Tools

Servers and network

Connect a panel to an SFTP, FTP, FTPS, WebDAV or S3 server, or mount an SMB share, and work with its files like local ones. A web server’s folder listing (HTTP, HTTPS) opens read-only for browsing and downloading.

Connect to Server (⌘K)§

Press ⌘K (Commands › Connect to Server…). The window lists your saved servers on the left. Click Add for a new one, fill in the form and click Connect. Save keeps it for next time; Remove deletes it. Double-click a saved server to connect to it right away.

To disconnect, click the eject button next to the drive pop-up of a panel showing the server, or press ⇧⌘K (Commands › Disconnect). Every panel showing that server goes back to the last local folder it showed.

Servers on your network§

The On This Network tab, next to Saved at the top of the list, shows the file servers on your local network that announce themselves with Bonjour: NAS boxes and Macs with file sharing (SMB), SSH and SFTP servers, WebDAV and FTP servers. Total Commander users know this as the Network Neighborhood; NetBIOS browsing itself is gone from current Macs and most NAS boxes. Select a server and click Add to Saved Servers: it becomes a new connection with its address and port filled in. Enter the user name and password, and click Connect. For an SMB server without a share, macOS asks which share to mount. The drive pop-up at the top of each panel has Network…, which opens the same window.

The first time, macOS asks whether PaneShift may find devices on your local network. If you said no, allow it in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Local Network.

The fields§

Name

How the server appears in your list.

Server

Host name or IP address, such as files.example.com. For S3 this is the Endpoint host, such as s3.amazonaws.com.

Port

Leave empty for the protocol's default.

User and Password

For S3, the access key and secret key. Passwords are saved in your Keychain, never in PaneShift's settings; the field then says “saved in the Keychain”.

Folder

The folder to open after connecting. For S3, the Bucket (and prefix); for SMB, the Share.

Anonymous login (FTP, FTPS)

Log in as a guest, for public mirrors such as mirrors.dotsrc.org.

Private key file (SFTP, SCP)

For example ~/.ssh/id_ed25519. Ed25519 and RSA keys work. With a key, the password field asks for the key's passphrase. Leave it empty to use a password, or the settings for this host in ~/.ssh/config.

Region and Use HTTPS (S3)

The bucket's region, such as us-east-1, and whether to connect with TLS.

The connection log§

While PaneShift connects, the Connection Log window shows what happens: the address it reaches, the server's replies and the login. It closes by itself when the connection works. When it fails, it stays open so you can read why, and Copy Log puts the text on the clipboard for a support request or your server's administrator.

Server keys (SFTP)§

The first time you connect to an SFTP server, PaneShift remembers its key. If the key changes later, PaneShift refuses to connect and warns that the identity of the server has changed. That can mean the server was reinstalled, or that someone is intercepting the connection. Only if you know the change is expected, click Trust the New Key.

Working on a server§

The panel shows the server's folders. Most commands work as at home:

• With a server in each panel, even of different kinds (SFTP to S3, FTP to WebDAV), F5 and F6 copy and move between them. Each file goes through a temporary copy on your Mac, which is deleted afterwards.
• F5 and F6 download to or upload from the other panel; F8 deletes on the server (there is no Trash), F7 makes a folder, ⇧F6 renames.
• F3 and Return download the file to a private temporary folder and open it. macOS treats it as a downloaded file.
• Dragging files from a server panel to the other panel or the Finder downloads them.
• ⇧⌘G goes to a path on the server.
• ⌘I changes permissions on SFTP and FTP servers: read, write and execute for owner, group and others, optionally for everything inside folders. The Permissions column shows them. FTP servers need SITE CHMOD, which most Unix servers have.

Some commands need local files: F4 Edit, New File, Multi-Rename, Pack and Unpack, Branch view, Quick Look, folder sizes, checksums, the image and PDF tools, the command line and user commands. On a server they beep and the status line says “Not available on a server — copy the files to a local folder first.” Find Files, Compare Folders, Synchronize and Compare by Content need both panels on local folders.

Pausing and resuming downloads§

Downloads from FTP, FTPS and SFTP can be paused in the Operations window. The part downloaded so far stays in the target folder as name.paneshift-part. Resume, or start the same download again later, and it continues from where it stopped. Downloads from a web server's folder listing continue the same way when the server supports it (most do).

An upload to SFTP or FTP cut off by a dropped connection leaves its name.paneshift-part on the server; copying the same, unchanged file again continues from there. A cancelled upload removes its part. WebDAV and S3 transfers start over.

Web server folder listings§

Choose HTTP or HTTPS (folder listing, read-only) as the kind, and the panel lists the links of a folder's page: links ending in / are folders, the rest files. Sizes and dates appear when the page prints exact ones (nginx, Apache with plain numbers); dates are read as UTC, which is nginx's default — Apache prints the server's local time, so its dates can be off by the server's time zone. F5 downloads files and whole folders, and a stopped download continues only when the server confirms the file is unchanged (ETag or Last-Modified); commands that would change something on the server are turned off, and nothing can be copied or dropped into such a panel. A user name and password are sent only to that server, when it asks for them.

Cancelling a copy keeps every file that was finished. A file that was still being transferred never appears under its real name: an upload is written as name.paneshift-part and renamed when complete, and its part is removed when you cancel. Copy again and PaneShift asks about each file that is already there, so Skip All continues where you stopped. Uploaded files keep their modification date (SFTP and SCP), so Compare Folders sees them as the same files.

Editing files on a server (F4)§

F4 on a server file downloads it and opens it in your text editor. Every time you save, PaneShift uploads it again; the Operations window lists the files you edit under Edited on servers, with their state and a Stop button. Before each upload PaneShift checks whether someone else saved the file on the server since you opened it. If so, it asks: replace their version, save yours as name (edited).ext next to it, take the server's version into your editor, or decide later (the row then says Not uploaded, and its Upload button sends it). Where a server's listings have no dates, PaneShift compares the content itself. Editors that write into the file and those that replace it on saving both work.

Your changes are never thrown away without asking: Stop on a file with changes not on the server offers to upload them or keep the local copy, and quitting asks first. If PaneShift quits anyway (or crashes), the unsent copies are kept in ~/Library/Application Support/PaneShift/Recovered Edits and PaneShift tells you at the next launch.

Dragging items from a server panel to the other panel copies them like F5, with progress in the Operations window and the same questions about existing files. Dragging them to the Finder or another app downloads them where you drop them.

Before copying a folder, PaneShift reads it to know the total. Over SCP it reads the whole tree with one command; the Operations window shows how many items and how much data it has found so far.

When a server stops answering§

If a folder can't be loaded, an orange bar above the list says what went wrong, with Try Again. Try Again opens a new connection, which fixes most dropped sessions.

SMB shares§

SMB connections mount the share with macOS, like Go › Connect to Server in the Finder. The share then appears as a volume under /Volumes and in the drive pop-up, and the panel opens it.

• Leave Share empty to choose from the server's shares in the system dialog.
• PaneShift gives up after 20 seconds when the server doesn't answer.
• Eject the share from the drive pop-up when you are done.

When mounting fails, PaneShift explains why in plain words, for example:

• The server refused the user name or password.
• The server doesn't allow guest access. Enter a user name and password.
• The share doesn't exist on the server.
• The server can't be reached, or didn't answer in time.
• The server uses a login method or SMB version macOS doesn't support.

See Troubleshooting for what to do.

Cloud folders§

iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive and similar services keep their folders on your Mac. Open them like any folder: they are in the drive pop-up under Places, or in ~/Library/CloudStorage. For iCloud status and downloads, see Mac integration.