Filr 3 Desktop Application introduces new features, improves usability, and resolves several previous issues.
Many of these improvements were made in direct response to suggestions from our customers. We thank you for your time and valuable input. We hope you continue to help us ensure that our products meet all your needs.
The documentation for this product is available on the Novell website in HTML and PDF formats on a page that does not require you to log in. If you have suggestions for documentation improvements, click comment on this topic at the bottom of any page in the HTML version of the Filr Desktop Application documentation posted at the Filr 3 Documentation website.
The following sections outline the key features and functions provided in this release. For more information, see the following guides:
Long Path and Short Name Creation features are enabled on Filr Windows Desktop Client. For more information, refer to the Filr Desktop Application for Windows Guide.
Filr 3.4.1 supports Mac OS X 10.14 (macOS Mojave).
With the earlier releases of Filr, when an email was sent to an external user, the external user was required to register to Filr for downloading the attachments.
From Filr 3.4 onwards, the Filr administrator can enable an option to allow the external users to download the attachments without registering to Filr.
This feature sets the default share expiry for the user’s files and folders to 30 days. The Never option is still available though its no longer the default option.
The sharer receives an email notification when the file is accessed by the sharee for the first time. For folders, an email notification is received when any file from the shared folder is accessed for the first time. No notification is received on renaming, deleting, or adding any file to the shared folder.
This functionality is available to:
Users having Filr 3.4 Advanced Edition license
File or folder shared with Filr 3.4 or later
The email notification includes the following information:
<sharee> has accessed <name of file> on <Filr access time> from the IP address <IP of sharee device>. To view the access details of all the users, click here
For example,
Albert has accessed filr.doc on Wednesday, June 13, 2018 2:53:13 PM from the IP address 172.16.16.132. To view the access details of all the users, click here
The click here displays the Share Access Report. The report covers the details of all users who have accessed the specific share. This report can also be accessed from the Share window of that file or folder.
The Access report displays the following information:
User: Name of the user who has accessed the share
IP Address: The IP address of the device that was used to access the share
First Access Time: The date, time, and timezone when the share was first accessed. No information is received when the share is accessed again.
Group: If the user has shared to a group, then the name of the group is displayed that the user is part of.
Filr now has the ability to detect the user’s locale and display the Filr web interface in the language set by the user. If the browser language is not supported by Filr, it defaults to the language set on the Filr server. To change to a supported language, see Modifying Your Profile in the Filr: User Access Guide.
Filr 3.4 introduces support for Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS (Xenial Xerus) on your Linux desktop.
To install Filr Linux client on Ubuntu, you must use the bash shell: sudo bash filrClient.sh --install
Filr 3.3 supports Mac OS X 10.13 (High Sierra) and Mac OS X 10.12 (macOS Sierra).
Unsupported Platform: Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan).
Filr 3.3 provides a technical preview of the Linux Desktop Application. You can now easily access and synchronize all your Filr files and folders from your Linux desktop.
For more information, see Desktop Application Guide for Linux.
Filr 3.2 introduces Advanced Authentication support for LDAP synchronized Filr desktop users. An LDAP user is prompted for additional authentication steps in addition to the typical username and password authentication to log in to Filr desktop provided the Filr administrator has enabled multi-factor authentication on the Filr server.
This functionality is only available on Filr Advanced Edition.
Filr enables you to work with files that are on a Filr server directly from a Microsoft Office 2013 and 2016 application such as Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. From the Microsoft Office application, you can easily browse to a file that is located on a Filr server, open the document, edit it, and then save it back to the Filr server.
Filr 3.2 introduces support for TLS 1.2 to enhance the security for communications between the Filr desktop clients and the Filr server.
Filr 3.2 enhances the File Type Blocking functionality to prevent Filr users from editing a file that has been already uploaded if the file is of a type that is either blacklisted or not listed in the Whitelist.
Filr Administrator can now allow or block the type of files that Desktop users can upload.
If your Filr administrator has restricted the uploading of a type of file, any attempt to upload the restricted type of file is blocked. An error message displays in the Recent Activity page of the desktop console and a balloon notification displays on the desktop if your Filr Administrator has allowed balloon notifications. See Uploading a File
in the Filr Desktop Application For Windows Guide and Filr Desktop Application For Mac Guide.
Filr administrators can now enable or disable balloon notifications on the desktop client.
If your Filr administrator has disabled balloon notifications, you can use the Filr Desktop Console to view the information about the notifications and take appropriate action. See Balloon Notifications Might Not Display
in the Filr Desktop Application For Windows Guide and Filr Desktop Application For Mac Guide
The following sections outline the key features and functions provided in this release. For more information, see the Filr Desktop Application For Windows Guide and Filr Desktop Application For Mac Guide on the Filr 3 documentation website.
Filr 3.0 enhances the Net Folder sharing to include the sharing of folders in addition to the sharing of files. Users can now share folders within their assigned Net Folders using a Filr client (web, mobile, desktop) of their choice when allowed to by Filr administrators.
Filr Administrator can now modify the appearance of your desktop application to match the look and feel of your corporate identity. The branding changes are not effective on your desktop unless you log in and log out of the desktop application. See Customizing the Branding of the Desktop Application in the Filr Desktop Application For Windows Guide and Filr Desktop Application For Mac Guide.
Filr 3.0 Desktop Application has been rebranded from Novell Filr to Micro Focus Filr.
Desktop users can modify the lifetime of the cached files when allowed to by Filr administrators. See Removing Cache Files in the Filr Desktop Application For Windows Guide and Filr Desktop Application For Mac Guide.
Filr 3.0 supports Mac OS X 10.12 (macOS Sierra).
The following platforms are supported:
Windows
Windows 10, 8.1, 7 SP1
Linux
Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS (Xenial Xerus)
Supports Unity graphical desktop environment
SLED 12 SP3
Filr supports only the default GNOME graphical desktop environment that is shipped with SLED 12 SP3.
Macintosh
OS X 10.13 (High Sierra)
OS X 10.12 (macOS Sierra)
For information about downloading and installing Filr 3.0 Desktop Application, see Downloading and Installing the Filr Desktop Application in the following guides:
You can upgrade your Filr Desktop Application from version 2.0 to 3.0.
IMPORTANT:Before you upgrade the Windows Desktop Application, you must do the following to exit the Filr client:
Press and hold Shift, then right-click the Filr icon in the Windows system tray.
Click Exit.
If you upgrade the Filr Desktop Application while a previous version is running, the overlay icons might not display. For more information about this issue, see Overlay Icons Might Not Display After Upgrading the Filr Desktop Application Version.
The following issues are being currently researched:
The following issues are applicable both on Windows and Macintosh platforms:
If you enter a wrong password while logging in to Filr server that has advanced authentication enabled, no error message displays and you are redirected to the Advanced Authentication login page. On entering the Advanced Authentication login details, you are redirected to Filr login page with an error that you have entered an incorrect password.
When renaming a folder in the Filr web client and changing only the case (for example, renaming marketing to Marketing), the change is not synchronized to the Filr desktop client, and the desktop client displays the folder in an out-of-sync state.
To bring the folder back in sync, rename the folder in the web client and change more than the case (for example, rename Marketing to Marketing_Notes).
When installing the Filr desktop application, the folder where you choose to install the application cannot contain extended characters in its name.
When specifying an email address in the Share dialog, if the email address contains extended characters (such as an apostrophe), an error message is displayed indicating that the item cannot be shared with the specified user.
When using the Filr desktop application, you cannot comment on or get the File Link for documents that were created with Apple iWork application such as Pages and Keynote.
This is a technical limitation because files created with iWork applications are stored as folders, and Filr does not support performing these actions on folders.
If you change the location for the storage of Filr files, the context menu and the overlay icons do not display.
Workaround: Quit and relaunch the desktop client.
If you use third party applications such as Microsoft Office to launch a file or LibreOffice to save a file, one or more files within the folder that contains this file might get automatically downloaded.
If you attempt to create a file or folder within an online SharePoint Net Folder, the file or folder creation fails.
Workaround: Make at least one file within the Net Folder offline and then create the file or folder.
The following issues are applicable on Linux platforms:
If you reinstall Filr on a desktop from where Filr has not been completely uninstalled, the Filr Desktop Console fails to launch. This might be because some of the Filr RPMs have not been completely removed from the desktop computer due to low disk space (around 200 MB) on the computer during the uninstallation.
Workaround: Do the following to perform a clean uninstallation and then reinstall the client:
Launch a terminal.
To perform a clean uninstallation, run the following commands as a root user:
# sudo zypper remove filr-linux-desktop
# sudo zypper remove filr-linux-desktop-nautillus
# sudo rm -r /tmp/filr-installed
To reinstall the Linux client, run the following command as a root user:
sudo sh filrClient.sh --install
When you use the GUI to launch the Filr desktop application, the application might not launch and no message displays in the interface. This happens because only one instance of the application can be open at any point of time and an instance of the desktop application might already be open.
Workaround: Before launching a new instance of the application, you must close the existing instance of the application.
When you edit any file using the vi editor, the file does not automatically synchronize to the Filr server.
Workaround: After editing any file using the vi editor, you must manually synchronize the file to the Filr server.
Some of the files do not display the overlay icons. This includes:
Files with .sql, .pcap, .png, .accdb, .aspx, .cer, .one, or.pub extension
Filenames without any extension
This is a known limitation with Nautilus.
The Filr icon in the notification area appears to be trimmed during the first login in to the client application. However, the icon correctly displays when you relaunch Filr or log into the desktop again.
Every time you perform an operation on a sub folder of the renamed folder, you must manually synchronize the files and folders.
If your Filr administrator disables the synchronization of the net folder data to your desktop computer after you have used the Linux Desktop Application to manually configure the net folders for synchronizing the data to your computer, the net folder data that is already synchronized to your computer is removed from the computer during the next scheduled or manual synchronization. If you choose to re-add the net folder for synchronization after your Filr administrator enables the synchronization of the net folder data to your desktop computer, the net folder does not get added.
Workaround: Do the following to re- add the net folder for synchronization:
Log out of Filr.
Delete the .novellfilr directory from your home directory.
Relogin Filr.
The following issues are applicable on Macintosh platforms:
The Filr application file (Filr.app) does not function properly if it is moved from its default installation location of /Applications.
The overlay icons and context menu might not display in the following scenarios:
After you upgrade the Filr Desktop Client.
When you edit the user account information or the Filr storage location.
Workaround: Restart the Filr desktop client. If the overlays icons are still not visible, do one of the following:
Open System Preferences, deselect the Filr > Finder option and select it again. Then, relaunch Finder.
Reboot the computer.
When you navigate for the first time through a folder in the Filr area on a Mac computer, you might experience a delay in the listing of the files in the folder.
Workaround: Click some other Filr folder and then click this folder again.
When you install Filr on a Mac computer, multiple Filr icons are displayed within the Favorites.
Workaround: There is no functionality loss. Log out of the computer and log in again.
On a Mac computer, if you use the Photos application to create a photos library, you cannot save the library in the Filr location.
If you browse through a folder that contains .app files on a Mac computer, all the .app files within the folder gets automatically downloaded.
When you click the balloon notification on a Mac 10.12 computer, the action (such as executing the system alerts, synchronizing the pending changes, or launching a web page) associated with the notification fails to execute. Use the Filr Desktop Console to view the information about the notification and take appropriate action.
The following issues are applicable on Windows platforms:
If you have an Avast antivirus then on installing Filr 3.4.2 Windows Desktop application, it displays a warning that the file will be scanned for 15 seconds. After successful scanning, you can continue with the installation of the Filr desktop application.
When the full path to a file or folder on the Windows file system exceeds 225 characters, the file or folder does not synchronize to the Filr desktop application.
The full path includes all characters in the path, such as C:\Users\username\Filr\My Files\Meeting Notes and so forth.
On a Windows 10 computer, system alerts notifications does not display. However, the alert messages are displayed in the System Alerts tab.
Workaround: Restart the computer.
When you move Windows files with size greater than 1 GB from one Filr area to another Filr area, an Access Denied error is incorrectly displayed. Ignore the message and click Cancel to close the message.
When you move online Windows files or folders from the Filr data area to non-Filr data area, the files or folders are copied from the source location to the target location.
On a Windows 8.1 computer, if you double-click a file to launch the file in the default application, the file fails to launch. For example, double-clicking an online music or movie file to play in Xbox player fails to play the file.
Workaround: Use a commonly used application to launch the file. For example, use a commonly used media player such as Windows Media Player to play the music or movie file.
If you change the attribute of an offline file, the attribute is set. However, the properties dialog of the file does not reflect the change. So, you cannot reset the attribute to the default attribute. For example, if you set the attribute of a file as Read-only, the Read-only option in the properties dialog of the file does not get selected. So, you cannot reset the attribute of this file.
When moving or copying a file or folder into the root of the Shared with Me area in the Filr desktop application for Windows, the overlay status icons incorrectly show the file or folder as pending synchronization. Moving or copying a file or folder to the root of the Shared with Me area is not supported and therefore the files and folders cannot be synchronized. For more information about which folders are synchronized, see Which Folders Are Synchronized in the Filr Desktop Application For Windows Guide on the Filr 3 documentation website.
To resolve the pending status, remove the pending files or folders from the root of the Shared with Me area.
If you upgrade the Filr Desktop Application while a previous version is running, the overlay icons might not display.
Workaround: Restart the Explorer.
When you upgrade the Filr Desktop Application on a Windows desktop, the client installer might hang.
Workaround: Perform the following steps:
Manually kill the client installation process:
Launch the Windows Task Manager.
Right-click the msisexec.exe*32 process and then click End Process Tree.
Restart the computer.
Launch the upgrade process again and follow the system prompts to complete the upgrade.
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