Mobile
Syncing – A Quick Look At Some Options
There are a number of solutions out there for storing files on the net and syncing between multiple computers / platforms – here are just a few:
Other services, like Box.net and Windows Live SkyDrive, give you a place to store your data but don’t provide a syncing mechanism.
I’ve used a number of these services, with each having strengths and weaknesses. My favorite solutions are those that offer clients for both a mac and a pc ( DropBox, SugarSync, FolderShare, etc), as well as offering a web interface to those files. I also enjoy services that allow me to choose / create folders that I want to share with others ( Windows Live Mesh, DropBox, XDrive, BeInSync, etc).
I’m currently using SugarSync, but have been experiencing some problems with them as of late with recent changes made to their UI. Windows Live Mesh has tremendous potential and is what we use as a site to share files amongst the team. Until Windows Live Mesh expands their storage options and offers a mac client, I won’t be using them for my day to day needs, though. DropBox is an interesting solution, but I don’t like how they handle the syncing aspect. With DropBox, I have to drop all of my folders into a DropBox specific folder. I prefer to keep my Documents folder intact at the root level and taking advantage of where the OS looks for documents, videos, pictures, etc, thus I prefer how Windows Live Mesh and SugarSync handle the sync aspect. Several services, like DropBox, also provide nice revisioning features, so you can easily restore to a previous version in the case you accidentally saved over the wrong file. I used BeInSync earlier this year, but found their interface to be very confusing and the sync program to be slow. I used to use FolderShare quite heavily, but ditched them in favor of online storage / syncing services like SugarSync, Windows Live Mesh, and DropBox. I have not given XDrive a “test drive” yet.
What do you use and why?
