Syncing to SD instead of main memory

[meierthomas]

I'm looking for a solid solution to sync to my SD card reliably (instead of My Documents in main memory done by ActiveSync). This is more and more important given the pervasiveness a PDA can have in a lot of people's daily activities and when syncing to the main memory eats up your available memory fast you're left with little options other than to prioritize what makes it onto your PDA.

I'm puzzled by the fact that Microsoft itself doesn't seem to address this issue (unless I'm not aware of the solution) and secondly there doesn't seem to be a lot of third-party apps out there.

How do you sync files between the PC (various directories preferably) and the SD card?

Thomas

[Janak Parekh]

Yeah, ActiveSync does not have this functionality built in. I will on occasion pop out my SD card and use it directly with my computer -- that's good enough for what I do. If you're using ActiveSync 3.x, there's MightySync (http://www.mydocsunlimited.com/html/mightysync.html), which is slicker, but I suspect it won't work with AS4/WM5 (although I haven't tried).

--janak

[meierthomas]

Have tried MightySync (on AS3.x) and ran into some timeout difficulties. Following the support suggestions didn't really solve the problem so I gave it a miss...

[Nurhisham Hussein]

Try Mobsync (http://doosoft.seesaa.net/)

[Sven Johannsen]

I've always just put a little thought into what I 'sync'. The things I make frequent changes to on both the PC and PPC are things I keep in the Sync folder. I find that there are really not too many of them. Things that may change every couple of days, once a week, or are primarily reference documents don't need to be sync'd at all. They can just be copied when they do change.

[DanTheFlyingMan]

I personally don't sync anything, I just drag and drop directly into the desired directory.

[Nurhisham Hussein]

I personally don't sync anything, I just drag and drop directly into the desired directory.

At last count I had 1352 files in 62 folders in the My Documents folder on my SD Card - that makes it a little hard to do a drag and drop when there are two way changes involved. Mobsync is a heck of a time saver.

[Sven Johannsen]

At last count I had 1352 files in 62 folders in the My Documents folder on my SD Card.
And all of those are things you change on a daily basis? OK, it's still less convinient to recall what you changed so you can update the other platform, but a lot of folks don't think about keeping the dynamic stuff in main memory (that syncs) and the relatively static stuff on the flash card.

This isn't exactly directed at you BTW, just throwing out a thought. If we did have the option of syncing the SD, or CF, card BTW, there would be a lot of discussions about how freakin slow sync is, and how everything is all screwed up now because I changed cards and now I have a bunch of files on it that I don't need because they are on the other card too.

It would be nice if the flash slot were seen by the desktop OS as just another drive. Then you could use one of the many comparisan/sync options that exist for PCs (I use Beyond Compare). I don't find a need to sync my SD card(s) for the reason I've mentioned, but has anyone tried pairing Softtick Card Export II with something like Beyond Compare?

[Nurhisham Hussein]

And all of those are things you change on a daily basis? OK, it's still less convinient to recall what you changed so you can update the other platform, but a lot of folks don't think about keeping the dynamic stuff in main memory (that syncs) and the relatively static stuff on the flash card.


As a rule, these files are work files and reference docs, and they're in multiple folders and subfolders. Since I don't sync on a daily basis, it is a real pain trying to remember what's changed and where - much easier to just sync. They're collectively pretty large too, and since some of my daily use applications have a high RAM requirement, putting them in main memory is not an option.

Plus this folder is only one of four that I have on storage cards to sync the other three are my programs folder, ebooks folder and backups folder (Sprite and Cash Organiser) - these are more for security purposes than anything else.

[Gelo]

Hi meierthomas,

I also use Mobsync (http://doosoft.seesaa.net/). The new version (compatible with WM5) costs about $10 but seems to work quite well. The only thing that I had to tweak was that it has a delayed start as to not to intefere with ActiveSync and that it closes itself after the device been disconnected.

I also noticed that SOTI Pocket Controller (http://www.soti.net) has a Sync Manager that can sync to SD Card. As I already use MobSync I have not investigated it further but it should work quite well as Pocket Controller only starts when connection to PDA is established. The SOTI Pocket Controller is more expansive, $35, but you do get a lot of other features as well.

I know that both programs have trials so give them a go and see which one suits your needs better.

Oleg

[maikii]

Try Mobsync (http://doosoft.seesaa.net/)

Well, mobsync is a good solution for syncing files, but I don't think that is what the OP was mainly referring to.

What about contacts, notes, tasks, etc., etc.

I, for instance, have a lot of notes. They must take a lot of space in main memory.

On recently getting a WM5 device (T-Mobile MDA) (formerly using IPAQ 2210, WM2003), I was happy to see the option in Notes to save new Notes to storage card. Later I learned that option is meaningless because any notes saved to storage card will not be recognized by ActiveSync. ActiveSync will only sync to main memory.

When will they fix ActiveStync??

[Nurhisham Hussein]

Well, mobsync is a good solution for syncing files, but I don't think that is what the OP was mainly referring to.

I think file syncing is exactly what the OP was refering to:

I'm looking for a solid solution to sync to my SD card reliably (instead of My Documents in main memory done by ActiveSync).


What about contacts, notes, tasks, etc., etc.

Apart from notes, all those items are kept in hidden databases. They're not kept in files per se.

[DavidinCT]

I'm looking for a solid solution to sync to my SD card reliably (instead of My Documents in main memory done by ActiveSync). This is more and more important given the pervasiveness a PDA can have in a lot of people's daily activities and when syncing to the main memory eats up your available memory fast you're left with little options other than to prioritize what makes it onto your PDA.

I'm puzzled by the fact that Microsoft itself doesn't seem to address this issue (unless I'm not aware of the solution) and secondly there doesn't seem to be a lot of third-party apps out there.

How do you sync files between the PC (various directories preferably) and the SD card?

Thomas

Yep, I think it's dumb of M$ to not offer this, Why suck up the limited memory on your pda, when a 2gb CF card is under $50 in most places (gota look around though) ?? 4gb around $100.

A few things I read about WM5, is the more stuff in memory, the slower the OS. So, if you want to have 25mb of files you can access on your PDA all the time, you'll have a slow pda....kind of pointless in my eyes.

I am also looking for something. Something as streamlined like activesync but, not something that depends on it. I installed Mobsync, and it looked like a Windows 3.1 program, then I have to have another thing running in my taskbar in windows, no thank you.

And, all I want is activesync, that can put my documents on a CF or SD card, and sync everything like activesync as always done. Too bad Microsoft....

So, is there really a product like this ? Small, streamlined, does what activesync does (as good too), and syncs my docs to a card, and very simple...

This is something I yet to see...

[Nurhisham Hussein]

So, is there really a product like this ? Small, streamlined, does what activesync does (as good too), and syncs my docs to a card, and very simple...

But doesn't that describe Mobsync very well? Granted, it doesn't look like the latest and greatest, but give me function over form every time. Mobsync's memory footprint is pretty small (under 3MB on my laptop, peaking at just over 5MB) compared to Activesync (6MB in standby alone, over 8 MB if you include both wcescomm and WCESMgr - peaked at about 15MB during sync). I've set it to sync four folders on my device's cards - 390MB, 3550 plus files, typical day, I'll have about 20-30 file changes - and it usually finishes parsing file changes and syncing in under two minutes.

[DavidinCT]

So, is there really a product like this ? Small, streamlined, does what activesync does (as good too), and syncs my docs to a card, and very simple...

But doesn't that describe Mobsync very well? Granted, it doesn't look like the latest and greatest, but give me function over form every time. Mobsync's memory footprint is pretty small (under 3MB on my laptop, peaking at just over 5MB) compared to Activesync (6MB in standby alone, over 8 MB if you include both wcescomm and WCESMgr - peaked at about 15MB during sync). I've set it to sync four folders on my device's cards - 390MB, 3550 plus files, typical day, I'll have about 20-30 file changes - and it usually finishes parsing file changes and syncing in under two minutes.

I played around with it but, does not inpress me at all, not really what I am looking for.

I am looking for a direct replacement for Active sync that will sync all My Documents, Contacts, Notes, E-mail, etc and files to a SD/CF card in the same way activesync does (looks for changes and updates on files). I am looking to remove all this data off the PDA to keep memory where it is and use a big card for everything.

Is there a program that offers this besides some add on stuff ?

[Nurhisham Hussein]

Is there a program that offers this besides some add on stuff ?

There are alternatives for syncing (like Intellisync), but they use Activesync as the primary conduit as well. My experience has been that they're generally less stable than AS itself.

So, in short, the answer is no.