[General Topics] Newsminator:
I am looking for a program which syncs my a folder on my PC, including all files and subfolders, with a folder on my PDA's memory card.

I have searched the web and there are 2 programs .. MobSync (which doesn't work on Windows Mobile 5, or at least it doesn't work on my machine) and ACiD Sync which looks promising but lacks many features.

Bellow is what I have written in the ACiD Sync author's forum.

Do you know of any good program which syncs folders with lots of files between the PDA and the PC?

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Until 2006 I had a Windows Mobile 2003 SE PDA, and there was a free program called MobSync which worked perfectly for this.

I used to sync my "N:\Work Documents" (where N: is a network drive) folder with my Storage Card\Work Documents folder on the PDA.

The folder is my main document folder and contains over 1200 files. The total size of the folders is around 700 MB.

The fact that I could sync all my documents, images, etc has enhanced the usefulness of my PDA immensely.

Then my PDA broke and I purchased a Windows Mobile 5 PDA. Surprise! MobSync stopped working for some reason. Sad It seems that the new ActiveSync doesn't contain the necessary functions.

So.. I have no solution for synchronizing My Documents, and I just found ACiD Sync.

Unfortunately, altough document synchronization is immensely and tremendously useful, I can't use ACiD Sync.

Why is that? What features are a MUST HAVE for ACiD Sync?

1. The synched folders should be configurable, both on the PC and on the PDA.

This is extremely important. Without this features, I can't use the program - to me it is totally useless.

2. I should be able to define exceptions - for example:

- don't sync .RAR and .ZIP files

- don't sync .BMP files which are over 200 KB in size

- don't sync subfolder with a certain name

3. In case files are deleted on the PC or PDA, there should be safety features for preserving the files in case of a mistake.

Using my old PDA with MobSync, I came across this situation: somehow the SD card in the PDA came off for a bit, it was no longer connected because it was not inserted completely. MobSync has seen this as "Hey! The folder PDA\Storage Card\Work Documents is empty! This means the user has deleted the files! Let's mirror this action to the PC!" ... and then MobSync proceeded and ERASED ALL MY DOCUMENTS!

Good thing I had a backup! The lesson I learned is that synchronization can be dangerous if some safety features are missing.

Here are some safety features I suggest for ACiD Sync:

- When a file is deleted on one side (for example on the PC), then don't delete the file on the other side (for example on the PDA). Just move it to a "Deleted files" folder. Offer a way to manage this "Deleted files" folder - for example specify that it can't be over 200 MB in size.

For example:

On the PDA, I delete \Storage Card\Work Documents\Old Reports\1.doc

When syncing, ACiD Sync should detect this. So there's a document on the PC called

N:\Work Documents\Old Reports\1.doc

This should be moved to:

N:\Deleted files\Old Reports\1.doc

- If a large number of files on the PC or on the PDA have been deleted, then show the user the list of deleted files, and ask the user if it's ok to delete the files on the other side! Do nothing until the user responds!

- What happens if the card is removed from the PDA, and another card is inserted, and the sync performed? ACiD Sync should detect this situation and NOT interpret it as in "Hey! All the files have been deleted on the PDA ... so let's delete them on the PC, too!"

4. In case of conflict (file XYZ.DOC has been edited on both the PC and the PDA), there should be a better way to solve conflicts than "replace file on PC with the file on the PDA" or the reverse.

For example, ACiD Sync chould preserve both versions of the file, with names such as:

XYZ - modified on the PC.doc

XYZ - modified on the PDA.doc

5. Make sure you offer the option NOT to convert the synced files. This is important - I want my documents to be in .DOC format and not be converted to the PDA format.

Or perhaps I have some .MP3 files that I want to sync to the PDA without converting.

6. Many programs for PDAs make the assumption of running with very limited resources. Because of this, they don't offer options should as syncing big files, etc. I think this helps users with limited resources, but is a mistake because it hurts users with more resources, who want to do more.

I am a business user. My SD card is 2 GB in size, and I will soon replace it with a 4 GB card. Why? Because I can use the extra space, it's useful to me, and because I can afford it.

So.. please take into account the needs of users with limited resources.. but also the needs of users for whom the PDA is very important, and are willing to invest into a powerful PDA with lots of storage space, VGA screen, direct 3G connection, fast WiFi, etc.

Thank you for reading this far!