Creative Assets Local Mount Guide

An operational guide for content team members. Once complete, a creative-assets folder will appear on your computer. Use it like any local folder — files inside sync to the cloud in real time.

Information You Need

Before starting, ask your admin for the following:

Step 1: Install macFUSE (requires a restart)

macFUSE is the low-level driver that lets Mac mount cloud folders. It must be installed first.

1.1 Open Terminal

Press Command + Space, type Terminal, and press Enter.

1.2 Install Homebrew (skip if already installed)

Paste this line into Terminal and press Enter:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

• You will be prompted for your Mac login password (nothing will appear on screen as you type — this is normal, just press Enter when done)
• After installation completes, run the commands shown in the terminal output (usually two lines starting with eval)

If Homebrew is already installed, skip this step.

1.3 Install macFUSE

brew install --cask macfuse

• You will be prompted for your Mac password
• After installation you will see a prompt about allowing a system extension

1.4 Allow the system extension

1. Open System Settings (Apple menu in the top-left corner → System Settings)
2. Click Privacy & Security in the sidebar
3. Scroll to the bottom — you should see a message: “System software from developer ‘Benjamin Fleischer’ was blocked from loading”
4. Click Allow
5. Enter your Mac password to confirm

If you don’t see this message, try restarting your computer first and checking again.

1.5 Restart your computer

You must restart! The mount command will fail if you skip this step.

Click the Apple menu in the top-left corner → Restart.

Step 2: Install rclone (official version)

⚠️ Important: You must use the official version, not the Homebrew version (the Homebrew version does not support mounting).

After restarting, reopen Terminal.

2.1 Download and install

Paste the following commands one at a time (paste each line, press Enter, wait for it to finish, then paste the next):

cd ~/Downloads

curl -O https://downloads.rclone.org/rclone-current-osx-arm64.zip

unzip rclone-current-osx-arm64.zip

cd rclone-*-osx-arm64

sudo cp rclone /usr/local/bin/

The last command will ask for your Mac password.

2.2 Verify installation

/usr/local/bin/rclone version

You should see output like rclone v1.73.x. If you see command not found, the installation failed — ask your admin for help.

Step 3: Configure rclone

3.1 Create the configuration file

mkdir -p ~/.config/rclone

nano ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf

This opens a text editor. Paste the following content (replace the three marked values):

[r2]
type = s3
provider = Cloudflare
access_key_id = YOUR_ACCESS_KEY_ID
secret_access_key = YOUR_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
region = auto
endpoint = https://cc323c2ae7f85d59c43320bfc6493e41.r2.cloudflarestorage.com
upload_headers = x-amz-meta-uploaded-by: YOUR_NAME_IDENTIFIER

What to replace:

• YOUR_ACCESS_KEY_ID → replace with the Access Key ID from your admin
• YOUR_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY → replace with the Secret Access Key from your admin
• YOUR_NAME_IDENTIFIER → replace with the name your admin gave you (e.g., alice, bob)

3.2 Save and exit

1. Press Control + O (the letter O, not the number 0), then press Enter to save
2. Press Control + X to exit the editor

3.3 Verify the connection

/usr/local/bin/rclone lsd r2:creative-assets

You should see folder names (such as inbox, video, image, etc.). If you see an AccessDenied error, double-check that you pasted the Access Key ID and Secret Access Key correctly.

Step 4: Mount locally

4.1 Create the mount point

mkdir -p ~/creative-assets

4.2 Mount

Replace YOUR_NAME_IDENTIFIER in the command below.

/usr/local/bin/rclone mount r2:creative-assets ~/creative-assets --vfs-cache-mode full --header-upload "x-amz-meta-uploaded-by: YOUR_NAME_IDENTIFIER" --daemon

4.3 Verify

Open Finder, click Home in the sidebar or press Command + Shift + H to go to your home directory. You should see a creative-assets folder.

Open it — you should see these folders:

creative-assets/
├── inbox/          ← drag files here to upload
├── video/
├── image/
├── audio/
├── projects/
├── reference/
├── brand/
└── other/

Step 5: Daily usage

Uploading assets

Drag files directly into the inbox/ folder. That’s it — no other steps needed.

The system will automatically:

1. Detect the file type (video/image/audio)
2. Use AI to determine where the file should be archived
3. Archive it to the correct location
4. Send you a Slack notification with the archival result

Browsing assets

• Browse folders directly in Finder
• Sort by date modified to see the latest assets
• Double-click files to preview or play them

If you know which project a file belongs to

You can drag it into inbox/project-name/ directly, for example:

inbox/spring-hero/    ← drag files here, auto-archived to spring-hero project

If the folder doesn’t exist, just create a new one inside inbox/.

After every reboot

The macFUSE mount does not start automatically on boot. After every restart you need to remount:

1. Open Terminal
2. Paste and run:

/usr/local/bin/rclone mount r2:creative-assets ~/creative-assets --vfs-cache-mode full --dir-cache-time 30s --daemon

Tip: You can save this as a shortcut. Run this in Terminal:

echo 'alias mount-assets="/usr/local/bin/rclone mount r2:creative-assets ~/creative-assets --vfs-cache-mode full --dir-cache-time 30s --daemon"' >> ~/.zshrc

After that, you only need to open Terminal and type mount-assets each time you reboot.

Unmounting (disconnecting)

To disconnect the cloud folder:

diskutil unmount force ~/creative-assets

Or in Finder, right-click the creative-assets folder → Eject.

FAQ / Troubleshooting

Mount fails: “daemon exited with error code 1”

Cause: macFUSE is not installed correctly, or you didn’t restart after installing it.

Solution:

1. Check if macFUSE is installed: brew list --cask macfuse
2. If not installed: brew install --cask macfuse
3. Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and allow the system extension
4. Restart your computer
5. Run the mount command again

Mount fails: “rclone mount is not supported on MacOS when rclone is installed via Homebrew”

Cause: You installed the Homebrew version of rclone, which does not support mounting.

Solution: Reinstall the official version following Step 2.

”Allow system extension” prompt not visible in System Settings

Solution:

1. Restart your computer first
2. After restarting, go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and check again
3. If still not visible, try running in Terminal: sudo kextload /Library/Filesystems/macfuse.fs/Contents/Extensions/macfuse.kext, then check System Settings again

Folder doesn’t show the latest uploaded files

Cause: rclone has a 30-second directory cache.

Solution: Wait 30 seconds and refresh Finder (press Command + R or navigate out of the folder and back in).

Can’t see the creative-assets folder in Finder

Possible causes:

1. Mount command was not run — run the mount command again
2. Mount point is in use — run diskutil unmount force ~/creative-assets first, then remount

”AccessDenied” error

Cause: Access Key ID or Secret Access Key is configured incorrectly.

Solution:

1. Open Terminal and run nano ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf
2. Verify that access_key_id and secret_access_key are correct (confirm with your admin)
3. Save and exit (Control + O → Enter → Control + X)
4. Run the mount command again

Folder disappears after restarting the computer

This is normal. You need to run the mount command after every restart. See the “After every reboot” section.

No Slack notification after dragging files to inbox

Possible causes:

1. File is too small (the system processed it very quickly and the Slack message may have been sent before you switched to Slack) — check your Slack DMs
2. Your name identifier is misconfigured — verify the upload_headers value in rclone.conf matches what your admin provided
3. The Slack Bot doesn’t have permission to message you — ask your admin to check

Quick Reference