Logos and Live Sync

Nathan Parker · July 2009

OK, I've been doing some tests with Live Mesh, and I"m having trouble getting it to work. However, Live Sync is working great and syncing between the two machines perfectly. However, I have one question to make sure I don't run into a problem in the future. According to Phil's post on the blog, Live Sync doesn't protect data:

Live Sync errs on the side of protecting your data, so when duplicates are found, it will keep both by renaming one of them to indicate its source. To avoid having lots of duplicates to clean up, it’s best to start with identical data or with data only on one machine.

My question is, what happens if I make a change to a file on one side? For example, update a resource or add entries to a sermon file? WIll it update the changes to the files during the sync, or will it create a duplicate file?

I'm just wanting to ensure I don't make things worse when I sync.

Thanks!

Aeolus Jacobus · July 2009

For the ignorant (me) is this different than Live Mesh you spoke of in another thread?

Nathan Parker · July 2009

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/3746#Comment_3746

Aeolus Jacobus said:
For the ignorant (me) is this different than Live Mesh you spoke of in another thread?

Yes, they are different. Live Mesh is a sync program that also double as a cloud storage space if what you're syncing is under 5GB (aka, you get Sync+5GB of Cloud Space). Live Sync just syncs. I've heard Live Mesh alerts you when there's a file discrepancy, I've heard Live Sync doesn't. So I'm wanting to make sure if I use Live Sync and change/update a file, it will replace the file instead of creating another copy, forcing me to weed out the duplicates. I wanted to use Live Mesh, but I can't get it to work. So I'm trying Live Sync, which works, but I'm wanting to ensure that I don't run into this issue.

Thanks!

Matthew C Jones · July 2009

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/3751#Comment_3751

I really appreciate all the posts about the technical side of running Logos. I have learned a lot from JimDean, Donovan, Nathan Parker (and quite a few others.) I have not kept up with the tech side of things these last few years. Having so many give their input and advise saves me a bunch of time. Thank you all for sharing what you are up to. You are putting into practice the solutions I am pondering.

Nathan Parker · July 2009

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/3752#Comment_3752

Matthew C Jones said:

I really appreciate all the posts about the technical side of running Logos. I have learned a lot from JimDean, Donovan, Nathan Parker (and quite a few others.) I have not kept up with the tech side of things these last few years. Having so many give their input and advise saves me a bunch of time. Thak you all for sharing what you are up to. You are putting into practice the solutions I am pondering.

Glad you're learning a lot from all of our tech tinkering! We'll do our best to keep trying new solutions so you'll be able to get the most out of Libronix.

Dave Hooton · July 2009

Nathan Parker said:
My question is, what happens if I make a change to a file on one side? For example, update a resource or add entries to a sermon file?
WIll it update the changes to the files during the sync, or will it create a duplicate file?

In theory, you should have no concern for changing a file on one side only before sync'ing, but spurious duplicates do happen e.g.
"I watched the duplication process in action:
*PC2 will download a file from PC1
*File will be renamed on PC2
*PC2 will send the "new" renamed file to PC1

After watching a few files being duplicated, I shut down Sync on both PC's.
Sync should be called Duplicator...". Dec 08.

An expert opinion was:
"When the libraries were created, Live Sync
noticed that you have files with the same filenames but different contents,
and simply created copies of those to make sure you don't loose data. Now
that shared folders are set up, Live Sync will track changes to those files
so you don't need to worry about duplicates (for the most part) once you
clean it up. Of course - you'll still get duplicates if you edit the same
file on two machines while Live Sync is offline - but assuming you have it
running and are working on one computer at a time - you won't get duplicates." Dec 08

However:
"when my laptop remains unconnected for a couple weeks (because turned off and not used), I then get
numerous duplicates as if there had been intervening modifications on the
laptop even though it was not used at all. Seems to have something to do
with how long it was disconnected." Feb 09.

Nathan Parker · July 2009

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/3758#Comment_3758

Thanks for the info Dave! That puts my mind to ease a bit, but I'll still keep an eye on things "just in case".

Phil Gons (Logos) · July 2009

Nathan, my experience has been that Live Sync will work fine after you have done your initial sync. Once you have the same files on both machines (and have cleaned up any of the duplicates), you should generally be in good shape.

Two things you need to watch out for:

Not having both computers on at the same time so that you make different edits to the same file on both machines.
Not closing a file on one machine and then trying to edit the same file on another machine.

Both of these scenarios will results in duplicates being created.

Nathan Parker · July 2009

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/3762#Comment_3762

Phil Gons said:

Nathan, my experience has been that Live Sync will work fine after you have done your initial sync. Once you have the same files on both machines (and have cleaned up any of the duplicates), you should generally be in good shape.

Two things you need to watch out for:

Not having both computers on at the same time so that you make different edits to the same file on both machines.

Not closing a file on one machine and then trying to edit the same file on another machine.

Both of these scenarios will results in duplicates being created.

Thanks for the info Phil! I'll make sure I avoid those two things so as not to create any duplicates. I've synced both my User Files folder and my Resources folder and everything's working well! This is going to save me loads of time.

Now I'm getting a hankering to sync my iPhoto, iTunes, and other libraries between respective PC's and Macs since the Live Sync software is Universal. This is just too easy to setup and sync.

Nathan Parker · July 2009

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/3763#Comment_3763

I have another question about Live Sync. What happens when I DELETE a file? Will it delete the files across the board during syncing, pull a copy of it from one machine and download it back to the other machines?

Thanks!

Dave Hooton · July 2009

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/3860#Comment_3860

Nathan Parker said:
I have another question about Live Sync. What happens when I DELETE a file?

That Q and your other issues is why I avoid Sync programs unless I can tailor exactly what happens e.g. you will likely get a copy of the file from the other machine, completely defeating your intention! Then you end up manually deleting the file from all machines.

Nathan Parker · July 2009

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/3866#Comment_3866

Dave Hooton said:

Nathan Parker said:
I have another question about Live Sync. What happens when I DELETE a file?

That Q and your other issues is why I avoid Sync programs unless I can tailor exactly what happens e.g. you will likely get a copy of the file from the other machine, completely defeating your intention! Then you end up manually deleting the file from all machines.

Thanks for the heads up Dave! I'll keep a watch on things.

Don Awalt · July 2009

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/3869#Comment_3869

This answer was not correct on deleting files.

LiveSync allows you to configure computers to either automatically synchronize, as changes are made, or to do it manually. Second, the default behavior is that if a file is deleted on one computer, it will delete on all - after all, you have said you want to keep the computers SYNCHRONIZED, and you just deleted a file on one of them - so Live Sync does the same on the rest.

However, you can change this default behavior to restore a deleted file if you wish. And, it is probably safer until you understand how it works, if you set it to manual sync. Albeit the risk there is you forget to sync and then need a file on another computer.

Like everything, it's worth playing with a new technology a bit before you inetgrate it competely into your work habits. You will learn how it works. Microsoft is integrating its own products into the use of LiveSync, so for example in the Photo viewer program it will automatically sync files you have edited and update other computers (if you have said you want this done of course <g>).

My concern is the number of Libronix books I have, as I keep the ones I have not purchased on my computer as well. But Live Sync really has a lot of wonderful capabilities, and I feel pretty confident saying that any typical usage scenario a Libronix customer would have, LiveSync easily supports.

Nathan Parker · July 2009

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/3877#Comment_3877

DonAwalt said:

This answer was not correct on deleting files.

LiveSync allows you to configure computers to either automatically synchronize, as changes are made, or to do it manually. Second, the default behavior is that if a file is deleted on one computer, it will delete on all - after all, you have said you want to keep the computers SYNCHRONIZED, and you just deleted a file on one of them - so Live Sync does the same on the rest.

However, you can change this default behavior to restore a deleted file if you wish. And, it is probably safer until you understand how it works, if you set it to manual sync. Albeit the risk there is you forget to sync and then need a file on another computer.

Like everything, it's worth playing with a new technology a bit before you inetgrate it competely into your work habits. You will learn how it works. Microsoft is integrating its own products into the use of LiveSync, so for example in the Photo viewer program it will automatically sync files you have edited and update other computers (if you have said you want this done of course <g>).

My concern is the number of Libronix books I have, as I keep the ones I have not purchased on my computer as well. But Live Sync really has a lot of wonderful capabilities, and I feel pretty confident saying that any typical usage scenario a Libronix customer would have, LiveSync easily supports.

Thanks for the info. Good to know!

Dave Hooton · July 2009

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/3877#Comment_3877

DonAwalt said:

This answer was not correct on deleting files.

...

My concern is the number of Libronix books I have, as I keep the ones I have not purchased on my computer as well. But Live Sync really has a lot of wonderful capabilities, and I feel pretty confident saying that any typical usage scenario a Libronix customer would have, LiveSync easily supports.

My answer was speculation, as I got the impression that it could not be configured! I am glad that it is capable enough for Libronix scenarios, but how is it configured?

Logos and Live Sync

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