pCloud Drive offers a range of settings that allow you to customize how the app works on your device. You can access these settings to optimize performance, manage storage usage, and troubleshoot issues.
How to access Settings
You can access the Settings menu at any time:
- From the app: open pCloud and click Settings in the left-hand menu
- From the system tray (Windows) or menu bar (macOS): click the pCloud icon and select Settings
General
The General tab controls basic app behaviour:
- Start pCloud Drive automatically on system startup
- Show pCloud Drive in your system context menu
- Display file status icons
- Automatically save screenshots
Speed
The Speed tab allows you to control transfer performance:
- Set upload and download speed limits (Unlimited, Auto, or Custom)
- Enable LAN Sync to speed up transfers within the same network
- Use Connection info when requested by Support
By default, speeds are set to Unlimited, meaning they depend on your internet connection.
Disk usage
The Disk usage tab let you manage how much local space pCloud Drive uses:
- Set minimum free disk space to avoid system slowdowns
- Adjust cache size for frequently accessed files
- Clear local cache to free up storage space
pCloud Drive requires a minimum amount of free disk space to function properly. By default, this is set to 2048 MB.
If your available disk space falls below this limit, the app will prompt you to free up space.
Cache size determines how much local disk space is used to temporarily store files. This improves performance and ensures smoother uploads and downloads. The minimum recommended value is 5120 MB.
When uploading or accessing files, pCloud Drive temporarily uses local disk space to cache data. This helps speed up transfers and prevents interruptions if your internet connection is unstable.
Crypto folder
The Crypto folder tab allows you to manage the encrypted files:
- Lock the Crypto folder when your device goes to sleep
- Automatically unlock the Crypto folder on app start
- Enable indexing for faster search (may affect performance)
- Reset Crypto Pass (this will delete encrypted files)
Exclusions
The Exclusions tab allows you to define which files and folders are skipped during Sync, Back up, or Upload:
- System and temporary files are excluded by default
- Add custom exclusions manually
- Restore default exclusions settings at any time
For best performance, we recommend reviewing files not recommended for sync, backup, or upload.
Advanced
The Advanced tab includes troubleshooting tools:
- Enable Debug mode to help diagnose issues
About
The About tab provided information about your app:
- Current pCloud Drive version
- Available updates
- Legal information