The Novell Filr desktop application allows you to synchronize your Novell Filr files with the file system on your computer and then modify the files without accessing the Filr site directly. Additions and modifications are synchronized between Filr and your computer.
The Novell Filr desktop application is supported for the following versions of the Windows operating system:
Windows 10
Windows 8 and 8.1
Windows 7
Microsoft .NET Framework 4 is required, and you are prompted to install it when you install the Filr desktop application. In order to view the Filr properties of a file or folder, .NET Framework 4.5 is required.
The Novell Filr desktop application on Mac requires Mac OS X 10.7 or later.
The Filr desktop application has not had significant testing with OSX 10.10. For known issues, see Section 3.1, Mac OSX 10.10 (Yosemite) Issues.
The following are known issues for the Novell Filr desktop application:
Because Filr 1.1 was released before OSX 10.10 (Yosemite), the following issues exist:
When updating the Filr 1.1 desktop for Mac to the Poodle patch release when running Mac OSX 10.10 (Yosemite), the Filr desktop application update fails if the Filr desktop application is running at the time you install the update.
To successfully update to the Filr 1.1 Poodle patch for the Filr 1.1 desktop for Mac, you must exit the Filr Desktop application before installing the update.
The overlay status icons on files and folders are not always displayed when using the Filr 1.1 desktop application on Mac OSX 10.10.
Due to significant changes in the OSX 10.11 frameworks, the Filr Desktop client for Mac has experienced startup problems on the 10.11 platform.
Novell has released support patch HP3 to resolve the issue. As always, best practice is to apply the patches and update the desktops in patch order.
After applying the patches, some users might still see the following issues:
The Filr desktop client for Mac fails to launch.
Mac Finder fails to respond.
Overlay icons for Filr files and folders do not display.
One of the following actions should resolve the issues.
Option 1
Relaunch Finder.
Open System Preferences.
Deselect the Novell Filr > Finder option, then select it again.
Option 2:
Restart the Mac workstation.
When creating a folder with the Filr desktop application (via Windows Explorer), sometimes two folders are created instead of one: one with the name that you specify, and another that is named New Folder. If you encounter this issue, delete the folder named New Folder.
Moving the Filr folder to the root of a volume on Mac (for example, /Volumes/ABC) results in an error and the folder is not moved to the specified location.
When moving the folder to a subdirectory (for example,/Volumes/ABC/Novell), the folder is successfully moved.
The Filr application file (Filr.app) does not function properly if it is moved from its default installation location of /Applications.
When the full path to a file or folder on the Windows file system exceeds 260 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.
When selecting a location for the Filr folder, you should not configure the Novell Filr desktop application on multiple computers to use the same shared location on the network. This is because the Novell Filr desktop application does not synchronize files properly if two instances are synchronizing to the same shared location, even if the instances are not running simultaneously. Because of this, it is best to always avoid configuring the Filr folder to be on a network drive.
If a file is modified on the Net Folder’s file system outside of Filr, an error might be displayed the next time it is synchronized to your the Filr desktop application, indicating that the application failed to validate the file’s checksum. This occurs because the Filr server’s metadata does not match the file on the Net Folder’s file system.
This issue should resolve itself automatically the next time the desktop application synchronizes, because it will direct the Filr server to update its metadata. If the issue is not resolved, doing one of the following will resolve it, depending on how your Filr administrator has configured synchronization between Net Folders and Filr:
Access the file from the Filr Web client. After accessing the file, the change might be reflected in the Filr desktop application.
Wait for the Filr server to detect the change on the Net Folder file system and update its metadata. The update frequency depends on the Net Folder synchronization schedule, which is configured by your Filr administrator.
If you attempt to add a file to Filr via the Filr desktop application, and the file exceeds the Max File Size limit, the file is not synchronized.
Your Filr administrator can adjust the Max File Size limit. If the limit is increased after you attempt to add files that exceed the limit, you must exit (fully quit) and relaunch the Filr desktop application, in order for any pending files to be synchronized.
If your Filr administrator adjusts the Max File Size Limit, the new value is not displayed in the Filr console (on the Account Information page) until you exit and restart Filr.
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 the folder name.
When the Filr desktop application is being installed, the Windows Desktop background might temporarily revert to the default Windows background. You can safely ignore this issue.
After installing the 64-bit Filr desktop application on Mac OS X, you are able to right-click the Filr icon in the menu bar and then see an option to launch Filr in 32-bit mode. This functionality is not supported.
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 (as described in Which Folders Are Synchronized
in the Filr Desktop Application for Windows Quick Start), and therefore the files and folders cannot be synchronized.
To resolve the pending status, remove the pending files or folders from the root of the Shared with Me area.
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.
After upgrading the Filr desktop application and changing the location to a new drive (for example, if the Filr desktop application was originally installed on drive C:\ and you change the location to drive E:\), you must restart the Filr desktop application. If you do not restart the application, unexpected errors can occur.
After upgrading the Filr desktop application on a Mac, you must do one of the following in order for the Get File Link feature to be fully functional:
Restart the computer
Log out of the computer as the current user
Restart Finder
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 limitation is because, from a technical standpoint, files created with iWork applications are stored as folders, and Filr does not support performing these actions on folders.
For information on how to install, configure, and use the Novell Filr desktop application on your computer, see the Filr Desktop Application for Windows Quick Start or the Filr Desktop Application for Mac Quick Start.
For information about how to enable or disable the Novell Filr desktop application, as well as perform other administrative functions, see Configuring the Filr Desktop Application to Access Files
in the Novell Filr 1.2 Administration Guide.
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