If you’ve shared any files or folders with other people, or if you’re downloading from a group drive, email cloudstor@aarnet.edu.au to have all files and folders on your drive changed to read-only before you start your download.
Pick a download tool
Install a tool like:
- CloudStor desktop app: Connect to CloudStor using a graphical user interface. You can cap download bandwidth usage and have it automatically synchronise your local and CloudStor drives over several sessions – useful for larger drives.
- Command line interface tool: Tools like Rclone provide a quick text-only interface that you can use to download files or migrate data to a different service.
These tools can download files up to 100 GB in size.
If you need assistance with moving data from very large drives or have lots of files, please email cloudstor@aarnet.edu.au
Note: We do not recommend downloading your data using CloudStor in a web browser. Bulk downloads from CloudStor using zip files will be disabled on 3 April 2023.
Download using CloudStor desktop app
If you don’t currently have the desktop app installed:
- Download and install the CloudStor desktop app.
- Open the desktop app and log in with your web browser.
CloudStor will run the connection wizard. - Select Synchronize everything from server.
- Untick Ask for confirmation before synchronizing folders larger than.
- Click the local folder button and navigate to the folder you want to download your CloudStor drive to.
- Click Connect….
- Wait for your files to download.
If you currently have the CloudStor desktop app installed, check that it’s downloading true copies of your CloudStor files, instead of using virtual files. Virtual files take up a lot less space on your local drive, but they don’t provide you with offline access to your CloudStor files – and that’s what you need.
- Open the desktop app.
- Click … > Disable virtual file support… next to the CloudStor connection.
If this option isn’t available, CloudStor isn’t using virtual files on your local drive. - Click Disable support.
- Expand the connection and check that all folders are ticked.
- Wait for your files to download.
Disconnect your local folder from CloudStor
Once the CloudStor desktop app has finished downloading your files from CloudStor, you can remove the connection. This stops the app from attempting to update the files again.
To disconnect your local CloudStor folder:
- Click … > Remove folder sync connection next to the CloudStor connection you’re finished with.
- Click Remove Folder Sync Connection.
Connect your local folder to your new cloud service
Most cloud drive providers will allow you to add a local folder directly to your cloud. For example, in Google Drive for Desktop, you can select individual folders to sync to the cloud. Ensure that you have disconnected the folder from CloudStor first.
Alternatively, copy the local folder to your usual local cloud location. For many cloud services, this will be a virtual drive. For example, Google Drive’s local virtual drive is often G drive.
Download using Rclone
- Download rclone.
- Set up a remote host for CloudStor.
- Run this command:
rclone copy --progress --transfers <streams> CloudStor:/ ~/<location>
where:<streams>is the number of parallel download streams to use.<location>is the folder on your local drive to which rclone will copy the contents of your CloudStor drive.
Migrate to another cloud service using Rclone
- Set up a remote host for CloudStor.
- Go to Rclone’s list of supported providers and click Config next to the cloud service you want to migrate to.
- Follow the instructions to set up a remote host for the cloud service.
- Run this command:
rclone copy <cloudstor>:/ <new cloud service>:/ -P
Check the output to look for files that couldn’t be copied. This might be due to file corruption, locks, or CloudStor being in heavy use. Rerun the command – rclone will only copy new files, rather than trying to copy over everything you’ve already successfully copied.