Syncing update

Enough has transpired that an update seems called for.

Dropbox works as it's always worked. The reason I am investigating other options is that I need to sync work computers and personal computers separately and together in a way that truly personal information does not appear on work computers. I'd been using Dropbox on my personal computers, so I need something else for my work computers.

Neither Copy nor AeroFS was syncing reliably. I found myself waiting for an hour for Copy to propagate a few small files. AeroFS, given all night to do something similar, still hadn't done it by morning. Two computers had different contents in their AeroFs file. AeroFS was showing that no file transfers were taking place.

I'm currently using

• Dropbox (personal),
• Cubby (work + personal), and
• Syncbox (music files).

What I don't use, and why:

• Copy, did not sync reliably.
• AeroFS, did not sync reliably.
• Google Drive, had trouble with certain file types.
• (Microsoft's) Sky Drive, does not work with Windows XP.
• Box Sync, changes file modification dates to the time it transfers a file.
• Mozy does not let you delete folders from its website. Files have to be deleted one at a time. I found this out the hard way when I went to clean out my account so that I could start fresh,
• SugarSync. When I tried syncing two folders with the same content, it copied the files from one computer to the other, modifying the file name to indicate a conflict. I ended up with two copies of each file except that one had a "conflict" designation in its name.

On the horizon

• Jottacloud is to introduce its syncing feature this week.
• Spider Oak deserves further comment and investigation because of its strong stance on privacy.

If I stay with it, Syncbox will deserved a few paragraphs of its own.

More to come, later this week or early next week. If not the final chapter, then at least the season finale.