Yes, Easy2Sync has some special terms, because some very special things can happen during the synchronization (both for file synch and e-mail synch).. Want to know what that means? Simply press F12 (which open the options), and on the first page wait with the mouse cursor over the synch case item you want to know more about. A tooltip with the explanation will appear.
Download Easy2Sync for Files/ Download Easy2Sync for Outlook.
On some Windows systems, USB devices (USB sticks, USB hard disks or whatever) like to change their drive letter. It’s their idea of having fun. Plug it in and it’s E:\, take it out, plug it in again and it’s F:\. Great. How can you synchronize your files with such a chameleon? Any path that you enter is bound to be wrong, sooner or later. So how can you synchronize with it?
Well, you can, with Easy2Sync.
First, make sure that the device has a unique name. You can edit that it its properties, if necessary.
At the task, where you’d normally enter the drive letter, you can enter the drive name, along with some special markers:
In General: %DRIVELETTER:MyDriveName%:\
The percent signs, the colon and the word “DRIVERLETTER” are pre-defined markers. You only have to fill in the name of your USB drive. If your USB stick had the name “MyUsbStick”:
%DRIVELETTER:MyUsbStick%:\
Or if you want to synchronize with a subdirectory:
%DRIVELETTER:MyUsbStick%:\MySubdirectory\
Try it:
When you’re synchronizing files, you may encounter the problem that the file can’t be synchronized because it’s locked.
And sometimes it’s not really important. If you’re backing up 100.000 files every day, why worry about one that is currently open? You can instruct Easy2Sync for Files not to report such copy problems. Have a look at the options:
You can simply check “No message box on copy errors”.
Try it and Download Easy2Sync for Files.
When you’re synchronizing files, you may encounter the problem that the file can’t be synchronized because it’s locked.
Now, there a different levels of file locking. Easy2Sync for Files automatically tries to make the best out of the situation and tries to copy the file whenever possible while detecting and avoiding certain risks in the involved Windows functions. But sometimes that’s not enough. Sometimes files just can’t be copied (and there may be a good reason for that).
So the only thing left is to close the application that’s locking the file. If you know which one that is, you can enter it into the options:
http://itsth.de/img/produkte/en/easy2sync/large/easy2sync_33.jpg
Before running the task, Easy2Sync will check if the application is running and ask you to close it, so that the synchronization can take place. This is useful for example for database applications.
Try it: Download Easy2Sync for Files
Example 1: Only office documents should get synchronized.
Positive list for files:
*.xls
*.doc
*.ppt
Example 2: Backup files should not get synchronized.
Negativliste for files:
*.bak
*.backup
Copy of *
Example 3: Backup folders should not get synchronized.
Negative list for directories:
Backup8
Example 4: The backup folder in the logfile directory should not get synchronized.
Negative list for directories:
\logs\backup
Example 5: Only files in the root directory and in the folders “src” and “res” should get synchronized. These folders are at top level.
Positive list for folders:
\src
\res
Example 5: Only files in the root directory and in the folders “src” and “res” (and their subfolders) should get synchronized. These folders are at top level.
Positive list for folders:
\src
\src\*
\res
\res\*
Example 7: Only files in the subfolders “src” and “res” should get synchronized. Several directories with these names can exist in the directory tree:
Positive list for files: (yes, files)
\*\src\*
\*\res\*
Try it: Download Easy2Sync for Files
Changing the help system is a big thing, and, well, we missed one thing in the last release. The help was complete, but the F1 hotkey didn’t bring up the right context page for THAT dialog. It’s fixed now, you can find the update here:
A new version of Easy2Sync for Files is out. Version 1.20 brings some useful new details:
Try the new version here: Download.
Easy2Sync for Files can exclude files from synchronization depending on positive and negative lists. These lists are very powerful, but if you don’t know how to handle them, you can also make powerful mistakes.
For each directory and each file Easy2Sync, can check rules to see if this directory or file should be synchronized. Despite their name, negative lists are less restrictive and most of the time a better choice.
A typical mistake is to expect intelligence from the software when applying your rules (especially if you’re using positive lists). Easy2Sync exactly follows your rules but it can’t ‘understand’ them.
Now what does that mean?
Often, you’ll man to synchronize a certain directory. This is normally configured corrected. But your rules may disallow the synchronization of the directory above. Result: Easy2Sync encounters the directory above and notices that the directory above may not be synchronized according to the rules. And thus it ignores the entire sub-tree, including the subdirectory for which you specified special rules.
At first Easy2Sync was developed just to synchronize. Now you can also just copy or overwrite data.
The difference?
When synchronising, both computers have the same rights. Changes on one computer will be transferred to the other. In a sub-dialog of the first page of the task properties you can choose other modes.
In the copy mode, one computer is the slave (the target computer) and only receives the changes (of the source computer). If you change something on the target computer, Easy2Sync will undo this and delete your changes. Changes on the source computer however, will be copied to the target computer.
Overwriting is the same as copying, with one difference: In the overwrite mode Easy2sync will never ever delete any files. Even if you delete a file on the source computer, it will not be deleted on the target computer.
Moving is also quite similar to copying. With one difference: The file will be deleted from the source PC after copying it to the target PC. You can choose whether you want to move both files and directories or move only files and keep the directory structure on the source PC.
To flatten the structure means that the files aren’t simply copied from the source to the target PC, but the directory information will be lost. No matter in which subdirectory of the source PC the file was stored, but will be copied directly into the target directory (and not in any subdirectory). Just like a Copying mode this task type always works in the specified direction. If several files with the same name exist in different source directories, the newest one will win the conflict in the long run (maybe only after several synchronizations).
Want to try? Download.
Today’s the shortest tip ever: Did you now you can change the size of Easy2Sync’s main window? Simply drag the border or click on the maximize button. (This works with Easy2Sync for Files and Easy2Sync for Outlook.)
If you have many tasks, it’s time to get organized. If you haven’t already done so. Use the task collections to group several synchronization tasks into one task collection. And then enable the filter “Don’t show elements of task groups” in the view menu. And suddenly your file / e-mail synch became a lot easier. You’re seeing much less tasks now (don’t worry, they’re still there), but you can run all of them in one go with the task collection.
The same applies to deactivated tasks. You can deactivate a synch if you currently don’t need it any more, but still don’t want to delete it. So, simply deactivate the synchronization tasks and use the menu item in the view menu to hide tasks like these:
In Easy2Sync (for Files and for Outlook) you store the data for the syncs in “tasks”. If you have many tasks, then may need some tricks to organize them. The tabs are a great help here. They’re a row of texts and images just above the task list:
Depending on the selected tab, you’ll only see the tasks, that match the tab’s criteria.
* All: Well, just all tasks
* Favorites: All tasks that have been synchronized in the last 7
days, but not today.
* Today / Not today: Only tasks that (haven’t) been synchronized
today
* Not in sync: Tasks where the last sync wasn’t successful
* Icons: They symbolize a task type (copy, sync, overwrite, …. Only
tasks with this type are shown
These view filters will help to choose the right synchronization task for your e-mails, contacts, etc. or files. Want to see it live? Try the Freeware Edition of Easy2Sync for Files or Easy2Sync for Outlook.
Buzz off! That’s what some people may thing if Easy2Sync for Files is asking them questions. Because by default, the program asks questions in all cases that may be important to the user.
But help is just a keystroke away. If you don’t want these questions, simply press F12. Here are the options and here you can tweak and configure all the questions and dialogs:
Try it and synchronize your files!
Easy2Sync for Files can handle LOTS of data. And some people have created LOTS of tasks to handle their data. Did you know that you can put many tasks into a “task summary”. Click on the “task” menu to see it. Task summaries have several advantages:
By the way: You can do the same with Easy2Sync for Outlook.
Let’s use a less abstract example. You might specify the following configuration:
Task type: Copy 1 to 2
Base directory1: C:\MyData\
Base directory2: X:\MyBackup%1-5%\
When synchronizing the first time, X:\MyBackup1 will be used. When synchronizing the second time X:\MyBackup2 and so on. When the sixth synchronization is performed, Easy2Sync uses the first directory again.
Try it now with the Freeware Edition of Easy2Sync for Files.
