Cloud Mounter
Easy access to the cloud – but how reliable is it?
Cloud storage is super-convenient, but transferring files through a web browser doesn’t feel very modern or intuitive. Many services provide native Mac software, but such clients are often designed to sync files, rather than enable you to access them directly from the Finder. CloudMounter mounts cloud-connected storage services as local volumes, making them accessible and easy to use.
This isn’t a new or revolutionary concept in itself – ExpanDrive successfully pioneered the idea, first with FTP servers and later with cloud services such as Dropbox and Google Drive.
CloudMounter tackles all three services from an easy-to-use menu bar application, along with Microsoft OneDrive, Amazon S3, and WebDAV. Add the desired providers, click Mount, and they appear on the desktop as colorful drive icons customized for each type of service, used to drag and drop files between cloud-based destinations.
Unfortunately, CloudMounter isn’t yet as reliable as ExpanDrive. Mounted volumes don’t automatically appear in the Devices sidebar, and we occasionally encountered server interruption error messages that sometimes caused the Finder to lock up when ignored; quitting and relaunching usually fixed it.
Copying and moving files to or from cloud services generally worked fine, although the speed is entirely dependent upon your available internet connection. Uploads are temporarily cached until transfers are complete, so CloudMounter isn’t well-suited for larger files. There’s also no progress bar or visual notification beyond the initial caching – a much-need feature which is included in ExpanDrive, along with support for a few additional services including Amazon Cloud Drive and Box.
Be careful using Quick Look or trying to directly open large files – more often than not, this caused our iMac to hang as CloudMounter struggled to make the file available. We also found services such as OneDrive to be more reliable than others.
The bottom line.
CloudMounter is a promising debut, but isn’t yet as robust or reliable as ExpanDrive. On the other hand, it is quite a bit cheaper.