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Why no network drive sync? RRS feed

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    Hello,
     
    I guess this question is more to satisfy my curiosity than to point out a feature that I would really like to see in LiveMesh (since that has already been requested a lot of times in the wish list): why doesn't LiveMesh support syncing with network mapped drives?
    As far as I know, once they are mapped, the drives behave exactly like "real" hard drive (file are accessed the same way, with similar file paths...). Is there some extra logic in the LiveMesh code to explicitly disable the network mapped drive? For what reason?

    Thank you,
    Vincent
    Sunday, August 24, 2008 9:48 PM

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    Hi,

    Here's a bit of an explanation for why we exclude network drives from Live Mesh.  The main reason for excluding them is just basic to the way Live Mesh works right now: Currently, Live Mesh expects all Live Mesh folders to be present when MOE is up and running.  A network drive may go offline for various reasons and we will end up unmapping the Live Mesh folder.  Of course, you can re-map it when the drive becomes available again, but then any stale files can introduce conflicts - plus we waste cycles hashing the entire Live Mesh folder.  Also, we don’t receive the usual file change notifications that kick off our scan logic to pickup changes.

    We've received a fair bit of feedback from people requesting the ability to add network drives to their meshes.  We will, of course, keep everyone posted if this changes in the future. :)

    I hope that helps.

    Ben.

    Tuesday, September 9, 2008 9:50 PM

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    I too would love to see a network drive sync
    Monday, August 25, 2008 12:58 AM
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    I agree, Something like this is a major step in the right direction!
    Jase
    Tuesday, August 26, 2008 10:37 AM
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    So, any explanation as to why the feature is disabled for network drives? What concerns me is that the reason is to prevent data loss when the network drive is disconnected or doesn't respond, because those scenario might also happen with a non network drive.

    Thursday, August 28, 2008 12:12 AM
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    Hi,

    Here's a bit of an explanation for why we exclude network drives from Live Mesh.  The main reason for excluding them is just basic to the way Live Mesh works right now: Currently, Live Mesh expects all Live Mesh folders to be present when MOE is up and running.  A network drive may go offline for various reasons and we will end up unmapping the Live Mesh folder.  Of course, you can re-map it when the drive becomes available again, but then any stale files can introduce conflicts - plus we waste cycles hashing the entire Live Mesh folder.  Also, we don’t receive the usual file change notifications that kick off our scan logic to pickup changes.

    We've received a fair bit of feedback from people requesting the ability to add network drives to their meshes.  We will, of course, keep everyone posted if this changes in the future. :)

    I hope that helps.

    Ben.

    Tuesday, September 9, 2008 9:50 PM
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    Ben,

    I'm a bit puzzled by your comment on file change notifications on network drives.  I have software running here on one machine that receives file change notifications from a folder on a network drive.  Seems to work fine for what we are doing anyway.

    Trevor
    Thursday, September 11, 2008 10:51 PM
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    Hi Trevor,

    I thought I could toss that in at the end, but you caught me. ;)  Live Mesh does not currently have the right scan logic to pick up on file change notifications on network drives, but as you call attention to, it's not as though it couldn't do so.  So, as more requests for the ability to add network drives to one's mesh come in, that's certainly something the team could fix pretty easily.  (The other issues aren't so straightforward.)

    I hope that clarifies things. :)

    Ben.
    Thursday, September 11, 2008 11:00 PM
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    Agreed.  The other things aren't so straightforward.

    Trevor
    Friday, September 12, 2008 4:13 AM
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    I'm presuming this is the same reason that USB drives can't be mapped.  I currently have a Cruzer usb stick(with encryption) and wanted it to exists either on the stick or on my live desktop.  Lose the stick and it's encrypted but it's backed up so I ca get a new stick and sync. 

    Matt

    PS: Assume the sticks encryption is good enough, going to move to a maxtor black armour...but you get the idea.
    Friday, September 12, 2008 4:57 PM
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    Having the opportunity to sync network (mapped) drives would be great!
    Could you make it at least possible to shift e.g. "my files" to a network drive and nevertheless sync it (as foldershare does)?
    Carlo
    Saturday, November 22, 2008 1:07 AM
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    Yeah, I installed Mesh and it seemed great, until, surprise, I could not add a folder on the network.  Unfortunately, all my important folders need to be on my work network, so I will need to uninstall Mesh and go back to a combination of Foldershare, LogMeIn and Mozy.  Hopefully, one day, MSFT or someone other industry brandname makese a robust one-stop-shop.   I've been thinking about Syncplicity or Sugar Sync, but am a bit concerned about the possibility of a smaller firm going away.  I don't mind paying a bit for this type of service, but I don't think anyone has really gotten it right yet.
    Wednesday, December 10, 2008 10:54 PM
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    I've managed to map a removable drive (which never gets removed!) using Junction from Sysinternals (now Microsoft). I would imagine it would work with network drives too. You just map the drive to be a folder in your regular file system. Eg. I mapped my removable D drive to be a folder in My Documents.

    Best of luck!

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896768.aspx

    Paul.
    Saturday, December 13, 2008 2:50 PM
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    So that will trick live mesh into thinking it is a local drive?  Would that work with live sync as well?  Is there any risk that it deletes all copies of your folder if your fileserver is ever down?
    Friday, January 16, 2009 1:28 AM
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    Unfortunately junction does not support network drives (I just tried it to verify, and the following is mentioned on the junction page:

    Note that Windows does not support junctions to directories on remote shares.

    ).

    As for removable drives, I haven't tested this extensively, but Live Mesh sees a removable drive as a normal, local drive - I have had no problems syncing to (or from) a removable HD. I'm not sure exactly what happens when you remove the drive and restart the machine, but I imagine it would follow the process mentioned by Ben above (folder is removed from sync, and when reinserted a merge occurs).

    I'll have to play around with it on the weekend! :)
    Friday, January 16, 2009 2:16 AM
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    Been using Live Mesh for about 2 full months, and love it.  I agree that networked drives would be a nice addition.

    I've been using removable drives with it since I installed it, and have found no unexpected issues.  It would be nice if it realized it was removable, and re-pointed the folder automatically if the physical drive was unconnected and then reattached, but the current method of manually re-pointing the folder is definitely better than nothing.  I understand that would probably be pretty complicated.

    Mozy is nice as a backup, but syncing = backing up^3.
    Wednesday, February 4, 2009 6:17 AM
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    I only use network attached drives at work (and currently use syncplicity to synchronize my files and use them at home). I assume that plenty of other people would need this feature in the service.

    I for one would love to use live mesh as it lets me use the service from my iPhone (although I'm sorry that Microsoft is not keen on letting me use their services on that particular device - for instance hotmail).
    Tuesday, February 17, 2009 9:31 AM
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    You can now vote directly for this feature! Click here and add your vote... (and here for more suggestions)

    AndreasOlesen said:

    (although I'm sorry that Microsoft is not keen on letting me use their services on that particular device - for instance hotmail).

    I don't know about hotmail, but I can tell you that I do all of my Live Mesh development in perl on a linux box - so I think it's pretty safe to say that the technology is open.

    Oren
    Tuesday, February 17, 2009 12:56 PM
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    This is so frustrating.

    Why don't Live Sync and Live Mesh support network drive sync?

    Our server NEVER goes offline, the PCs do. They are the ones that need to get a mirror of the latest information and changes to the documents.

    I used Foldershare since early Beta and I got accustomed to the platform and  the seamless excellence of its performance. Back then we did not have a 24/7 server so it was fine. Windows Live was fine until then as well.

    But now that we have a true business need, Live Sync and Live Mesh are turning out into a huge disappointment. They are being aimed squarely at consumers due to the lack of the basic functionality of being able to sync network shared folders.

    Can you PLEASE post here if Live * will offer network drive sync in the near future?

    V.
    Tuesday, March 10, 2009 5:15 AM
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    -steve

    Microsoft MVP Windows Live / Windows Live OneCare & Live Mesh Forum Moderator
    Tuesday, March 10, 2009 4:58 PM
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    Has anyone found a similar alternative product that supports network drive sync?

     

    Thursday, June 10, 2010 10:44 PM
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    So I've been tricking Windows Live into temporarily supporting Network Drives.  The instructions are somewhere on the net, but it is a P.I.A., so trying to find a more permanent solution.  I used Syncplicity for a while, but then they removed Mac support, but now it is coming back.  Only issue is that plans start at $180/year which seems insane for 50GB considering Amazon S3 only charges $1.20 per gig per year plus a bit more for downloads.  Spideroak sounds promising as well, but when I last checked about 6 months ago their syncing engine was having problems.  Haven't looked at Sugar sync recently either, but they used to not do network drives.

    Thoughts?

    Monday, June 28, 2010 10:31 PM
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    The sad reality is this feature has been available in Windows Live Sync since it's creation. I have been using it extensively on Macs and PCs and never had issues till Live Mesh comes out. As far as the USB comment, I overcame that by installing the dmg on the memory stick and ran the program when the memory stick was installed and Window$ treated it like its own 'mini' computer. I would have two simultaneous 'Windows Live Sync' running at the same time, i.e. 1) for my Mac and 2) for the memory stick 3) sometimes a 3rd for a external HD. For almost three years there were hardly ever any problems, at least not caused by network drives not working. Again the workaround was to install the app on the drive itself then mount it as a drive.

    This is not a matter if can but will. For some reasons the power$ that be decide to control certani items and put certain restrictions for reasons unknown then class up reasons that are not substantiated by previous experiences.

    Shaun.

    Thursday, October 21, 2010 9:01 PM
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    Isn't there a simpler solution...

    Use Microsoft's SyncToy (free app) to setup a local folder that syncs with your network folder. Then direct Live Mesh to sync the local folder.

    Tuesday, February 1, 2011 4:14 AM