4 ms·

What is the deal with Google's syncing apps? "Backup and Sync" still misses features like Files On-Demand/Smart Sync available in OneDrive/Dropbox and deleting

• judge2020 6y ago
  They even have a ~~missing features~~ comparison page: https://support.google.com/drive/answer/7638428?hl=en https://support.google.com/drive/answer/7638428?hl=en
  • PascLeRasc 6y ago
    They've gotten way too enterprise, and I mean that in the worst way possible. Cloud files should always follow the "don't make me think" philosophy and a feature comparison matrix is the polar opposite of that. I guess it's time to look at Dropbox.
• duxup 6y ago
  I made the mistake of copying a node project I was working on.... holy cow does Backup and Sync choke on all those tiny JavaScript files. It started syncing and just couldn't stop. I had to delete or move all the Backup and Sync contents across my devices to get to 0 before it quit endlessly thrashing.
  • manigandham 6y ago
    Dropbox still has the best sync tech and is the only one that can handle deep and numerous file hierarchies. The rest have better pricing and integrations like email/productivity apps.
    • fireattack 6y ago
      Can confirm. I have to move all my node projects to Dropbox for this particular reason.
      • cerved 6y ago
        Are you putting `node_modules` in cloud storage?
        • fireattack 6y ago
          Yes. I knew you could use git and install modules on each end separately, but putting the whole thing in sync is just more convenient for some personal toy projects.
    • duxup 6y ago
      Thanks for the tip!
    • brnt 6y ago
      Actually, Resilio is not any slower than Dropbox. Syncthing is also faster thans any commercial offering I ever tried. Even Nextcloud sync is fast after an initial init.
      • manigandham 6y ago
        What exactly are you referring to? Upload speed? That's not the issue. Dropbox is the best at crawling a very complex directory structure with millions of files and diffing it efficiently with the server and other clients, and then transferring all the individual changes. Nothing else comes close. And their write-ups show the work involved: https://dropbox.tech/infrastructure/rewriting-the-heart-of-our-sync-engine https://dropbox.tech/infrastructure/rewriting-the-heart-of-o... https://dropbox.tech/infrastructure/-testing-our-new-sync-engine https://dropbox.tech/infrastructure/-testing-our-new-sync-en...
        • brnt 6y ago
  • fireattack 6y ago
    On my laptop (an old Ultrabook), GDrive Sync and Backup will literally take 30+ minutes on "process files" (while using 30% cpu and high disk I/O) every time I reboot. Also its UI (IIRC written in Python) often fails to load (give you a blank box).
• pottertheotter 6y ago
  I switched to Google Drive a while back because I really wanted better photo storage and Dropbox killed that off a while back, plus the Google One account is pretty nice. But I had no idea that Google would be so horrible at syncing files. It's really amazing how poor it is compared to Dropbox.
  • manigandham 6y ago
    Dropbox has spent a decade on solving a single problem and that shows in the product experience, even though it's more costly and has less extra features like email and productivity apps. Their blog posts explain why they're so much better: https://dropbox.tech/infrastructure/rewriting-the-heart-of-our-sync-engine https://dropbox.tech/infrastructure/rewriting-the-heart-of-o... https://dropbox.tech/infrastructure/-testing-our-new-sync-engine https://dropbox.tech/infrastructure/-testing-our-new-sync-en...
  • imagetic 6y ago
    I did the same, and then it really just wasn't a great tool. And backing out of a fully populated Google Drive was a complex process.
• benhurmarcel 6y ago
  I've been pretty satisfied with InSync.
• jhoechtl 6y ago
  Is there even an officially supported Linux client from Google?
  • uHuge 6y ago
    Nope. Wine?- have not tried. Nautilus has some integration, which is mostly not usable.