The desktop app

The Teralo desktop app runs Teralo in its own window on Windows, macOS and Linux. It uses the same account and data as Teralo in a browser, and adds tabs, a system tray icon, your computer's own Save dialog and automatic updates.

Only the desktop app can open a Drive document in an application on your computer, and on Windows it can show your documents in File Explorer through Teralo Drive.

1. Go to teralo.co/downloads.
2. Under your operating system, select the download:
   • Windows: Download, a 64-bit installer.
   • macOS: Apple silicon. There is no build for a Mac with an Intel processor.
   • Linux: AppImage or .deb, for 64-bit Intel and AMD processors.
3. Open the file you downloaded and follow the installer.

On Windows, Teralo installs for your own user account, in your profile folder. Neither installing nor updating asks for administrator rights.

The desktop app uses the same sign-in page as the browser.

If you sign in with Google, Microsoft or Apple, Teralo opens your web browser for that step. When you have signed in, the browser hands you back to the app. If it doesn't, select Open Teralo App in the browser.

• To open a link in a new tab behind the current one, hold Ctrl (⌘ on a Mac) as you select it, or select it with the middle mouse button. This works for links inside Teralo.
• To open a new tab on your dashboard, select the plus button beside the tabs.
• To close a tab, select the cross on it, or select the tab with the middle mouse button.
• To reorder tabs, drag them.

Teralo reopens your tabs, and the window at the same size and position, the next time it starts. Closing the last tab hides the window in the system tray.

On a Mac, use ⌘ in place of Ctrl. The menus show Ctrl on every platform.

• Ctrl+T: new tab
• Ctrl+W: close the tab
• Ctrl+Shift+T: reopen the last closed tab, up to the last 10
• Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab: next and previous tab
• Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+8: go to that tab; Ctrl+9 goes to the last tab
• Alt+Left and Alt+Right: back and forward
• Ctrl+N: new window
• Ctrl+R: reload
• Ctrl+K: search
• Ctrl+,: settings
• Ctrl+=, Ctrl+- and Ctrl+0: zoom in, zoom out and reset the zoom
• F11: full screen
• Ctrl+Q: quit

The titlebar holds the back and forward buttons, the tabs and four menus:

• File: New Window, Settings and Quit.
• Edit: undo, redo, cut, copy, paste and select all.
• View: Reload, the zoom controls and Toggle Fullscreen.
• Help: Check for Updates..., Search, Documentation (this help centre), Report a Bug (an email to Teralo support) and About Teralo (the version number).

Closing the window, with its close button or Alt+F4, hides Teralo in the system tray. Teralo keeps running there.

To bring the window back, right-click the Teralo icon in the system tray and select Show Teralo. Starting Teralo again also shows the window that is already open.

To quit, select File, then Quit, or press Ctrl+Q, or right-click the tray icon and select Quit. When Teralo Drive is connected, Quit in the tray first asks Quit Teralo and stop syncing?.

About 10 seconds after it starts, Teralo checks for a new version and downloads it in the background. When the download is ready, a Restart to update button appears in the titlebar.

1. Select Restart to update.

Teralo installs the update and restarts. If you quit before restarting, Teralo downloads the update again the next time it starts.

To check straight away:

1. Select Help, then Check for Updates....
2. If an update is available, select Update & Restart.

Before it downloads an update, Teralo checks that it can replace its own files. If it can't, it tells you which version is available and why it cannot install it, with a button to Download the installer or Open Teralo in a browser. The reasons:

• An older Windows install in Program Files. Earlier versions of Teralo could be installed for every user of a computer, and those installs can't update themselves. Select Download the installer and run it. It installs Teralo for your own account.
• A managed computer. Your organisation's policy stops Teralo changing its own folder. Ask your IT team to install the update.
• macOS permissions. You cannot write to the folder that holds Teralo, usually because someone else installed it there. Ask whoever installed it to update it, or move Teralo to a folder you own.

From your organisation's Drive, the desktop app can open a document in the application your computer uses for that file type, such as Word, Excel or Bluebeam. Each time you save, Teralo uploads the file as a new version of the document.

Before you start:

• An administrator has to turn on Allow documents to be edited on desktop computers, on the Desktop editing card in organisation settings. It is off by default. Learn more about organisation settings.
• You need Can add to and change the organisation Drive (upload, create folders, rename, move, copy, supersede, restore, share and set access).

To edit a document:

1. In Drive, switch to the list view.
2. Under the document's name, select Edit in desktop app.
3. The first time, Teralo asks Edit documents on this computer?. Select Turn on and open.
4. Edit the file, and save it as usual.

Teralo uploads each save while it is running, and the row under the document's name shows Saved to Teralo as v and the new version number. Drive keeps the 25 most recent versions of each document.

Revit models (.rvt) can't be edited this way. Selecting Edit in desktop app on one explains why. Download a copy instead.

Every document you edit this way leaves a working copy on your computer. To see them:

1. Select File, then Settings.
2. In the settings sidebar, under Settings, select Desktop. This page appears only in the desktop app.

The Files on this computer card lists each copy with its location, size, last save and state. Each row has:

• Show folder: opens the copy's folder in your file manager.
• Save to Teralo: uploads changes that did not reach Teralo, after a crash or a lost connection. It appears only on a copy with such changes.
• Discard: deletes the copy from your computer.

Teralo removes a saved copy 14 days after its last save, the next time the desktop app starts. A copy with changes that have not reached Teralo is never removed automatically.

The Edit documents in desktop applications card holds the switch Allow checking documents out to this computer, and Open the Teralo folder. Turning the switch off deletes nothing: the copies stay listed here. If your organisation turns desktop editing off, Teralo refuses the next save from any copy, and the file stays on your computer.

On Windows, Teralo Drive shows your organisation's Drive and your projects' documents as a folder in File Explorer. It is separate from Edit in desktop app, and it is off until you turn it on. Learn more about Teralo Drive.

In the desktop app, you can keep project documents on your computer to read with no connection. Nothing else in the desktop app works offline. Learn more about working offline.

The desktop app shows a system notification when your connection drops or comes back while its window is in the background, and Teralo Drive shows its own. The first notification asks for your computer's permission. Everything else Teralo tells you arrives by email. Learn more about notification settings.

1. At the bottom of the sidebar, select your name.
2. Select Log out.

Signing out doesn't stop Teralo Drive, which has its own sign-in. To stop it, turn off Sign this computer in to sync on the Desktop settings page.

On Windows, use Apps in Windows Settings.

On a Mac, select Teralo > Uninstall Teralo... in the menu bar. It first tells you about anything that would be lost, then signs you out, removes everything Teralo keeps on your Mac and moves Teralo to the Bin. Dragging Teralo to the Bin yourself removes only the app: your sign-in and settings stay, and Teralo picks them up again if you install it again.

The Teralo Drive article covers what an uninstall removes in detail, for IT departments.