Sharing Partial Folders With Non Pro Users

[madreag]

Is it possible to share a very large folder (with many subfolders/files within) with family/friends without having them sync the whole thing? The Selective Sync feature seems to do just this, but sounds like it required each one of my friends/family members to purchase a pro license? 

 

 

The large folder is several terabytes in size so it is out of the question that they sync the whole folder. The idea is to share this folder as read only so that they are able to see all the subfolders - and only sync the subfolders they want. 

 

 

I'm sure that not all of them will want to purchase the pro license, hence my question. I want to make sure the free version will work for all my friends/family before I purchase a pro license for myself. 

 

Edited November 27, 2015 by madreag

[iswrong]

 

Is it possible to share a very large folder (with many subfolders/files within) with family/friends without having them sync the whole thing? The Selective Sync feature seems to do just this, but sounds like it required each one of my friends/family members to purchase a pro license? 

 

Indeed, selective sync requires Pro.

 

 

The large folder is several terabytes in size so it is out of the question that they sync the whole folder. The idea is to share this folder as read only so that they are able to see all the subfolders - and only sync the subfolders they want. 

 

There is a trick that you can use:

 

http://help.getsync.com/customer/en/portal/articles/1902095-is-it-possible-to-sync-a-subfolder-of-an-already-synced-folder-?b_id=3895

 

I used this once, and it worked fine, though the constraints may be a bit difficult to understand. As far as I know, the Owner or Read-Write constraint only apply to the machine where you are sharing the subfolder (if the outer folder was Read-Only, and the inner folder Owner, that would be problematic). So, you can still share the subfolder Read-Only with others.

 

If you have any other devices linked to your identity that automatically sync folders, then AFAIR that subfolder will be seen as a separate folder on those devices.

 

[Helen]

madreag,

 

Let me add a few details. 

 

1) yes, iswrong is right and they will need Pro to be able to use Selective Sync feature. The fact that you have it doesn't help, cause Pro shall be running on the device where you want to use Selective Sync.

A way out here might be - link their Sync to your identity. Your Pro shall be propagated to them and they will be able to utilize Selective Sync.

 

2) I'm not sure how sharing the folder with RO permissions will let them download only the subfolders they want. RO only means that they will not be uploading anything to you. 

But you can add the necessary subfolders to Sync as separate sync shares, and share with your friends/family. However, here please be careful and follow the tips suggested in the linked article. 

[iswrong]

1) yes, iswrong is right and they will need Pro to be able to use Selective Sync feature. The fact that you have it doesn't help, cause Pro shall be running on the device where you want to use Selective Sync.

A way out here might be - link their Sync to your identity. Your Pro shall be propagated to them and they will be able to utilize Selective Sync.

 

That raises an interesting question: I know that with the personal Pro license, you can use the license with up to ten devices under different identities. Does that mean ten devices of the same person, or can it also be e.g. different family members?

 

http://help.getsync.com/customer/portal/articles/1901273

 

Reading the license, it seems that a Pro license is strictly bound to one person. (So the 10 devices rule would allow a person to set up more complex configurations. E.g. when you want to set up a couple of read-only cloud peers under the same identity.)

 

Sorry for pushing this question a bit. I am definitely not in for free rides -- I think BTSync Free is very generous and that people should pay to get the Pro features.

[madreag]

I really wish btsync had better features with the free client that would allow friends and family to selective sync what I share with them when I use the pro version. 

 

In my opinion, requiring many licenses to use selective sync is fine for businesses or enterprises, but for the private individual like myself it doesn't work.  I would have to buy 20 or 30 licenses and tell each one of my friends and family to use them (or risk overfilling their 500gb hard drive with my 4tb share).  I'd rather purchase a single "pro license for individual" or call it the "pro plus license for individual" and charge more for it.  I would gladly pay a subscription fee or a larger one time price to be able to do this with btsync.

 

Its like an analogy between winzip and btsync, were my friends and family cannot open a zipped the file I sent them because they haven't purchased winzip.

[iswrong]

Why don't you break up the shared folders in smaller folders (e.g. via the method that I suggested). Why would you want to share the same 4TB of data with every person?

 

With regards to licensing, I disagree. Bittorrent Sync is already much cheaper than using cloud storage and the free offering is quite generous. They have to earn income to develop the product in some way .

 

 

 

Its like an analogy between winzip and btsync, were my friends and family cannot open a zipped the file I sent them because they haven't purchased winzip.

 

That's a strange analogy, because they can sync with you in the free version. In fact, I sync that way with family too. I have a Pro license, family and friends all use the free version (as far as I know). But I have divided up my data in multiple folders. Besides reducing the size, it also gives more granularity in terms of sharing permissions.