RcloneView on Elementary OS — Cloud Storage Sync and Backup

August 18, 2026 · 4 min read

Principal Engineer

Run RcloneView on Elementary OS to browse, sync, mount, and back up 90+ cloud providers from a native GUI that fits the Pantheon desktop.

Elementary OS is built on Ubuntu LTS but ships its own Pantheon desktop, and users who picked it for a clean, macOS-like workflow often want their cloud storage tools to match that same polish instead of falling back to a bare terminal. RcloneView installs as a native .deb package on Elementary OS and provides a full file-manager-style interface for every remote rclone supports, from Google Drive to Amazon S3 to SFTP servers. Unlike mount-only tools, RcloneView also syncs and compares folders — on the FREE license — so mounting a drive and running a scheduled backup both come from the same app.

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

WindowsmacOSLinux

Get Started Free →

Free core features. Plus automations available.

Installing RcloneView on Elementary OS

Since Elementary OS is Debian/Ubuntu-based, RcloneView installs from the .deb package available on the official download page — grab the x86_64 build (or aarch64 if you're running Elementary on ARM64 hardware) and install it with sudo dpkg -i rclone_view-*-linux-{arch}.deb from a terminal. There's no Flathub or Snap Store package to reach for here — the .deb direct download is the only supported installation path, and AppImage is also available if you'd rather skip package management entirely.

Elementary OS ships GTK+ and a Wayland/X11 session by default through Pantheon, which covers RcloneView's display and toolkit requirements out of the box. The one thing worth confirming after install is libayatana-appindicator3-1, since RcloneView's system tray icon depends on it and some minimal Elementary installs trim indicator libraries to keep the desktop lean.

RcloneView main window running on Elementary OS with a new remote dialog open

Connecting Cloud Remotes

With RcloneView installed, adding a remote works identically to every other platform: Remote tab > New Remote, choose your provider, then either authenticate through a browser popup (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box) or enter credentials directly (Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, SFTP). The embedded rclone binary handles everything over http://127.0.0.1:5582, so there's nothing extra to install or configure on Elementary OS unless you want to point RcloneView at a separately running external rclone instance instead.

Mounting a cloud remote as a local drive on Elementary OS with RcloneView

Mounting uses nfsmount on Linux — select a remote folder in the Explorer, click the mount icon in the panel toolbar, and the cloud folder appears as a local path any Pantheon app can open directly. FUSE (fuse3 recommended) needs to be installed for mounting to function.

Scheduling Sync Jobs

For an Elementary OS machine that stays powered on through the day, a scheduled sync job turns RcloneView into a hands-off backup tool rather than something you trigger manually. Build the job through the 4-step Sync wizard, add filters to skip temp files or anything oversized, and — with a PLUS license — attach a crontab-style schedule so it fires automatically on whatever cadence you need.

Creating a scheduled sync job on Elementary OS in RcloneView

Job History records every run with status, duration, and transfer speed, which makes it easy to confirm an overnight backup actually finished instead of silently failing while you weren't watching.

Getting Started

Download RcloneView from rcloneview.com — grab the x86_64 or aarch64 .deb for Elementary OS.
Install with sudo dpkg -i rclone_view-*-linux-{arch}.deb.
Add your first cloud remote through Remote tab > New Remote.
Set up a sync or mount to start managing cloud storage directly from the Pantheon desktop.

With the .deb installed, Elementary OS gets the same drag-and-drop cloud management experience as Windows and macOS users, without trading away the desktop's clean, consistent feel.

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