OSX: Terrible First Experience

[rigsbyx-sudo]

MacOS. Please forgive me, but I have to say that my first experience in setting up a connection is shockingly bad.

I was expecting to see an icon of my external hard drive (the same one visible in a Finder window sidebar and on the desktop) so that I could navigate to a specific folder after which I could select Apple iCloud and also navigate to a specific folder. Great, done, everything is ready to sync in a matter of seconds!

But no, there isn't a visual and "easy to click on" way to do that, and here I was thinking that developers are making life easy in 2025.

Their "help" pages are using MacOS screenshots from more than 10 years ago, so how do they expect a new user to follow along? Even ChatGPT didn't know what to do!

Where are the video tutorials for OSX users? In their Tutorials section, there isn't one mention of Apple iCloud. YouTube offers tumbleweed.

I was making comparisons with Transmit, an app that I have been using for many many years, and I decided to ultimately purchase Mountain Duck because it (apparently!) loads itself into the Finder window like an external drive itself (great!) - but I have yet to see anything. Why doesn't it load automatically? (click here and click here - boom, done!). Why do I have to open a new connection from the menu bar of my computer screen and fill in all sorts of information that, to me, doesn't make sense? Why isn't there an app icon that I can drag into my dock? Why is it only accesible through the menu bar drop-down window? My menu bar is already full, and I don't want another one up there!

Servers, ports and paths? Client certificate and versioning? What?!

So, my suggestion is to offer a more visual way to select an external hard drive icon to click on and then be able to easily navigate to a folder contained within, and also a second button (or drop-down) for iCloud as the target destination. Simple. Let's sync!

Gone are (should!) be the days when when have to fill out a box of information.

Even just opening a new connection window and automatically having it pre-named WebDAV (HTTPS) is completely off-putting (yes, I realise that I can change the name, but even so).

They make it extremely simple to take my money, but shockingly hard to get started (even double-clicking the license key was annoying!). Why can’t we just copy & paste it from an email and then into a window like we have done with other software programs, for many years? Why do we need to download a file and double-click it? Why be so different?

They need to start again, from scratch, to make the UX experience in line with 2025. We now live in a world of AI, so what are these people doing by giving us an antiquated connection window?

Or am I just thinking too loigically?

[dkocher]

Please first refer to the documentation ¹ for Mountain Duck.

Footnotes

1. https://docs.mountainduck.io/mountainduck/interface/ ↩

[dkocher]

The instructions from ChatGPT (GPT-5) are not even that shockingly bad.

Let me know how to open a connection in Mountain Duck.

Mountain Duck works like a virtual drive client: it lets you mount cloud storage (like S3, Dropbox, Google Drive, WebDAV, FTP, etc.) as a drive on your computer. To open a connection in Mountain Duck, you’ll usually follow these steps:
	1.	Launch Mountain Duck
Open the Mountain Duck app from your Applications folder (macOS) or Start menu (Windows). Its icon (a yellow duck) should also appear in the menu bar (macOS) or system tray (Windows).
	2.	Open the connection window
	•	Click the Mountain Duck icon.
	•	Select “New Bookmark…” or “Connect…” (depending on whether you want to save it for reuse).
	3.	Choose a server type
	•	In the “Protocol” dropdown, select the type of connection you want (e.g., WebDAV, SFTP, Amazon S3, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc.).
	4.	Enter connection details
	•	Server / Hostname: For example, ftp.example.com or a cloud provider endpoint.
	•	Port: Usually filled in automatically (e.g., 22 for SFTP, 443 for HTTPS WebDAV).
	•	Username & Password / Access Keys: Enter your login credentials or API keys.
	5.	Save (optional)
	•	If you want to reuse the connection, click “Save as Bookmark” so it shows up in your Mountain Duck menu for quick access.
	6.	Connect
	•	Press Connect.
	•	If authentication succeeds, Mountain Duck will mount the storage as a drive (on Windows) or as a volume (on macOS).
	•	You can then access it from Finder (macOS) or File Explorer (Windows).

👉 Do you want me to walk you through setting up a specific type of connection (like SFTP, Google Drive, or WebDAV)?

Give me a walkthrough for Google Drive.

🔹 Step 1: Open Mountain Duck
	•	Start the Mountain Duck app.
	•	Click the duck icon in your menu bar (macOS) or system tray (Windows).

⸻

🔹 Step 2: Create a New Bookmark
	•	Click “New Bookmark…” (or “Connect” if you don’t want to save it).
	•	In the Protocol dropdown, select Google Drive.

⸻

🔹 Step 3: Enter Google Account Info
	•	The Server/Path field will fill automatically (no need to change it).
	•	Enter a Nickname (e.g., My Google Drive) so you can recognize it later.
	•	Leave Username/Password blank — Google Drive uses OAuth authentication.

⸻

🔹 Step 4: Authenticate with Google
	•	Click Connect.
	•	A browser window will open asking you to sign in with your Google account.
	•	Log in and allow Mountain Duck the requested permissions (so it can mount your Drive).
	•	After approval, Mountain Duck will return to the app.

⸻

🔹 Step 5: Access Your Drive
	•	Once connected, Mountain Duck will mount Google Drive:
	•	On macOS → it shows up as a volume in Finder.
	•	On Windows → it shows up as a drive letter in File Explorer.
	•	You can now drag, drop, edit, and manage files as if they were on a local drive.

⸻

🔹 Step 6: Reuse Later
	•	If you saved it as a Bookmark, you can reconnect anytime by clicking the Mountain Duck icon → selecting Google Drive (your nickname) → Connect.

⸻

⚠️ Notes:
	•	If you have multiple Google accounts, Mountain Duck will ask which one you want to use.
	•	Shared drives (Team Drives) are also supported — they’ll appear inside your mounted Google Drive volume.

[rigsbyx-sudo]

HI David,

I appreciate your respose, but I'm sorry, none of what you said (or GPT-5) still makes no sense. Where is there any mention of Apple iCloud anywhere. It's just not straight forward enough. For example, if I am asking about iCloud why did you confuse me with WebDAV, SFTP, Amazon S3 etc. because I don't even know what they are, especiailly when I had already mentioned that in my OP.

If you don't have icons to click on and navigate to a specific folder on my external hard drive and to then use the same idea with iCloud, then I need clear steps to show me what to do.

As mentioned, video tutorials would be brilliant!

Thanks.

[dkocher]

Mountain Duck does not support connections to iCloud, but supports syncing like iCloud with many other cloud storage services, NAS appliances, servers etc.

[rigsbyx-sudo]

Aah, that was the reason why I purchased it. I suppose a refund would be in order. Please let me know the process for that, and I will be sure to delete the app from my laptop.

Thanks :)