Drive Sync Troubleshooting

Drive Sync is a WebDAV facade over your TrekMail Drive — any client that speaks WebDAV can connect. Most issues fall into a handful of patterns. Use this page when something isn't working and you can't tell why.

Login fails immediately

Almost always one of:

• Wrong password type — you used your dashboard password (or your webmail/mailbox password). Sync apps need a separate device password generated in Sync devices (from the dashboard) or inside webmail (Drive → Sync devices button). It starts with dsync_.
• Revoked or expired password — open Sync devices in whichever surface you created it and check the status column. Revoked or Expired passwords no longer work. Generate a new one. (Note: account owners can revoke passwords created from webmail, and a revocation from the dashboard kills the password regardless of where it was created.)
• Trailing space when pasting — some apps add an invisible newline or space. Re-copy and re-paste carefully.
• Wrong username — the sync URL the dashboard gave you points at the account tree (/dav/files/account/); the URL webmail gave you points at the mailbox tree (/dav/files/mailbox-N/). The username must match: account passwords use the account email, mailbox-scoped passwords use the mailbox email. Mixing them gets 401.
• Account suspended — if your TrekMail account is on hold (billing, abuse, fraud), sync access is blocked. Resolve the issue in the dashboard first.

"Insufficient scope" or "permission denied" on upload

The device password is read-only but the app is trying to upload. Two fixes:

1. Recommended: generate a new device password with Edit files checked. Revoke the old one if you don't need it.
2. Or: edit the existing password's scopes — though for security, that's not allowed in TrekMail. Revoke + create new is the only path.

Read-only scope is fine for: pulling backups from Drive, mounting for read access in Photos / Lightroom, browsing on iPhone with Documents app.

You need write scope for: anything that uploads, syncs, deletes, or moves files.

Slow or stalled uploads

Cause depends on the client:

• macOS Finder / Windows Explorer — both ship single-threaded WebDAV clients, so multi-gigabyte transfers monopolise one connection at a time. There is no file-size cap on TrekMail's side — the file will arrive eventually — but if you want parallel uploads + resume-on-disconnect, switch to Cyberduck or rclone for the same job.
• rclone — bump --transfers 8 (or higher) and --multi-thread-streams 4. Throttle back if you see 429 Too Many Requests.
• Windows' own registry cap (not ours) — Windows refuses WebDAV uploads >50 MB at the OS level by default. See Connecting Drive with Windows Explorer for the registry tweak that raises Windows' cap to 4 GB. For files larger than that, rclone bypasses Windows' WebClient entirely.

"Insufficient storage" / 507 errors

Your Drive pool is full. Options:

• Empty the trash — files in trash count against quota for 30 days. Go to Drive → Trash → Empty.
• Delete files you no longer need — find big files via the Drive UI's size column.
• Resize your Drive add-on — see Resizing your Drive add-on. The new capacity is available immediately.

Files appear in Drive UI but not in sync client

Or vice versa. Almost always client-side cache:

• Finder — eject the Drive mount in the sidebar, reconnect.
• Windows Explorer — press F5 in the Drive window. If still missing, disconnect and re-map.
• Cyberduck — press Command + R on macOS or F5 on Windows to refresh.
• rclone mount — restart the mount with --vfs-cache-mode writes --dir-cache-time 1m.
• DAVx⁵ / Documents — pull-to-refresh in the file manager.

If a refresh doesn't fix it, the file may have been moved or deleted in a different session. Check Drive's trash from the dashboard.

Connection drops after idle

Some clients close idle WebDAV sockets aggressively, especially on mobile networks:

• Cyberduck — turn on Preferences → Connection → Keep Alive.
• Finder / Explorer — the OS auto-reconnects on next file access, no fix needed.
• rclone — for long-running mounts, add --http-no-head and --retries 5 flags.

429 Too Many Requests

You hit Drive's rate limit. The limits are generous but exist to keep one client from monopolizing the server:

• Read requests: 5,000 / hour per device password.
• Write requests: 1,000 / hour per device password.

Wait a few minutes and retry. If you regularly hit limits, split the workload across multiple device passwords (one per app or one per machine).

"Name already exists" when creating a device

The Sync devices form rejects duplicate names among active devices. If you already have an active device called "MacBook" and try to create another one with the same name, you'll get an error asking you to pick a different name or revoke the old one first.

Revoked names free up immediately, so re-using "MacBook" after retiring an old laptop just works — revoke the old row, then create the new one with the same label.

The uniqueness scope differs between surfaces: webmail rows are unique per mailbox; dashboard rows are unique per (account, mailbox) pair so an account-wide "MacBook" and a mailbox-scoped "MacBook" can coexist.

Filename rejected as invalid

TrekMail Drive enforces strict filename rules to keep listings safe across operating systems. Names cannot:

• Be empty or just whitespace.
• Contain forward slash /, backslash \, or null bytes.
• Contain CR or LF (newline characters).
• Use right-to-left override or other bidirectional control characters (security).
• End with a dot or space (Windows quirk).
• Start with whitespace.

Rename the file locally before retrying.

"Method not allowed" / 405 on certain operations

Drive's WebDAV facade supports a restricted method set: GET, HEAD, OPTIONS, PROPFIND, REPORT, PUT, POST, PROPPATCH, MKCOL, MOVE, COPY, DELETE, LOCK, UNLOCK. Some clients try exotic methods (COPY with overwrite to a non-existent destination, PROPPATCH to set custom server-side properties). Those return 405 by design — there's no fix, the client just has to fall back.

Still stuck?

Check the Sync devices page — the Last used column shows when the password last successfully authenticated. If it never shows recent activity, the request isn't reaching the server (usually a network / firewall problem) — try a different network.

If sync was working and suddenly stopped:

• Was the device password recently revoked or did it hit its expiry?
• Did your TrekMail account billing lapse? Check the dashboard for warnings.
• Did your sync client update itself recently? Try rolling back.

Still can't fix it? Open a support ticket with the client name, OS version, and the time the failure started. Include any error messages exactly as shown.