Connect your document storage

You will learn how to connect a drive, how Uku names each client’s folder on it, and what to do when the connection expires.

Company Owners and Company Admins, on the Elite plan. Other members do not see the Connectors, Folder naming or Maintenance tabs.

Uku Document Management always keeps your folders, with or without a drive. Connect a drive only if your team wants to open the same files in Google Drive, OneDrive, SharePoint or Dropbox. One drive can be connected at a time.

Drive	Best for
Google Drive	Firms working in Google Workspace
OneDrive	Firms working in Microsoft 365
SharePoint	Firms with shared sites and libraries in Microsoft 365. See Connect SharePoint to Uku.
Dropbox	A personal Dropbox, or Dropbox Business without a team space

Templates, folder names, visibility and permissions are always managed in Uku. Who sees the folders on the drive depends on the drive’s own sharing, not on Uku.

Path: Settings & Apps → Documents → Connectors

1. Open Settings & Apps and open the Documents app. If the app is not active, activate it on the Overview tab first.
2. Open the Connectors tab.
3. Click Connect on your drive and sign in on the drive’s page. For SharePoint, fill in Site URL, Tenant ID, Client ID and Client secret instead.
4. Back on Connectors, the drive shows Active. Uku says No main folder chosen.
5. Click Choose folder and select the folder Uku should work in. Google Drive opens Google’s own picker.
6. Click Save. Uku shows Settings saved.

Uku creates a folder for each client under the main folder. Each client’s folders on the drive follow its tree in Uku. In a client’s Documents, a file’s menu now has Open with the drive’s name, which opens the file on the drive. Dropbox files have no such entry.

Create client folders decides when a client’s folders appear on the drive. Click Edit next to it.

• When the first file is added — folders appear when their first file arrives, or when someone creates them. Uku uses this by default.
• Right away — a new client gets all its folders on the drive at once, empty ones too.

Keep When the first file is added unless someone browses the drive directly and expects every folder to be there. Empty folders make the drive slower to browse.

Right away applies to new clients. For existing clients, open Maintenance and click Create folders on the Create missing client folders card. The card counts the clients that have no folder on the drive yet.

Backup copies in Uku decides whether Uku keeps its own copy of every file. Click Edit next to it.

• Keep backup copies in Uku (recommended) — new files are saved in the drive and in Uku. If a file is lost or unreachable on the drive, Uku opens its own copy.
• Store files only in [drive] — new files are saved on the drive only. If access is revoked or a file is deleted there, Uku cannot open it.

Keep the backup copies on. The setting reads Active while they are on.

Path: Settings & Apps → Documents → Folder naming

The Folder naming tab sets how each client’s main folder is named on the drive. The tab is available only while a drive is connected.

1. Click Insert variable and pick a client detail: Client name, Client id, Client code, Reg code, Country or Client type.
2. Type your own text between the details, for example -. Drag a detail to move it.
3. Check the Example row, which shows the name for a sample client.
4. Click Save. Uku shows Settings saved.

Use the detail your team already uses for clients, such as the client code. A client with no client code gets ID and its id in that place, for example ID1234567.

A new rule names new client folders. Existing folders keep their names until you rename them.

Path: Settings & Apps → Documents → Maintenance

1. Find the Rename client folders to match the rule card, which counts the folders that do not match.
2. Click Rename folders. The window shows examples of old and new names.
3. Click Rename folders again. Uku shows Process started.

Folders keep their contents; only the name changes. A client folder chosen by hand in the client’s settings keeps its name. If your drive cannot rename folders, the card says so, and Uku renames the folders in Uku only.

A drive connection can expire, for example when someone removes Uku’s access or a SharePoint client secret expires. The Overview and Connectors tabs then show Storage connection has expired.

New files are kept in Uku Document Management until you reconnect. They open in Uku, but they are not on the drive.

1. Click Reconnect.
2. Sign in to the drive again. For SharePoint, enter a new Client secret.

The banner goes away. Your main folder and every client’s folder stay as they were.

Path: Settings & Apps → Documents → Connectors

1. Click Disconnect.
2. Read the warning and click Confirm.

To switch drives, disconnect the current one, then connect the new one and choose its main folder. Uku does not copy files between drives. If you connect the same account again, choose the same main folder: Uku then uses each client’s existing folder.

One drive is already connected. Disconnect it first, then connect the drive you want.

On Google’s page, you did not allow access to Drive files. Click Connect again and allow Uku to see, edit, create and delete the Google Drive files it uses.

Uku does not support Dropbox team spaces. Uku supports a personal Dropbox, or a Dropbox Business account without a team space. Click Connect again and sign in with one of those accounts.

Your Dropbox account uses a team space, which Uku does not support. Uku refuses file actions on it and refuses it at Reconnect. Click Disconnect, then connect a personal Dropbox or a Dropbox Business account without a team space. You can also connect another drive.

With When the first file is added, a client’s folders appear with its first file. Upload a file, or use Create missing client folders on the Maintenance tab.

Uku never overwrites a file on the drive. A second upload with the same name gets a new name: Invoice 1.pdf on OneDrive and SharePoint, Invoice (1).pdf on Dropbox. Google Drive keeps two files with the same name.

Uku keeps using the renamed folder. New files go into it, and no folder with the old name appears.