Cyberduck — S3 Browser and Ad-Hoc Transfers (Windows, macOS)

GUI-based S3 client for Windows and macOS. Best for browsing your bucket, ad-hoc uploads and downloads, manual restores, and inspecting backup contents. Not a scheduled backup tool — for automated backups, use restic, rclone, or Duplicati. Cyberduck complements those tools rather than replacing them.

1. Install Cyberduck

Download the installer from cyberduck.io.

• Windows: run the .exe installer.
• macOS: mount the .zip and drag Cyberduck to Applications.

Cyberduck is donationware — free to use, with a nag screen on launch unless you purchase a registration key from the Mac App Store or Microsoft Store.

2. Get your S3 credentials

Log in to your HummingTribe dashboard → S3 Storage tab. Copy your Access Key ID and reveal your Secret Access Key (shown once — save it now). Note your bucket name.

3. Create a new bookmark

Open Cyberduck → Bookmark menu → New Bookmark (or press Cmd+Shift+B / Ctrl+Shift+B).

In the bookmark editor, set the connection type at the top to S3 (HTTPS).

Fill in the fields:

Click More Options to expand advanced settings:

• Transfer Files: Use browser connection
• Connect Mode: leave default

Close the bookmark editor — Cyberduck saves automatically.

4. Connect and authenticate

Double-click the bookmark in the main browser window. Cyberduck prompts for your Secret Access Key — paste it and tick Add to Keychain (macOS) or Save Password (Windows) so you don't have to re-enter it.

Click Login. Cyberduck connects to HummingTribe and shows the contents of your bucket. An empty bucket shows a blank file list.

5. Upload and download files

Upload: drag files or folders from Finder/Explorer into the Cyberduck window. Transfers run in the Transfers window (Cmd+T / Ctrl+T) with per-file progress.

Download: drag files from Cyberduck to your desktop, or right-click → Download To... to pick a destination.

Resume interrupted transfers: Cyberduck automatically detects partial transfers and offers to resume on next connect.

For large multi-gigabyte uploads, Cyberduck uses S3 multipart uploads automatically. The default chunk size is 10 MB — adjust under Preferences → Transfers → General → Multipart download/upload if you need to.

6. Browse and inspect backups

Cyberduck is the easiest way to verify what your backup tools have written:

• Path navigation: click into folders to drill down. Use the breadcrumb bar at the top to jump back up.
• File info: right-click any file → Info to see size, modification date, storage class, and S3 metadata.
• Search: Cmd+F / Ctrl+F filters the current folder by name.
• Sort: click column headers (Filename, Size, Modified) to sort.

This is particularly useful for confirming restic snapshot directories, rclone sync results, or Duplicati .dblock and .dindex files are present in the bucket.

7. Restore a single file

Restoring an individual file from a structured backup (restic, Duplicati) requires the original tool — those tools store data in their own internal format and cannot be browsed file-by-file in Cyberduck.

Cyberduck restores work for files uploaded directly as files (e.g. via rclone copy, or manual uploads). To restore:

1. Navigate to the file in the bucket.
2. Right-click → Download To...
3. Choose a local destination → Choose.

For an entire folder, right-click the folder → Download To... — Cyberduck downloads the folder tree recursively.

8. Optional — client-side encryption with Cryptomator

Cyberduck integrates with Cryptomator for transparent client-side encryption. Files are encrypted on your machine before upload — HummingTribe never sees the plaintext.

Install Cryptomator from cryptomator.org. Then in Cyberduck:

1. Connect to your bucket (step 4).
2. Right-click in the browser pane → New Encrypted Vault.
3. Choose a vault name (e.g. vault) and a strong passphrase.
4. Cyberduck creates the Cryptomator vault structure in your bucket.

After creation, Cyberduck shows a virtual unlocked vault. Files dragged in are encrypted before upload; files dragged out are decrypted on download. The vault passphrase is required on every reconnection.

If you lose the vault passphrase, the files are unrecoverable. Cryptomator has no recovery mechanism. Store the passphrase in a password manager.

This is a useful pattern for sensitive ad-hoc files — but for full automated backups, use restic or Duplicati's built-in encryption instead.

9. Sync (one-off, manual)

Cyberduck has a Synchronize feature (right-click bookmark → Synchronize) that compares a local folder to a remote folder and offers three modes: Download (remote → local), Upload (local → remote), or Mirror (both directions).

This is useful for occasional one-off sync operations, but it is not scheduled and not incremental — every sync rescans the entire folder tree. For automated, deduplicated, scheduled sync, use rclone instead.

Manage your bucket and credentials from your HummingTribe dashboard.