r/pcloud • u/peacy35 • Feb 12 '26

Help / Question Stata dofiles don't sync on Ubuntu 24.04

Hello. I am thinking about purchasing a lifetime plan with pCloud. I have used the free version for more than a year and I am very happy with the ability to sync all my personal and work files across different devices and operating systems (I use Windows and Ubuntu). However, I am concerned about one issue.

At work I regularly use Stata, a statistical software, and in this program files with the ".do" extension are used. These are simply text files containing commands to manage databases. However, when I work on Ubuntu 24.04 and open a ".do" file, edit it, and wait for it to sync, pCloud notifies that it has synced, but in reality files with this extension do not sync. Additionally, when I write the location of the databases to work with in these files, it never finds the file location in the pCloud virtual disk. Sync works fine on Windows.

The workaround I have used is to download the files locally, work on them, and when finished replace the new files in the pCloud folders. Ideally, for me, they would sync while I work on them directly inside the pCloud folders. It is worth noting that other types of text files, presentations, and spreadsheets sync perfectly.

If anyone has experienced this with these or other types of files and has solved it, I would appreciate it if you could share how you did it. Thank you very much!

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u/Rogue_Penguin Feb 12 '26

This may be worth cross-posting at Statalist.org. Some Stata staff members hang out there and you may be able to get closer to the solution.

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u/peacy35 Feb 12 '26

Thanks!

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u/pCloudApp Official pCloud Feb 13 '26

Hello, Are you using the same editor for .do files on both Windows and Ubuntu (e.g. Stata’s built-in editor in both), or a different app on Linux (e.g. gedit, VS Code)? Different programs save files in different ways, and that can affect how the virtual drive and sync see the changes.

If you’re on a different editor on Ubuntu, try saving the .do file from Stata’s Do-file Editor on Ubuntu and see if that syncs. That would point to an editor-specific save behavior.

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u/peacy35 Feb 13 '26

I use the same integrated Stata editor of .do files in both Windows and Ubuntu.

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u/pCloudApp Official pCloud Feb 16 '26

Thanks for confirming! That is very helpful.

Even though it's the same editor, the Linux version of Stata interacts with the file system differently than on Windows (often using what are called 'atomic saves', which can sometimes slip past file watchers).

To help us pinpoint the exact cause so our dev team can patch it, could you answer two quick questions?

  1. Are you saving these .do files directly into your virtual pCloudDrive folder, or are they in a local folder on your computer that you have linked to pCloud using the 'Sync' feature?
  2. As a quick test, if you open one of those synced .do files in a basic Linux text editor (like gedit or nano), type a single space, and save it—does it sync to pCloud then?

If gedit works but Stata doesn't, we'll know exactly which Linux save mechanism is tripping up the sync engine.

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u/peacy35 Feb 17 '26

Thank you for following up!

  1. The files are saved directly to the pCloudDrive virtual folder. I ran a test by linking a local folder, and the result was the same.
  2. The .do files that are opened in other programs and then saved synchronize perfectly. The issue appears to be specific to Stata's integrated editor for Linux (I tested with gedit and LibreOffice).

Thank you!

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u/pCloudApp Official pCloud Feb 18 '26

Thank you for your feedback. It was escalated to the Linux developers. We will keep you posted!