Sync Folder with a network share

Well this isn't exactly automatically sync but...

You can use robocopy

I uploaded the .exe here

2shared - download robocopy.exe

Just make the following .bat file

@echo off

robocopy "C:\users\tom\desktop" "F:\desktop" /mir /s

echo Backup Complete

pause


In case you're wondering the destination folders don't create themselves.. < yes, i've had people who told me the script was not working but only because they did not create the destination folder>

It will only take long the first time you copy the files then you can just update the network drive automatically by running the bat file.

Guess if you want you can set it to run at shutdown / startup that way, nothing to worry about.

It's not THE solution. But it could work :)

I know that offline folder support was missing from Vista Home editions, (caught me out once ), not sure what the status is with Windows 7 (Should be in Professional and up but may need to be confirmed) may be relevent now that not everyone will be using Ultimate

Well, I stopped it because the folder I thought was almost empty, had 40gb of files, and sync was copying them all to my laptop.

So I wouldn't recommend this on folders with a lot of data, unless you have the time and the space.

I already dislike this offline files business, because after undoing it, I still see the folder that is now not shared for offline in the sync center. And no way to get it out.

But here is the promised little tutorial.

in the explorer goto Tools and click "open sync center"


in sync center click on "manage offline files"


Enable Offline files


Now you have to reboot,



After reboot browse your network, find the folder you want to make available.

Right click on the folder an select "Always available offline"

Sync center will start to copy the files to your computer.


That's it.


Good luck

.

Hey thanks for the tutorial squonksc, but I have questions. I setup the sync ok, then I disconnect my laptop. Now what?

The only way I can access the offline folder is to open sync center and double click on the folder. I can't browse to this folder from within any programs. When I use a file-open dialog box, there are no entries under network for me to browse.

If I open a file from offline and make changes to it, I can't save to the 'offline' folder so that it can sync back to the network. Is this supposed to be a one-way read only link?

Am I trying to use this feature in a way it was not meant to be used?

Please advise, I am confused.