Macfusion

Macfusion allows you to mount a folder on an ftp server as a local drive. Files can be read, edited and written to the remote folder just as if they were on the local drive.
I set this up because I am taking a programming class from Udemy and use different computers in different locations when I’ve got time to spare and I want my files to be where I want them when I want them.
Macfusion has been problematic with Sierra, but luckily there are some fellers who worked things out. I used ElDeveloper’s Sierra Pre-Release 3 version and the most recent version of OSX Fuse.

Then there are just a few things to set up. On your Mac, you need to create a folder accessible to Macfusion. I created a Volumes folder under my user account: /Users/paulericksen/Volumes/

Then in the Macfusion app, I configure things as follows.

  1. Add an SSHFS connection using the [+v] dropdown menu.
  2. In the SSH tab, enter your host, ftp username, password and path to the folder you’d like to use.
  3. In the Macfusion tab, enter the folder name you’ll use during the session. In my case it was /Users/paulericksen/Volumes/fs  NOTE: Notice above, when I created the “Volumes” folder in my user folder, it did not include the “fs” folder I just entered. My understanding is that this is a temporary folder that Macfusion creates during the connected session. It is there when the ftp share is mounted, but it disappears once it is unmounted.   
  4. If all goes to plan, when you click the mount button, Macfusion will do its thing and you’ll end up with a folder that shows the contents of the ftp folder. Opening, editing and saving works as it would on your local machine.

 

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