Install on Windows

The Windows installer is a single program. It downloads the Connector, verifies its signature, installs it, registers it as a Windows service, starts it, and hands you the setup wizard.

You need local administrator rights on the machine.

Install

1. Download sc-setup-windows-amd64.zip, from sftp.cloud/downloads or straight from that link.
2. Extract it. You get sc-setup.exe and sc-setup.sig. Keep both in the same folder, and run the installer from the folder you extracted into rather than from inside the zip viewer.
3. Run sc-setup.exe. Windows will ask for administrator approval.
4. Choose how the admin console should be reachable:
   • This machine only (the default). Plain HTTP on 127.0.0.1:8883. Right for any machine you can open a browser on.
   • From the network. All interfaces on port 8883, over HTTPS with a self signed certificate. For a headless server you will finish setting up from another machine. Your browser warns about that certificate once; that is expected.
5. Let it run. It reports each step.
6. When it finishes, choose Open setup in browser. It also shows the URL, which is http://localhost:8883 on a local access install.

Continue with First run.

What it installed

Thing	Where
The program	%ProgramFiles%\Syncplify\sc-conn\
The data directory	C:\ProgramData\Syncplify\sc-conn
The service	SFTP.cloud Storage Connector, starting automatically
The uninstaller	Registered in Add or Remove Programs

Signature verification

The installer is Authenticode signed, so Windows itself can tell you who published it before you run it: right click sc-setup.exe, choose Properties, and look at the Digital Signatures tab. It should name Syncplify.

Beyond that, two checks happen against a release key built into the installer itself:

1. The installer verifies itself against sc-setup.sig. Run from a command line it refuses to start without it. The graphical installer, which Windows has already checked through Authenticode, verifies that signature whenever it is present.
2. It verifies the Connector package it downloads, before installing it.

That key is held offline by Syncplify. Neither the Portal nor your site holds it, so neither of them can distribute a Connector build, or an installer, that a machine would accept.

Every published file is also listed in checksums.txt, if you want to check the download before extracting it:

Get-FileHash .\sc-setup-windows-amd64.zip -Algorithm SHA256

From the command line

For a scripted rollout, download the console build instead: sc-setup-cli-windows-amd64.zip. It extracts the same two file names, sc-setup.exe and sc-setup.sig, so extract it into its own folder rather than on top of the graphical one.

Why a second download

The graphical installer opens a window instead of writing to the console, so a script that runs it sees no output and no progress. The console build prints every step and returns an exit code.

From an elevated PowerShell, in the folder you extracted into:

.\sc-setup.exe install --access local
.\sc-setup.exe install --access network --silent
.\sc-setup.exe install --datadir D:\sc-conn-data

Flag	Effect
--access local or --access network	How the admin console binds. Asked interactively when omitted
--datadir DIR	A different data directory. Recorded so uninstall finds it again
--package FILE	Install from a local signed package instead of downloading, for air gapped machines
--version X	Install an exact version instead of the channel's current release
--channel stable	A different release channel
--silent or -S	No prompts; defaults for every question

Managing the service

The Connector's own binary manages its service:

"%ProgramFiles%\Syncplify\sc-conn\sc-conn.exe" svc status
"%ProgramFiles%\Syncplify\sc-conn\sc-conn.exe" svc stop
"%ProgramFiles%\Syncplify\sc-conn\sc-conn.exe" svc start
"%ProgramFiles%\Syncplify\sc-conn\sc-conn.exe" svc restart

The Windows Services console works too, for the service named SFTP.cloud Storage Connector.

Logs

The service writes its log to files in C:\ProgramData\Syncplify\sc-conn\logs. The file being written is sc-conn.jsonl; older ones carry a date in their name. The directory, the size at which a file is rotated and how many are kept can be changed from Settings.

A Windows service has no console, so the two console outputs are not available on Windows: choosing one keeps the files and says so.

Version 1.0.28 and earlier

Those versions wrote the log to a console by default, which on Windows keeps nothing. A Connector that updates past them switches to files by itself at its next start. The lines from before that are not recoverable. To get a log without updating, set Output to file under Settings, Logging; it applies at once.

The signed, tamper evident operation log is separate, always written, and lives in the audit directory under the data directory. It records file operations, not why a session was refused. See Log integrity.

Updating

Do not re-run the installer to update. Updates have their own path, with a rollback slot and an automatic health check. See Updates.

Uninstalling

Use Add or Remove Programs, which is the normal way. The installer registered itself there at install time, with its signature beside it, so you do not need the download any more.

From a command line, run the copy the installer left behind rather than the one you downloaded:

.\sc-setup.exe uninstall

The data directory is kept, so reinstalling picks up exactly where the Connector left off: same identity, same virtual file systems, same encryption keys, same enrollment.

To delete it as well:

.\sc-setup.exe uninstall --purge

--purge is permanent

It deletes your at rest encryption keys. Syncplify does not have them and cannot recover them. Any data still encrypted with them becomes permanently unreadable.