> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://www.floe.one/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Floe Desktop Settings
> Every Floe Desktop setting: where received files are saved, Hide my IP, global stats, the File Explorer entry, and pointing the app at your own server.
Open Settings with the gear in the title bar, or press `Ctrl` `,`. Press `Esc` to go back.
Changes save as you make them.
## Transfers
### Save received files to
Where everything you receive is written. Leave it blank and Floe uses your **Downloads** folder.
It never asks per transfer.
An arriving file never replaces one you already have. See
[Nothing is ever overwritten](/docs/desktop/receiving#nothing-is-ever-overwritten).
## 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, in the same way
a video call does.
Turn this on and Floe stops trying for a direct path. Everything goes through the TURN relay
instead, so the other person only ever sees the relay's address. 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 per session**, because relay bandwidth costs real money. A
larger transfer is refused before any data moves, not partway through. See
[The 2 GB Relay Limit](/docs/how-it-works/2gb-limit).
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.
This is not the web app's **Network relay fallback** toggle, despite the similar subject.
That one lets you turn the relay **off**. This one makes the relay the **only** path. The
desktop app has no direct-only mode.
**Hide my IP needs a relay to exist.** On Floe's own server there is always one. If you point
the app at [your own server](#server) that has no TURN relay configured, a relay-only
connection has nowhere to go, and the transfer fails with a generic connection error rather
than a message explaining why. If transfers stop working right after you switch servers, turn
Hide my IP off and try again. To keep using it, add a relay to your instance. See
[TURN Relay](/docs/self-hosting/turn-relay).
### 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.
The sender never reports, so this setting only matters for transfers you receive. Turn it off
and no request is made at all.
The same opt-out exists on every surface: a checkbox on the receiver view in the browser, and
`--no-report` or `FLOE_NO_STATS=1` for the CLI. See
[Security and Privacy](/docs/security-privacy#aggregate-statistics).
The report follows whichever server the app is set to. Point Floe at your own server and your
byte counts go to your server's counter, not to floe.one.
### Check for updates
On by default, in the build from GitHub.
Once a day, the app asks GitHub whether a newer desktop release exists, and shows a small
dismissible notice when one does. 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. See [Update](/docs/desktop/installation#update).
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](/docs/cli/version#the-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.
## 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](/docs/desktop/installation#choose-a-channel).
### Show in right-click menu
On by default. 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.
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 (or
uninstalling Floe) removes it again.
Two 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. If you move the app, Floe repairs the
entry the next time it starts. Uninstalling removes the entry outright, so after a reinstall
check the switch is still on.
If the switch flips back by itself, the registry write was refused, which usually means a
managed or locked-down machine.
## Advanced
### Server
Floe uses `api.floe.one` unless you tell it otherwise. That server introduces the two devices
and hands out relay credentials. It never receives your files.
To use your own instance, put its address in **Server address**. Leave the field blank to go
back to Floe's server, or use the **Use default server** button that appears once a custom
address is set.
**Both people must be on the same server.** Servers do not talk to each other. Once you point
Floe at your own instance, you can no longer transfer with someone on floe.one, and they
cannot reach you. That is the point of self-hosting, but it does surprise people.
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.
Click **Test** to check an address before relying on it. 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, which is what a transfer actually uses. |
| `/api/` | Room codes and relay credentials get through. |
The third stage matters more than it looks. A reverse proxy that forwards the first two but
drops `/api/` produces no visible error at all: relay credentials silently fall back to public
STUN, and the room code quietly fails to register, so you get a share link with no code and no
explanation.
What Test tells you:
| Result | Meaning |
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Connected. | All three stages passed. |
| Enter a server address. | The field is empty. |
| That does not look like an address. Include https\:// and the host name. | Missing scheme or host. |
| The address must start with https\:// or http\://. | Some other scheme, such as `ftp://`. |
| That host could not be found. Check the address for typos. | DNS did not resolve. |
| Timed out reaching that address. | Nothing answered in time. |
| Could not connect. Check that the server is running and reachable from this machine. | The address resolved but the connection was refused or dropped. |
| The server's security certificate could not be verified. | A TLS problem, often a self-signed certificate. |
| The address answered with HTTP ... This may be the web app rather than the signaling server. | Something answered, but not with a health check. Usually the website rather than the API. |
| Something answered at that address, but it is not a Floe signaling server. | Something else is on that address. |
| The server answered, but the realtime connection was refused. If it is behind a reverse proxy, check that /ws is being forwarded. | Stage two failed. |
| The server is running, but its API answered with HTTP ... If it is behind a reverse proxy, check that /api/ is being forwarded. | Stage three failed. |
| The server is running, but it did not return usable connection details. | Stage three answered, but with no ICE servers in the list. |
See [Run Floe Behind One Domain](/docs/self-hosting/reverse-proxy) for a proxy configuration that
forwards all three.
### Share link address
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. 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.
This mirrors the CLI's `--web` flag. See
[Use the Floe CLI with a Self-Hosted Server](/docs/cli/self-hosted-server).
## About
### App version
The release you are running, for example `desktop-v0.2.5`. A build you compiled yourself reads
`dev`.
When the daily check has found a newer release, an **Update** row appears under it with a
**Get update** button that opens the [download page](https://www.floe.one/download). The row
stays as long as the app is behind, even after the notice popup is dismissed, and disappears
once you are up to date.
### Transfer protocol
The version of the wire format the app speaks.
You do not need to match versions with the person on the other end. Compatibility is a range
check, not an exact match, so different releases transfer normally. If a future release ever
does change the format in a way the two sides cannot bridge, they detect it **before any file
data moves** and say which side should update, rather than failing halfway or writing a corrupt
file.
### Server in use
Which signaling server the app is using, always visible even with Advanced collapsed, so a
custom server can never be hiding behind a closed section. **Share links** appears too if you
set a separate share link address.
**Copy** puts the version, the protocol version, and the server on the clipboard. Those are the
details to include in a bug report.
## Reset
**Reset** at the top of Settings restores the save folder, the privacy switches, and both
server addresses to the way Floe shipped. It asks first, and tells you what it is about to
forget.
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](#show-in-right-click-menu)
instead.
## Where settings are stored
Settings live in a plain JSON file at `%APPDATA%\floe\desktop.json`:
```json desktop.json theme={"system"}
{
"server": "",
"web": "",
"hideIP": false,
"reportStats": true,
"noUpdateCheck": false,
"migrated": true
}
```
Empty address fields mean "use Floe's defaults", so a fresh install and a cleared field behave
identically. The file is written atomically, so an interrupted write cannot corrupt it.
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 older privacy switches as never having been set and re-imports them
from its older storage, discarding whatever you wrote.
Both the Microsoft Store build and the GitHub build use this same file, and the `floe` CLI keeps
its own files in that same `floe` folder, so the two coexist. The file survives an uninstall on
purpose, so reinstalling picks up where you left off.
Your save folder and transfer history are not in this file. They live in the app's local data,
which is also kept across an uninstall.
## Related topics
- [Self-Hosting Floe Overview](/docs/self-hosting/overview.md)
- [Floe FAQ](/docs/faq.md)
- [Install Floe Desktop](/docs/desktop/installation.md)
- [Floe Desktop Keyboard Shortcuts](/docs/desktop/keyboard-shortcuts.md)
- [Receiving Files with Floe Desktop](/docs/desktop/receiving.md)