I'd like to switch to Live Mesh from Foldershare but am finding the following problem --
My directories are already very much in sync thanks to foldershare, but if I start using Live Mesh it seems the only way not to have every copy on every machine turn up as a "syncing conflict" is to start with one master computer and wait a long time for my 40GB to download to the others.
Is there any way Live Mesh can recognize duplicate files the way Foldershare does and allow me to "pre-load" the syncing by recognizing the files that are already synchronized?
I'm afraid that, currently, the only way for you to start using Live Mesh is with the long route you describe. We're working to improve many aspects of Live Mesh that will make the scenario you want (meshing a bunch of folders that already have identical content) easier: e.g., improving conflict detection, and implementing "delta sync" where Live Mesh only updates the changes made to a file's contents (right now, if anything - even something like, say, "Last Date Opened" metadata - is different, Live Mesh sychronizes the entire file over again). But, again, at this time I'm afraid there's no easy way to accomplish what you're after.
Keep your eyes and ears open, though, as we'll continue to update Live Mesh regularly, and once some of the changes I've mentioned are implemented, the transition to Live Mesh will be a lot easier. :)
Thanks,
Ben.
Marked as answer byBen [Live Mesh]Tuesday, September 9, 2008 6:39 PM
I'm afraid that, currently, the only way for you to start using Live Mesh is with the long route you describe. We're working to improve many aspects of Live Mesh that will make the scenario you want (meshing a bunch of folders that already have identical content) easier: e.g., improving conflict detection, and implementing "delta sync" where Live Mesh only updates the changes made to a file's contents (right now, if anything - even something like, say, "Last Date Opened" metadata - is different, Live Mesh sychronizes the entire file over again). But, again, at this time I'm afraid there's no easy way to accomplish what you're after.
Keep your eyes and ears open, though, as we'll continue to update Live Mesh regularly, and once some of the changes I've mentioned are implemented, the transition to Live Mesh will be a lot easier. :)
Thanks,
Ben.
Marked as answer byBen [Live Mesh]Tuesday, September 9, 2008 6:39 PM
I'm in the same boat Gelobter, and having tried to sync my allready in-sync folders from previous use of foldershare, I experienced massive amounts of conflicts. After reading the blog I thought it was related to the "tombstone" error you've been working one, but after reading this thread I realized that it isn't.
What I find weird though, is that the folders I've experienced alle the conflicts with, is the folders that I've chosen to not sync with L Desktop 'cus of the size of the folders. Some other folders though in size of around 200-300MB, with a lot of files etc, which also previoulsy were in-sync via foldershare, synced up without creating a lot of conflicts, nor massive amounts of redownloading.
The behaviour in the latter case was what I wanted, and I assume it didn't create conflicts nor overwriting because it identified the files and found them equal. But Ben:
"right now, if anything - even something like, say, "Last Date Opened" metadata - is different, Live Mesh sychronizes the entire file over again)"
If this behaviour is correct, may my folders actually not be totally in-sync, and just look like it because they were equal from the get-go? (read some issues with folders of large size not syncing totally) Live Desktop seems synced on those folders though, even though I haven't figured how to check the total size of a single folder - only size meeter I've seen is the "total %" used for whole Live Desktop, thus not been able to double-check the foldersize of those on the device and on LD.
And also related to the qoute about metadata:
Would playing a mp3/movie file, which triggers a last date opened, trigger a resync? Haven't tested this myself (and my 2nd comp. is down atm) as the media folders are the large folders I haven't been able to sync without conflicts. I've experienced that after reading some documents, but not altering them, they were synced. Found this initially to be weird, after using foldershare that wouldn't sync without something beeing altered, but if LM also trigger sync on the "last date opened" metadata it makes sense. Though it would be -very bad- concerning media files beeing forced to resync, if that is the case.
We're continually working to improve how Live Mesh handles sync operations, and one of the goals is, of course, to make it do so more "intelligently". If you're not seeing conflicts, then your files are likely in sync. What files get re-synced, though, depends in part on the program that runs them - e.g., in Office 2007, sometimes just opening a file, making no changes, not even saving it again, writes a change to the file metadata that Live Mesh picks up on. If an mp3 or movie file is opened by a program that changes the file's metadata, you could see re-sync operations happening on those files, too. Of course, one of the most useful things in this regard that we'll be implementing in the future is the "delta sync" functionality: if Live Mesh only has to update very small changes made to, e.g., the metadata of a file, it won't matter nearly as much as it currently does whether another program writes an update to that file when opened/played/etc.
