Chunker Remote — Upload Large Files Beyond Provider Limits in RcloneView
RcloneView supports rclone's Chunker virtual remote, which transparently splits large files into smaller chunks for upload to providers with file size restrictions — and reassembles them on download.
Some cloud storage providers impose per-file size limits: Dropbox and Google Drive allow up to 5 TB per file, but many S3-compatible providers, WebDAV servers, and specialized services cap individual objects at 5 GB or less. If you need to store a 15 GB virtual machine image or a 20 GB database dump on one of these providers, you'd normally need to manually split the file with tools like split or 7-Zip. The Chunker virtual remote in rclone — accessible through RcloneView — handles this automatically and transparently.
Manage & Sync All Clouds in One Place
RcloneView is a cross-platform GUI for rclone. Compare folders, transfer or sync files, and automate multi-cloud workflows with a clean, visual interface.
- One-click jobs: Copy · Sync · Compare
- Schedulers & history for reliable automation
- Works with Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, S3, WebDAV, SFTP and more
Free core features. Plus automations available.
What the Chunker Remote Does
The Chunker remote is a virtual remote that wraps an existing remote (e.g., a Wasabi S3 bucket or a WebDAV server). When you upload a file through the Chunker remote, it splits the file into fixed-size chunks (you define the chunk size), uploads each chunk individually, and writes a metadata file that describes how to reassemble them. When you download the file through the same Chunker remote, rclone reads the metadata and reconstructs the original file — the process is completely transparent.
This means you can store 50 GB .vmdk files on a provider that enforces a 5 GB per-object limit, access them normally through RcloneView, and download or sync them without any manual assembly.
Setting Up a Chunker Remote in RcloneView
Go to Remote tab → New Remote and scroll down to Chunker in the virtual remote section. Configure:
- Remote — the underlying storage remote (e.g.,
wasabi:my-bucket/chunks/) - Chunk size — default is 2 GB; set this below your provider's per-file limit (e.g., 4 GB for providers with a 5 GB limit, leaving headroom)
- Metadata format —
simplejson(default) stores metadata as a sidecar.jsonfile alongside the chunks
Save the Chunker remote. It now appears in RcloneView's Explorer alongside your other remotes. Browse to it, and it behaves like any other remote — you see reassembled files, not individual chunks.
Use Cases for Chunker in Practice
VM image backups: A DevOps team backing up Proxmox or ESXi virtual machine images to a WebDAV server (which caps at 2 GB per object) can use Chunker to store 10–50 GB .vmdk and .qcow2 images transparently.
Database dump archives: A 25 GB PostgreSQL dump can be stored on a provider with a 5 GB file size limit using 4 GB chunks. The DBA never sees the chunked representation — downloading through the Chunker remote reconstructs the original file.
Archive files: A 30 GB .tar.gz backup of a media project can be synced to any provider, regardless of per-file limits.
Important Limitations
- Files chunked by one version of rclone must be accessed by rclone through the Chunker remote — they cannot be downloaded via a provider's native web interface
- The underlying provider must support the chunk size you set; for S3, chunks must be at least 5 MB for multipart uploads
- Chunker works best for archive/backup scenarios, not frequently modified files
Getting Started
- Download RcloneView from rcloneview.com.
- Add your underlying storage provider (S3, WebDAV, etc.) as a remote first.
- Create a Chunker virtual remote wrapping that provider, setting chunk size below the per-file limit.
- Use the Chunker remote as your sync target for large-file jobs in the Job Manager.
The Chunker remote makes RcloneView's large-file support universal — no provider file size limit is an obstacle when you can split and reassemble transparently.
Related Guides:
- Virtual Remotes — Combine, Union, and Alias in RcloneView
- Upload Large Files to Google Drive Sync with RcloneView
- Fix Connection Timeout on Large File Uploads with RcloneView
Supported Cloud Providers
