Desktop app settings

Every setting in Floe Desktop, in the order the Settings screen lists them, followed by what Reset does and where the settings are stored. Needs: Floe Desktop on Windows. See Installation.

The short version

Most people never change anything here. Save received files to picks another download folder. Hide my IP address (Hide my IP) keeps your IP address from the other person, at the cost of a slower transfer capped at 2 GB. Server address is only for people who run their own Floe server. Open Settings with the gear in the title bar, or press Ctrl ,. Press Esc to go back. Switches and the save folder save as you change them. The two address fields under Advanced save when you click out of them, when you leave Settings, and before a Test.

Transfers

Save received files to

Where everything you receive with a code or a link is written. Leave it blank and Floe uses your Downloads folder, or your home folder if you do not have one. It never asks per transfer. This is the same setting as Save to on the Receive tab, and a path you type is read the way Receiving files describes. A request link has its own Save to, which defaults to Downloads\Floe. See Make a link. An arriving file never replaces one you already have. See Nothing is ever overwritten.

Notifications

When something finishes or needs you and you are not looking at Floe, Floe shows a Windows notification. There are six, and their words are fixed: a notification never carries a file name, your label, or anything the sender typed.

When	Title	Text
A send finished	Floe	Files sent
A receive finished, by code or through a request link	Floe	Files received
A send failed	Floe - send failed	The transfer didn’t finish
A receive failed, or an accepted request-link drop stopped	Floe - receive failed	The transfer didn’t finish
Someone sent a request through your request link	Floe	Someone wants to send you files
Auto-accept started a drop by itself	Floe	Receiving files through your request link

A failure notification does not say why. The reason is on the card in Floe. Canceling a transfer yourself does not notify.

Show notifications

On by default. Turn it off and Floe shows no Windows notification at all. A request still reaches you another way. See With notifications off. Windows keeps the last word. Do Not Disturb, Focus and the per-app switches in Windows’ own notification settings decide whether a notification Floe sends is shown, whatever this switch says. The Open button below takes you to those settings.

Play sound

On by default. Turn it off and notifications still appear, but silently. The switch is dimmed while Show notifications is off, and it keeps its setting, so turning notifications back on restores it.

Windows notification settings

Open takes you to Notifications in Windows Settings. That is where Windows lets you choose how Floe’s notifications appear: as a banner, in Notification Center, on the lock screen, and with what priority. Windows lists the Microsoft Store build there as Floe Desktop, and the other builds as Floe. Windows decides where a banner appears, and Floe cannot move it. There is no setting here for a screen or a corner, because a program that sends standard Windows notifications cannot choose one. See Known limitations.

With notifications off

A request still gets to you without a notification. The taskbar button flashes, the window title reads (1) Floe, and, if you are on another screen in Floe, a notice with Review appears. These always stay, so turning notifications off never leaves a request with no sign at all. Windows can still hide the flash: its Focus feature and its taskbar settings both control whether a taskbar button flashes. A transfer that finishes or fails shows its result on the card, as it always does.

When Floe is in front

Floe sends no notification while its own window is the one in front and you have used the PC in the last 60 seconds. The request or the result is already in front of you then. If Floe is in front but you have not touched the PC for 60 seconds, Floe treats you as away and notifies as usual. The flash, the (1) Floe title and the notice do not depend on this.

Privacy

Hide my IP address

Off by default. A normal Floe transfer connects the two devices directly, which is why it is fast and unmetered. Connecting directly means each side learns the other’s IP address, the number that locates your connection on the internet, in the same way a video call does. Turn this on and Floe stops trying for a direct path. Everything goes through the relay instead, a server that passes your encrypted data along, so the other person only ever sees the relay’s address. The relay’s operator still sees your IP address: see What the relay can see. Two consequences follow, and both are unavoidable rather than bugs:

Transfers are slower, because every byte takes a detour through the relay.
Transfers are capped at 2 GB. See File size limits.

The setting applies to your side only, and the person on the other end does not need it on. Their app shows the connection as Relay, which is exactly what it shows whenever a direct path is impossible, so it does not single you out. Floe reads the setting when you click Send or Receive, so a change applies to the next transfer. It covers request links too. With it on, every drop through your link goes through the relay and is capped at 2 GB per drop, and a request over 2 GB warns you before you accept. Floe reads the setting when a sender connects, so a change applies to the next sender. This is not the web app’s Network relay fallback checkbox, which lets you turn the relay off. This one makes the relay the only path, and Floe Desktop has no direct-only mode. The browser page a request link opens has a relay-only check of its own, labeled Hide my IP (relay only, 2 GB per drop). On the command line the same switch is --relay-only on floe send or floe receive, and FLOE_RELAY_ONLY=1 keeps it on. See the CLI flags reference.

Hide my IP address needs a relay to exist. Floe’s own server offers one. If you point the app at your own server that has no relay, a relay-only connection has nowhere to go. Floe checks before it starts and stops at once with Error: Hide my IP needs a relay this server doesn't have, rather than timing out after about 30 seconds with a generic connection error. Test reports the same thing about an address before you rely on it. Turn Hide my IP address off, or add a relay to your instance: see TURN relay.

When Floe could not read the server’s relay list at all, the line is Error: Couldn't read this server's relay details for Hide my IP instead. See Troubleshooting. The CLI’s --relay-only is checked the same way and names the flag instead.

Contribute to global stats

On by default. Floe’s homepage shows a public, all-time total of bytes transferred by everyone. When a transfer finishes, the receiving side reports the byte count and nothing else. No file names, no contents, no record of who sent what, and no link to you. Every receiving surface can turn the report off, and turning it off means the byte count is never sent, rather than sent and ignored.

Browser: uncheck Contribute to global stats on the receiver view, where it is shown until the first file arrives. The choice is saved in that browser and applies to every later transfer in it.
Floe Desktop: turn off Contribute to global stats in Settings. It is saved with your other settings.
CLI: pass --no-report to floe receive for one transfer, or set FLOE_NO_STATS=1 in your environment to opt out of every transfer run from it.

The sender never reports on any surface, so this only ever concerns transfers you receive. This switch covers the public counter and nothing else. On floe.one the site’s own anonymous analytics record a transfer’s outcome separately, and are described under Error monitoring and analytics. In Floe Desktop the switch is the only control: there is no environment variable for it, and FLOE_NO_STATS is read by the CLI alone. See Security and privacy for how the counter is kept. The report follows whichever server the app is set to, so pointing Floe at your own instance sends your byte counts to that server’s counter rather than to floe.one. A request link drop that stops after it was accepted reports too, once, with the bytes of the files it saved, and only with this switch on.

Check for updates

On by default, in the build from GitHub. When it starts, and at most once a day, the app asks GitHub whether a newer desktop release exists. The request carries nothing about you beyond what any web request reveals (your IP address and a user agent); nothing about your files or transfers is in it. Nothing downloads or installs by itself. When there is a newer release, a notice appears at the top right of the window: Update available, the version, a Get update button and an X. Get update opens floe.one/download in your browser. The notice hides while a transfer or a drop runs, and while a dialog is open. Closing it lasts until Floe restarts: it comes back on every launch while the app is behind. The Update row in About stays either way. A check that fails says nothing. Offline, GitHub’s limit on requests or a proxy all mean no notice, and the next launch tries again. Each check waits at most 10 seconds. So no notice does not prove you are up to date: the download page always names the latest release. Turn it off and no request is made at all. Setting FLOE_NO_UPDATE_CHECK=1 in your environment does the same, matching the CLI’s update check. The Microsoft Store build never checks and does not show this switch: the Store updates the app itself. Builds you compile yourself never check either. See Update.

Windows

This section is only shown in the build from GitHub. The Microsoft Store build hides it, because a packaged app cannot register the entry in a way File Explorer would read. See Installation. On by default in the installer build: Floe registers the entry the first time it runs, and remembers if you switch it off, so it does not come back on its own. Off by default in the portable build, which adds nothing to File Explorer until you turn this on. It adds Send with Floe to the File Explorer right-click menu. On Windows 11 it sits under Show more options. The entry is written to your own user’s part of the registry. It needs no administrator approval, changes nothing for anyone else using the machine, and turning it off removes it again. Details worth knowing:

The entry applies to files, not folders. To send a folder, use Folder in the app.
It stores the path to the Floe that registered it. An entry another copy of Floe registered is left alone while that copy exists, and this switch reads off until you turn it on here. An entry an earlier Floe Desktop added is brought up to date the next time that copy starts.
If the program an entry runs is gone, for example a portable copy you moved or deleted, the next installer or portable Floe to start takes the entry over when it would add one. That is when you left this switch on, or when it is the installer build and you never switched it off. Otherwise it removes the entry, so a Send with Floe that cannot start does not stay behind. The Microsoft Store build never reads or changes the entry.
Uninstalling the installer build removes the entry, whichever copy it belongs to. After a reinstall Floe registers it again unless you had switched it off.
The portable build has no uninstaller: turn the switch off before you delete it.

If the switch flips back by itself, the registry write was refused, which usually means a managed or locked-down machine.

Advanced

The Advanced section holds one row, Server, closed until you open it. The line under it says which server Floe uses, for example “Uses Floe’s server unless you set your own”. It opens by itself while either address below is set, and a collapse you make lasts until you leave Settings.

Server

Floe uses api.floe.one unless you tell it otherwise. That server, Floe’s signaling server, introduces the two devices, which meet in a room on it, and hands out relay credentials. It never receives your files. To use your own instance, put its address in Server address. Spaces around it and slashes at its end are removed when it is saved, and saving does not check the address: Test does. A new address applies to the next transfer. A transfer already running keeps the server it started with. To go back to Floe’s server, empty the field, or click Use default server, which appears once a server address is set. Its line reads “Removes both addresses and goes back to api.floe.one”: it empties the share link address too, and saves at once.

Both people must be on the same server. Servers do not talk to each other, so once you point Floe at your own instance you can no longer transfer with someone on floe.one, and they cannot reach you.

While a server address is set, the Server row’s line reads, for example, “Uses files.example.com, so people on floe.one can’t reach you”. The error line of a failed send or receive ends with the server’s host, as in · Both people must use files.example.com. Being on the same server is not enough on its own to reach you: whoever wants to receive still needs the room code or link, which only exists while you are sharing.

Test the address

Click Test to check the Server address before relying on it. It never checks the share link address. The button reads Testing while the check runs. Test saves the address first, so it is kept even when the check fails. The check runs three stages, because each one catches a failure the others cannot:

Stage	What it proves
`/health`	Something is there, and it is a Floe signaling server.
`/ws`	The realtime connection gets through (a WebSocket), which is what a transfer actually uses.
`/api/`	Requests under `/api/` get through, which room codes need too, and the server returns a usable connection list. The result also says whether that list includes a relay.

The third stage matters more than it looks. A reverse proxy can forward the first two and drop /api/, and that produces no visible error at all:

relay credentials silently fall back to public STUN
the room code quietly fails to register, so you get a share link with no code and no explanation

While the check runs, the line under Advanced reads Checking the server.... The two HTTP stages get 6 seconds each. The realtime stage can take up to 45 seconds when a server answers /health and then leaves the /ws connection hanging. That is slow, not stuck. A pass also reports whether the server offers a relay. A server without one still passes, because it works for any transfer that finds a direct path, and the message names the limitation rather than reading as a failure. Hide my IP address cannot work at all without a relay, and ordinary transfers fall back to one whenever the two devices cannot reach each other directly. The two passes carry no prefix. Every failure starts with Error: .

Message	What it means	What to do
`Connected`	All three stages passed, and the server offers a TURN relay.	Nothing. The server is ready.
`Connected, but this server has no relay: Hide my IP will not work, and some networks will not connect`	All three stages passed, but the server offers no relay. Hide my IP address cannot work, and other transfers succeed only where a direct path exists.	Add a relay to the server. See TURN relay.
`Error: Enter a server address`	The field is empty. Test does not check Floe’s own server.	Type the address you want to check.
`Error: Include https:// and the host name`	The scheme or the host is missing.	Write the address in full, for example `https://floe.example.com`.
`Error: Start the address with https:// or http://`	The address uses some other scheme, such as `ftp://`.	Change the scheme.
`Error: Host not found`	DNS did not resolve the name.	Check the spelling, and that the name resolves from this PC.
`Error: Timed out reaching that address`	Nothing answered within 6 seconds.	Check that the server is running and that no firewall is in the way.
`Error: Couldn't connect to that server`	The address resolved but the connection was refused or dropped.	Check the port, and that the server is running.
`Error: Couldn't verify the server's certificate`	A TLS problem, often a self-signed certificate.	Give the server a certificate this PC trusts.
`Error: That address answered HTTP 404 (likely the web app, not the server)`	Something answered, but not with a health check. The number is the status it sent. Usually it is the web app’s address rather than the signaling server’s.	Enter the signaling server’s address. See Troubleshooting.
`Error: That address redirects to https://. Start it with https:// and test again`	You entered an `http://` address, and it answered with a redirect to `https://` on the same host. Test does not follow redirects. Floe Desktop 1.0.4 and earlier show the HTTP line in the row above instead.	Change the address to start with `https://`, then click Test again. See Troubleshooting.
`Error: That address isn't a Floe server`	Something else answered on that address.	Check the address and the port.
`Error: The server refused the realtime connection (check that your proxy forwards /ws)`	Stage 2 was answered `404`: a proxy that does not forward `/ws`.	Make your proxy forward `/ws`. See Troubleshooting.
`Error: The server refused the realtime connection (check that your proxy passes the original Host header)`	Stage 2 was answered `403` by the server’s origin check. A proxy that rewrites the `Host` header fails it when the address is not your `CLIENT_URL`.	Make your proxy pass the original `Host` header. See Troubleshooting.
`Error: The server refused the realtime connection (check that your proxy forwards /ws and passes the original Host header)`	Stage 2 failed some other way, such as a `502` from a proxy with nothing behind it, or no answer at all.	Check both, and that the server is running.
`Error: The API answered HTTP 404 (check that your proxy forwards /api/)`	Stage 3 answered with an error status. The number is the status it sent.	Make your proxy forward `/api/`. See Troubleshooting.
`Error: The server is limiting requests from this network. Wait a minute and test again`	Stage 3 was answered `429`, the server’s own rate limit: 20 requests a minute from one network on this endpoint by default. Each Test spends one.	Wait a minute, then click Test again.
`Error: The server didn't return usable connection details`	Stage 3 answered, but not with a list Floe can connect with.	Check that `/api/` reaches the signaling server and not a web page.

Floe Desktop 0.3.0 words three of these differently. It shows the /ws line for every refused realtime connection, and the /api/ line with 429 for the server’s rate limit. For a server without a relay it says “Connected, but there’s no relay for Hide my IP”. See Run behind one domain for a proxy configuration that forwards all three. Leave this blank unless your web app is on a different address from your signaling server. The recommended way to self-host is one address serving both, in which case Floe works out the share link from the server address and this field stays empty. While it is empty, the field shows that worked-out address in gray. Only a split setup, where the API is on api.example.com and the web app on app.example.com, needs it. Without it the share link would point at the API, which serves no web app, and the link would be dead. Test does not check this address, and saving does not either, so a wrong one gives share links that lead nowhere with nothing to flag it. Open one of your share links in a browser to check it. While this address is set and Server address is empty, the Server row’s line reads, for example, “Share links point to app.example.com, but transfers use Floe’s server”. That is a reminder that both people still meet on Floe’s own server. Request links are built on the same address. A link that is already open keeps the address it was made with. This mirrors the CLI’s --web flag. See Use a self-hosted server.

About

App version

The release you are running, for example desktop-v1.1.1. A build you compiled yourself reads dev. The Microsoft Store build carries a different number in Windows’ own lists: see Check the version. When the update check has found a newer release, an Update row appears under it, reading for example 1.1.1 available, with a Get update button that opens the download page. The row stays as long as the app is behind, even after the notice is dismissed, and disappears once you are up to date.

Transfer protocol

The version of the wire format the app speaks. In Floe Desktop 1.1 and later the row reads Version 2, and in Floe Desktop 1.0.x it reads Version 1. Point at the label and it reads “If a transfer won’t start, update the older app”. You do not need to match versions with the person on the other end. Compatibility is a range check, not an exact match, and version 2 still accepts version 1, so different releases transfer normally. When two sides cannot bridge the format, they detect it before any file data moves. The older side’s message includes “Cannot transfer: your floe is too old for this peer.” and, in Floe Desktop, says to update Floe from the Microsoft Store or floe.one/download. The newer side’s message includes “Cannot transfer: peer’s floe is too old.” and asks the other side to update (the peer is the app on the other end). Floe Desktop 1.0.x shows the older side’s message when floe send --link-only, in floe 1.12 or later, stops it because it cannot prove it holds the link.

Server in use

Which signaling server the app is using. On screen the row is labeled simply Server and shows the host. It is always visible even with Advanced collapsed, so a custom server can never hide behind a closed section. A Share links row joins it if you set a separate share link address. Copy, beside “Include these in a bug report”, puts these lines on the clipboard and reads Copied for 1.5 seconds:

Clipboard

Floe desktop
App version: desktop-v1.1.1
Transfer protocol: 1
Server: api.floe.one (default)

Floe Desktop 1.1 and later write Transfer protocol: 2. With your own server, the Server: line has its full address, and a Share links: line follows when that address is set. Those are the details to include in a bug report. They name your server, so check them before you post them in public.

Reset

Reset, at the top right of Settings, puts these back the way Floe shipped:

Setting	Goes back to
Save received files to	Blank, which means your Downloads folder
Show notifications	On
Play sound	On
Hide my IP address	Off
Contribute to global stats	On
Check for updates	On
Server address and Share link address	Blank, which means Floe’s own server

It asks first, in a dialog titled Reset all settings? that reads “Save folder, notifications, privacy and server settings go back to defaults”. It names what you would notice. A save folder you had set gets “Received files go to Downloads again, not” and the folder. Stats you had turned off get “Contribute to global stats turns back on”. Its last line reads “History, received files and the right-click menu stay as they are”. The buttons are Cancel and Reset all settings. A reset that worked shows no message: the switches change and the dialog closes, and a screen reader announces “Settings reset to defaults”. If Floe cannot save the settings, the dialog shows Error: could not save settings. followed by the reason. It deliberately leaves alone:

Your transfer history, and the files you have already received.
The File Explorer right-click entry, because that lives in Windows rather than in Floe. Reset would have to either leave it dangling or silently rewrite the registry, and neither is something a Reset button should do. Turn it off in Windows instead.
The request link’s own Save to folder, and which tab Floe opens on.

Where settings are stored

Settings live in a plain JSON file at %APPDATA%\floe\desktop.json. To open that folder, paste %APPDATA%\floe into File Explorer’s address bar. Floe creates the file the first time it runs, and rewrites it every time the Settings screen closes, changed or not. A fresh install looks like this:

desktop.json

{
  "server": "",
  "web": "",
  "hideIP": false,
  "reportStats": true,
  "noUpdateCheck": false,
  "noToasts": false,
  "silentToasts": false,
  "migrated": true
}

Empty address fields mean “use Floe’s defaults”, so a fresh install and a cleared field behave identically. Three keys are stored the other way around: noUpdateCheck, noToasts and silentToasts are Check for updates, Show notifications and Play sound turned off, so false is the default for all three. Floe replaces the file in one step, so a crash in the middle of a save cannot damage it. While a save runs, a desktop.json.tmp sits beside it for a moment. If Floe cannot write the file when it saves an address, Hide my IP address or Contribute to global stats, the line under Advanced reads Error: could not save settings. followed by the reason. Floe goes on using the addresses it saved last, and a switch goes back to where it was. In Floe Desktop 1.0.4 and earlier, Hide my IP address and Contribute to global stats keep their new position until Floe closes. Make sure you can write to %APPDATA%\floe, for example that the drive is not full, then change the setting again. If you edit it by hand:

Edit it only while Floe is closed. The app rewrites the whole record whenever any setting changes, so an edit made while it is running is overwritten.
Leave migrated set to true. Without it Floe treats the privacy switches as never set, imports them again from its older storage, and discards what you wrote for hideIP and reportStats.
A key Floe does not know, such as a misspelled one, is dropped at the next save.
If the file cannot be read (a stray comma, a missing quote), Floe starts with its defaults. It first keeps the unreadable file beside it as desktop.json.bad, so you can copy your settings back out of it. Check Hide my IP address and Server address afterward.
If Floe cannot save the file, the line under Advanced reads Error: could not save settings. followed by the reason. That covers Hide my IP address, Contribute to global stats and the two addresses. When Show notifications, Play sound or Check for updates cannot be saved, that switch flips back and no message appears.

The installer build and the portable build from GitHub use this file, and the floe CLI keeps its own files in that same floe folder, so the two coexist. The installer leaves the file behind when you uninstall, on purpose, so reinstalling picks up where you left off. History and your save folders are not in this file. They are kept in a second folder, %APPDATA%\floe\webview, the storage of the window Floe draws its screens in, under these keys:

Key	What it holds
`floe:saveDir`	Save received files to, the folder for receives with a code or a link.
`floe:requestSaveDir`	The request link’s Save to, once you have typed or picked one.
`floe:history`	The History list, at most 50 transfers.
`floe:mode`	Whether Floe opens on Send or Receive.
`floe:ctx-menu`	Your own choice for Show in right-click menu, once you have flipped it.
`floe:requestLinkOpenUntil`	While a request link is open, its end time and never the link, so the next launch can open on Request link.

The installer leaves that folder too, which is why a reinstall still knows where you save files and what you have already sent. The request link itself is never stored anywhere: it lives in memory and on screen only.

Getting started

Web app

Desktop app

CLI

Help

How Floe works

Self-hosting

Reference

Changelog

Desktop app settings

The short version

Transfers

Save received files to

Notifications

Show notifications

Play sound

Windows notification settings

With notifications off

When Floe is in front

Privacy

Hide my IP address

Contribute to global stats

Check for updates

Windows

Show in right-click menu

Advanced

Server

Test the address

About

App version

Transfer protocol

Server in use

Reset

Where settings are stored

The short version

Transfers

Save received files to

Notifications

Show notifications

Play sound

Windows notification settings

With notifications off

When Floe is in front

Privacy

Hide my IP address

Contribute to global stats

Check for updates

Windows

Show in right-click menu

Advanced

Server

Test the address

Share link address

About

App version

Transfer protocol

Server in use

Reset

Where settings are stored