[Now Implemented!] Add Selective Sync Support On All Platforms

[wildstoats]

As mentioned in this thread selective syncing isn't available on Linux:

http://forum.bittorrent.com/topic/36243-how-to-disable-sync-all-aka-enable-selective-sync/

 

In my opinion selective sync is one of the killer features of btsync.  Getting this on Linux would be great.  Keep up the great work.

[gnrc]

I would love to see this too, kind of the feature for me to be honest.

[shitworth]

I completely agree. It's annoying that I've paid for a Pro license and can't do this. It really should state such limitations before you buy.

[dgalt]

Same here. I partly moved away from cloud services (had been using OneDrive) because of the lack of support on Linux. Would have been nice to know that this feature wasn't available, as it's pretty essential for me.

[Helen]

Disabling "Sync all" is not available on Linux OS due to poor possibility to integrate with file system. Other peculiarities of Linux are here

[dgalt]

i'm a bit confused about this response. i currently have folders set on on my linux machine so that the whole folder syncs. what's requested is the ability to be able to grab files from a folder that is not currently being synced - i.e. the same functionality that is available on windows / osx for a folder that isn't current set up for "sync all"

[GreatMarko]

@dgalt, I think what Helen means is that the ability to "switch off" Sync All is not available on Linux

[Helen]

@dgalt,

 

Sorry, yeah, I meant that option Sync all ON/OFF is not available on Linux. Sorry, Corrected my reply

[shitworth]

Any chance of an estimate as to when Sync n Demand might be available on Linux? We are in the scientific computing business so there is no way we would ever run our simulations on anything else. We need to decide whether to persist with an incredibly long and confusing list of folders and settings in BTSync or cut our losses and switch to another, more OS agnostic method of sync.

[Helen]

I'm not sure it'll be done in the near future, sorry

[Casper042]

I'm looking to publish an archive of files for a group of people.

Its HIGHLY unlikely that they will all want the entire 100GB archive.

 

I would love to see Partial or Selective Sync support added natively to the Windows/Linux clients so that people can add the Archive as a partner and then pick which items or folders they wish to receive a copy of.

 

Hope that made sense, thanks

[Borph]

+1 for a selective sync under Linux.

The ".bts" syncing on demand is not the selective sync of Dropbox!

[kos13]

How do you see Selective Sync implemented on Linux? Keeping in mind that we can't support all GUI flavors like KDE, GNOME etc.

[Borph]

@kos13: I would implement it in the GUI, but as first step even easier, in a file like the IgnoreList, say 'WhiteList'?

Imagine you have a number of subfolders in your synced folder, e.g. I have a folder with photos:

 

photos

 -2013

 -2014

 -2015

 

And on one device you just have the file 'WhiteList' in 'photos/.sync' configured with

 

2015

 

and it would just sync that subfolder of it.

[nunu]

Hi,

i would like to know if it is plan to have selective sync on "linux" builds ? (and NAS).

As it's works on android, i guess it is possible to have this feature on linux build.

 

regards

 

 

[nunu]

Hi,

i would like to know if it's plan to have selective sync on linux build.

 

In my case i have a seedbox with limited HDD space, and i can't synchronise all of dirs for a share.

I would like to make selective dir ...

 

 

regards

nunu

[nunu]

The way it could be implemented : like android.

A browser could be integrate to the web interface : you click on the share folder and enter in subs dir etc...  and you can select the directory you want to sync or unsync.

 

regards

[mintwurm]

So far I've been using the free version, which is a rather limited experience. Now I would like to buy pro.

Let's face it: The reason for pro is selective sync. Better management of folder rights and the common certificate for "my devices" are very convenient, but I could do without them.

I've been using an external usb drive for sync. The stick is connected to sync on my laptop. Like a portable network storage which is then synced with all the devices. In the background there is a raspi 2 with the exact same stick to keep the cloud running when the laptop is switched off.

This setup is inconvenient. I have to shutdown sync before removing the stick. Storage space is limited. But the notebook runs on an ssd, no room for my cloud data.

Now I've finally run out of space. The stick is full and sync has worked beautifully so far. I would like to expand my network. Obviously the way to go is a personal pro license. I would hook the pi up to an external hdd and use selective sync on the notebook to keep the ssd from overflowing.

Unfortunately there is no selective sync on Linux.

I'm shocked.

You really don't make this clear. Instead there are slogans like "runs on all platforms" and the promise of selective sync with pro.

I actually found this limitation in a forum thread, not on your help pages. There is no mention of linux limitations anywhere on the pro information page !

Is there any way to get my setup working ?

Please don't advise me to split everything into small folders. I would like to have one folder for documents, pictures, music, movies and work each.

And I won't install windows.

I've collected some links :

Comparison of 2.2 vs 1.4 http://help.getsync.com/customer/en/portal/articles/1902649-sync-2-2-as-compared-to-sync-1-4

Promised three sync modes, no mention of linux restrictions.

Comparison of free vs pro http://help.getsync.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2117793-compare-sync-free-and-sync-pro-ver-2-2-

Promised selective sync, no mention of linux restrictions.

Buy it https://www.getsync.com/intl/de/buy/pricing

Same as above.

This is a huge disappointment. How are we even supposed to use linux without selective sync. I just don't have the space for all that data on my laptop.

And frankly, I think that your website is deceptive. You should add asterisks to every mention of selective sync and say NOT ON LINUX.

[mintwurm]

WHAT ?

No selective sync on Linux ?

You never say this on the website. There's platform independent, runs everywhere and buy pro for selective sync everywhere. But nowhere you clarify that Linux is unsupported.

How would I like to see this implemented ?

Well a better web gui would be great. You could click on a folder and see the file structure in the web gui with annotations for local and remote copies and status bars for sync progress.

A hierarchy for all folders and files. Light gray for remote copy, normal color for local copy. Light gray with progressbar for sync in progress. Context menu for options.

If you don't want to expand the web gui, I would like to see a unified app for windows and linux, maybe Qt ?

If you don't plan to do either in the near future, at least a console utility would be good.

sync ls

sync cd

sync get

sync remove //remote

rm // local

I still can't believe this is true. I was about to buy pro (see my other thread with the last question regarding licensing) but now I wonder why,

Honestly, selective sync is the killer feature, the rest is just comfort.

How could you release version 2.2 without basic functionality on a major platform.

Why don't you clarify this on the website.

I feel deceived.

Disabling "Sync all" is not available on Linux OS due to poor possibility to integrate with file system. Other peculiarities of Linux are here

What do you mean by that ?

Surely Linux is more open than windows ?

It is definitely more open than Mac OS !

And certainly more deceloper friendly.

I'm sorry but fhis seems like an excuse. Instead of the dedicated windows app, you should have created a proper web gui

[cjsheets]

I understand why this feature is not available on Linux at the moment and agree with above commenters that a "whitelist" or even "blacklist" configuration file for selective sync doesn't seem prohibitively complex in the future.

 

I would also reiterate other posters feelings of annoyance that this limitation was not prominently displayed (is it displayed anywhere? I didn't know prior to finding this thread). I spent valuable time troubleshooting what I thought was an issue with my WebUI (turns out it's a limitation). I understand limitations and appreciate your efforts but communication should not be the point of failure.

Edited September 29, 2015 by cjsheets

[mintwurm]

I've long considered the pros and cons of sync and finally decided to buy pro.

Your company has gained my trust with the 2.2 release. You listened to the community: a new business model and the removed ten folder limit. Moreover sync is simply amazing. Even without the selective sync on linux I could justify the purchase.

But I would like to emphasize: You need to redesign your website. Sync is NOT CROSS PLATFORM.

And I would like to say that I would really appreciate this feature on Linux. I think that an improved web-ui would be the way to go. Then we could even sync selectively on headless servers.

I would be severely shocked if this update would come as the future 3.x version. You promise cross platform support and selective sync with pro. If this would be done, I would instantly abandon sync.

Please don't make this happen

[Moe]

The fact that you have opened multiple threads and your last post's have been about the lack of selective sync on linux really emphasizes that you would like to see that as a new feature.

 

The Sync Engineering team does look in the forum and the last changes to Sync with 2.2 have shown that they have listened to the community so there is hope ;-)

[GreatMarko]

The fact that you have opened multiple threads and your last post's have been about the lack of selective sync on linux really emphasizes that you would like to see that as a new feature.

 

The Sync Engineering team does look in the forum and the last changes to Sync with 2.2 have shown that they have listened to the community so there is hope ;-)

 

Indeed. But just to add to this, @mintwurm - you have now made your point - multiple times. Please do not open any further threads on this particular issue.

 

All requests/votes/+1's for adding selective sync to Linux, etc belong in this thread, and this thread alone.

 

Thank you for your cooperation

[eMKi]

Hi all

I would also like to encourage developers to include Selective Sync into all platforms.

 

And also the fact that Selective Sync is not available in Linux version is, in my opinion, not properly declared on the website.

Unfortunately I found out that it is not available in Linux after buying the Pro licence.

For now it is not a major drawback for me but would be very useful.

[iceberg13]

+1 for the selective sync on Linux. I could really use that.

 

I saw a lot of good implementation ideas in this thread. All of them would work for me.

 

I would like to add a few ideas:

• the place holder files (.bts*) could be executable with the special command line btsync client mentioned before. On execution, the file is synced to the device.
• files could be sparse files and watched with inotify to sync them in time for the access
• a special user-space filesystem could be implemented for each shared folder
• selecting files to sync via the WebGUI

I'm sure there are more. Just contact me, if you want to discuss implementation details or more ideas.

 

I too paid for the Pro version because of the selective sync feature to find out afterwards, that it is not available on all but one of my computers. 2 if you count the iPhone as computer.