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Andy Kemp Consulting

AKC BlobDrive#

Your Azure Blob containers, Cloudflare R2 and Amazon S3 buckets as folders in File Explorer, like OneDrive. Everything is listed, files download only when you open them, and you choose how much to keep on your PC.

Watch the demo Download

BlobDrive 0.3 is the first public build, labelled beta. It's a Windows app for Windows 10 (2004 or later) and 11; a Mac version is on the way. See What's new for the latest changes.

What it does#

Object storage is cheap and holds as much as you like, but it isn't a folder you can browse. BlobDrive makes it one, using Windows' own Files On-Demand (the Cloud Files API OneDrive uses):

Cloud container or bucket            Your PC
──────────────────────────           ──────────────────────────────────────
raw/2026/IMG_0001.CR3   ─ listed ─▶  ☁  IMG_0001.CR3   online-only, no space used
raw/2026/IMG_0002.CR3   ─ opened ─▶  ✓  IMG_0002.CR3   downloaded, kept in the cache
raw/2026/IMG_0003.CR3   ◀ saved ──   ✓  IMG_0003.CR3   new or changed, uploaded
                                     Cache full? The files you haven't opened
                                     for longest go back to online-only.

It was built for a RAW photo library that outgrew OneDrive for Business: tens of thousands of large files in Azure Blob Storage, all browsable, with only the ones being edited kept locally.

Key features#

  • Files On-Demand: every file listed in File Explorer with the cloud, tick and pinned icons you know from OneDrive
  • A cache size you choose: 10 GB, 50 GB, 100 GB or whatever suits the disk; the least recently opened files are freed first, and anything you pin with Always keep on this device stays
  • Azure, R2 and S3: Azure Blob Storage, Cloudflare R2, Amazon S3, and S3-compatible stores such as Backblaze B2, Wasabi and MinIO; one storage type per drive, as many drives as you like
  • Your work sign-in: for Azure, Windows signs you in with your work account, so company rules such as a compliant device are met; or use a SAS token
  • Uploads, never deletes: new and changed files upload; deleting a file on your PC never deletes it in the cloud
  • Secrets kept safe: SAS tokens and secret keys are encrypted for your Windows account and never written to the settings file or a log
  • Runs like a sync client: in the notification area, starts with Windows, with each drive's status, Sync now, Pause and Free up space
  • Installs and updates itself: a per-user installer with no administrator rights, and updates from downloads.andykemp.com, checked against a published SHA-256

Where to start#

  1. Quick start: install it and add an Azure Blob container, R2 or S3 bucket.
  2. Using BlobDrive: the main window, the notification area, the cache and settings.
  3. Troubleshooting: sign-in, permissions and files that won't open.