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Gonzoza
Asked: 2012-05-12 05:56:18 +0800 CST

What is the purpose of the Ubuntu One folder?

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Using Ubuntu One, I can sync my Home folders with Ubuntu One, which is great. But what is the purpose of the Ubuntu One folder that is in my Home folder?

Does it have special privileges that my other folders don't have? Why would I use it?

And can it safely be removed?

ubuntu-one 12.04

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    I think that the Ubuntu One folder has two purposes:

    1) as you already says, there is a sub-folder to share stuff with others

    2) the first time you install U1, and you have 5GB of free space to use, there is at least one folder ready for the syncing without knowing nothing about the U1 system

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  2. The Ubuntu One folder is always in sync, I believe. Any files/folders that you put into the Ubuntu One folder will automatically be synced.

    Read this: https://one.ubuntu.com/help/tutorial/install-and-setup-file-sync/

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  3. By default, the folder named 'Ubuntu One' serves as the root folder for the u1syncdaemon.

    So when displaying your U1 files through https://one.ubuntu.com/files/, everything residing in this folder (including subfolders) is synced, and additionally synced folders (e.g. ~/mybackup/subfolder, see u1sdtool --list-folders) appear as links/subfolders under this root with the title 'My synced folders' folder there.

    For some reason this might not be displayed consistently across all clients, I noticed that e.g. the current Android client shows additionally synced folders as a sibling of the root folder.

    Note that it is possible (as of 12.04, maybe earlier as well?) to change that root folder to another folder within your home as described in this answer but make sure you know what you are doing and stop the syncdaemon prior to any changes through u1sdtool --quit (and start it again afterwards).

    After doing so, I was able to remove that folder safely and use another one of my choice instead.

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  4. Another use of Ubuntu One folder is for sharing folder between diferent users. The sharing folders are locate in Ubuntu One folder.

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