Sometimes you may want to make sure that files and folders are available on different devices that you own, either to make sure you have a backup ready when it is needed or that you can access the files regardless of device you are working on.
Synkron is a free cross-platform synchronization software that you can use for that purpose. It offers a couple of interesting features, like the ability to sync multiple folders or to use filters and a blacklist to control what is being synced.
When you first start the program you will notice that the program is using a tabbed interface to separate different synchronization processes. To get started right away, start adding two folders that you want to keep in sync by clicking on the browse icon to pick them with the mouse, or by pasting the locations in directly.
You can click on the plus icon to add additional folders to the process.
You can theoretically click on sync in the lower right corner right away to start the process, or click on analyze first to get a report of the sync status of every file and folder.
You may also want to click on advanced here on the left which opens a menu that provides you with options to customize the process:
- Synchronize hidden folders and files.
- Do not create empty folders.
- Do not synchronize subdirectories.
- Do not backup updated files.
- Update existing files only.
- Ignore blacklist.
- Ignore 1 hour difference.
- Move contents to folder 2, leaving folder 1 empty.
- Propagate deletions.
- Detect collisions.
- Store database in a text file.
If you have configured multiple sync processes, you may find it easier to control them all with a click on SyncView. This basically displays only the tab titles with options to start, stop and edit each sync process from there right away.
Multisync is another interesting feature the program supports. Instead of syncing all folders that you select, you can select to sync multiple sources folders with a single destination folder. That is helpful if files that you want synced are not all available under a single folder structure.
Up until now you were only able to run synchronizations manually. If you want more control, you can use the scheduler to run sync jobs regularly on the system the program is running on.
Filters
I have previously mentioned that Synkron ships with filters and blacklists that you can configure to control the sync process.
The blacklist prevents that select files, folders or files with certain file extensions get synchronized. You can override that under the advanced options for single jobs though.
Filters on the other hand allow you to synchronize only select files based on their file extension. If you want to sync all .css files, .docx documents or .txt files, then this is the way to do just that.
Verdict
Synkron is not your typical data synchronization program. While it supports the synchronization of files, it does not support different kinds of synchronizations such as one-way syncing. While that limits it somewhat, it is made up by additional features that other sync programs may not offer.
A good starting point is the excellent documentation that is available in English and German.
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