Cloud Storage for Museums and Archives — Digital Preservation with RcloneView
Digitized collections only stay safe if every copy is verified, not just uploaded — RcloneView gives archivists a way to prove it.
A regional history museum digitizing 40,000 photographic negatives faces a problem that has nothing to do with scanning: once a TIFF master file exists, it needs to live in two independent storage locations, and someone needs to confirm those copies stay identical over years. RcloneView handles that verification workflow directly, connecting working cloud storage to long-term archival tiers and giving staff a folder-by-folder comparison instead of a blind "upload complete" message.
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.
Master Files vs. Access Copies
Archives typically maintain two tiers: uncompressed master files (TIFF, WAV, ProRes) kept for preservation, and smaller access copies (JPEG, MP3, H.264) used for public display or researcher requests. RcloneView's multi-panel Explorer lets staff keep both tiers visible side by side — one panel connected to the working cloud drive where curators upload freshly digitized items, another connected to a cold-archive remote such as Amazon S3 Glacier-class storage or Backblaze B2 for the masters.
Because RcloneView connects to 90+ providers, an institution isn't locked into a single vendor's cold-storage product. A museum can keep masters in one provider and mirror a second copy to a different provider for disaster-recovery redundancy, managed from the same window.
Verifying Integrity Between Copies
Uploading a file once is not preservation — confirming it still matches the original years later is. RcloneView's Folder Compare feature checks two locations side by side and flags files that differ in size, exist only on one side, or errored during transfer. Archivists running a periodic fixity check can point Compare at the working collection and the archival mirror, then review the "different files" filter to catch silent corruption or incomplete transfers before they become permanent losses.
Unlike mount-only cloud tools, RcloneView also syncs and compares folders — on the FREE license — so integrity checks don't require a paid tier to get started.
Scheduled Backup of Catalog Metadata
Collection management systems (CMS databases, finding aids, EAD/MARC records) change constantly as items are cataloged. RcloneView's Job Manager lets an archive define a recurring sync job that mirrors the CMS export folder to cloud storage on a schedule (PLUS license), so metadata backups happen automatically instead of depending on a staff member remembering to run a manual export.
Dry Run mode lets the digitization team preview exactly which files a sync will touch before committing, which matters when a job might otherwise overwrite a corrected catalog record with a stale one.
Getting Started
- Download RcloneView from rcloneview.com.
- Add a remote for your primary cloud storage and a second remote for your cold-archive or off-site backup provider.
- Run an initial sync of your digitized masters, then use Folder Compare to confirm both copies match.
- Set up a recurring job for catalog metadata so cataloging work is never at risk of being lost.
A collection is only as safe as its least-verified copy — building that verification into a routine, rather than trusting it happened, is what keeps decades of digitization work recoverable.
Related Guides:
- Manage Internet Archive Uploads with RcloneView
- Sync Google Drive to Internet Archive — Cloud Backup with RcloneView
- Cloud Storage for Research & Academia — Guide with RcloneView
Supported Cloud Providers
