How to mount cloud storage on the Mac's desktop like a local drive

Make remote storage like Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and Dropbox as easy to use as local storage on the Apple Mac using CloudMounter, a useful free app from the Mac App Store.

CloudMounter from Eltima Software makes remote storage work like local storage, so accessing files stored in the cloud is as easy as accessing them on the Mac's disk or an external drive.

The app is free and it works with OneDrive, Dropbox and Google Drive for free, but you can add many more cloud storage services with a monthly or annual subscription (UK £25.99 a year).

There are apps from Microsoft, Dropbox and Google that sync a folder on the Mac's drive with the online storage, but CloudMounter is different because it is not a sync tool. It enables you to work with remote files like they were local.

This means you could uninstall the sync apps you are using and replace it with CloudMounter to free up storage. I haven't yet taken that step, but it seems an obvious thing to do and it will free up all the storage that is being used on the Mac. Many gigabytes of space could be released.

Add online storage

When the app is first run, it prompts you to enable a Finder extension in System Preferences > Extensions and this enables you to see the loading status of files on mounted drives.

You can then select the services to add and there are 12. I added Dropbox and after adding the password and username and authorising it, a Dropbox icon was added to the desktop.

Opening the new drive icon is just like opening a local drive in Finder and everything works as expected. I found it fast and responsive and not much different to working with an external USB drive.

However, I have a fast fibre optic internet connection and the speed you get will depend on the quality of your internet connection. The faster it is, the easier it will be to work with online files. The size of the files also affects responsiveness and performance and you wouldn't want to work with large video files online. Documents, spreadsheets, photos and other files are fine.

Encrypt your files

Security is a worry when using cloud storage and if someone could get into your account, they could access all of the files that are stored there, some of which could be private or sensitive.

CloudMounter is able to encrypt files and there are several options. All of the files on the storage can be encrypted or only new files that are added from now on. There is an additional option to encrypt filenames as well.

Encryption is transparent and works in the background. You can save files, open them, do whatever you want with them on the Mac and you would not know you were working with encrypted files.

If someone hacked into your cloud storage they would see only encrypted files.

The downside of this is that you are also prevented from accessing your files without CloudMounter. Visit Dropbox using a web browser for example, and files cannot be accessed because they are encrypted.

Summing up

I like CloudMounter and the app has been working well since it was installed. It makes working with cloud storage as easy as working with local drives. However, I will not be using the encryption option because I need access to my files from the web and other devices, but some people might like the extra security.

App: CloudMounter: cloud encryption (Mac App Store)
Price: Free for OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive. Others require subscription
By: Eltima Software
Size: 28.3 MB
macOS: 10.10 or later
Verdict: Work with cloud storage as easily as local drives