Setup Guide & FAQ

Download the MSI or NSIS installer from the releases page and run it. DropZone will appear in your Start Menu and system tray.

1. Go to the releases page and download DropZone Setup x.x.x.exe (recommended) or the .msi
2. Run the installer and follow the prompts
3. DropZone starts automatically and appears in the system tray
4. Open your browser to http://localhost:8080 — or click the tray icon to open the UI

Use this method on servers where you want browser-based access from other machines, or on Linux.

# Prerequisites: Node.js 18+
npm install --omit=dev
node server.js

The server listens on port 8080 by default. Set the PORT environment variable to change it.

PORT=9000 node server.js

Access the UI from any browser on your network at http://your-server-ip:8080.

Use NSSM (Non-Sucking Service Manager) to wrap node server.js as a Windows Service:

nssm install DropZone "C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe" "C:\dropzone\server.js"
nssm set DropZone AppDirectory C:\dropzone
nssm set DropZone Start SERVICE_AUTO_START
nssm start DropZone

For the MSI version, DropZone runs in the system tray and can be configured to start at login via Settings → Startup.

• Windows 10 / 11 / Server 2019+ (for MSI)
• Node.js 18 or newer (for server mode)
• Any modern browser for the UI (Chrome, Edge, Firefox)
• Network share accessible from the server for HA mode

Yes, it is safe. The warning appears because the installer is not yet code-signed with a commercial certificate. Windows SmartScreen flags any newly-distributed executable it hasn't seen before.

To proceed:

1. Click More info on the SmartScreen dialog
2. Click Run anyway

This is a one-time prompt. Once SmartScreen has seen enough installs from enough users, the warning disappears automatically.

1. Open DropZone in your browser (http://localhost:8080)
2. Click + Add Folder on the main dashboard
3. Enter the full path to the folder (e.g. C:\Incoming\Invoices or \\server\share\uploads)
4. Give it a name and click Save
5. Click the ▶ Start button on the folder card to begin watching

Rules define when an action fires. Each rule specifies:

• Event type — Created, Modified, Deleted, Renamed, Moved
• File filter (optional) — match by name pattern or extension, e.g. *.pdf or invoice_*
• Action — what to do when the rule matches

Click + Add Rule on a folder card, fill in the fields, and save. Multiple rules can be added to one folder and they all run independently.

Action fields (URLs, message bodies, query templates, etc.) support these context variables:

{{fileName}}     — name of the file that triggered the event
{{filePath}}     — full path to the file
{{folderPath}}   — path to the watched folder
{{eventType}}    — created | modified | deleted | renamed | moved
{{timestamp}}    — ISO 8601 timestamp of the event
{{oldPath}}      — previous path (renamed / moved events only)

Yes. Enter the UNC path directly: \\\\server\\share\\folder.

DropZone automatically detects network paths and switches to polling mode for reliability. You can also force polling mode per-folder in the folder settings if needed.

On the folder card, enable the Monitor subfolders checkbox. DropZone will watch all nested subfolders recursively.

A warning is shown if a subfolder is already being watched by another folder entry to prevent duplicate events.

1. Open DropZone and go to Settings → License
2. Paste your license key into the field
3. Click Activate

Your key is validated locally — no internet connection required for activation.

The activated key is saved in %APPDATA%\Dropzone\activation.json on Windows, or in the DROPZONE_DATA directory on server deployments. It persists across restarts automatically.

Yes — Enterprise licenses include silent auto-renewal. When the app starts and your key has 30 or fewer days remaining, DropZone contacts the licensing server, verifies your active Stripe subscription, and silently swaps in a fresh 1-year key.

You will also receive a renewal confirmation email. No manual action is required as long as your subscription is active.

If DropZone cannot reach the licensing server (e.g. the machine is offline), a yellow warning banner appears at the top of the UI showing how many days remain. You can dismiss it and the app continues to work normally until the key expires.

If your subscription has lapsed, a message directs you to the pricing page to renew.

• Two Windows or Linux servers (physical or virtual)
• A shared network path accessible from both servers (UNC share or NFS mount)
• Enterprise license activated on both instances
• DropZone installed and running on both servers

1. On both servers, open DropZone → Settings → High Availability
2. Enable HA and enter the shared network path (e.g. \\\\nas\dropzone-ha)
3. Set the heartbeat interval (default: 10 seconds) and stale threshold (default: 30 seconds)
4. Save — both instances will negotiate a MASTER/SLAVE role automatically within a few seconds

The MASTER processes all events. If it stops sending heartbeats, the SLAVE promotes itself after the stale threshold elapses.

When the SLAVE detects the MASTER is stale, it promotes itself to MASTER and begins processing events. The transition typically takes 30–60 seconds depending on your stale threshold setting. All in-flight events are recovered from the shared path — no events are lost.

When the original server comes back online it re-joins as SLAVE automatically.

Currently DropZone HA supports an active/passive pair (one MASTER, one SLAVE). For larger deployments, use Central Management to distribute configuration across multiple independent DropZone instances.

Central Management lets you configure folders, rules, and actions in one place and push them to many DropZone instances across your organisation. Each remote node polls the management server on a schedule and applies updates automatically.

The management server is a separate Node.js app included in the DropZone package:

cd server
npm install --omit=dev
node index.js

Access it at http://your-mgmt-server:3001. Create an API key in the UI, then configure each DropZone node to point at this server.

1. Open DropZone on the node → Settings → Management Server
2. Enter the management server URL and the API key
3. Set the poll interval (default: 5 minutes)
4. Click Save — the node will sync on the next poll cycle or click Sync Now for an immediate update

In a rule, select Webhook as the action type. Enter the destination URL. DropZone sends a POST request with a JSON payload containing fileName, eventType, filePath, and timestamp.

Optional: add custom headers (e.g. Authorization: Bearer …) for authenticated endpoints.

Configure your SMTP server first under Settings → SMTP. Then add an Email action to any rule. Fill in the recipient, subject, and message body — context variables like {{fileName}} are supported in all fields.

Both integrations use incoming webhooks:

• Slack: Create an Incoming Webhook app in your Slack workspace and paste the URL into the rule action. Optionally specify a channel and username.
• Teams: Add an Incoming Webhook connector to a Teams channel and paste the URL. Add a title for rich card formatting.

Select SQL Database or NoSQL Database as the action type and choose your driver:

• SQL: Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL. Provide a connection string and a parameterised INSERT query.
• MongoDB: Provide connection string, database, collection, and a JSON document template.
• Redis: SET, LPUSH, RPUSH, or PUBLISH. Provide key template, value, and optional TTL.

Select Script as the action type. Enter the path to a .ps1, .bat, .cmd, or .sh file. The event context is passed as environment variables (DROPZONE_FILE_NAME, DROPZONE_FILE_PATH, etc.) so your script can read them directly.

Failed actions are retried automatically with exponential back-off. After all retries are exhausted, the event is written to the Dead-Letter Queue (DLQ) — visible in the DropZone UI under the DLQ tab. You can inspect failures, retry them manually, or clear them.

• Make sure the watcher is started (green indicator on the folder card)
• Verify the folder path exists and DropZone has read access to it
• For network paths, try enabling polling mode on the folder — native OS watchers can miss events on some SMB shares
• Check the audit log (Settings → Audit Log) for any error entries

• Check the Dead-Letter Queue — failed actions appear there with error details
• For email: confirm SMTP settings are correct with Settings → SMTP → Send Test
• For webhooks: confirm the endpoint URL is reachable from the server running DropZone
• Check that the file filter pattern on the rule isn't excluding the file you're testing with

Sessions expire after inactivity. Log in again. If this happens frequently, check that the DropZone data directory is writable (the session secret is persisted there). If the data directory is being wiped on restart (e.g. in a container), set the DROPZONE_DATA environment variable to a persistent volume path.

• Windows MSI: %APPDATA%\Dropzone\
• Server mode: ~/AppData/Roaming/Dropzone/ by default, or the path set in DROPZONE_DATA
• Use Settings → Config File → Show in Explorer to open the directory directly

Email us at [email protected] and we'll get back to you.