Rclone on a Seedbox: Cloud Storage Sync and Mount

What Rclone Is

Rclone is a command-line tool for cloud storage. It speaks 70+ providers (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, S3, Backblaze B2, pCloud, Mega, you name it) and does pretty much anything you'd want with them: sync, copy, mount, encrypt, dedupe.

On a seedbox, the two main use cases are:

1. Backups out. Push your library to a cloud provider on a schedule.
2. Mount in. Mount a remote folder so apps see it as a local directory.

Why Run It on a Seedbox?

Rclone is happiest on a server with bandwidth and uptime:

• 10 Gbit upload, so backing up 5 TB to Backblaze takes hours, not days
• Always on, so scheduled syncs actually run
• One-click install in the panel
• Encrypted remotes work without you setting up GPG keys
• Pairs cleanly with Sonarr and Radarr if you're storing the library on a remote

For the topical guide on the whole cloud-storage workflow see Rclone & Cloud Storage on a Seedbox.

Installing Rclone

Open the Bytesized Panel, find Rclone in the app catalog, click install. The panel installs the binary and creates a working directory under your home folder.

There's no web UI for Rclone (it's a CLI). You'll configure it through the panel's terminal or via SSH.

First-Time Configure

Run rclone config from the slice. The interactive wizard walks you through:

1. Pick the remote type. Google Drive, Dropbox, S3, etc.
2. Authenticate. Most providers want OAuth. Rclone gives you a URL to paste into your browser; you authorize and paste the token back.
3. Name the remote. Whatever you want to call it (e.g., gdrive, b2, dropbox).

Test the remote:

rclone lsd gdrive:

That lists top-level folders on Google Drive. If you get folder names back, the remote works.

Syncing a Library to Cloud

Sync a local folder up to a remote:

rclone sync ~/files/movies gdrive:backup/movies --progress

sync makes the destination match the source (deletes remote files that aren't local). For a one-way add-only push, use copy instead.

Schedule it with cron to run nightly:

0 3 * * * rclone sync ~/files/movies gdrive:backup/movies

That's a 3 AM nightly sync. Adjust to taste.

Mounting a Cloud Remote Locally

Mount a remote so apps see it as a folder:

rclone mount gdrive: ~/cloud --daemon --vfs-cache-mode full

After this, ~/cloud is a directory you can ls, cp, point Plex or Jellyfin at, etc. Reads stream from the cloud (with local caching); writes go up.

--vfs-cache-mode full is what you want for media use. The cache makes seeking and partial reads fast.

Encryption (Crypt Remotes)

Rclone's crypt remote wraps another remote with client-side encryption. Run rclone config, pick crypt, point it at an existing remote, and Rclone encrypts file names and contents before upload. The cloud provider sees gibberish; you see plain files when accessing through the crypt remote.

Useful when you want to back up to a provider you'd rather not trust with the cleartext.

Common Gotchas

Google Drive 750 GB upload cap. Daily upload cap on Google Drive is 750 GB per account. Rclone hits this on big initial syncs. Use --bwlimit 8M or split across multiple Drive accounts.

Mount disappears on slice restart. Mounts don't survive reboots unless you add them to a startup script. The panel can wire this in for you on most apps; for Rclone, ask support to set it up if you need persistent mounts.

Cache filling disk. --vfs-cache-mode full writes locally before uploading. If your slice fills up, lower the cache size with --vfs-cache-max-size 50G or similar.

Plex says files aren't there. Mount is unmounted or the cache is being slow. mount to verify the cloud directory still shows the files. If not, remount.

FAQ

Is Rclone free? Yes. Free and open source.

How many providers does it support? 70+. The major ones (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, S3, B2) plus a long tail of smaller providers.

Will it work with Plex? Yes. Mount the cloud as a local folder, add it as a Plex library, Plex doesn't know the difference. Streaming works fine; transcoding can be slow because of cache misses.

Should I use Rclone or pCloud's native client? Rclone is more flexible and works on more providers, but a native client is simpler if you only use one provider. Rclone wins as soon as you want to use two providers, encrypt, or schedule.

What's the encryption like? Strong. Rclone's crypt remote uses XSalsa20 for content and EME for filenames. The cloud provider sees nothing useful.

Ready to Set It Up?

Browse Appbox plans, install Rclone from the panel, run rclone config, plug in your provider.