pCloud is a cloud storage provider from Switzerland. It offers 10GB free storage upon registration and also allows you to get up to 20GB free space. pCloud client is available for Linux, Mac, windows, iOS and Android. Your files and folders are stored at 5 different servers to keep it safe from server failure. File transfer between you local folder and pCloud Drive is encrypted with TLS/SSL protocol. This tutorial shows how to install pCloud client on Ubuntu desktop and server.
Lifetime Plan
pCloud is the first to offer a lifetime plan in the cloud storage industry. The 2TB lifetime plan costs 350 Euros or 350 USD, depending on where you are located. If you compare it with the $9.99/month price of Dropbox, it’s a pretty good deal if you are a long time subscriber.
Install pCloud Client on Ubuntu Desktop
If you don’t have a pCloud account yet, go to pCloud website and create an account. Then download the pCloud drive client for Linux.
Once it’s downloaded, open your file manager and go to the download destination folder. Then right-click the pcloud binary and select properties in the context menu.
Next, select the Permissions tab and tick on Allow executing file as program.
Close the pCloud Properties window, then double click the pCloud binary. A login window will popup. Enter your pCloud email address and password.
After login, a folder named pCloudDrive will appear under your home folder. All files under this folder will be synced with pCloud Drive. Note that this folder doesn’t take any physical space on your hard drive. You can view it as a remote file system which is mounted under your home folder.
The pCloud app indicator will also appear in the task bar.
You can select other folder on your hard drive to be synced with pCloud Drive by clicking the app indicator, then select preferences and the sync tab to add new sync folder.
When the pCloud binary runs for the first time, it creates an start icon on your system, so next time you can start pCloud from your application menu.
How to Install pCloud Drive on Ubuntu Server
The pCloud drive client also has a command line version, which is available at pCloud’s Github repository. And you will find there’s a pre-built deb package for Ubuntu users if you scroll down the Github page.
Download the deb package, then upload it to your Ubuntu 18.04 server with scp command or FTP. For example, I use the following scp command to upload the deb package to my Ubuntu server.
scp ~/Downloads/pcloudcc_2.1.0-1_amd64_ubuntu_18.04.deb [emailprotected]:~After that, log into your Ubuntu server via SSH and install the deb package with the following command.
sudo apt install ./pcloudcc_2.1.0-1_amd64_ubuntu_18.04.deb
It will be installed as /usr/bin/pcloudcc. To see how to use the command line client, run
pcloudcc -h
For example, you can use the following command to log into your pCloud account and mount your files under the /home/username/pclouddrive/ folder.
pcloudcc -u [emailprotected] -p -s -m /home/username/pclouddrive -d
You will be asked to enter your pCloud password and then it will daemonize as a background process. Next time, you don’t need to use the -p and -s option because the password has been saved in a database under the ~/.pcloud/ directory.
Auto-Start pCloud at Boot time on Ubuntu Server
To make a program auto-start at boot time, we can create a systemd service for it. For example, use the Nano command line text editor to create a systemd service for pCloud.
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/pcloud.service
Add the following lines in the file. Replace username with your real username on the Ubuntu server and replace [emailprotected] with your pCloud email address.
[Unit]Description=pCloud Command Line ClientAfter=network-online.target[Service]Type=simpleUser=usernameGroup=usernameWorkingDirectory=/home/username/ExecStart=/usr/bin/pcloudcc -u [emailprotected] -m /home/username/pclouddriveRestart=on-failure[Install]WantedBy=multi-user.target
Save and close the file. To save a file in Nano text editor, press Ctrl+O, then press Enter to confirm. To exit, press Ctrl+X. Then start and enable this service.
sudo systemctl start pcloudsudo systemctl enable pcloud
Go to the /home/username/pclouddrive directory. If there are files or folder there, it means everything is working fine. You can also use the following command to check if there’s any errors.
sudo journalctl -eu pcloud
If you change the /etc/systemd/systemd/pcloud.service file, you need to reload systemd with:
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
Then restart pcloud service.
sudo systemctl restart pcloud
Getting More Free Space
You can get up to 20GB free space.
- Inviting your friends will get you both 1GB additional free space per registration.
- Subscribing to pCloud newsletter gets you 500MB.
- Connect Facebook account gets you 500MB
- and on and on…
File Encryption
Please note that traffic between your pCloud client and the pCloud server is encrypted with TLS/SSL, but that doesn’t mean the file itself is encrypted. It’s essential that you encrypt your files when using an external cloud storage service.
To encrypt your files in the pCloud, you can try their crypto service for free for 14 days. If you are happy with it, buy the premium service at $3.99/month.Or if you are tech savvy, you can always encrypt your local files by yourself using a free disk encryption software like VeraCrypt, so before your local files are transferred to pCloud Drive, they are encrypted and no one can take a peek.
How to Upgrade pCloud on Ubuntu Desktop
When a new version of pCloud comes out, go to the pCloud website to download the latest version and delete the old version from your hard drive. Grant executable permission, then double-click the pCloud binary and you are done.
Wrapping Up
I hope this article helped you to install and use pCloud on Ubuntu desktop and server. As always, if you found this post useful, thensubscribe to our free newsletter to get more tips and tricks 🙂
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