AeroFile

AeroFile is AeroFTP's professional local file manager. Toggle between remote server mode and local-only mode to get a full-featured file browser without needing a server connection. AeroFile includes tabbed browsing, a Places sidebar with drive detection, three view modes, file tags, Quick Look previews, batch rename, and comprehensive keyboard shortcuts.

Activating AeroFile Mode

Click the AeroFile icon button in the titlebar to toggle local-only mode. When active, both panels show local directories and remote connection controls are hidden. Click again to return to the standard dual-panel (local + remote) layout.

Local Path Tabs

AeroFile supports up to 12 simultaneous tabs, each pointing to a different local directory. Tabs persist across sessions via localStorage.

Tab Operations

Action	How
Open new tab	Click + or middle-click a folder
Close tab	Middle-click the tab, or right-click and select Close Tab
Close other tabs	Right-click a tab → Close Other Tabs
Close all tabs	Right-click a tab → Close All Tabs
Reorder tabs	Drag a tab to a new position
Switch tabs	Click a tab

Tabs display the folder name and full path on hover. The active tab is highlighted with the theme's accent color.

Places Sidebar

The left sidebar provides quick access to common locations, drives, and network shares. Toggle the sidebar with Ctrl+B.

User Directories

Standard XDG directories detected automatically:

• Home, Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos

Custom Locations

Pin any folder to the sidebar by dragging it in or using the context menu. Custom locations appear below the user directories and can be removed individually.

Recent Locations

The sidebar tracks recently visited directories. Each entry shows a hover-visible X button for individual removal, and a Clear All button appears at the section header.

Mounted Drives

All mounted partitions are listed with:

• Drive label or device name
• Filesystem type (ext4, NTFS, FAT32, etc.)
• Usage bar showing used / total space
• Eject button for removable media (via udisksctl)

The following partitions are hidden automatically (matching Nautilus behavior):

• EFI System Partition (/boot/efi, /boot, /efi)
• Swap partitions
• Recovery partitions
• Microsoft Reserved (MSR)

Unmounted Partitions

Unmounted partitions detected via lsblk are shown in a separate group. Click to mount via udisksctl mount.

GVFS Network Shares

On Linux with GVFS, AeroFile detects network mounts under /run/user/<uid>/gvfs/ and displays them with a globe icon. Supported protocols:

• SMB (Windows / Samba shares)
• SFTP
• FTP
• WebDAV
• NFS
• AFP

Click the eject button to unmount via gio mount -u.

Folder Tree

Press Ctrl+B to toggle the Places sidebar. Within the sidebar, expand any directory to browse a hierarchical folder tree without changing the main panel.

View Modes

Switch between three view modes using the toolbar buttons or keyboard shortcuts.

Mode	Shortcut	Description
List	Ctrl+1	Detailed table with columns: Name, Size, Modified, Type, Permissions
Grid	Ctrl+2	Icon grid with thumbnail previews
Large Icons	Ctrl+3	96px icon grid for visual browsing

All view modes support:

• Column sorting (List mode: click column headers)
• Selection (click, Shift+click for range, Ctrl+click for toggle)
• Drag and drop
• File tag badges

File Tags

Tag files with color-coded labels for visual organization. Tags are stored in a local SQLite database (WAL mode) and persist across sessions.

Preset Color Labels

Color	Label	Use Case
Red	Red	Urgent, priority
Orange	Orange	In progress
Yellow	Yellow	Needs review
Green	Green	Approved, complete
Blue	Blue	Reference
Purple	Purple	Personal
Gray	Gray	Archive

Applying Tags

• Context menu: Right-click a file → Tags submenu → toggle labels on/off
• Clear all: Context menu → Tags → Clear All Tags
• Batch tagging: Select multiple files, then apply tags via context menu

Tag Badges

In both List and Grid views, tagged files display colored dot badges next to the filename. When a file has more than 3 tags, a +N overflow indicator appears.

Sidebar Filter

The Places sidebar shows a Tags section listing all labels with file counts. Click a label to filter the current directory to show only files with that tag.

Quick Look

Press Space to preview the selected file in a modal overlay. Press Space again or Escape to close.

Supported Formats

Category	Formats
Images	PNG, JPG, GIF, SVG, WebP, BMP, ICO
Video	MP4, WebM, OGG
Audio	MP3, WAV, FLAC, OGG, AAC
Code	Syntax-highlighted preview for 50+ languages
Markdown	Rendered HTML preview
Text	Plain text with line numbers
PDF	Embedded viewer

Navigation

While Quick Look is open, use arrow keys to navigate between files. The preview updates instantly without closing the overlay.

Properties Dialog

Select a file or folder and press Alt+Enter (or right-click → Properties) to open the Properties dialog.

General Tab

• Name, Path, Size (formatted with appropriate unit)
• Created date, Modified date, Accessed date
• Symlink target (if the file is a symbolic link)
• MIME type

Permissions Tab (Linux / macOS)

• Owner, Group, Other — read, write, execute checkboxes
• Octal representation (e.g., 0755)
• Owner name and Group name

Checksum Tab

Compute file hashes on demand:

Algorithm	Output
MD5	128-bit
SHA-1	160-bit
SHA-256	256-bit
SHA-512	512-bit

Click Copy next to any hash to copy it to the clipboard.

Batch Rename

Select multiple files and press Ctrl+Shift+R (or right-click → Batch Rename) to open the Batch Rename dialog. Four renaming modes are available, each with a live preview showing before/after filenames.

Modes

Mode	Description	Example
Find / Replace	Search and replace text in filenames	photo → vacation
Prefix	Add text before each filename	2024_ + report.pdf → 2024_report.pdf
Suffix	Add text before the extension	report + _final → report_final.pdf
Sequential	Number files sequentially	photo_001.jpg, photo_002.jpg, ...

Options

• Case sensitive toggle (Find / Replace mode)
• Start number and step (Sequential mode)
• Zero padding width (Sequential mode)

Inline Rename

Press F2 or click on an already-selected filename to enter inline rename mode. The filename text becomes editable in place. Press Enter to confirm or Escape to cancel. Inline rename works in both local and remote panels.

Drag and Drop

AeroFile supports drag and drop for file operations:

Action	Behavior
Drag within same panel	Move files to the target folder
Drag between local panels	Move files between tabs
Drag from local to remote panel	Upload files to the remote server
Drag from remote to local panel	Download files to the local directory
Drag files to AeroAgent chat	Attach files for AI analysis

Hold Ctrl while dragging to copy instead of move.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Navigation

Shortcut	Action
Enter	Open selected file / enter directory
Backspace	Go to parent directory
Ctrl+L	Focus the path bar for direct path entry
Ctrl+B	Toggle Places sidebar
Alt+Left	Navigate back in history
Alt+Right	Navigate forward in history

Selection

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+A	Select all files
Ctrl+Click	Toggle individual selection
Shift+Click	Range selection
Escape	Clear selection

File Operations

Shortcut	Action
Space	Quick Look preview
F2	Inline rename
Delete	Move to trash
Shift+Delete	Permanent delete (with confirmation)
Ctrl+C	Copy selected files
Ctrl+X	Cut selected files
Ctrl+V	Paste files
Ctrl+Shift+R	Batch Rename dialog
Alt+Enter	Properties dialog

View

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+1	List view
Ctrl+2	Grid view
Ctrl+3	Large Icons view
Ctrl+H	Toggle hidden files
Ctrl+R	Refresh directory listing