Online File Storage and Sync – A SugarSync Review

In today’s world, the ability to access your files from multiple locations is an absolute necessity. Unfortunately, this tends to mean relying on CDs and flash drives, or constantly sending each other email attachments.

Wouldn’t it be helpful if there was a way to automatically sync your files?

Sign in to SugarSync.

With SugarSync, it’s easy to keep your files backed up and in sync between computers, even if you’re working on two completely separate networks.

**SugarSync Review**

Setup is really simple. Once you create an account on the SugarSync website, you can download the desktop app to any computer you need. After that, just choose the files to sync and you’re good to go.

After that, you’ll be pretty much up and running. Depending on your needs, you can set each individual folder to simply back up online or sync with other computers.

Once you add a file to SugarSync, it is uploaded to your secure account. From there, you can access your data from anywhere you have internet access, even without installing SugarSync! SugarSync’s web interface makes it easy to download and share any of your files, wherever you are.

As a member of SugarSync, you can share your folders with anyone you want by inviting them to sign up for a free account. The files you share can be set to “editable” or “read-only” depending on what your needs are for that particular folder.

Every time a document is edited on one of the computers or devices connected to your account, SugarSync uploads the new version to your online account and then distributes it to the other computers as soon as they have an Internet connection (or right away if you don’t). They are). already online

Let’s take a quick overview of the online interface, the desktop client, and (my personal favorite) the BlackBerry app. This SugarSync review will go over each one.

**SugarSync.com and the desktop client**

*SugarSync Review: The Online Interface*

In your SugarSyn.com dashboard, you can see all the computers connected to your account, as well as how much more space you have available and other statistics.

Files on each of the computers in your account can be accessed by selecting the computer from the list on the left. Once you find the files you’re looking for, they can be easily moved, copied, downloaded or shared.

SugarSync’s online system also makes it easy to send your files to anyone you need. Simply specify the email address you want to send the folder to and SugarSync will email you a link (valid for 21 days) so whoever you send it to can download your file.

Sending that link to your SugarSync folder is much easier than attaching a couple dozen photos or files to an email chain to your mom.

In addition to your synced computers, you also have the option to select your “Magic Briefcase”, your Mobile Photos and your Web Archive.

The Magic Briefcase is basically a folder that SugarSync creates on all of your computers and is always kept in sync. It’s a nice and simple tool for users who don’t want to take the time to manually select folders to sync… all they have to do is drop them in Briefcase and they’re ready to go.

One important thing to note is that placing files in the Magic Briefcase actually moves them from their original location, it doesn’t create a new copy.

The Mobile Photos section is pretty self explanatory… these are the photos you’ve taken from your mobile phone, which we’ll talk about a bit later in our SugarSync review.

SugarSync web archive is a place where you can store files without syncing them to other computers. This is a great tool for backing up files that you don’t need to sync, just that you know are safe.

*SugarSync Review: The Desktop Client*

The desktop app offers virtually all the functionality of the web client. When you first open the program, you’ll see a list of the files on the computer you’re currently viewing, as well as a list on the left containing icons for your Magic Briefcase, Web Archive, etc.

Buttons for your photo gallery, online account, and more are also included. You can also easily send and share files, so the only time you really need to work directly with the online interface is when you’re not at your personal computer.

Pressing the “Manage Synced Folders” button gives you the opportunity to configure which folders you want to sync from this computer and which specific folders should be synced on each of the other computers. If a folder is added to SugarSync but not connected to another computer, the content is backed up in real time, but does not affect any other hard drives. The entire interface is extremely easy to use, but if organizing different folders is more work than you’re interested in, you can always use Magic Briefcase as described above.

*SugarSync for BlackBerry*

I love this part, because it really makes all your files as mobile as you are. SugarSync offers several mobile clients including support for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian devices, as well as the ability to access your account online from virtually any Internet-enabled phone.

SugarSync mobile apps let you do just about anything you could ever want. Accessing computers and files online is easy, just browse and select the file you need and SugarSync will download it to your phone and cache it for use.

If you have the right software, you can edit files from your phone (using “Docs-To-Go” to edit an MS Word document on a BlackBerry, for example). Once you finish editing a file, SugarSync notices the change and asks if it should be uploaded.

You can easily upload any file from your BlackBerry, the only problem here is that there is no option to upload multiple files in a queue – each file must be selected individually. This makes uploading, say, a photo or two you want to share very quick, but beyond that, you’ll probably want to wait to transfer the files to your computer and upload from there.

One of the real benefits of the mobile app is that if you know ahead of time that you want the photos you’re taking to load, you can launch the app and select “Take Photo” which will launch your BlackBerry’s native camera app and load any photos you take from there (note that only photos taken from the SugarSync app are automatically uploaded) to your Mobile Photos folder, which is synced across all your computers.

Viewing images from your device is just as simple. Each image is downloaded and cached on your phone, and you can scroll through the images in a particular folder one at a time. Each image also has a “High Resolution” option in case you need to see more detail.

SugarSync is also capable of streaming music to your phone, so if you sync your iTunes library, you’ll be able to access it anywhere, without necessarily saving it to your phone at the same time.

SugarSync offers several different pricing options depending on how much storage you need. Each plan includes a free 30-day trial, which is plenty of time to get comfortable with it before making a final decision.