Fix macOS Empty Desktop and Documents Folders — Permission Fix with RcloneView
If RcloneView shows your Mac's Desktop, Documents, or Downloads folder as empty, it's almost always a macOS privacy permission that hasn't been granted yet — not a sync problem.
Since Catalina, macOS locks Desktop, Documents, and Downloads behind Privacy & Security permissions, and any app that wants to read them — including RcloneView when it's browsing local folders as a sync source — has to be explicitly approved. Users setting up their first local-to-cloud backup job often hit this: the folder tree loads, but the file list stays empty even though the files are clearly on disk. RcloneView connects to and syncs 90+ cloud providers, but this particular issue lives entirely on the macOS side, and it's a two-minute fix.

Manage & Sync All Clouds in One Place
RcloneView is a cross-platform GUI for rclone. Compare folders, transfer or sync files, and automate multi-cloud workflows with a clean, visual interface.
- One-click jobs: Copy · Sync · Compare
- Schedulers & history for reliable automation
- Works with Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, S3, WebDAV, SFTP and more
Free core features. Plus automations available.