Settings

File → Settings… (on macOS also Cmd+,). On the left side of the window there's a list of categories; on the right — the fields of the selected category with a short description, arranged in groups. Only the page with the fields scrolls; the list of categories and the OK and Cancel buttons stay in place.

How the window works

• The window opens on the Appearance and language category.

• You can move between categories freely — the changes you've made aren't lost. OK (Enter) saves the changes from all tabs at once and applies them immediately. Cancel or Esc discards the changes in the fields of all tabs. The exception is the Computers on the local network group on the Synchronization tab: pairing, Unpair…, Share this computer's settings with paired computers and Share server passwords with it take effect immediately, and Cancel doesn't undo them. Show paired computers on the drive bar and Share this computer’s files with paired computers are saved only by OK.

• From the keyboard: when the window opens, no field has the focus, so an arrow key can't change a value by accident. Tab moves to the list of categories, the arrow keys change the category, and another Tab goes into the fields.

• You can enlarge the window; on a smaller screen, the page with the fields scrolls.

• Save to File…, Load from File… and Synchronize Now on the Synchronization tab also apply the changes from the other tabs, just like OK.

Keyboard shortcuts are not in this window — you change them in a separate window, File → Keyboard Shortcuts… (Changing shortcuts).

macOS: If you have several windows open, a change takes effect immediately in the window from which you opened Settings. The other windows pick up the new values the next time the app starts.

Appearance and language

Application font

After you increase the font size, column headers may not fit — widen the columns by dragging their edges.

Updates

The check runs in the background and doesn't hold up your work. When you have the latest version, when the network is down or when the app isn't installed from a package, no window appears. Each version asks through its own channel: on macOS the nci.pl website, in the Store version — Microsoft Store, and on Linux the nci.pl website for the number of the latest release (you install the new package yourself or through the package manager). The field turns off only the check at startup — Help → Check for Updates… always works (installation and updates).

Panels and files

Folder navigation

File list

Default view and icon size

In Settings → Panels and files, choose the default view and icon size separately for the left and right panels. You can change the view and size above a panel while working; the size is remembered. The list keeps its usual columns, while the grid places names below the icons.

Icons and thumbnails have five sizes, from very small to very large. Choose the size for each panel in its menu or in Settings → Panels; the app remembers it.

Sizes and summary

Size units

Folder summary

Copying and moving

Network connections

Timeouts and retries

FTP/SFTP behavior

Network shares

New timeouts apply to connections made after the change; transfer options also apply to connections that are already open.

Preview and video

File preview

Video

The field fills itself in when you choose the program with the Locate Program… button in the FFmpeg Not Found window. FFmpeg is not part of FlyingFiles — you install it separately (how).

Disc burning

Synchronization

This tab moves settings to another computer and manages paired computers. Full description: Synchronization and paired computers.

The sharing fields in the Computers on the local network group:

These fields apply only to this computer and aren't transferred when settings are synchronized.

App files

Everything the app saves is in the settings folder:

Server passwords are stored in the macOS Keychain, in Windows Credential Manager or in the keyring on Linux (GNOME Keyring, KWallet), under the name FlyingFiles FTP. Synchronization keeps its own key there, under the name FlyingFiles Sync.

settings.toml is a plain text file in TOML format. You can read and edit it while the app is closed — the app keeps any keys it does not recognize.

Keyboard shortcuts in the settings file

Shortcuts changed in the Keyboard Shortcuts window go into the [shortcuts] section at the end of settings.toml. It holds only the differences from the defaults: an action with no entry has its default shortcut, so after Restore All Defaults the section is empty. An example from Windows:

[shortcuts]
exit = ""
search = "Ctrl+Shift+F"

An empty string means “no shortcut”. On macOS, Cmd is written as Cmd+ and Control as Ctrl+. The app skips an entry it cannot read — that action then has its default shortcut. If, after editing by hand, two actions have the same shortcut, it stays with the one that is lower in the shortcuts window. When reading the file, the app does not check the rules for allowed combinations, so it is easier and safer to change shortcuts in the window.

Common tasks

Restoring the default settings

Quit the app and rename settings.toml (e.g. to settings.old.toml). The next time it starts, the app begins with the default settings. Saved connections, favorite paths, terminals and changed keyboard shortcuts are in the same file — with a fresh file they will be gone. You can restore just the keyboard shortcuts without doing this: with the Restore All Defaults button in the Keyboard Shortcuts window.

Undoing an unwanted change

Quit the app, copy the backup you want, settings.toml.bak.N, over settings.toml, and start the app.

Moving settings to another computer

The simplest way is the Synchronization tab: Save to File… on one computer and Load from File… on the other, or — when both computers are on the same local network — pairing and Synchronize Now. This way server passwords come along too, paths in the home folder adapt to the other system, and you see the list of changes before anything changes (Synchronization and paired computers).

You can also simply copy settings.toml to the settings folder on the new computer (with the app closed). Connections, favorite paths, terminals and keyboard shortcuts come with it, but passwords do not — you enter them the first time you connect to each server. In that case you need to fix local paths (e.g. in favorite paths) by hand, and keyboard shortcuts from macOS don't fit Windows: Cmd+ from macOS is the Windows key on Windows, and Ctrl+ from Windows is the Control key on macOS, not Cmd.

Turning off the transfer log

The log helps diagnose copying problems and never leaves your computer. If you do not want it, start the app with the environment variable FLYINGFILES_TRANSFER_LOG=0. The FLYINGFILES_TRANSFER_LOG_DIR variable points to a different log folder, and FLYINGFILES_CONFIG_DIR to a different settings folder.