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Four steps to retire Acronis Cyber Files before 31 December

  ISEC7 Editorial Team  ·  4 minute read

Acronis Cyber Files did more than connect mobile devices to file servers. It also handled personal file sync and sharing with external parties, and Acronis Files Connect, a separate product, links Macs to Windows file shares. Extended support for both ends on 31 December 2026. Until then, Acronis's lifecycle policy for its mobility products still covers hotfixes for critical and security issues. After that come three years of self-service support: knowledge base articles, FAQs and troubleshooting tools.

Before anyone picks a successor, you need a list of which of these functions are actually in use. From the date of this post there are around ten weeks left in the year. Not a long window for a project, so the order matters: find out what is in use, give each function a new home, test, then switch off.

Step 1: Take stock of what Acronis does for you

Acronis Files Connect serves the Windows shares to Macs over AFP, and adds a print server and network Spotlight search.

  1. Function inventory. For each of these four functions, record whether it is used, by whom and on which servers: mobile file access, sync, external sharing, Files Connect for Macs. For mobile access, list the file servers and NAS systems that users reach through Acronis today. ISEC7 SPHERE shows which managed devices still have the Acronis app installed, drawing on your connected UEM systems. Sources: Acronis Files Connect User Guide, Hypergate migration guide.
  2. Policies. Note which restrictions Acronis enforces today, such as blocking copy, print or "open in" to other apps. They move to the UEM later, so they need to be written down first.

Step 2: Give every function a new home

  1. Mapping. The inventory becomes a list with one owner per line:
    • Mobile access to file servers and NAS: Hypergate Files, connecting directly to Windows shares and NetApp over SMB2 and SMB3, signing in with Kerberos and keeping the permissions already set on the share. The first post in this series shows what that looks like day to day.
    • Sign-in: Hypergate Authenticator, directly against your existing domain controllers.
    • Copy, print and sharing restrictions: your UEM. According to Hypergate in our webcast of 23 September 2026 (in German, free recording after registration), Hypergate Files respects these rules, for example a ban on copying between personal and work data.
    • Sync and external sharing: a separate route. Hypergate Files is built for access to existing shares. First establish whether these two functions are still needed, and by whom.
    • Files Connect for Macs: a separate route, see check 4.
  2. Macs. Hypergate Files is built for Android and iOS, so the Macs need their own route. macOS covers part of it: in the Finder, Go > Connect to Server reaches servers that use SMB (Apple, Mac User Guide). Apple deprecated the AFP client in macOS Sequoia 15.5 and will remove it in a future version (Apple Support). Macs that reach their shares over AFP through Files Connect will have to move to SMB either way. Test on one Mac whether direct SMB access covers your shares, and plan print queues and network Spotlight search separately, since Files Connect provided both. Managing Macs through the UEM is part of our one-day course Apple Enterprise Mobility Fundamentals.

Step 3: Pilot through your UEM

  1. Network. Pilot devices need a path over the VPN to the domain controllers on port 88 (Kerberos, TCP and UDP) and to the file servers on port 445 (SMB, TCP), as listed in Microsoft's service overview and network port requirements. Hypergate's requirement is a VPN or tunnel through which the device can reach the KDC (Hypergate FAQ). No new server is involved.
  2. Proof of concept. Hypergate Authenticator and Hypergate Files go to a test group as managed apps through your existing UEM, which also delivers the app configuration. Hypergate names Microsoft Intune, Ivanti, Omnissa Workspace ONE, BlackBerry UEM, SOTI and 42Gears among the supported platforms. In the same webcast, Hypergate offered a free proof of concept of around 30 days, with the option to extend. The pilot has done its job when the test group sees its shares in the Files app and can open documents and save them back. Hypergate demonstrated that flow on an iOS device during the webcast. On the domain controller, a migrated device's sign-in shows up as event 4768 where it used to be 4776 (Hypergate, 25 June 2026). How to find the remaining NTLM sign-ins on your network is the subject of the second post in this series, published on 7 October.

Step 4: Switch over and decommission

  1. Decommission in the right order. Move the Acronis restrictions into the UEM first, then migrate the remaining users. The Acronis servers (gateway, web server and database) go offline once the last mobile user has moved. The Files Connect server follows once the Macs work over SMB. Nothing needs recovering from the devices, because Hypergate Files does not store company files locally (Hypergate migration guide).

Working backwards: to finish decommissioning before 31 December, you need a completed pilot first. With a proof of concept of around 30 days, the test group should be up and running in early November, which leaves time for rollout, moving the policies and switching off. The dates come from Acronis and Hypergate; the arithmetic is ours.

Hypergate and ISEC7

The apps come from Hypergate, a product of Papers AG, based in Zug, Switzerland. ISEC7 is a Hypergate partner for Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States and handles UEM integration and rollout. If you would like to go through your function inventory from step 1 with us, get in touch.

Sources

ISEC7 resources