Cloud Sync

Personal Cloud is the only project library that syncs with your Zoo account. Zoo Design Studio does not automatically upload every project on your computer.

• Personal Cloud projects sync. They are stored in your Zoo account so you can open them in the browser and on other devices. On desktop, Zoo Design Studio also keeps a working copy in a separate, managed folder while you edit.
• Directory projects do not sync. They stay in the folder you chose on that computer and are not uploaded unless you move them to Personal Cloud.

When you change a Personal Cloud project, Zoo Design Studio saves the change to the working copy first and syncs it to your Zoo account in the background. You can then open the latest synced version in the browser or on another device signed in to the same Zoo account.

Zoo Design Studio adds Personal Cloud automatically for signed-in users. On desktop Home, it appears beside Directory libraries with a cloud icon. Directory libraries have folder icons and show normal paths on your computer, the default one is titled "Default Projects Directory". In the browser, Personal Cloud is the only project library.

Common Questions

How Do I Know Which Projects Are Saved to the Cloud?

Check the library that contains the project on Home. Only projects in Personal Cloud are saved to your Zoo account. Projects in a Directory library are local-only, even while Cloud Sync is enabled. Move a Directory project to Personal Cloud when you want to start syncing it.

How Much Cloud Storage Do I Get?

Storage is limited to what we consider fair use for Free users. Paid subscription tiers all get unlimited storage.

Will Clearing My Browser Cache Delete My Cloud Projects?

No. Clearing the browser's cached images and files does not delete projects from Personal Cloud.

Clearing Zoo Design Studio's site data or site storage is different: it removes the working copies downloaded in that browser and any pending sync data stored there. Projects that reached Cloud synced remain in your Zoo account and download again when you open them. New projects or changes that had not reached Cloud synced can be lost, so wait for that status before clearing site data.

Where Do My Files Live?

Personal Cloud does not use the folders configured for your Directory libraries. On desktop, each cloud project gets a working copy in the managed Personal Cloud folder. You can see this folder's path under Settings > User > App > Libraries and reveal it in your file explorer.

In the browser, the working copy lives in browser site storage rather than a normal folder.

Can I Work Offline?

You can keep editing a downloaded Personal Cloud project without an internet connection. Your changes stay in its working copy and sync after you reconnect. A cloud-only project must be downloaded before you can open it offline.

Can I Use Personal Cloud on Multiple Devices?

Before moving to another device or browser, wait for the first device to show Cloud synced. Cloud Sync is not a live collaboration session. If the same project changes in two places, Zoo Design Studio may combine independent file changes or ask you to resolve a conflict.

Is Cloud Sync Version Control or a Backup?

No. Cloud Sync keeps the current project available through your Zoo account, but it does not provide Git-style history, branches, or code review. Use Git or another backup system when you need revision history or recovery outside the current synced project.

Use Cloud Sync

Start Syncing

To start syncing a local Directory project, move it to Personal Cloud:

1. Select Move to library from the Command Bar, the project menu in the top bar, or the project card context menu on Home.
2. Choose the local project.
3. Choose Personal Cloud as the destination library.
4. Confirm the move.

Zoo Design Studio moves the project into the cloud library and keeps a local working copy for normal editing. If cloud sync is enabled, it uploads the project to your Zoo account; if cloud sync is paused on desktop, the project remains local in that folder until you enable it again.

Creating a project directly in Personal Cloud also starts it as a synced project. In the browser, Personal Cloud is the only project library, so projects are cloud-backed by default.

Check Sync Status

Cloud projects can appear in several states:

Failed sync work stays queued and is retried automatically.

Stop Syncing

To make a synced project local-only, move it from Personal Cloud to a Directory library:

1. Select Move to library from the Command Bar, the project menu in the top bar, or the project card context menu on Home.
2. Choose the synced project.
3. Choose a Directory library as the destination.
4. Confirm the move.

Zoo Design Studio disconnects the project from cloud sync and moves the files into the selected local library. The moved local copy is the project that remains, and future edits happen only in that Directory library unless you move the project back to Personal Cloud.

Important: Moving a project from Personal Cloud to a Directory library deletes the remote cloud project before moving the remaining local folder. The cloud project is no longer available in the browser or on other devices. If remote deletion fails, Zoo Design Studio restores the cloud link and the move fails.

Turning Cloud Sync off only pauses synchronization; it does not make a project local-only. A cloud-only project must first be opened and downloaded before it can be moved.

Delete a Synced Project

Deleting a cloud-backed project follows the library that owns the project card.

If you delete a project from Personal Cloud, Zoo Design Studio deletes the cloud project. If the project has a local working copy on that device, the local working copy is removed too.

If you delete a cloud-backed project from a Directory library, Zoo Design Studio deletes the selected local folder. The cloud project remains in your Zoo account, and the delete dialog says that the cloud version will not be deleted. Other local folders with the same cloud identity may be removed if they are exact duplicates or disconnected if they differ.

Deletion from Personal Cloud propagates to other devices.

This is different from Move to library. Use Move to library when you want to change where a project belongs. Use delete when you want to remove the project card from its current library. Moving from Personal Cloud to a Directory library also deletes the remote project, but preserves and relocates the selected local folder.

Resolve a Conflict

A cloud sync conflict happens when the local project and the cloud project both changed after the last synced version, and Zoo Design Studio cannot safely combine the changes automatically.

When a conflict is detected:

• The project card on Home shows a Cloud conflict badge.
• The project breadcrumb can show a Cloud conflict badge while the project is open.
• The Home status bar (bottom-left corner) shows Cloud conflict; select it to list conflicted projects.
• The open project's menu (top-left corner) shows Cloud conflict; select it to open the dialog.

Zoo Design Studio keeps your current local project as the primary project while you review the conflict.

Open the conflict dialog from the project menu or from the cloud sync status UI. The dialog compares the local version and the cloud version file by file.

Files are labeled as:

• Changed, when local and cloud both have the file but with different contents.
• Only local, when the file exists only in the local project.
• Only cloud, when the file exists only in the cloud project.

Text files, including .kcl and Markdown files, show a side-by-side diff when possible. Large, binary, or non-UTF-8 files may show file metadata without an inline diff.

The resolution applies to the whole project, not individual files. Choose one resolution:

• Use local data uploads the current local project to the cloud, clears the conflict, and resumes sync from the local version.
• Use cloud data replaces the entire local project with the cloud version shown in the dialog, clears the conflict, and resumes sync from the cloud version.

If you need to combine both versions, manually copy or edit the files you want into the local project first, then choose Use local data.

You may want to back up the local folder before choosing Use cloud data, especially if it contains ignored or version-control files.

Advanced Details

Which Files Sync?

Cloud sync uploads KCL, project metadata, and other project files that are not excluded.

Cloud sync does not upload:

• Files and folders matched by the project's .gitignore rules. The .gitignore files themselves are uploaded.
• Version-control metadata directories named .git, .hg, .svn, or .jj.
• Zoo's internal ._meta data or the generated project thumbnail.

Binary files are included unless .gitignore excludes them. Cloud sync does not infer which files contain secrets, so exclude sensitive paths before syncing.

Important: Excluded files are not part of the cloud project. Current versions can replace or remove the entire managed project folder during a remote update, automatic merge, remote deletion, automatic duplicate cleanup, or Use cloud data. This can remove local Git history, ignored files, and other excluded content.

Deletion and Move Failures

Keep cloud sync enabled and make sure Zoo Design Studio can reach the cloud before deleting a cloud-linked project. Deleting a downloaded Personal Cloud project removes its local folder before the remote request finishes. If that request fails, Zoo Design Studio reports the failure, but the local folder may already be gone and the remote project can reappear on Home.

Copies with unsynced changes, or copies Zoo Design Studio cannot verify, are preserved and disconnected instead. Excluded files do not count as changes, so keep a separate backup.

When you move a project out of Personal Cloud, remote deletion happens before the filesystem move. If that later move fails, the remote project is not restored automatically. Back up important work before moving it out of Personal Cloud.

Duplicate Local Copies

A cloud project can have more than one local copy. This can happen if you copy a synced project folder in Finder or File Explorer, restore one from a backup, or keep overlapping project library folders that both include the same project.

Zoo Design Studio tracks this as one cloud project with one or more local copies. Home picks one canonical copy to open and sync from, then marks extra copies with a Duplicate copies badge.

Duplicate copies are handled conservatively:

• The canonical copy is kept.
• Extra local copies are not hidden just because they share the same cloud project ID.
• Directory library copies are not silently deleted.
• Zoo Design Studio may clean up an exact duplicate in the cloud library only when it can prove that copy matches the clean synced version.
• Pending, conflicted, unreadable, tombstoned, sync-excluded, or changed copies stay available for review.

Ignored files and version-control metadata do not make an otherwise exact extra copy divergent, so automatic cleanup can remove that excluded content with the duplicate folder.

Use Review duplicate copies from the project card context menu to inspect duplicate local folders. You can select duplicate folders to permanently delete, and Zoo Design Studio will still keep the canonical folder. This review action removes selected local folders; it does not delete the cloud project.

Automatic Merging

Cloud sync can automatically merge simple project changes when local files and cloud files changed in different places after the last synced version.

For example, if you edit main.kcl locally while another Zoo surface adds mount.kcl in the cloud, Zoo Design Studio can keep your local main.kcl, download the cloud-only mount.kcl, upload the combined project snapshot, and continue syncing without asking you to resolve a conflict.

Automatic merging is intentionally conservative:

• If only the local copy changed a file, Zoo Design Studio keeps the local file.
• If only the cloud copy changed a file, Zoo Design Studio uses the cloud file.
• If both copies changed the same file to the same contents, Zoo Design Studio accepts that file.
• If both copies changed the same file differently, Zoo Design Studio shows a cloud sync conflict.

Cloud sync does not perform line-by-line or semantic code merges inside a .kcl file. Use Git or another version-control tool when you need intentional history, branches, code review, or manual same-file merging.

Related

• Project Libraries
• Project Browser
• File Explorer