Quick Share puts a folder from one Mac inside Finder on your other Macs. The folder stays where it is: nothing is copied to the other machine, and what you open there is the file on the Mac that owns it. This is different from Send files, which moves a copy and leaves it there.
Quick Share is a Pro feature, and both Macs need Pro: the Mac sharing the folder and the Mac mounting it. See Free vs Pro.
Turn it on
Quick Share is on from the start. Two switches under Settings → Sharing → Quick Share Drive, on each Mac:
- Share folders from this Mac decides whether the folders in the list below it are offered to paired Macs. On by default. It covers exports only: turning it off shares nothing from this Mac, while folders shared by your other Macs still appear in Continuo Drive.
- Mount Continuo Drive presents shared folders in Finder. Also on by default, and it only matters on the Mac doing the opening.
Neither switch is a thing to remember before you start. A paired Mac sees the folders you have added and nothing else, so an empty list gives it nothing to see.
Share a folder
Use Share a folder in the Quick Share card in the menu bar panel, or the Shared folders list under Settings → Sharing → Quick Share Drive, and pick a folder.
You can share more than one folder, and there is no fixed limit on how many. Each gets its own row, its own permission, and its own on/off switch. If two folders would end up with the same name, Continuo disambiguates the second one rather than letting them collide.
Share folders from this Mac is the master switch above the list. Turning it off stops serving every folder at once without forgetting any of them; each row keeps its own permission and its own on/off switch for when you turn it back on.
Open it on the other Mac
Shared folders appear inside Continuo Drive, mounted at ~/Continuo Drive in your home folder. Change the location under Settings →
Sharing → Quick Share Drive → Mount point.
Inside it, folders are grouped by the Mac that owns them: a folder per Mac, then the folders that Mac shares. Open Continuo Drive in the Quick Share card takes you there.
Read-only, or read and write
Every folder is shared read-only by default. A folder is never writable by accident; you have to say so.
Click the permission label on a share’s row to flip it between Read only and Read & write. One click either way. The row shows which one is in force, and a lock marks the restrictive state.
Changing the permission takes effect for that folder alone. Other shared folders keep whatever they were set to.
What a refused write looks like
A read-only share refuses every change: creating, editing, renaming, and deleting all fail, and the folder on the owning Mac is left exactly as it was. Finder reports a read-only volume error.
One thing worth knowing before you test it: a read-only share still looks writable in Finder. Get Info does not report it as read-only, and neither does the volume. The refusal is what you see when a write is actually attempted, not before. That is expected, not a fault.
Renaming a file from one shared folder into a different one is refused as a cross-device move; Finder falls back to copying and then deleting, which is what it does for any two separate volumes.
Deleting, and where things go
Deleting a file from a shared folder moves it to the Trash of the Mac that owns the folder, not the Mac you are sitting at. It can be put back from there.
Folders Continuo will not share
Some folders are refused outright when you pick them, and Continuo says so instead of sharing them:
- The root of the disk, your whole home folder, and
/Users /System,/Library, your own~/Library, and the other system directories- Hidden folders sitting directly in your home folder
- The root of an external volume, rather than a folder inside it
- Continuo’s own receive folder and its own mount point, which would otherwise nest a share inside itself
If you pick a folder macOS protects (Desktop, Documents or Downloads), Continuo asks you to confirm first, and warns that macOS may ask for access again after a restart.
Folder access permission
Quick Share needs macOS Files and Folders access for the folder you pick. This is separate from Continuo’s core permissions and optional Location access.
If Continuo cannot read the folder, it says so and offers Open System Settings, which takes you straight to Privacy & Security → Files and Folders. Grant Continuo access there and pick the folder again.
When a share goes missing
A folder that has been renamed, moved, or that lived on an external volume you have since unplugged can no longer be served. Its row still appears in the list, but the other Mac stops seeing it until the folder is back where it was.
If Continuo Drive itself does not appear, the Quick Share card reports Continuo Drive unavailable and offers a retry.
When the other Mac sees nothing you share
If your folders are listed here but no other Mac can see them, the Quick Share card says so directly. It reports Not reaching other Macs and points you at Share folders from this Mac in Settings → Sharing. That is the master switch above, and it is the only thing that stops a listed folder being offered.
Separately, a 32-character item under your home folder can be left behind in Finder’s sidebar after an unclean quit. Continuo notices and says so under Settings → Sharing → Quick Share Drive: quit Continuo, Control-click that item and choose Remove from Sidebar, then reopen Continuo.
Related
- Send files, to move a copy rather than mount a folder
- Free vs Pro, for what Pro covers
- Permissions, for the permissions Continuo asks for