Patent ID: 8527660

Claim:
A method for synchronizing image data between or among multiple devices, each device storing a common image as a shared data file, the method comprising: receiving user input performing an image editing operation by an image editing application on a local device to modify an image digitally recorded as a shared data file that is stored on the local device, a copy of the shared data file stored on each of a plurality of devices each configured to modify the shared data file; in response to said user editing of the image, generating metadata describing the operation performed by the application causing the modification of the shared data file; comparing a size of the metadata describing the modification of the shared data file to a size of the shared data file; and responsive to the size of the shared data file exceeding the size of the metadata describing the modification of the shared data file, transmitting the metadata to a remote device, the metadata usable by a corresponding application on the remote device with a conflict resolution scheme to perform a corresponding operation to recreate the modification of the shared data file on the remote device.