Posted by Jeffrey Kabbe on July 20th, 2009 in Software | Permalink
No More Syncplicity, Now What?
July 20, 2009It’s been a while since I posted. I’ve been working on putting together a short overview of what I’m still using, what I’ve stopped using, what I am consider – things of that nature. But an email I received last week has put that on hold. And now I am asking for some advice.
The email I received was from the folks at Syncplicity. They announced that they have identified some serious issues with the Mac client. So they are pulling the client for a complete rewrite and plan to give some guidance on their schedule next year. Syncplicity for Mac will work until July 31 (not so far off) and then cease working.
We’ve been using Syncplicity for several months now to synchronize files across four computers. I briefly tried out DropBox, but didn’t like the fact that everything had to be stored in a DropBox folder. That simply won’t work with our setup (where the synched files need to be stored in different folders on different computers). We used JungleDisk for a while as a backup solution, but it didn’t seem to be a good synching solution (I can’t remember right now whether it supports synching or not – I just know we didn’t consider it for that).
We also briefly considered setting up a Leopard Server (I do have a copy that right now is not being used). Syncing is nice though because of the extra redundancy and online backup built into a good synching solution. It also provides offline access and keeps people from stomping on each other while trying to work in the same document. So it is a possible fallback position, but I’d much prefer to use a good synching solution.
Please post below if you have any suggestions for synching solutions (whether or not you have used it, but of course its better if you have and can share your experiences). Thanks in advance!
We had used Sugarsync but at a certain point it was showing quirks. Okay it was just 2 quirks but it was unacceptable. It showed a place were the file was but the actual file was gone. Bad news. And, really, problematic for syncing critical documents for a law office. I had a worse experience with iDisk. It gets a resounding thumbs down from me.
I am currently test driving Dropbox (not an option for you?) and the results are promising. I still think Sugarsync looks better and has better features. At the end of the day, this is about trust and reliability. Aesthetics have to take second place in this subject.
For backup, we use Apple’s Time Capsule and Blackblaze.
My 2 cents.
Posted by Aaron | July 20th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Aaron,
Thank you for your feedback. The problem I had with Dropbox is that, when I tested it, you had to keep all your synched files in a Dropbox folder within your Documents folder. For various reasons, we’d really prefer not to do that. I really liked Syncplicity’s capability to have several different folders that are synched individually and can be in different places on each computer. But that may be something I just have to give up. I’d appreciate hearing any updates on your Dropbox testing, though.
Funny thing with Backblaze. I went to their website and was wondering why the woman in the video was using such a crappy-looking laptop. And then she set it on fire and it all made sense.
Posted by Jeff | July 20th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Hey Jeff,
I’ve been on Dropbox for a very long time now with zero problems. Like Aaron, I had some problems with SugarSync that caused me to lose confidence.
I’m not trying to evangelize for Dropbox, but I have gotten around the inconvenience of having everything stored in your “Dropbox” folder by using shortcuts, or as Apple calls them, “aliases.” I make a shortcut for my active clients folder (and other frequently accessed folders) that’s inside Dropbox and put the shortcuts on my desktop. They’re easy to access for quick drag ‘n drops, and you can use the shortcuts in Save dialogues.
Don’t know if that helps or if you’ve already figured that out, but there it is for what it’s worth.
You may want to check out Windows Live Mesh. Despite the name, it does work with Macs – so they say.
Good luck!
Posted by Adam | July 20th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Hi Jeff,
I’ve been using Sugarsync for about six months without any glitches. My only issue is that certain processes are not entirely intuitive, like how to stop synching and then recover the space on the cloud. The last update improved the interface a good deal, but I don’t really know about the phantom file issue. My only issue with it, and I think this is true of Dropbox as well, is that it will not sync files which reside on a server.
Posted by Frederick | July 28th, 2009 at 11:58 pm