Express Transfer overview

Express Transfer is an integral part of Import/Export workflows when activated for use with Import/Export. Using Import/Export with Express Transfer active is the recommended method of transferring data in Relativity. It can be used to transfer any data size, but it's designed especially for transferring large structured and unstructured data files greater than 20GB.

Using Import/Export with Express Transfer active helps reduce the time and effort it takes to transfer data in Relativity. For additional information on performance considerations when transferring data using desktop applications, see Data transfer performance considerations.

Express Transfer is a separately installed desktop application that operates outside of RelativityOne. Although you are accessing and using Import/Export within RelativityOne to process transfer jobs, it is the activated Express Transfer application that is handling the actual data transfer (upload and download) process in the background to and from RelativityOne and the staging area or local disk. It uploads (imports) a single job at a time and downloads (exports) up to five concurrent jobs at a time on a single client machine. You can have multiple users running jobs on multiple machines without conflict.

Monitoring import and export job transfers is done through the Express Transfer application as well as from the Import/Export Jobs page.

To ensure that you always have the most recent version and features of Express Transfer, the default update setting is configured to automatically prompt you when a new version is available. We recommend keeping this setting enabled. See Installing and updating Express Transfer desktop application for more information. You can manually check for updates anytime by right-clicking the Express Transfer icon in your system tray. See Express Transfer system tray menu for more information.

Prerequisites

To use Import/Export with Express Transfer, the following must be completed in this order:

  1. Import/Export application must be installed in the workspace from the Application Library. See Installing Import/Export for more information
  1. Express Transfer desktop application must be installed on your computer. See Installing Express Transfer for more information
  2. Express Transfer must be activated within Import/Export. See Activating Express Transfer for more information

Considerations when to use and not use Express Transfer with Import/Export

We recommend using Import/Export with Express Transfer activated whenever possible for all importing and exporting workflows, and particularly when:

  • data file size is greater than 20GB (although Express Transfer can be used for any size data transfer).
  • processing multiple import jobs. The jobs will be queued and executed when the previous job is complete.
  • slow or unstable network connection. Express Transfers enables you to retry the upload.

Use Import/Export without activating Express Transfer when:

  • your company policy prohibits installing desktop applications.
  • your network configuration does not allow third party applications to send or receive data, such as proxy settings.
  • data file size is less than 20GB.
  • data is in ZIP files.

Note: You need to use Express Transfer to upload and process encrypted materials, such as password-protected zip files or Case files (L01/N01) that require Password Bank functionality. If you cannot use Express Transfer for such imports, zip your encrypted materials in a single unencrypted ZIP container (the 20GB limit for the zip file size applies). Import/Export will transfer and extract the top-level zip file, preparing your encrypted materials for Processing. Then, Processing will utilize Password Bank to decrypt materials.