Sync Folder with a network share

[simulous]

Hey people.

Im after trying to sync a folder from my laptop to a network share on a windows 2003 file server. Not exactly sure how to go about doing it. I would like files to sync both ways so any changes i make to the folder on my laptop get applied to the share on my file server and any changes to the share on the file server are applied to the file on my laptop.

I had a look at sync centre which i believe is 7's version of offline files. I made a test share on my file server and set it to "[FONT=verdana,geneva]Always Available Offline"

Now where do i go from here? Is it just a case of setting the foder on my laptop to point towards the network share?

Any help would be great

thanks
[/FONT]

 

[TGSoldier]

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

 

[SquonkSC]

Hey people.

Im after trying to sync a folder from my laptop to a network share on a windows 2003 file server. Not exactly sure how to go about doing it. I would like files to sync both ways so any changes i make to the folder on my laptop get applied to the share on my file server and any changes to the share on the file server are applied to the file on my laptop.

I had a look at sync centre which i believe is 7's version of offline files. I made a test share on my file server and set it to "[FONT=verdana,geneva]Always Available Offline"

Now where do i go from here? Is it just a case of setting the foder on my laptop to point towards the network share?

Any help would be great

thanks
[/FONT]

If you wait a few minutes I will post screenshots on how to set up offline files and sync on win7.

greetz

 

[Barman58]

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

 

[SquonkSC]

Offline folders are in Win7.

Making a little tutorial as we speak, but I synced a rather large folder, and waiting for it to finish to make final screeny.

I'll be posting it soon.

 

[SquonkSC]

Man, this thing is taking forever.

And no indication of how long it will take, only a bar that rolls to the end and then starts again.

 

[fseal]

Personally I use SyncToy (free) and then schedule runs at regular intervals and on shutdown.

 

[SquonkSC]

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

.

 

[simulous]

Thats brilliant thank you Really appreciate you taking the time out to put that tutorial together. And thank you everyone else for your advice. Got it all working now

The whole reason im doing this by the way is for a work around for my original post:

http://www.sevenforums.com/network-...ds-open-20mb-mp3-file-over-network-share.html

 

[Captain Logic]

re: Tutorial

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.

 

[simulous]

If im understanding you right. while the folder is online, find the location of the origianl file you set to be available offline and just make a shortcut from that to where ever. then from within that folder you can click on work online and work offline. Once you disconnect from the network you can still access the folder via the shortcut you just created. Hope thats what you mean.

 

[Captain Logic]

Still working on Sync

Thanks for your response, the shortcut was the key to accessing the offline folder. (If any Microsoft engineers are reading, you need a better interface to offline folders.)

I am still having problems with changing a file's contents while it's in off-line mode. I cannot save any files back to the folder while it's offline. Am I missing something? How do you sync changes when you re-connect to the network? Or is this meant to be a read-only function?

TIA

 

[SquonkSC]

Thanks for your response, the shortcut was the key to accessing the offline folder. (If any Microsoft engineers are reading, you need a better interface to offline folders.)

I am still having problems with changing a file's contents while it's in off-line mode. I cannot save any files back to the folder while it's offline. Am I missing something? How do you sync changes when you re-connect to the network? Or is this meant to be a read-only function?

TIA

Hi,

It's not meant to be read only. The whole purpose of offline files is that you can edit them and then on re-connect it will automatically sync the changes.

At the moment I have no idea what could be causing this, but I'll try to find out.

@ simulous, are you having the same problem or is everything ok with your offline files?

Greetz

 

[Captain Logic]

Sync Problem PROBABLY solved.

I can't believe I posted before I checked... Oops

I re-read my post and looked at the nature of the problem, I can't write back to the folder. When I checked the folder sharing, homegroup was set to read.

I don't have my laptop to check up on this, but I'll bet it's the solution.

 

[SquonkSC]

I can't believe I posted before I checked... Oops

I re-read my post and looked at the nature of the problem, I can't write back to the folder. When I checked the folder sharing, homegroup was set to read.

I don't have my laptop to check up on this, but I'll bet it's the solution.

Ok , sounds plausible.

Please post back if it works, so the admins can set this thread to solved.

greetz

 

[simulous]

Hi,


@ simulous, are you having the same problem or is everything ok with your offline files?

Greetz

Yeah mate thanks. Offline files working like a charm. Still having the on going problem tho in terms of opening my mp3's off my file server and it taking 8 seconds per track to open. As my other Thread states ( http://www.sevenforums.com/network-...ds-open-20mb-mp3-file-over-network-share.html ) , Its over a gb lan, works fine in xp and only thing that solves it is setting the share as read only. Im happy with using the offline files for now but im eager to figure out why ther other is happening.

Thanks mate anyway.

 

[vijaynathani]

Sync software

one more solution to sync folders/files over network is at http://www.sevenforums.com/network-sharing/21217-sync-folder-network-share.html