Need folder sync alternate to Windows Live Mesh

Apparently I was one of like 11 people who was using Windows Live Mesh for its ability to passively sync arbitrary folders between PCs. Since I have multiple machines that have lots of data between them, it's a nice way to have redundancy without manually syncing drives all the time.

Unfortunately WLM is being end-of-lifed, and its replacement, SkyDrive, is omitting this feature. In the past I've used other software that tried to do this, but it was often cumbersome and slow and would require a direct connection between the two PCs.

Anyone have any recommendations? DropBox, SkyDrive cloud storage, etc. aren't sufficient because I'm hundreds of GBs of data.

This is borderline helpy, but your phrasing doesn't make it clear if you know it, so I'll mention that you can buy 100GB+ allocations on Dropbox/Drive/etc. for fairly reasonable sums. $10/month gets you 200GB of Google Drive storage, for instance.

If it was just $10/month I'd do it, unfortunately I'm closer to 1TB in data that I want synced which is hideously expensive.

Why in gods name do you want to sync 1TB of data between multiple PCs, get a NAS.

I have a NAS (Synology). The issue is I want replication for non-vital data across machines that are geographically separate. I can manually sync if they're VPNed together, but that's a pain in the ass. WLM was nice because it did the syncing automatically via a proxy without requiring cloud storage.

Unison? No idea how easy the Windows client is to use, though. Plus you'll need a secure connection between the machines of some sort (vpn, ssh tunnel, etc).

Right, rsync/unison/etc. work, but they require a constant connection (for automated) or manual sync. WLM was awesome because it just worked in the background without requiring a direct connection between the PCs.

Crashplan may work for what you're looking for. I use their online backup service, so can't vouch for the free computer-to-computer service.

I haven't used it much so I don't know how well it works in practice, but Synology's Cloud Station sounds like what you're looking for: http://www.synology.com/support/tutorials_show.php?lang=us&q_id=529

Argh. I've been using Mesh to keep my Itunes library sync'ed between my home and work computers. I'll be watching this thread.

GODDAMNIT ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?

I was using this to keep over 500gb of data in sync between my office and home computer.

GODDAMN YOU MICROSOFT.

It looks like there are ways to keep Live Mesh installed.

http://messengergeek.wordpress.com/...-live-mesh-2011-with-windows-essentials-2012/

Unfortunately we are hosed come Feb 2013.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/13/mi...-the-few-remaining-users-to-move-to-skydrive/

http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/13/mi...-the-few-remaining-users-to-move-to-skydrive/

And like Jerri, that's basically what I've used livemesh for -- syncing non-critical stuff like music, movies, etc. between work/home/laptop/etc. so I don't have to worry about toting an external hard drive with me everywhere. I'll have to check out CloudStation, thanks Damien.

Hmmm, CloudStation has a 1GB max file size, otherwise it would be perfect. Gah.

Dammit!

Ooooh, CloudStation now says 5GB limit, which works fine for me since I don't I have anything larger than 2-3GB. Sweet! Going to try CloudStation right now...

The computer-to-computer part of Crashplan, while very cool, doesn't fit the bill here, unfortunately. All it does is let you allocate a chunk of your local disk space for the remote computer to use as storage for encrypted backup files. (the thing that's *very* cool about it is they make it extremely simple to swap space with friends, so your stuff is backed up off-site on your buddy's computer, but there's no way for him to actually read any of your data, etc etc etc)

So thanks to Damien Neil, I'm trying out the CloudStation. We'll see how badly it barfs on 750GB of data.

CloudStation appears to have a limit of two folders, and am I missing something or do you need to buy their associated hardware to get it? That's rubbish.

I'm going to miss Windows Live Mesh so bad.

CloudStation is made for the Synology...not sure what else you would expect?

It's going...slowly. REAL slowly. I think it's synced about 20GB so far in 12 hours. This will take a while.

My initial reaction was that of TheTrunkDr's. But I have an expensive Synology server and have come around to now thinking it would be nice to sync 100 GB of music to my work machine.
Not having used CloudStation before, I have actually gained something from this thread even if others have lost.
So thanks.

Expectations have nothing to do with whether it's a good setup.

I've seen people report Synologies have slow SMB speeds. I'm getting about 27MB/sec with my RAID config (mirrored) over gigabit ethernet...that seems slow.

In other sync program end-of-life news, Google is phasing out Google Calendar Sync, which I use to keep my Outlook on both my laptops synced with my Google calendar. Apparently they'll keep it going for existing users, but for how long?

Goddamnit

As I read it, they're only keeping it going for Google Apps for Business users?

I am one of those, but I have the free version because we're non-profit.

Google confuses me.

You should still be able to use this: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gappssync

Mind you, it does sync everything, not just calendar, but if Google Apps is your primary email this is the 'right' way to use Outlook with it.

Microsoft still offer SyncToy, so I might just go back to that. I replaced it with Windows Live Mesh when that was supposed to be the future.

EDIT: The arstechnica denizens appear to be moving to Cubby. It has a cloud service but also allows direct syncing. Basically it's Live Mesh (without the remote desktop bit).

The problem for me is that I'm using the free version of Google Apps for Business, and that tool's not available to me other than as a trial.

Hmmm....CloudStation just stopped syncing for no reason. So I have a bunch of files that are listed as not in sync, the app says it's connected and "syncing", but nothing has changed in hours. This does not bode well.

As a very satisfied used of LogMeIn, I will happily support their new Cubby product. Switching over now...

Bleh, looks like the P2P sync of Cubby is becoming a part of the paid package only. Time to try AeroFS.

So the Synology does in fact work. I screwed up installing CloudStation by specifying my DynDNS address instead of my internal IP address, which means I was trying to sync 500GB over the Internet between machines that were 15 feet apart. Once I fixed that it sped up dramatically, but still took over a day. But it seems to be solid so far.

AeroFS will become pay. eventually. otherwise, i like it very much!

Anyone got any AeroFS invites?

Yeah, I'd like an AeroFS invite as well, just for shits and giggles.

Same on an invite to AeroFS. I miss Windows live Sync :(

Does SharePoint Workspace allow the kind of folder syncing you guys are looking for?

Was removed from Office 2013, product is dead. I work at MSFT, so I don't even have office 2010 on a machine to test this with anymore.

Basically what I want is a peer to peer, proxy enabled syncing app so I can sync my MP3's. Windows Live Sync was awesome at this, Mesh less so because it seemed incredibly slow and buggy, with a greatly simplified UI.