Teralo Drive

Teralo Drive shows your organisation's Drive and your projects' documents as a folder in Windows File Explorer. A file takes no disk space until you open it, and a document you save in your organisation's Drive uploads to Teralo as a new version.

Teralo Drive is part of the desktop app on Windows only, and has been tested on Windows 11. The app marks it In development.

• Your organisation has to allow it. Someone with Can manage organisation settings turns on Allow documents to be edited on desktop computers, on the Desktop editing card in organisation settings. It is off by default. Learn more about organisation settings.
• You need Drive access. Without Can view the organisation Drive, Teralo Drive shows nothing for that organisation, including its projects. Each project's documents also need Can view project documents.

1. In the desktop app, select File, then Settings.
2. In the settings sidebar, under Settings, select Desktop.
3. On the Sync to this computer card, turn on Sign this computer in to sync.

Teralo creates a Teralo Drive folder in your Windows user folder and adds it to File Explorer's navigation pane. It also turns on Start Teralo when you sign in to this computer, which starts Teralo hidden in the system tray.

Each computer signs in separately. On a shared computer, each Windows user signs in to their own.

Teralo Drive holds one folder for each of your organisations that allows desktop editing. Each organisation folder holds two folders:

• Organisation: the organisation's Drive, with its folders and documents. What you can change follows your Drive permissions. Without permission to change the Drive, its files are read-only.
• Projects: a folder for each project, holding the current revision of each document in its register, in folders by discipline and type. These files are read-only.

As in Teralo, you see only the project documents your company authored or uploaded, or that were mailed to it. An organisation administrator sees every project the organisation hosts. Anyone else sees the projects they are on through that organisation.

Teralo names each project file from its register entry, for example A110.03 Rev 48 - GA PLAN - GROUND FLOOR.pdf. A document with no revision leaves out the Rev part. A document with no discipline or type sits in an Unclassified folder.

Revit models (.rvt) don't appear in Teralo Drive.

Each file starts online-only. File Explorer shows its name, size and a cloud icon, and it uses no disk space. Opening a file downloads the whole file first.

In File Explorer, right-click a file or folder and select:

• Always keep on this device, to download it and keep it, so it opens with no connection;
• Free up space, to delete the downloaded copy and leave the online-only file.

A file you chose to keep that could not download while you were offline downloads when the connection returns.

Project files carry five columns from the register, which File Explorer hides until you add them.

1. In a project folder, right-click the column headings.
2. Select More....
3. Tick Register number, Register title, Register revision, Register status and Register revision date.
4. Select OK.

Dates in these columns read like 2026-09-22. The columns are blank on Organisation files, and keep their last values while Teralo is closed.

Open a document from the Organisation folder, edit it, and save it. Teralo uploads each save as a new version, and keeps the version it replaced. Drive keeps the 25 most recent versions of each document, and they don't count towards your storage limit. To see or restore one, select History on the document in Drive.

Teralo Drive doesn't lock a document while someone edits it. If someone else's save reaches Teralo before yours, Teralo keeps yours as a conflicted copy (below). While a document is open in Microsoft 365 for the web, Teralo Drive holds your saves until it closes.

To rename, move or delete a file or folder, do it in File Explorer, as far as your Drive permissions allow. You can't change a file's extension by renaming it.

You can open, copy and print a project document, but not rename, move, delete or save over it.

If you clear the read-only setting and edit one anyway, Teralo saves your copy to that project's _Inbox folder as <name> (edited on <COMPUTER> <date>).<ext> and restores the register's version. If you can upload documents to the project, Teralo sends your copy as a drop (below).

Each project folder has an _Inbox folder, the one place under Projects you can add files.

1. Copy or save a file into the project's _Inbox folder.

Teralo uploads it as a new document with no number, revision, discipline or type, titled with the file name. It appears on the Temporary tab of the project's Documents tool, for your own company only. Teralo doesn't announce it, so tell the person in your company who registers documents.

To register it, select Register Document on the Temporary tab and enter its details. It then leaves _Inbox and appears in its folder.

You need Can upload documents to the project. Without it, _Inbox is read-only. An archived project's _Inbox refuses drops.

You can't delete a drop from _Inbox in File Explorer. To remove one, delete it from the Temporary tab in Teralo, which needs Can delete project documents.

Deleting a document or folder from the Organisation folder, or in Drive in the web app, moves it to Drive's trash for 30 days. A document takes its versions with it, and a folder takes everything in it. The trash doesn't count towards your storage limit. You need Can delete files from the organisation Drive.

To restore something:

1. In Drive, select Trash.
2. On the item, select Restore.

The trash shows who deleted each item, where it was, and when it will be deleted permanently. If an item's name was taken while it was in the trash, it comes back with a number added, such as report (2).pdf. Restoring and deleting permanently also need Can delete files from the organisation Drive.

The Desktop settings page lists the projects of each organisation, all ticked.

• To take a project off this computer, untick it.
• To bring it back, tick it again. Its files come back online-only.

Teralo refuses to untick a project that holds changes it doesn't have yet, and names up to 5 of the files. Wait for them to send, or move them out of the folder, then untick the project again.

A project you are added to appears within 5 minutes. The settings page reads the project list when you open it.

When a file changed on your computer and in Teralo at the same time, Teralo keeps your copy beside the original as <name> (conflicted copy on <COMPUTER> <date>).<ext>. On the next sync, the copy becomes a document of its own, and the original keeps Teralo's version.

Teralo removes nothing from your computer when a request fails.

When you are removed from an organisation or a project, your permission is withdrawn, or the organisation turns desktop editing off, Teralo Drive removes that organisation or project from your computer. An organisation goes at the next sync, within about 30 seconds while Teralo is running. A project goes within 5 minutes.

Teralo removes the files you had not changed, and keeps:

• every file you changed;
• every file not yet sent.

A removed project's kept files move to Teralo Drive\Kept files\<organisation>\<project>\. A removed organisation's kept files stay in its folder. Teralo shows a Teralo Drive notification, and the Desktop settings page shows Removed from this computer with the date.

If you get an organisation back, Teralo Drive picks up where it left off. A removed project's files stay in Kept files.

Changing or resetting your password signs Teralo Drive out of every computer, without a notification. Files that are not downloaded will not open, and nothing syncs. To reconnect, turn on Sign this computer in to sync again.

Teralo moves every file in and out of Teralo Drive. When Teralo isn't running, nothing syncs, and a file that is not downloaded will not open. Closing the window does not quit Teralo, which keeps running in the system tray.

Quitting from the tray asks you to confirm. File, then Quit, and Ctrl+Q quit straight away.

On the Desktop settings page, turn off Sign this computer in to sync.

• Files you had downloaded stay where they are, as ordinary files, and so does Kept files.
• Files you had not downloaded are removed.
• The folder leaves File Explorer's navigation pane, and an empty Teralo Drive folder is deleted.
• This computer is signed out, and Start Teralo when you sign in to this computer is turned off.

Nothing is uploaded, and nothing is deleted from Teralo.

• A change Teralo refuses stays on your computer, unsynced, and is listed under Not uploaded to Teralo on the Desktop settings page. That includes a change you have no permission for, a file over 5 GB, a Revit model and a blocked file type (.svg, .svgz, .html, .htm, .xhtml, .xht and .shtml). The line goes once you change, move or delete the file.
• An upload past the storage limit is listed there too, but it waits. Teralo tries it again every 30 minutes, or at once when you select Sync now, so it uploads once the limit is raised.
• File Explorer shows no upload progress. For a file over 50 MB, progress shows in the tray icon's tooltip and under Uploading to Teralo on the Desktop settings page.
• A large upload that stops continues where it left off within 23 hours, if the file has not changed.
• macOS and Linux have the desktop app, but not Teralo Drive.

Everything below is per user. Teralo Drive needs no administrator rights and no machine-wide install. It has been tested on Windows 11 only. The desktop app itself is covered in the desktop app.

Two processes run from %LOCALAPPDATA%\Teralo: app.exe, which Task Manager shows as Teralo, and teralo-sync.exe, the sync engine. The app starts the engine and talks to it over standard input and output, with no listening port. The engine makes every request and serves every download File Explorer asks for, so quitting Teralo stops Teralo Drive.

The folder is %USERPROFILE%\Teralo Drive and can't be moved. It sits outside Documents, so Known Folder Move does not touch it. Roaming profiles have not been tested.

Each organisation is registered as a sync root for the signed-in user through Windows' StorageProviderSyncRootManager. That writes one key under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\SyncRootManager, with full control for that user, and navigation-pane entries under HKCU. The first connection also writes a Teralo value under HKCU\...\CurrentVersion\Run, which starts the app hidden.

The engine's sign-in is a Windows Credential Manager generic credential named sync-engine.Teralo Desktop Sync, saved with enterprise persistence. Its records and logs are in %APPDATA%\com.teralo.app\sync\, with one log file a day, none deleted.

Outbound HTTPS only. There is no inbound connection and no WebSocket, and the engine checks for changes every 30 seconds. It reaches:

• app.teralo.co, for the Teralo Drive API and the engine's sign-in;
• Cloudflare R2, at *.r2.cloudflarestorage.com, directly. File contents download and upload over short-lived signed URLs.

Its user agent is teralo-sync/<version>. TLS is checked against the Windows certificate store, so an inspecting proxy whose root certificate is deployed there works.

Also allowlist the executables under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Teralo. AppLocker and WDAC default rules allow Program Files and the Windows folder, and deny user-writable locations, where a per-user install lives. In those environments, add a path rule for Teralo, or use Teralo in a browser.

The engine takes its proxy from the environment first (HTTPS_PROXY, HTTP_PROXY, ALL_PROXY and NO_PROXY), then from the Windows proxy server set under Use a proxy server, with its bypass list.

It doesn't read a setup script (a PAC file), automatic detection (WPAD) or WinHTTP's machine-wide proxy, which the app itself may follow. Where a proxy reaches the computer only in those ways, the app works and Teralo Drive cannot connect. Set HTTPS_PROXY for the user to the same proxy, through Group Policy Preferences for example, or set the proxy server explicitly, then restart Teralo. A proxy that requires authentication has not been tested.

With Microsoft Defender's real-time protection on, a quick, full or custom scan of the folder downloads nothing, so Defender needs no exclusion. No other scanner has been tested.

A scanner that reads online-only files downloads each one in full, which costs bandwidth and disk space but loses nothing. If yours does, exclude %USERPROFILE%\Teralo Drive from its scheduled and on-demand scans, and leave real-time protection on.

The uninstaller takes Teralo Drive off first, through the engine, once Teralo has closed. It then removes any key left under SyncRootManager with its navigation-pane entries, the Run values and Teralo's notification settings. A file an application still holds open can't be deleted, so it stays, with the folders above it.

To uninstall silently, run "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Teralo\uninstall.exe" /S. Never add /UPDATE, the updater's own switch: an uninstall run with it removes the program files but leaves Teralo Drive registered, the sign-in saved and the shortcuts in place. Never add _?= either, which marks an uninstall as part of an upgrade and keeps the Teralo Drive folder.

An uninstall leaves %APPDATA%\com.teralo.app, with the engine's records and logs and any unsaved working copies, unless Delete the application data was ticked. That box is unticked by default, and a silent or passive uninstall never shows it, so it always keeps the folder. An uninstall also can't revoke the engine's sign-in, which stays listed under AI Connectors in the person's account settings until someone selects Revoke. With its credential deleted from the computer, it cannot be used.

Dragging Teralo to the Bin removes the app and nothing else, so the sign-in and settings stay. Teralo > Uninstall Teralo... removes everything. It warns first about unsaved work, then signs the Mac out, takes Teralo Drive out of Finder with every file in it, deletes the drive's keychain item and turns off start at sign-in, and moves Teralo to the Bin. Once Teralo has quit, it deletes the rest of what Teralo kept for that person.

For IT, Teralo.app/Contents/Resources/uninstall-teralo.sh does the same without the app. Copy it out of the app and run it with /bin/bash. Run as root, as Jamf, Intune and Kandji run scripts, it covers every person with a home folder (--user <name> for one) and then deletes /Applications/Teralo.app (--keep-app keeps it), unless Teralo Drive is still in Finder for someone, when it keeps the app so that it can be run again once they are signed in. Run as a person, it covers only them and never deletes the app. It quits Teralo without asking, skips whatever is already gone, and exits 0 when nothing is left, 1 when something is, naming it, and 3 when Teralo Drive is still in Finder for someone. It can't sign anyone out of Teralo or revoke the drive's sign-in, but it deletes both from the Mac, so neither can be used again.

For each person it deletes ~/Library/Caches/com.teralo.app, which holds the saved sign-in, and ~/Library/Application Support/com.teralo.app, with the drive's records and logs and any working copies. It also deletes the com.teralo.app folders under ~/Library/Logs, ~/Library/WebKit and ~/Library/HTTPStorages, the saved window state, the App Group container ~/Library/Group Containers/5UJ7BKF388.com.teralo.app, the Finder extension's com.teralo.app.drive folders under ~/Library/Containers and ~/Library/Application Scripts, start at sign-in (~/Library/LaunchAgents/Teralo.plist), the com.teralo.app preferences, and the keychain item Teralo Desktop Sync. An update, in the app or by dragging a newer Teralo over the old one, keeps the sign-in and the drive.

The app updates itself without any of the above: it stops the engine, installs the new version, and Teralo Drive carries on. A newer installer deployed silently with /S installs over the old version the same way.

Run interactively over an existing install, the installer offers Uninstall before installing, selected by default. That runs the old version's uninstaller first, which takes Teralo Drive off and signs the computer out, though it keeps the Teralo Drive folder with every downloaded file as an ordinary file. The other option upgrades in place, as an update does.

Everything is per Windows user. Each account connects its own organisations, with its own folder, registration, credential and records.