Cloud drives

A cloud drive is a Google Drive or Dropbox account of your own, connected to your workspace once. That one connection does three things:

• A backup. SPREVA keeps a copy of your library in your drive, filed the way it is in SPREVA, and keeps it up to date by itself.
• Your files, brought in. The Dropbox folders you choose appear in SPREVA, and you import their files by hand or automatically. From Google Drive, you import the files you pick.
• A link that asks for files. For someone who has no drive to share with you, a Request files link on a folder of your library lets them send files straight into it.

Every plan includes cloud drives. A workspace can connect one Google Drive and one Dropbox, and use both at once.

1. 1

   In SPREVA, open Settings, then Cloud drives.

2. 2

   Click Connect Google Drive or Connect Dropbox, sign in to that account and allow SPREVA.

3. 3

   Back in SPREVA, the first backup starts at once. With Dropbox, SPREVA also asks which folders to show: choose some now, or skip and choose them later.

Owners and admins connect a drive and change its settings. Everyone else in the workspace can see how it is doing.

Each drive also appears in Media, under SPREVA's own folders, with the number of files in its backup. Open it to see what is backed up and what is still waiting.

SPREVA files the backup the way your library is filed in SPREVA, in the same folders and under the same names, and keeps it up to date by itself: a new file is copied within minutes.

In Google Drive, the backup is in a folder named after your workspace, inside a SPREVA folder in My Drive. In Dropbox, it is in a folder named after your workspace, inside a SPREVA folder at the top of your Dropbox.

• The original of every file in your library, at full quality, under the name it has in SPREVA.
• Your Studio exports, when Include Studio exports is on. They go in an Exports folder, with a folder for each project.

Posts, scripts and Studio projects are not copied: a backup holds your files. A file you imported from a drive is not copied back into that drive's backup.

• Rename or move a file or a folder, and it is renamed or moved in your backup too.
• Rotate a picture or a video, and your backup gets the new version. Google Drive and Dropbox keep the one before in the file's version history.
• Delete a file in SPREVA, and it stays in your backup. SPREVA never deletes anything in your Google Drive or Dropbox.

Under What to back up, keep Whole library, or pick Chosen folders and add the folders you want. A folder brings the folders inside it, and a file you move into one is backed up with it.

Taking a folder out stops new copies from it. What was already copied stays in your backup.

• Pause stops copying until you turn it off again. Nothing is removed, and the backup catches up when it resumes.
• Back up now starts a backup at once instead of waiting for the next change, and tries again any file that could not be copied.
• Check backup looks for each file in your Google Drive or Dropbox and counts the ones that are no longer there. Back up now then copies them again.

SPREVA never puts back a file you deleted in your Google Drive or Dropbox on its own, in case you deleted it to free space.

On Dropbox, you choose the folders you want to see in SPREVA: one of your own, or one a client shares with you.

1. 1

   In Settings, then Cloud drives, click Choose folders… on your Dropbox. SPREVA also asks right after you connect it.

2. 2

   Open your folders one level at a time and tick the ones you want. The path of each folder you tick is shown under the list.

3. 3

   Click the button that shows them, for example Show 3 folders. They appear in Media, under your Dropbox.

A folder you choose is a window onto your Dropbox, not a copy. Open it in Media and you see what is in it right now, with thumbnails, but nothing is in SPREVA until you import it: until then you cannot use a file in a post or in the Studio, and it does not count against your storage.

The folders you chose are listed in Settings, then Cloud drives, under Folders shown in SPREVA, each with its number of files and when it was last checked. Remove takes a folder out of SPREVA, and what you already imported from it stays in your library.

Open a folder you chose in Media and bring its files into your library:

• A file, or a selection. Tick the files you want and click the import button that appears, for example Import 6 files.
• Everything here. Import everything here imports every file in the folder you have open. SPREVA first tells you how many files that is and how much space they take.
• Already in your library. A file you already imported says In library under its name. Click it to open it in your library.

Files you import from a folder you chose go into a folder of your library named From Dropbox (or From Google Drive), with a folder for each folder you chose. To send them somewhere else, use Import into on that folder in Settings, then Cloud drives. Files you pick in Google's window, or tick under Dropbox after clicking Upload, go into the folder you had open in Media when you picked them.

A file the library cannot take, because of its type or its size, is shown dimmed with the reason and cannot be ticked. Search finds files by name in the folder you have open; the library's other filters do not apply there.

Turn on Import automatically for a folder in Settings, then Cloud drives, and SPREVA brings in every new file that lands in it within minutes, without you opening anything. It is the way to work with a client who drops pictures into a folder they share with you.

• Never the same file twice. SPREVA remembers what it imported and skips a file that is already in your library. A file that changed in your drive comes in again as a new file, next to the one before.
• Folders inside are kept. A folder inside the one you chose becomes a folder inside its folder in your library.
• Only what is imported counts. What sits in your drive does not use your plan's storage: a file counts once it is imported. When your storage is full, imports stop until there is room, and the owners are told.
• You are told what arrived. After an import, the workspace gets one notification, for example “12 files arrived from Dropbox into Client photos”, with a link to the folder.

In Media, such a folder says Imports by itself and when it was last checked. Check now looks for new files at once instead of waiting.

On Google Drive, you import files by picking them in Google's own window. SPREVA gets access to the files you pick and to nothing else.

1. 1

   In Media, open the folder the files should go into and click Upload.

2. 2

   Choose Google Drive, next to Files and Folder. Google's window opens.

3. 3

   Pick your files there, several at once if you like, and confirm. SPREVA imports them into the folder you had open.

The same window has a Dropbox choice too, which opens your Dropbox so you can tick files anywhere in it. If a drive is not connected yet, the window says so and takes you to connect it. Picking a file you already imported does not import it again.

A Request files link lets anyone add files to one folder of your library, with no account and no drive of their own: a client, a photographer, a guest.

1. 1

   In Media, open the menu of a folder and choose Request files….

2. 2

   Give the request a label the person will see, for example “Photos for the launch”, and choose when the link expires: in 7 days, in 30 days, or never.

3. 3

   Click Create link, then copy the link and send it to whoever should send you files.

The person who opens the link sees a page from your workspace asking them for files, with your label. They can give their name, then add their files and watch them upload until each one is done.

• Only that folder receives. The files go into the folder you made the link on, and nowhere else. The person never sees what is already in it, or anything else in your workspace.
• You are told what arrived. The workspace gets a notification, for example “Ana sent files to Photos for the launch”, with a link to the folder. The name the person gave is kept with the files.
• The usual limits apply. The files count against your plan's storage and have the same size limits as your own uploads. A link takes up to 200 files an hour.

A folder has one link at a time. Choose Request files… on it again to see the link and how many files arrived through it, or to Disable link. A link that is disabled or has expired shows one short sentence and nothing else.

Anyone who has the link can add files to that folder, so send it only to the people you mean to, and disable it once you have what you need.

When a drive needs you, SPREVA tells the workspace's owners and admins and marks the drive in Media.

• Sign in again. If Google Drive or Dropbox stops SPREVA's access, for example because it was removed there, the backup and the imports stop. Open Settings, then Cloud drives, and click Sign in again: everything carries on where it stopped.
• Your drive is full. The backup stops until there is room. Free some space or get more storage from Google or Dropbox, then click Back up now. SPREVA also tries again once a day.
• A file could not be copied. The backup lists it under Failed, with the reason, and SPREVA tries it again later.
• A file could not be imported. SPREVA notes the reason on the folder, and the other files still come in.

A backup keeps running while a workspace is paused, for example after its plan ends, so your files stay in your Google Drive or Dropbox even once the workspace is deleted. A paused workspace cannot connect a new drive, and its Request files links stop taking files.

In Settings, then Cloud drives, Disconnect removes SPREVA's access to your Google Drive or Dropbox, and the backup and the imports stop. The files already in your drive stay where they are, and they are yours. What you imported stays in your library.

You can also remove the access on your Google account's permissions page or in Dropbox's connected apps. SPREVA then shows that the drive needs you to sign in again.