alternative to offline files ?

Forums › IT Pro and developers › alternative to offline files ?

1101

3122 posts

Uber Geek

#185319 18-Nov-2015 11:19

Hi there

Offline files is a bit too unreliable, on Win8 & Win10
Just 1 conflict can be enough to put it into offline mode & the user wont notice untill they realize they cant see
new files on the server or 'server PC' . Also, 'sync confilcts' can cause multiple files to not sync up at all.
On WIn10 it wont sync on shutdown: thats when a sync is most needed for a laptop that will be taken out of office.

Any good alternatives, that just work, reliably. ?

For a PC/laptop pair I was considering dropbox, instead of offline files. The downsides with these cloud
sync solutions are you MUST use their folder name (eg C:\..blah...\dropbox) and of course sync wont be as fast.

At the moment Im using a robocopy on the PC/laptop pair, but thats setup as a copy(one direction) not a true sync.
And I couldnt schedule that to run on shutdown either, just on startup or run manually.
The robocopy is only a temp solution untill I find something workable.

Dynamic

3866 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1430434 18-Nov-2015 15:04

I've not seen a third party utility that fixes what ails Offline Files. Offline Files is a great idea with poor execution IMHO.

Your Robocopy solution is not a terrible one. Group Policy can force a logoff script to run as well so you might get a second Robocopy run done at logoff time with this. You could potentially have the robocopy to the local Dropbox folder for replication off site but this doubles the disk space used. Exclude certain extensions to prevent backup of media files.

Other than that a backup solution installed on the laptops is another option, and have the laptops back up to a server location when they are in the office. This would be done on a scheduled basis.

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams

Referral links to services I use, really like, and may be rewarded if you sign up:
PocketSmith for budgeting and personal finance management. A great Kiwi company.

nathan

5695 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1430450 18-Nov-2015 15:29

Work Folders?

roobarb

653 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#1430451 18-Nov-2015 15:42

Source Control ( Subversion, GIT etc ).

1101

3122 posts

Uber Geek

#1430490 18-Nov-2015 16:25

nathan: Work Folders?

yes.
One site is 2 PC's with multiple laptops accessing shared folder on the main PC. Laptops would map the share & enable 'offline files' so they
can access those files offsite .
This is the one I need a better solution for

other site is SBS2008 based . In general offline files have been a disaster there , so bad they no longer want to use them.
Several workstations had sync issues that would cause the shared folder to go 'offline' and new docs from that PC would not be synced up to the servers share, they would just sit in that workstations offline cache (as it went offline, due to even just 1 sync issue).
Not so much an issue here, as they decided not to use offline files .

darylblake

1162 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1430588 18-Nov-2015 19:33

+1 to GIT
It just works once you know how to use it plus it manages older versions who changed them what they changed and when. It would probably be in effective for mammoth size files but if you are more concerned about documents and images and text files then use git. You can set up hooks or cronjobs/Windows tasks to run syncing and you can easily exclude files from syncing. It also uses compression

sidefx

3711 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1430612 18-Nov-2015 19:54

1101:
nathan: Work Folders?

yes.

I think he meant this:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-nz/library/dn265974.aspx
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-nz/windows-8/work-folders-faq

not just "folders from work", which I think you read it as? :)

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." | Octopus Energy | Sharesies
- Richard Feynman

raytaylor

4014 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1432800 22-Nov-2015 18:17

We have a client with 5 staff that uses btsync

They have a 100gb directory of all the project files on their office workgroup server.

All work is done on laptops using the local SSD drive, and whenever they save it is uploaded to the server via the LAN or internet almost instantly.

It is highly unlikely that a file needs to be opened consecutively or by two people at once so they find it works well.

Ray Taylor

There is no place like localhost

Spreadsheet for Comparing Electricity Plans Here

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

1101

3122 posts

Uber Geek

#1433190 23-Nov-2015 11:44

http://vxlabs.com/2015/03/29/notes-testing-7-dropbox-alternatives/

This makes for interesting (scary) reading. The last thing I need is the sync program mass deleting current files or over-writing the newest files
Especially given the owner is slack in doing regular backups

CitizenErased

207 posts

Master Geek

#1444579 9-Dec-2015 15:32

We have a client who used to use offline files in a big way, with the inherent issues of sync conflicts, etc. Now they're using a product called Soonr and apart from a couple of minor bugs that are still being worked out, it's been great.