FileSync for Mac

User Reviews

• Just works

  ITJonOctober 1, 2012

  Pros

  Relatively simple to use.

  Cons

  Had to run it twice on the folder set that I was trying to sync between locations for all of the files to transfer.

  Summary

  Worked, but had to run twice for complete file sync.

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• USUALLY does what it says it will do ...

  TumbleweedOnWindowsDecember 4, 2011

  Pros

  I use this to sync a folder on my Mac, with a folder on an SD card. One way sync only, copy files from target to source, delete any files not on source. That's about as simple as you can get, and it usually works fine.

  Cons

  Once in a while, and for no discernible reason, instead of writing only changed files from source to target, it simply copies everything, in which case it might as well have been a file copy that I did from the finder !

  Summary

  It works, but I'd prefer something that didn't randomly fail to "see" the files on the destination and thus overwrite them, because (1) that lowers confidence and (2) it can take quite a while. I will continue to use it, I'm currently on 2.02 and see there is a 2.2 so will try that. (Ps sorry about the user name that dates back many years. No more Windows for me)

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• Does EXACTLY what I wanted it to do

  ZeroRequiemOctober 13, 2011

  Pros

  -Fast, easy, free -Create folder syncing in just a few clicks -Create automatic backups

  Cons

  -the only downside is I wish I could put it in the menubar so I can have it open without cluttering my desktop.

  Summary

  As a college student, I was looking to create an identical copy of my college notes folder to the iDisk on mobileme. I created an automator script for it, but that would rewrite the whole folder every time which would take forever to sync to the cloud with gbs of data. This program allowed me to setup up a sync profile that will just backup whatever is different between the two folders which puts my daily backups into the megabyte range. Now I can sync my notes everyday in seconds instead of hours. If you just need a streamlined folder syncing app, with out any bells or whistles this is the perfect app.

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• Near-useless with file sharing, OK for small local jobs

  S_McCandlishSeptember 29, 2011

  Pros

  Simple interface: It's not festooned with innumerable options that no one but the author understands. Once you figure out how it works (READ THE DOCS or you'll be frustrated), it's quick and simple for the limited things it actually can do.

  Cons

  Won't sync a whole mounted volume, even if actually just a fileshared folder. E.g., if Windows 7 shared music folder has 400 subfolders, you'd have to *manually set up 400 FileSync operations* to mirror it to your Mac's music folder. Problematic!

  Summary

  Obviously needs further refinement to do anything more than mirror one simple folder to another, or mirror a very sparse shared "volume" (usually just a folder) to local one by manually setting up each subfolder of the volume as an independent synch operation. One simple fix for this glaring and near-fatal problem would be allowing ctrl-click and shift-click to select multiple folders to merge to one target, so you can merge all 400 music folders or whatever FROM (rather than AS) a volume to a target backup folder. Even for local-only use, READ THE DOCS. This app is very nitpicky about its settings and will fail with nonsensical errors, e.g. about volumes needing to be mounted on the desktop even when they are already mounted, if you don't do it just right. I'm already testing other file/folder synch apps, because this one's functionality is simply far too limited for "power user" operations. But, if you just want to make sure your Mac's local Documents and Pictures folders are synchronized to an external drive every X number of minutes or hours or days, independent of other backup solutions, this tool WILL do that job and is probably a simpler and easier pick for that sort of task than other sync tools are. That's why I've kept this app, actually, even though looking for others do the more complicated file syncs I need. One obvious use case: You have separate thumb drives for documents relating to separate clients, and you sometimes need to hustle on short notice to a meeting with one of these clients. Use this app to make sure that changes made a few hours ago are already on the right drive and ready to be yanked and pocketed without you having to remember to copy them over. (The obvious caution is that very recently saved changes would not be included, unless your sync interval is very short.)

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• Does exactly what it says it does.

  adschaeferDecember 5, 2010

  Pros

  Great for keeping files synced between one source and another.

  Cons

  No major cons that I can think of.

  Summary

  Great little, simple utility for syncing files. No bells or whistles, but who need 'em?

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• Appreciative of time & generosity of freeware providers

  chuckeweJune 13, 2009

  Pros

  The programmer took the time to create a piece of software that fills a niche' sadly missing from OS X and was generous enough to make it available to anyone who had a need for. It's a very basic program and does sync files.

  Cons

  FileSync is a very minimalistic program. There is little if any control over the size the syncing will create. Or the ability to exclude files from type or date.

  Summary

  I respect the time & effort put into the program. I strongly dislike people who write negative things about a piece of freeware. FileSync fills a niche which many others charge for. There are other free alternatives out there. Currently the one I prefer is SyncTwoFolders. Possibly because it's more familiar to me, though I do like the simulation mode which allows me to see what is going to be synced or written over before hand. saying negative things

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• Solves a Big Problem: Continue to Copy After Error

  Saint RowanMarch 16, 2009

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />One big annoyance of the Finder is it just halts the moment it encounters an error while copying. If you have a CD/DVD with problems on it, like a clip art disk with thousands of files and only a few random ones have errors, FileSync will skip over the bad files and continue to copy the good ones. This saves hours of aggravation (especially when compared with starting and stopping a Finder copy, file by file, over and over again). And it's very easy to just select the exact folders you want.

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• useless

  November 22, 2007

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />quirky unfinished application that appears simple to use. takes ages to perform syncs as it processes one file at a time very slowly and pauses for no good reason between the file copies. to backup 1000 files would take around 3000 seconds. use it if you have nothing better to do.

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• Errors

  CowicideJune 6, 2007

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />Kind of wierd interdace where it has a checkmark for "select folders" or not, but doesn't seem to change anything in what it does? The thing stopped with an error. I can't rely on this... sigh... why can't someone make another CopyAgent like the one for OS 9 by Connectix before they were swallowed up by Microsloth? Crap...

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• FlieSync

  mattbarneyMay 28, 2007

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />Does what it says. No way of stopping a sync once it is started, or pausing to resume later. Progress bar does not show percentage of progress.

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