Below you will find the most important questions about our CI HUB Drive
1 - Is CI HUB Drive going to fill-up my local drive ?
Materialised assets are cleared automatically by the OS when file-system space is required. You can think about your CI HUB Drive volumes as unlimited storage as long as one single file you need access to is not larger than the entire disk space available on your computer.
What does the lock icon on file or folder mean ?
Assets or folders that display a lock on the top right corner are read-only
What does the the grey dots next to my asset mean ?
The grey dots indicate that the asset has meta-data keywords that have been read from the integration adapter you are connected to. The keywords can be seen in the information window ( ⌘-I ) and are indexed by spotlight.
What does a red/green/orange dot next to my asset mean ?
When available with the current integration adapter the coloured dot indicates the assets status in the DAM. Green is approved, Orange is pending, Red is expired / invalid
Can I move a folders inside the CI HUB Drive volume folder structure ?
Moving folder is not supported and will result in the folder structure being copied under the destination folder. This is a deliberate choice in CI HUB Drive in order to prevent accidental base folder structure changes.
Can I move a file or folder outside of the CI HUB Drive volume on a local drive ?
Yes, the folder or files will then be copied locally on your system's drive. This is however not recommended as it creates untracked duplicates on your files that might get outdate when things get updated on your DAM.
Are locally deleted assets deleted on the DAM ?
Yes, deleted asset in your Finder / Explorer will be deleted on DAM ( The Finder will ask for confirmation ).
What is the difference between refresh and reload actions on folders ?
The refresh action scans the local folder for any added / removed / modified assets and reload them only if necessary. The reload flushes all content bellow the folder and reloads recursively. The Reload action will de-materialise already materialised items. Calling the reload action on a base folder is a great way to refresh all contents from this folder down.
5 - What does "materialised" mean for a file or folder ?
When files and folder are initially listed only the "meta-data" of those assets is actually exchanged with your local computer. This allows to see the content without actually downloading potentially heavy files. This status is called "materialised" and is represented by the cloud icon next to the file or folder. When opening un "un-materialised" file either by double-click or clicking the cloud icon the file then only gets downloaded for local use by creative applications.
Where does un-synched files go in case the CI HUB Drive volume got removed ?
In case a volume removal with embedded non-synchronized content the un-synchronised files can be found in your Trash
4 - What happens with my content when I unmount the CI HUB Drive volume ?
When a volume gets un-mounted all locally materialised assets are deleted locally and the disk space used is made available to the OS again. Since all files were synchronised on your DAM or cloud volume nothing is lost and you can reconnect to this volume again to access your content at any time.
Can I drag-n-drop a CI HUB Drive volume file onto my apps ?
Yes you can drag-n-drop directly from the CI HUB Drive volume into any creative solution that is compatible with drag-n-dropping files. If the file is not materialised yet the drop event will trigger materialisation which could introduce a slight delay to see the content in your app the first time you place it. Subsequent drag-n-drop events on materialised files will behave exactly as any local files.
2 - Is there a limit to the number of CI HUB Drive volume that can be mounted ?
There are no limits to the number of volumes that can be mounted either from different integrations or multiple authenticated sessions to the same integration. Each mount can be given a custom name that helps identifying it in the Finder left tab.
3 - Can I see my DAM's meta-data fields in CI HUB Drive ?
Yes, when available in the particular DAM integration you are connected to CI HUB Drive can display meta-data keywords as well as ITPC and XMP fields in the Tags section of the Finder's file information even before a file is materialised. Those meta-data fields will be indexed and searchable via Spotlight. Meta-data fields are represented by grey dots next to the asset thumbnails and can be displayed in the file detailed information view. Those dots in Finder can also be coloured when keywords in the DAM are matching colour name in different languages ( red, rouge, green, grun, vert, gelb, purple … ). It is also notable that once materialised the Finder itself will decode many important EXIF/ITPC/XMP meta-data fields. This feature allows to browse files through your entire repositories of mounted CI HUB Drive volumes by keywords in the "All Tags" section of the Finder's Tag menubar.
How to use the " 🔍 Searches ... " folder:
The " 🔍 Searches ... " folder is a logical folder structure ( does not really exists ) that allows to leverage the power of the DAM's search engine directly within your CI HUB Drive folder structure. When a folder is created under "🔍 Searches ..." the name given to this folder is used as a search term in the DAM and all assets matching this term will be displayed in the folder. You can for exemple search for a particular SKU number to create a folder dedicated to a particular product in a PIM on your local drive. You can later on use the "refresh" action to re-submit your search and update your folder with newly matching assets. Search folders are preserved across mount sessions so that when you re-mount a DAM or PIM at a later time your past search queries will be displayed and ready to query again.
Why is there a "Max files per folder" limit in Settings ?
Some DAM systems are not designed around a "folderish" compatible user experience and instead rely on mostly searches for users to access their content. Those DAM often times expose one main logical folder containing all assets to the API and in the context of CI HUB Drive this could result in the Finder attempting to list millions of files in the Finder. For this reason CI HUB Drive introduces the concept of pagination in the file-system by limiting the maximum number of files that will be listed per folder and adding a logical folder called "More … 🔄 " in order to trigger further listing of the assets if necessary. This obviously doesn't preclude from using other sections of the DAM that might be better suited for "folderish" navigation experience like the often use "Collections","Lightboxes","Projects", …
Why is my favorite integration NOT available in CI HUB Drive ?
Thanks to the versatility of the CI HUB cloud platform most integrations available as plugin in your favorite apps can also be available in CI HUB Drive. They might however not yet be supported and we are currently actively working with all our partners to enable them for use in CI HUB Drive. Please do not hesitate reach-out to your best contact with your DAM vendor to mention your interest for them to get on-board.
Why are some files repeated in my CI HUB Drive folders with ②, ③, ④ … characters appended at the end of the file name ?
Unlike DAMs, file systems require that file names must be unique per folders. Because of this limitation when the same file name appears multiple times within the same folder on your DAM, CI HUB Drive appends these characters to represent that they are actually different files with the same name inside the same folder. In reality CI HUB Drive tracks files by their actual DAM unique identifier so changes made to those files will always update the right asset on the DAM.
How to uninstall CI HUB Drive ?
Uninstalling is as simple as deleting the app bundle under /Application ( on Mac ) or right-click / uninstall on PC
