Use the browser panes
S3Client has two panes side by side. Each can browse your computer or an S3 account, so you can display a local folder beside a bucket, two S3 locations, or two local folders. Running operations appear below the panes.
Choose a pane and a location
Click in the list or tree of the pane you want to use. File commands apply to the items selected in that view. In an input field, Copy, Cut, and Paste act on text.
The Root list at the top of each pane lets you choose a local root, drive, account, or bucket. Browse folders in the pane’s view after choosing a root. Disabled accounts are not offered for browsing. The account settings determine which buckets appear. If a bucket is missing, check these settings. See account management.
- Open Root in the pane you want to use.
- Select the root or location to display.
- In a list, double-click a bucket or folder to open it. The .. row, when present, opens the parent.
- In a tree, expand branches and select the folder you want to browse.
The Address field shows the displayed location. To enter a destination or open a favorite, see Open locations and manage favorites.
Listing a general purpose Amazon S3 bucket requires s3:ListBucket. See AWS ListObjectsV2 documentation. Reading file content requires a separate permission.
Choose a view
Use the view selector in the pane’s toolbar, or View > Left view and View > Right view.
| View | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Tree and list view | The upper tree contains folders; the lower list shows folders and files at the selected location. Select multiple items in the list. |
| Tree view | A single tree shows folders and files and supports multiple selection. |
| List view | A single list shows the current location’s contents. Open folders to navigate further. |
| Preview | The pane previews the current file in the opposite pane. See previews. |
View modes are saved for the left and right sides. Drag the dividers to adjust the space available for panes, the folder tree, and operations.
Read columns and select items
| Column | Information |
|---|---|
| Name | File, folder, bucket, or account name. |
| Size | File size when known. A folder’s size is not the recursive total of its contents. |
| Type | File type; empty for folders, buckets, and accounts. |
| Date modified | File modification date; folder rows leave this column empty. |
| Storage class | S3 object storage class; hidden for local locations. |
| Version | Version or delete marker state in a view that displays versions. |
Click a column header to sort, then click again to reverse the order. You can resize columns; their layout and sorting are saved. In Tools > Options… > General, Show dates in local time displays dates in your time zone. It is off by default, so dates are initially shown in UTC.
Click a row to select it. In a view that supports multiple selection, hold Ctrl while clicking to add or remove a row, or Shift to select a range. Select all in the context menu selects the items in that view. The folder tree in Tree and list view allows only one selection at a time.
In List view and the list in Tree and list view, the status bar shows file and folder counts and file sizes for the loaded location. These totals include files hidden by Filter and do not include folder contents recursively. Selected: summarizes the selected files and folders. Tree view shows a selection summary, with no total for the entire tree. When viewing versions, each file entry is counted separately.
While loading, provisional results may be incomplete. Wait for the read to finish, or refresh after an interruption, before concluding that an item is missing.
Refresh and view versions
The Refresh button beside Root updates the list of local locations, accounts, and buckets. To read the displayed location’s contents again, use Refresh in the pane’s context menu. On Windows, the shortcut is F5.
If a read or refresh fails, the Navigation error dialog reports the cause. The previous list may remain visible; it does not confirm the service’s current contents. Resolve the error and refresh again. If the list can no longer be used, commands on its items are disabled; Refresh remains available once the current request has finished.
Show versions displays the history of a bucket and its folders. Change this mode at the bucket level: its folders inherit the setting, and their button only indicates the current mode. In File > Accounts…, select the account, click Edit…, and check Capabilities > Data protection > Object versions. This capability allows S3Client to list versions. Enable it only if the service supports version listing; it neither enables versioning on the bucket nor grants permissions. Directory bucket locations do not offer this mode.
Read bucket versioning is a separate capability. When reading the state is supported for the bucket, S3Client waits for versioning to be confirmed enabled or suspended before offering version mode. If the read fails, resolve the cause and refresh the bucket to try again. When reading the state is unsupported, Object versions allows version listing even if the local versioning state is unknown. A bucket known never to have had versioning enabled does not offer this mode. Change bucket versioning allows changes to the bucket state; it is not required for listing versions.
On Amazon S3, listing versions requires s3:ListBucketVersions; reading the versioning state separately requires s3:GetBucketVersioning. See GetBucketVersioning and ListObjectVersions.
To enable this mode:
- Open the bucket in Root in the relevant pane.
- In List view, click Show versions in the toolbar. In a view with a tree, select the bucket and use Show versions in the toolbar or its context menu.
- Wait for loading to finish. Open a folder to browse its history in the same mode.
For S3 files, the Version column distinguishes Current, Previous, Current delete marker, and Previous delete marker. Versions of the same key stay grouped from newest to oldest, even when you reverse the sort order. Older versions and delete markers are visually muted. A delete marker has no content to preview. Return to the bucket and clear Show versions to display current objects again. Its folders also return to that mode. For actions on history, see Versions and deletion.
Useful Windows shortcuts:
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+L | Focuses Address in the active pane. |
| F5 | Refreshes the displayed location in the focused pane. |
| Alt+Enter | Opens Properties for the selection when available. |
| F2 | Starts Rename when available. |
Filter displayed files
The Filter field below the navigation area hides files whose names do not match the patterns. It works for local and S3 files and ignores case. Folders remain visible. In Tree and list view, it filters the lower list.
This filter hides files already loaded in the view. It does not search subfolders or limit the files processed when copying, moving, or deleting a folder. If the command offers its own filters, use them to limit which files it processes.
- Click Filter in the relevant pane.
- Enter a pattern such as
*.jpg, or several patterns separated by semicolons, such as*.jpg;*.png. - Press Enter to apply it.
- Select All files to remove filtering, or enter
*and confirm.
* matches a sequence of characters and ? matches one character. Patterns match the complete displayed name, not the path. A file is shown when any pattern matches. The list also offers extensions detected in the view and saved filters. An empty input or invalid pattern displays Invalid display filter; the previous filter stays applied.
The pattern README matches a file named README, even without an extension. On Windows, *.* means all files, with or without extensions, for both local and S3 files. Other patterns match the actual name: README. matches a name ending in a dot and does not match README.
If local files are missing even with All files, check Tools > Options… > General > Ignore hidden files and Ignore system files. These options exclude the corresponding local entries from reading and are separate from name filtering. Click OK, then refresh the folder. On the same tab, setting Local folder traversal > Symbolic links and junctions: to Ignore also excludes local symbolic links and junctions. The other policies allow following them; see transfer options for their effects on recursive traversal.
Save and manage filters
Saved filters are shared across panes and retained for future sessions. Each pane chooses its own filter. Select a saved filter by name in Filter to apply it. When you focus this field, its patterns become editable. Changing them and pressing Enter applies a temporary filter without updating the saved one. Use Manage filters… to edit the catalog.
- Apply the filter you want in Filter.
- Open the Display filters button to the right of the field.
- Choose Save current filter….
- In Display filter, enter a non-empty, unique Name; names are compared without regard to case.
- Check Patterns, which contains the semicolon-separated patterns.
- Click OK. The filter is saved and selected in this pane.
To create a filter without applying it first, choose Display filters > Manage filters… > Add…, complete Name and Patterns, then click OK in both the form and the Display filters dialog.
In Manage filters…, select a filter and click Edit… to change its name or patterns, or Delete to remove it. Click OK in Display filters to save the catalog; Cancel discards its changes. Changing patterns updates panes using that filter. Deleting it returns those panes to All files without deleting any files.