HighQ Drive provides the ability for internal Collaborate users to synchronise files stored in team sites, to a location on their local computer and vice versa. Please contact your IT department to determine whether your firm will permit HighQ Drive to be installed.
Administrative access to your computer may be required in order to install HighQ Drive.
Requirements
Currently, the HighQ Drive application can be installed on Windows and Mac computers. Windows HighQ Drive can be installed on Windows versions 7 through 11 (32-bit and 64-bit). For Windows machines, the application also requires .NET 4.8 Framework although those prerequisites will automatically be installed if they are not found.
Please note that Windows 8.1 and earlier releases are no longer supported.
Installation
The HighQ Drive application can be downloaded from the user's profile:
Click Install HighQ Drive and the HighQ Drive application will be downloaded to the local computer. On windows, double-click on the downloaded file and follow the installation steps.
HighQ Drive may be installed on multiple computers so that files may be synced across all of those computers, with files/folders in Collaborate acting as a hub.
Configuration
HighQ Drive can be accessed from the system tray. Click on the arrow and the HighQ Drive icon is displayed:
Click on the HighQ icon to access menu options:
Click Preferences... to display the Preferences screen:
Follow the following steps to configure HighQ Drive:
Step 1: Enter the URL of the Collaborate Instance
Enter the URL of the instance of Collaborate that HighQ Drive will connect to within the Account tab and click Connect. (This will be different for each Collaborate instance.) The URL will include both the domain portion and the application name after the forward-slash. For example:
https://collaborate.highqsolutions.com/sitepoint
Step 2: Enter your email address and password
On the next screen, enter your email address and password and click Log in (this step will be bypassed if Single Sign-On is enabled and applicable to the user):
If the user's password is changed in the future, it will not be necessary for the user to go through this process again.
Click Allow to give the app authorisation to access your account:
The tab will now show the full account name:
Step 3: Optionally, Configure Drive Settings
HighQ Drive will have been fully configured and will begin syncing content.
In the General tab, users can change the folder location on the computer where files will be synced:
The default location is set as the HighQ Drive folder under the user's folder path.
There are a few other advanced settings (displayed on the Advanced tab), that most users will not need to configure.
Sync team site folders
Within the Preferences option, there is also a tab titled Site Folders. You can choose to sync folders from team sites (other than My files). To unsync any folder, uncheck it and then click Save.
Click Select to choose a team site from the dropdown options. Choose the required folder to be synced.
Using HighQ Drive
File Syncing Behavior
Once HighQ Drive has been installed and configured, it will begin to automatically sync files between a user's My files and the HighQ Drive location on their computer. Any of the following changes made in one location will be synced to the other:
- Adding a file or folder
- Deleting a file or folder
- Moving a file or folder (within HighQ Drive)
- Renaming a file or folder
These syncs will happen in real-time.
It is not possible to sync only certain files and folders in My files, instead all files and folders saved there will be synced from My files.
As of June 2022, if you upload a file that already exists in the target folder, then the upload will follow site settings and either:
- Create a duplicate copy of the file.
- Add a new version of the file.
Or ask you for your preference (i.e. add new version or a new copy).
As of September 2022, HighQ Drive v2.5.0 for Windows adds support for long path names; folder structures may be as complete and descriptive as necessary.
In some cases (depending on your system configuration), certain Windows File Explorer features may not be supported when paths exceed 260 characters:
- badges on icons in File Explorer (e.g. to indicate that a file is synced, or being updated)
- the HighQ Drive right-click context menu (e.g. HighQ share link, view online, add to favourite actions)
The HighQ Drive installation manages all necessary Windows Registry changes, however, if you are still unable to use long path names, please ask your IT admin to check that the following registry key exists and is set to '1':
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem\LongPathsEnabled (Type: REG_DWORD)
Upload files to a site that requires file approvals
Some sites may be configured to only allow accept files that are approved.
As of June 2023, you may upload files to sites that require approval, but they are subject to the approval process.
Upload the file normally.
If the site requires authentication, a notification is displayed:
The file is submitted for approval and must be approved before it is made available on the site. An orange ! badge indicates that the file is waiting for approval:
Other users do not see the file and you cannot access the file from the site until it is approved.
Open the Sync notifications window from the toolbar to the current status of the file:
Click the More actions icon to Open drive folder.
If the file is approved, it is made available on the site, as with any uploaded file.
If you edit the file on the site, it is submitted for a new approval.
You cannot upload a second version of the file if the first has not yet approved.
If the file is rejected, you receive a notification, and the file is removed from your file list on the site
HighQ Drive Interface
The HighQ Drive interface includes a number of features to make it easy to sync files and track the progress of syncing.
For example, click the HighQ Drive icon to reveal the menu, including some useful information:
This includes:
- How much content has been synced and what percentage of the user's overall storage has been used.
- Whether syncing is currently active or has been paused. To temporarily pause syncing, click Pause syncing.
- Access to the list of recently changed (and recently synced files):
Click on the More Actions icon to see more options. For example, a user can:
- Access the File Information page for that file on Collaborate by clicking View online
- Share a link to the file using the Share link... option, which will display the following screen:
- Access the HighQ Drive folder using the Open HighQ Drive folder... option
- Access the user's My files or team sites space using the Visit HighQ Drive on the web option
- Change the previously configured preferences
As of June 2022, you can share a file from any HighQ site, not only from My Files.
HighQ Drive Folder
When accessing the HighQ Drive folder, each file or folder icon includes a flag that shows if the file is synced or not:
Files with the green checkmark (as shown above) have already been synced, whereas the file with the blue circle flag has not yet been synced.
Certain files such as zero-byte files or files that a user does not have permission to update are not synced and shown with an exclamation point:
and the HighQ Drive icon may show with the same flag and a message, such as:
Every time a file that is in the HighQ Drive folder is saved, a new version is added to Collaborate, even if the file remains open in the application used to edit the file.
As of November 2022, HighQ Drive displays file relationship tags and metadata.
View metadata for a synchronised file
As of version 5.5, it is possible to view selected metadata in Windows File Explorer.
Only general created/modified dates, like/comment count, favourite status, and task metadata is available.
To view metadata, open Windows File Explorer and select HighQ Drive in the left-hand column:
Navigate to the file you are interested in:
Right-click the file, select the HighQ Drive icon, then More info:
The window shows the available metadata groups in the left-hand column. By default General metadata is shown:
Select Versions in the left-hand column to show a summary of all saved versions of the document, including version number, added date, author and any notes added to a specific version:
As of March 2023, you can Restore old versions so they replace the latest version, or permanently Delete old versions.
Select Audit History to show a summary of all changes made to the document, including the name of the person who made the changes, the nature of the change, the related action date and the originating IP address from where the action was executed:
View tasks
Select Tasks from the left-hand menu to view tasks and sub-tasks related to the document. Select any task from the list then Open sub-tasks at the bottom of the main window to show any available sub-tasks in a new window:
The status of tasks shown in the main tasks window and the status of individual sub-tasks can be updated to reflect their progress:
Click OK or Apply to save any changes.
Version history
Right-click the file, select the HighQ Drive icon, then Version history:
The More info screen is displayed. If it is not selected, click the Versions tab to display a list of versions:
To view the added notes for a version, hover the cursor over the icon in the Notes column.
View a version
Click More actions for the version, then Download.
Click View Online in the More info screen to see the current version of the file in your browser.
Restore an earlier version
As of March 2023, you can restore an earlier version so that it becomes the current version. This may be necessary to replace an accidental update.
The previous 'current' version is not replaced or deleted, as the selected version is restored as a new version.
Open the Versions screen; select the version to be restored, then click More actions and Restore.
New versions created from a restored version include a description to show which version was restored, i.e. 5 Restored from ver. 3.
Delete an earlier version
As of March 2023, you can delete an earlier version of a file. This may be necessary to remove content for compliance.
'Update file' and 'Delete file' permissions are needed to delete a version.
The version is removed permanently and cannot be restored.
Open the Versions screen; click More actions and select Delete next to the version you want to delete.
You cannot delete the current version of a file in the Versions screen; this is the latest version in the Versions screen.
Click Yes to confirm you want to delete the version.
Deleted versions are still listed in the Versions screen, but include an icon to show the version was deleted (i.e. version 2, below).
Adding favourites in HighQ Drive
You can save files, folders and sites as favourites. Favourites are denoted by a small star added to the icon.
Right-click on the file, folder or site, select the HighQ Drive icon, then Add to Favourites:
Quitting, Restarting and Uninstalling HighQ Drive
If necessary, HighQ Drive can be closed by clicking Quit HighQ Drive. To restart HighQ Drive, select it from the programs menu.
HighQ Drive can be fully uninstalled at any time using the standard method for uninstalling programs. For example, in Windows 7 navigate to Control Panel > Uninstall a Program.
Changing Instances
If a firm has multiple instances of Collaborate and a user has an account on each one, the user will be able to sync files to any instance using HighQ Drive, but HighQ Drive can only sync to one instance at a time. If the configuration of HighQ Drive is changed to point to a different instance later, any files already in the HighQ Drive folder will be deleted:
This will NOT cause the files in the previous instance's folders/files to be deleted.
Index
Below we have listed all settings that, if enabled, will prevent the browse tab from displaying information:
For versions 5.3.0 and higher:
- If the Hide this site in HighQ Drive and Office Plugin checkbox within Site > Admin > Site settings > Security is selected
- If the site has Approvals or Document reviews enabled via Site > Admin > Module settings > Files (however, this is supported from HighQ Drive and Office Plugin v2.6.0 onwards)
- If the site has Check In / Check Out enabled via Site > Admin > Module settings > Files
- If the site has DRM (Digital Rights Management) enabled via Site > Admin > Module settings > Files
- If the files module is disabled on the site from Site > Admin > Site settings > Modules
