August 2020 – An issue has been reported by some customers where Sophos anti-virus can cause issues with the Foldr Windows app to loop on sign-in with a message that it is ‘connecting drive..’
In this situation the drive never mounts and if the app is relaunched, it will automatically sign-in and again get stuck at the same point.
This issue only affects the app if Foldr is set to mount the drive in Removable disk mode. Note that as of version 1.4.16 (released 4th April 2020) Network drive mode is preferred in most cases over removable mode and is the default drive type unless configured otherwise.
Cause
Sophos Central (Enterprise/Education edition) anti-virus ships with a ‘Peripheral Control’ module that can passively monitor or block removable storage that is connected to a client. Even when the AV client is configured to passively monitor removable storage, this interferes with the Foldr app and prevents the drive from mounting successfully, resulting in the ‘connecting drive..’ message.
The solution, in this case, would be to either configure the AV client correctly so it does not interfere with the Foldr app, or change the Foldr app settings so it mounts as a network drive instead of using the removable disk mode. NOTE – Network mode is preferred / default since version 1.4.16 (4th April 2020)
Solution 1 – User manually switches the app to Network drive mode
1. Quit the Foldr app so it is not running in the system tray
2. Open Windows Explorer and browse to %localappdata%\Foldr
3. Inside this location, you will find a Foldr.exe_ directory, inside which there are folders for each version of the app that has been installed.
4. Navigate into the latest version folder and delete the ‘user.config’ file.
5. Relaunch the app, but do not sign in. Right-click the Foldr system tray icon > Click Settings > Drive tab.
6. Change the Drive Type from Removable disk to Network drive.
7. Sign into Foldr. You will need to provide the Foldr server address as this was cleared when the user configuration file was deleted.
NOTE – If the drive type is greyed out, the ability to change the drive type has been disabled by the Foldr administrator. You should contact your IT support/Foldr administrator to resolve.
Solution 2 – Foldr administrator enforces Network drive mode centrally using an App Profile
This option uses an App Profile on the Foldr server to configure Foldr clients centrally and will force clients running the Windows app to mount the drive in Network mode.
1. Log into the Foldr server admin UI (Foldr Settings) as fadmin
2. Click Devices & Clients > App Profiles tab
3. Create a new App Profile by clicking + ADD NEW
4. Scroll down to the Windows section and find the item labeled:
config.drive_type_removable
Set this to NO.
5. Click the Users & Groups tab. Search for AD Groups (or users) that you would like the profile applied to, or alternatively use the built-in ‘Foldr Users’ group to apply the profile to everyone.
6. Configure any other options as required and click SAVE CHANGES.
Additional information on using App Profiles to centrally configure Foldr clients can be found here.