do not want a full local mirror of it. Photographers can point a raw editor at an S3 bucket, developers can edit configuration files on a staging server over SFTP, and administrators can hand colleagues a preconfigured bookmark instead of credentials. Volumes are mounted per bookmark, and the Integrated connect mode avoids a classic network mount altogether, so setup stays quick and reversible. Where a browser-style client such as Air Explorer suits ad-hoc transfers between two clouds, Mountain Duck favours a persistent, OS-level mount that sits quietly in the background. Cache size limits, pause and resume controls, and transfer history keep resource use predictable.
The main benefit of Mountain Duck is that remote storage stops behaving like a website and starts behaving like a disk. Files open in the applications you already use, saves are written back without an export step, and large datasets never have to be duplicated to local storage just to be readable. Smart Synchronization adds resilience: directories stay browsable on a plane or a flaky connection, opened files remain available, and pending uploads drain automatically once the network returns. Client-side Cryptomator vaults give teams a way to keep data encrypted at rest on infrastructure they do not control, which matters when object storage is rented rather than owned. Because bookmarks can be distributed as preconfigured profiles, onboarding a colleague takes seconds, and because caching is bounded by size limits and purge rules, the local footprint stays under control. The result is fewer manual transfers, less waiting on a browser window, and a workflow that treats cloud storage as ordinary working storage.
Once a bookmark is connected, Mountain Duck presents the remote location as an ordinary disk in Finder or File Explorer, so any application can open, edit, and save files through standard file dialogs. There is no separate transfer window to babysit and no export step between the cloud and the tools you actually work in.
Mountain Duck keeps directory listings browsable without a live connection, caches files as you open them, and writes changes to a local cache before uploading them in the background. Status overlays in Finder and File Explorer distinguish files that are up to date, online only, syncing, or pending an upload.
The Integrated connect mode relies on the File Provider API on macOS and the Cloud Files API on Windows rather than a device driver or classic network mount. Every file on the remote storage stays visible, items download on demand when opened, and selected files or folders can be pinned for guaranteed offline use.
Mountain Duck connects through FTP and FTP-TLS, SFTP, WebDAV, SMB, Amazon S3 and compatible object storage, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob Storage, OpenStack Swift, Backblaze B2, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, SharePoint, Box, and DRACOON, all driven from one consistent connection dialog.
Mountain Duck can open Cryptomator-interoperable vaults, which encrypt files on your computer before anything is uploaded. The storage provider only ever receives ciphertext, the same vaults stay readable in Cryptomator itself, and encryption at rest does not depend on trusting whichever server or cloud operator holds the data.
Connections are saved as bookmarks that mount with a single click and can be pinned to the menu bar for fast access. Preconfigured profiles let an administrator ship the correct host, port, and authentication settings to an entire team, including hidden configuration options that keep behaviour consistent across machines.
Where the backend supports it, Mountain Duck creates share links that expire automatically, including on Amazon S3, OpenStack Swift, Azure, and Backblaze B2, and uses native sharing for Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and Nextcloud or ownCloud deployments. Earlier revisions remain reachable on services that retain them.
Mounted storage is indexed by Spotlight on macOS and Windows Search, so remote filenames turn up in the system search field without opening another app. A dedicated Activity panel lists currently running transfers with the option to cancel them, while history shows recently edited files locally and on the server.
Mountain Duck mounts remote servers and cloud storage as a local disk so that everyday applications can open and save files directly on that storage. Typical uses include editing files on a web server over SFTP, working with media held in object storage, and giving a desktop a persistent connection to services such as Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, or SharePoint.
Yes, within limits. In Smart Synchronization mode, Mountain Duck keeps directories browsable offline, retains files you opened previously in a local cache, and keeps anything explicitly marked for offline use on disk. Edits made while disconnected are queued and uploaded in the background once connectivity returns. Files that are online only still need a connection to open.
It supports FTP and FTP-TLS, SFTP, WebDAV, SMB, Amazon S3 and S3-compatible storage, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob Storage, OpenStack Swift, Backblaze B2, Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and SharePoint, Box, and DRACOON. Provider-specific connection profiles extend this to services such as Nextcloud, ownCloud, Cloudflare R2, Wasabi, DigitalOcean Spaces, and Infomaniak kDrive.
Yes, when you store files inside a Cryptomator-compatible vault. Mountain Duck encrypts those files locally, so the server or cloud provider only holds encrypted data, and the vault stays interoperable with the Cryptomator application itself. Files outside a vault are uploaded as they are, unless the storage service applies its own server-side encryption.
Not in the Integrated connect mode, which uses the File Provider API on macOS and the Cloud Files API on Windows instead of a device driver or a classic network mount. Other connect modes that present the storage as a traditional mounted volume remain available for workflows that expect a drive letter or mount point.
Files that are online only occupy no local space because they are downloaded on demand when opened. Cached files and anything marked to keep offline do use disk space, and the cache can be limited by a size threshold so older items are purged automatically. Items you explicitly keep offline are excluded from that automatic purging.
Where the underlying service allows it, Mountain Duck creates links that expire automatically, including on Amazon S3, OpenStack Swift, Azure, and Backblaze B2. For Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and Nextcloud or ownCloud deployments it uses the provider's own sharing, so recipients see the same permissions that the service would normally grant.
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