File Sync between PC and Laptop

[Naveen Anand]

Hello,
I'm looking for an open source tool to sync files and folders between my PC and laptop without using a cloud storage. I'm wondering if anyone knows of a tool that is free and works in real-time, or syncs when both devices are turned on under the same Wi-Fi network and the sync happens automatically. I would really appreciate any recommendations or advice. Thank you very much in advance.

[TylerD321]

Closest thing that comes to my mind is OneDrive and that’s neither free nor open source. However, I’m fairly certain you can set it up to back up as soon as you gain internet connection so that’s something.

[DrMacintosh]

Just use an SMB file server? If you don't intend to access these files outside your home network this will keep the files used between any number of connected computers up to date. This requires a router with a USB port or using a dedicated PC/Raspberry Pi for this. This is a low cost solution but is not necessarily open source.

 

Since you don't want to use the Cloud, to gain access to your files outside of your home network is going to require you building a small file server that you personally operate and configuring a secure VPN into your home network, but this is not free. Or you could get a NAS with remote access features, but those are neither free nor open source.

 

Or you could just use a cloud sync provider like OneDrive. I would not touch Google Drive with a 10ft pole as it scans literally everything you upload to it. For my personal files I use iCloud Drive with advanced data protection turned on so all my files are encrypted on Apples servers and only I have the key. That way, even if Apple or any other entity were to scan my files, they would only see encrypted files.

[Naveen Anand]

16 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Just use an SMB file server? If you don't intend to access these files outside your home network this will keep the files used between any number of computers up to date. This requires a router with a USB port or using a dedicated PC/Raspberry Pi for this. This is a low cost solution but is not necessarily open source.

 

Since you don't want to use the Cloud, to gain access to your files outside of your home network is going to require you building a small file server that you personally operate and configuring a secure VPN into your home network, but this is not free. Or you could get a NAS with remote access features, but those are neither free nor open source.

 

Or you could just use a cloud sync provider like OneDrive. I would not touch Google Drive with a 10ft pole as it scans literally everything you upload to it. For my personal files I use iCloud Drive with advanced data protection turned on so all my files are encrypted on Apples servers and only I have the key. That way, even if Apple or any other entity were to scan my files, they would only see encrypted files.

the key reason for the sync of data between PC and Laptop is that, I'm more of a PC person, but when I'm like out of my home, I would take the Laptop with me, and I hate like copy pasting the files, I would prefer like a SyncToy but as far as I know it works for hard-drives and USB drives, I can wait for a couple of minutes for the sync to complete and take the laptop away from home and hopefully I have the data as I have on PC updated

[OhYou_]

31 minutes ago, Naveen Anand said:

a tool that is free and works in real-time

rsync

32 minutes ago, Naveen Anand said:

syncs when both devices are turned on under the same Wi-Fi network and the sync happens automatically

cron job, few lines of bash

32 minutes ago, Naveen Anand said:

an open source tool

open source because you support open source software or just because it is free? There are many closed source freeware solutions available. 

[DrMacintosh]

9 minutes ago, Naveen Anand said:

I would take the Laptop with me, and I hate like copy pasting the files, I would prefer like a SyncToy but as far as I know it works for hard-drives and USB drives, I can wait for a couple of minutes for the sync to complete and take the laptop away from home and hopefully I have the data as I have on PC updated

You need a cloud based sync client to get an acceptable level of functionality for you, and unfortunately nobody does it better than Microsoft and nobody does it as securely as Apple (with Advanced Data Protection enabled). The only viable alternative is buying a NAS with remote access functionality or building sad NAS and configuring remote access manually. 

 

Actually just looking at Microsofts pricing it looks like you cannot simply purchase large amounts of OneDrive Storage, you must sign up for Microsoft 365 which costs $70/y for just 1 TB of cloud storage.

 

With iCloud Drive, you can get 2TB of storage for $10/m and access your files from any PC you want by Downloading the iCloud for Windows. Unfortunately enabling Advanced Data Protection requires an iPhone or other iOS device running the latest OS.

[Naveen Anand]

4 minutes ago, OhYou_ said:

rsync

cron job, few lines of bash

open source because you support open source software or just because it is free? There are many closed source freeware solutions available. 

I will have a look at rsync,
and if any closed source freeware solutions available for my use case, I would love to hear about them!

[Naveen Anand]

5 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

You need a cloud based sync client to get an acceptable level of functionality for you, and unfortunately nobody does it better than Microsoft and nobody does it as securely as Apple (with Advanced Data Protection enabled). The only viable alternative is buying a NAS with remote access functionality or building sad NAS and configuring remote access manually. 

 

Actually just looking at Microsofts pricing it looks like you cannot simply purchase large amounts of OneDrive Storage, you must sign up for Microsoft 365 which costs $70/y for just 1 TB of cloud storage.

 

With iCloud Drive, you can get 2TB of storage for $10/m and access your files from any PC you want by Downloading the iCloud for Windows. Unfortunately enabling Advanced Data Protection requires an iPhone or other iOS device running the latest OS.

my use case doesn't need to be a cloud based, lets say, I'm out of my home for like 2 days, all I wanted is any way to automatically sync files and folders between my PC and Laptop and I can take the Laptop and continue working on it, and when I'm back home after couple of days, I would lie someway to sync the data from Laptop to PC and I continue working on PC where I left on the Laptop, it need not be a cloud based or real-time solution, all I wanted is to sync the data between Laptop and PC for the updated files and directories with a press of a button may be

[LogicalDrm]

If desktop and laptop are your only devices to sync, then setting up network share would probably be easiest option. But if you need to add mobile devices and/or using ethernet to sync, thats where you would need cloud solutions.

 

That said, I used Resilion Sync for awhile, until I noted that for my needs it is much easier to just use USB connection or external HDDs when needed.

Edited May 21, 2023 by LogicalDrm