Rclone Quickstart Guide

How to install and use Rclone to seamlessly upload your photos to Chitr.

Chitr

What is Rclone?

Rclone is a powerful command-line program that safely syncs your files directly from your computer to cloud storage. We heavily recommend it for Chitr because it handles ultra-fast, multi-threaded uploads perfectly and reliably resumes progress if your network drops!

1. Installation

🍏 macOS

The easiest way to install Rclone on a Mac is via Homebrew.

brew install rclone
macOS Security Exception Required!Due to Apple's strict privacy and security settings, macOS might block Rclone from running the first time. To fix this: go to System Settings ➔ Privacy & Security, scroll down to the bottom, and click Allow next to the notification that blocked rclone.

🪟 Windows

Download the pre-compiled executable directly.

  • Download the latest Windows ZIP file from rclone.org/downloads.
  • Extract the ZIP file directly into a folder you can easily access (e.g. C:\rclone).
  • Open Command Prompt or PowerShell and navigate to that folder to run your commands!

🐧 Linux

Run the official one-liner installation script.

sudo -v ; curl https://rclone.org/install.sh | sudo bash

2. Uploading to Chitr

Once Rclone is installed, uploading is extremely simple:

  • Go to your Chitr Dashboard and click Generate Upload Credentials.
  • Click the Download chitr-rclone.conf button. Your browser will save this to your Downloads folder by default.
    For maximum convenience, you should move this file into the root folder of your media library (the location you plan to upload from). Open your terminal directly in that folder!
  • Open your Terminal (or Command Prompt) and run the copy command provided to you on the dashboard!
    💡 Important: You do NOT need to guess your Bucket name or Prefix! The exact, personalized rclone copy command is automatically pre-filled and displayed on the Dashboard widget for you to copy as soon as you generate your credentials.