File sync program with automatic cloud/LAN switching?

Factual Questions
1

I’d like to find a way to keep My Documents synchronized between my desktop and laptop. There’s a lot of software out there that does it automatically over the internet, but trouble is, I have a lot of big photoshop files that will take forever to upload.

Is there a program that can do the cloud sync thing when I’m working away from home but automatically switch over to my own WiFi network for faster transfers when I’m at home?

Both computers are running Windows 7.

2

Dropbox.

3

Excellent. Thank you.

4

Note however that your Dropbox quota applies even while syncing over LAN.

I year ago I’d have recommended Microsoft Live Mesh, which has a cloud service you can subscribe to and also has LAN/machine-to-machine syncing with unlimited quota, but my understanding is that Microsoft plans to replace it with a cloud-only program in the near future and turn off the Live Mesh servers.

Pity. I frequently share video files with a co-producer of a YouTube TV show, and the Dropbox quota is ridiculously small for that purpose. (To give an idea: we currently have 340 GB in our Live Mesh sharing folder.) I haven’t found any program other than Live Mesh that does what I need.

5

I actually tried Live Mesh prior to learning about Dropbox, but the transfers seemed slowish. Does it actually go over your LAN?

6

Well, it’s supposed to and seems to on my network. But it might be some firewall setting or router setting preventing it from happening?

I guess what I really need is a program that can SYNC files between two computers, not doesn’t STORE them anywhere (and thus subject me to a quota.)

7

Request an invitation to the beta of Cubby.

8

Well, for just syncing there’s the free SyncToy from Microsoft. On Linux/Mac you can use the rsync.

And yeah, it’s annoying when those utilities don’t tell you what they’re doing in enough detail to see if you’re going over a LAN. I’m too lazy to monitor their network activity :slight_smile:

9

Just as warning to anybody wanting to try this beta, I downloaded it to compare it to Dropbox and it deleted all my files (!). Fortunately I had a backup.

I understand it’s beta and I’ve reported the issue, but if they can’t get the sync logic right on something this critical, eh, I’m probably not going to trust it with any live files.

For anyone interested, here’s what happened…

  1. I added a new folder to Cubby on my Windows PC

  2. While Cubby was uploading to the cloud, I tried to access the folder from my Android tablet

  3. They weren’t showing up yet so I wanted to check my Cubby settings on my PC. I accidentally unchecked the box that syncs it to my desktop (“this computer”).

  4. I checked it again, “Adding it as a new folder”. Presumably because the folder in the cloud had no files, Cubby deleted all the files on my hard drive.