Mountain Duck for macOS Review: Seamlessly Access Cloud and Server Files Offline

In today’s age, the distinction between cloud storage and local storage can often be confusing. When you’re in the middle of a heavy workload, it can be a complete waste of time searching for your files only to realize you don’t remember whether you stored them in the cloud, on a server, or a local drive. As someone who deals with various files constantly, I find it incredibly easy to become disorganized.

Fortunately, Mountain Duck has you covered. Based on Cyberduck, this handy tool allows you to mount server and cloud storage as disks directly within a Finder window on macOS. It will enable you to open remote files using any application and work on them like local volumes.

Why You Should Use Mountain Duck + Key Features

For those needing constant access to their data, Mountain Duck provides a wide array of features and services to help you access your files whenever needed. One of the best features is the ability to work offline. With Mountain Duck, you can choose what folders and files you want to store offline on your computer, leaving other files to be downloaded and cached on demand without taking up space on your drive. 

Mountain Duck also supports the following features:

1. History

View detailed information about in-progress transfers and a history of files recently edited on your computer or the server.

2. Expansive sharing features

Mountain Duck makes sharing easier with options to create auto-expiring links for Amazon S3, OpenStack Swift, Microsoft Azure, and more.

3. Support for major protocols

Connecting to a specific server is straightforward with Mountain Duck, as it supports all major protocols. This includes support for FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, OpenStack Swift, S3, Google Cloud Storage, Azure, Backblaze B2, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive and Box. 

4. Features for teams

For collaborators, Mountain Duck offers file-locking and versioning features. Not only can you prevent conflicting edits with file locking, but the version feature allows you to preview previous versions of files as well. 

What Could Use Work

One great thing about Mountain Duck is that it’s trusted software. What I particularly enjoy is that the software itself adapts rather well to my workload: I encountered no issues navigating and working with my files. It’s also little things that make things wonderful for me, such as the ability to mount certain drives solely when I need them. 

However, one drawback for users may be that the software can be a resource hog, especially when dealing with a large amount of files. However, users should note that working with a large number of files is likely to slow down your system regardless of the software. It’s a good rule of thumb to avoid doing other tasks when dealing with a large volume of files.

Learn more about Mountain Duck here.

How to Use Mountain Duck

One of the great things about this software is its ease of use. One of the reasons it’s so easy to use is that Mountain Duck runs in your status bar with macOS, ensuring it’s always available.

In fact, getting Mountain Duck running is rather easy: 

1. Download Mountain Duck and install the app.
2. From here, Mountain Duck will begin running in your status bar.
3. You can also configure Mountain Duck to open automatically each time you start your machine.

While there may be a slight learning curve for some of the more detailed features, learning the basics is rather easy. 

Final Words + Discount

If you’re looking for an easy way to access your cloud files, Mountain Duck has you covered. While getting into the real nitty-gritty may take a bit of a learning curve, the company provides plenty of support documents to keep you connected. That said, getting started is very easy. While not free, you are able to currently get it for $7.00 USD, a considerable savings from its typical $39.00 asking price. There is also a trial version available. 

Mountain Duck is here to cover all of your accessibility needs. If you need constant access to files whenever you’re working online or offline, this app has you covered. Overall, I recommend this product to anyone who works extensively in IT, graphic design, or other media fields and needs reliable file access without always depending on the internet.