Permissions Required on Remote Servers

When using a Remote Server, Sync requires that the account on the remote server has read, write, and list permissions for the targeted folder and its sub-folders.

Source folders must be readable and destination folders must be writable. List permission is required on both sides so that Sync can enumerate the remote folder and determine which files need to be transferred.

Sync normally writes over the file already at the destination. When the remote server supports this, replacing a file needs no delete permission.

With After Copying set to delete, the source account also needs delete permission. The Sync removes each source file after a successful transfer or when it finds a file with the same name and size already at the destination. Source deletion therefore needs this permission even when the run does not transfer the file.

Delete permission is needed on the destination in two cases. An SFTP server that refuses to replace a file in place sends Sync back to deleting the old file and writing a new one. When an FTP upload finishes at the wrong size, Files.com deletes the partial file rather than leaving it on the server.