A mobile app is a small program for your phone or tablet. With it, you can open, upload, share and download your Switch Drive files on the go. Switch Drive works on iPhones, iPads, Android phones and Android tablets.

Switch Drive is built on Nextcloud, so you use the Nextcloud app.

1. Open the app store on your device: App Store (Apple) or Google Play (Android).
2. Search for Nextcloud and install the app.
3. Open the app and enter the server address: https://drive.switch.ch
4. Sign in with your Switch edu-ID (your email address and password). If the browser asks, confirm that the app may access your account.

Still using the old ownCloud app? It no longer works with the new Switch Drive. Install the Nextcloud app instead and sign in again. Your files are all there.

An App Passcode is a password for one single device or app, for example Cyberduck or rclone. It is not your edu-ID password.

Why use one?

• Your edu-ID password stays private. You don’t type it into every app and device.
• Easy to cancel. If you lose your phone, sign in on the web and delete its App Passcode. The phone loses access immediately.

You need an App Passcode whenever an app can’t sign in with edu-ID. This is the case for apps that connect through WebDAV, Zotero, rclone and similar tools.

Create an App Passcode

1. Sign in at drive.switch.ch.
2. Open your personal settings and go to Security.
3. Scroll down to Devices & sessions. You see a list of your existing devices and sessions, for example one called “Sync client - 35.0.0 (Macintosh)”.
4. Type a name for the new device and click Create new app passcode.
5. A user name and a password appear. Enter both in your app.
6. When the device is connected, click Done.

Important: After you click Done, the password disappears and can’t be shown again. If you lose it or mistype it, delete it and create a new one.

Good to know

• Create one passcode per device.
• Lost your phone? Sign in on another device and delete that device’s App Passcode. The phone loses access immediately.
• Delete passcodes you no longer need, for example after changing phones.

Some apps, such as Documents by OnlyOffice, connect to Switch Drive through WebDAV. These apps offer extras. For example, OnlyOffice’s Documents lets you edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files on your device and save them back to Switch Drive.

Note: To change shares (who can see your files), use the Nextcloud app or the web client. Third-party apps can’t do that.

Your WebDAV address

Your personal address looks like this:

https://drive.switch.ch/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/

To find it:

1. Sign in at drive.switch.ch and click Files settings in the lower left corner.
2. Copy the whole address from the WebDAV box.

Connect an app

1. Find the WebDAV settings in your app. In the OnlyOffice Documents app, tap the small Clouds icon at the bottom and choose Sign in, then Other WebDAV storage.
2. Paste your WebDAV address in the Server box.
3. Enter your user name and, as password, an App Passcode. Not your edu-ID password.
4. Save. You can now see your Switch Drive files in the app.

Try it on a Mac

A quick way to test your WebDAV address:

1. In Finder, open the Go menu and choose Connect to Server…
2. Paste your WebDAV address and click Connect.
3. Enter your user name and the password of an App Passcode from the Security section.
4. Click Connect again. Your Switch Drive appears under Locations.

This is only for testing. For everyday use on a computer, the Sync Client is much faster and more reliable than WebDAV. It also syncs in the background.

Good to know

• Your user name is your email address. Some apps need the @ replaced by %40, for example example%40switch.ch. Many apps do this by themselves, so try without first.
• Always use https://, never just http://.
• Windows: Make sure the WebClient service is running. Without it, WebDAV doesn’t work properly.

Zotero can store the attachments of your library (PDFs, snapshots, etc.) in Switch Drive. This way you are not limited by the free storage of a Zotero account, and your files stay in Switzerland.

How it works

Zotero syncs two different things:

You therefore need a zotero.org account for the references. Switch Drive only replaces the storage for the files.

Before you start

• A Switch Drive account, which you can log in to at https://drive.switch.ch with your Switch edu-ID
• Zotero installed on your computer (these steps are written for Zotero 7)
• A free zotero.org account, signed in under Settings > Sync

Step 1: Create a folder called zotero in Switch Drive

1. Log in to https://drive.switch.ch.
2. Create a new folder named exactly zotero, in lowercase.
3. Don’t share this folder with anyone.

Zotero stores its files in this folder, and it can’t create it by itself.

Step 2: Create an app passcode

Your edu-ID password does not work for Zotero. Switch Drive generates a separate passcode for each application.

1. In Switch Drive, click your name at the top right and open Settings.
2. Open the Security section.
3. Enter a name for the passcode, for example Zotero.
4. Click Create new app passcode.
5. Copy the username and the passcode shown. The passcode is only shown once, so keep the window open until Zotero is set up.

Step 3: Find your WebDAV address

Your personal address looks like this:

https://drive.switch.ch/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME/

To find it:

1. Sign in at drive.switch.ch and click Files settings in the lower left corner.
2. Copy the whole address from the WebDAV box.

Don’t add zotero at the end. Zotero does that itself.

Step 4: Set up Zotero

1. In Zotero, open the settings:
   • Windows / Linux: Edit > Settings
   • macOS: Zotero > Settings
2. Open the Sync tab.
3. Under File Syncing, select WebDAV from the “Sync attachment files in My Library using” menu.
4. Fill in the fields:
   • URL: your WebDAV address from Step 3. If there is a protocol menu next to the field, choose https and enter the address without https://.
   • Username: your Switch Drive username
   • Password: the app passcode from Step 2
5. Click Verify Server.

If everything is correct, Zotero shows File sync is successfully set up. If Zotero asks whether it may create the zotero folder, you skipped Step 1, so create the folder and verify again.

Click the green sync arrow at the top right of the Zotero window to start the first sync. Large libraries can take a while.

On your other computers

Repeat Step 4 on every computer where you use Zotero. You can reuse the same app passcode, or create a separate one per computer. A separate one is easier to revoke if a computer is lost.

rclone is a free command-line program for copying and syncing files with cloud storage. It's a good choice when your computer has no graphical interface.

1. Install rclone (Linux, macOS, BSD):

sudo -v ; curl https://rclone.org/install.sh | sudo bash

Other systems: https://rclone.org/install/

2. Create an App Passcode in Switch Drive (see above) and keep the user name shown with it.

3. Find your WebDAV address. In Switch Drive, click Settings in the bottom-left corner and copy the address under WebDAV. It looks like this: https://drive.switch.ch/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME

4. Configure rclone. Run:

rclone config

and answer the questions:

rclone stores the settings in ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf.

5. Test it.

rclone lsd SwitchDrive:

This lists your folders. If you get an error, run rclone config again and check each answer.

6. Copy files.

Upload:

rclone copy /home/username/upload_folder/ SwitchDrive:destination/folder/

Download:

rclone copy SwitchDrive:source/folder/ /home/username/download_folder/

We recommend the free ONLYOFFICE Documents app.

1. Install ONLYOFFICE Documents from the App Store.
2. Connect it to Switch Drive with WebDAV (see above).
3. Under My clouds, tap switchdrive and find your file. Tap it briefly to open it. Example: "Agenda.docx" in the folder "Project C".
4. Edit the file. Editing tools are above the keyboard and in the top right corner.
5. When you are done, close the file with the folder icon.
6. Reload your Switch Drive web page after a moment. Depending on your connection, it can take a short while until the changed file shows the new date and time. Earlier versions are in the Versions tab of the file.

With a small detour you can also edit files offline on your iPad. Because the file must be on your iPad to work offline, you first copy it into the app's local storage.

1. In ONLYOFFICE Documents, open Clouds and tap your switchdrive account. Find the file.
2. Press and hold the file for a moment until a menu appears. A quick tap would open the file. Or slide the file to the left and tap More. Choose Copy.
3. As the destination, choose On iPad. The file is now stored on the device.
4. Open On iPad. The file is in the local Documents folder. You can edit it without internet.
5. When you are back online, move the file back into your switchdrive account. Moving, not copying, makes sure there is only one version. Nobody then wonders which one is newer.