A renamed folder kept showing its old name in ExpanDrive until I disconnected and reconnected the drive. I was sorting scanned receipts, and the folder was still open in another window. I expected the name to update without having to babysit it.
Does anyone else see this with ExpanDrive, and does RaiDrive behave differently in the same situation? Is leaving the folder open enough to cause this, or should the listing update anyway?
My comparison comes from using both tools at different jobs, not running a controlled benchmark. I’d separate what I noticed from what the plans allow, then check whether the cheapest tier actually lets me do the work.
For OneDrive for Business, write access is the first filter. RaiDrive’s free plan makes that service, SharePoint and Box read-only, although personal OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox and the listed file-transfer protocols are writable. If I can’t save back to my work account, the free price doesn’t settle much, which is my main caveat with RaiDrive plans.
I noticed RaiDrive leaning heavily on connection quality, and it doesn’t have caching to soften that dependency. I wouldn’t turn that observation into a speed ranking without comparable measurements.
Offline access changes the comparison more than an unsupported “faster” claim would. Smart caching and offline access are included in the free tier of ExpanDrive details.
RaiDrive Standard allows 8 drives, includes ads and limits support to its forum. ExpanDrive’s free tier is ad-free, covers up to 10 users or devices per year and relies on community support.
RaiDrive’s paid entry price is $1.84/month, but that assumes a 3-year commitment. I’d count the commitment alongside the monthly rate, especially when paying is what removes the work-account restriction.
RaiDrive supports Windows and Linux; ExpanDrive adds macOS. A Mac requirement rules out RaiDrive, but Linux alone doesn’t distinguish them.
I’d also weigh local storage and payment style. Files downloading only when opened, cloud-file encryption and a one-time license make the Mac-and-Windows alternative relevant to my comparison, though they aren’t performance measurements. Those are the reasons I’d also consider CloudMounter options.
Which constraint would decide it for your setup: writable work storage, offline access, or avoiding a subscription?
I would expect it to see the renamed folder when I manually refreshed without reconnecting the drive. The comparison of plans does not address this concern. I would want to test it multiple times with another window opened in RaiDrive to consider it a better option. I am inclined to support CloudMounter for the ability to see different accounts from the same provider mounted side-by-side.
Don’t repeat the rename just because the old name is still visible. First check the folder in your storage provider’s web interface so you know whether you’re troubleshooting a rename that didn’t stick or a view that hasn’t caught up.
The missing detail here is where you renamed it: inside the mounted drive, in the browser, or on another machine. I’d treat those as separate tests. With the second window still open, check the parent folder in a fresh window and compare that with the browser. If the browser shows the new name, you’ve narrowed the question to how the mounted drive and file manager show that change. Reconnecting ExpanDrive cleared the symptom in your case, but that alone doesn’t give RaiDrive the win. The pricing discussion doesn’t resolve it either.
I’m less convinced by CloudMounter’s side-by-side account layout as a reason to choose it for this problem. It earns a place here as a third comparison using that same rename scenario, not as a presumed fix. For receipt sorting, I’d favor whichever app shows the correct folder name without interrupting the rest of the work.
Use a disposable folder with a text file to check whether the stale window still lets you open and save that file after the rename. That’s the difference that made a difference for me: an incorrect label is a minor irritation whereas a window that ceases to function correctly interrupts the data organization workflow. After saving changes in the modified folder, double-check through the newly named window that the alterations appeared in the expected location. Do not forget to leave the real files out of this experiment.
I would like to amend the phrasing of the acceptance test slightly. While renaming the window to match the new name is important, so is the ability to proceed with the work on an open session. In the case of ExpanDrive, CloudMounter and RaiDrive for me would be the tools to measure the identical end-to-end experience. This incident serves as a reminder that ExpanDrive’s convenience has its limitations, but I do not consider your product to be outright superior to RaiDrive. In this scenario, I would prefer not having to re-open a folder. A disconnection prompt is an inconvenience I would rather avoid altogether.
A renamed folder showing correctly in your file manager is one case. Your scanning app still offering the old destination is another, and for sorting receipts I’d care more about whether those two views agree.
That’s the missing comparison for me: the destination picker in the app producing the files. The proposed text-file check would tell you whether an existing session remains usable, but it wouldn’t answer whether your next scan is easy to place. I’d include the normal “Save As” or export dialog, assuming that’s how your receipts enter the mounted drive. No need to turn this into a broad benchmark. Just include the screen you actually use to choose the destination.
For ExpanDrive versus RaiDrive, I’d separate automatic updates from recovery when an update doesn’t appear. If RaiDrive shows the new name without intervention and ExpanDrive needs a manual refresh, that’s a convenience advantage. If both occasionally need a refresh but only ExpanDrive requires disconnecting, that’s a much larger difference. Your account establishes that reconnecting cleared the problem, but doesn’t say whether refreshing the parent folder was tried first. I wouldn’t count those as equivalent outcomes.
I’m less willing to dismiss the wrong label as a minor irritation, even if opening and saving still work. When you’re choosing where a receipt belongs, having to stop and establish which folder you’re looking at is already a workflow failure. Continued access matters, but confidence in the destination matters too.
I’d give RaiDrive the edge only on evidence that it keeps that destination-selection workflow clearer with your storage provider. A tidy file-manager window alone wouldn’t sell me on switching, especially if the scanning app’s picker still needed to be closed and reopened. That would move the interruption rather than remove it.
If the rename operation did not occur within the mounted drive itself, what you are seeing is almost certainly the result of the cache performing its job correctly. Same smart caching mechanisms that you love when working offline are the reason ExpanDrive holds onto an old listing. It holds onto a local copy of the directory until the cache entry expires or until some external force triggers it to re-read the directory. Forced reconnection triggered this behavior. A contextual folder refresh may or may not work depending on how deeply nested the stale cache entry was. Thus, the same mechanism that allows you to work offline is the cause of the inconvenience, and calling it a loss for RaiDrive ignores the tradeoffs involved.
RaiDrive, being devoid of such a caching layer, generally has a more direct touch with the provider which is why it is more likely to show the new name without fuss. It’s not that RaiDrive is somehow smarter; it has fewer steps between your computer and the storage, reducing the chances of things going wrong due to one of them misbehaving. Your receipts might be hosted somewhere with less reliable connectivity, and you might find yourself wishing for a cache layer like the one you currently despise.
The one thing I would push back on from your thread is that you think of disconnection as a nuclear option. Certain builds allow you to clear or truncate the directory cache without unmounting the drive which might be worth looking into if you are considering throwing away the tool. As for myself, I would keep aggressive caching turned on and retrain myself to remember hitting refresh or to unmount the drive through CloudMounter to avoid the conversation altogether. Choose tools based on where you perform renames, not some arbitrary set of actions that looked good once.
Reconnecting clearing the old name doesn’t prove offline caching caused it, @0xhawk6. Calling that “the cache performing its job correctly” gives the diagnosis rather more confidence than the evidence deserves. We have an ExpanDrive refresh problem here, not evidence that RaiDrive handles it better.
The second window is only a possible trigger and not an established cause. I would do a rename with that window closed before concluding whether ExpanDrive refreshes in cases beyond a single folder, assuming that you actually want to keep multiple folders open as per your usual working habits.