Newbie Question: Syncing 2 computers

General
1

Hello! I am looking for a solution to my particular syncing needs. In some sense, they are typical but using Quickbooks adds a possible issue.

I work at home and travel. SO typically, when I travel, I use a sync program to send everything from my desktop to my laptop. I then usually work exclusively on my laptop, and when I return go the sync in the opposite direction, ie, laptop to desktop.

When working with Quickbooks desktop, it is constantly writing to the hard drive almost transaction by transaction. At one point, I used Dropbox to sync, but there were constant sync conflicts. It would be better if syncing could be scheduled so as not to be real time, or manual.

Does anyone know if this quickbooks syncing problem is an issue with syncthing? Can Syncthing be scheduled? My goal is simply to not have to spend the time moving large amounts of data back and forth each time I travel.

Thanks for any advice. Pradhan

2

I think you may experience the exact same problems as you had with Dropbox, as Syncthing is also designed for real-time two-way synchronisation. There is no scheduling or anything like that built into it.

3

Hmmm…that’s what I was afraid of. Thank you for your quick reply, but let me add a qualifier. Since I only end up syncing once I return to my home/office…in essence, real-time isn’t critical. I’ve been watching videos on Syncthing… I believe it can be set up to just run across a local network and NOT over the internet. As such, if my thinking is correct, if set up this way, it would only sync once bothe computers are on-line locally, correct? Or is my thinking way off base here. Pradhan

4

That’s true but please keep in mind that if you have same files modified on both sides, then you will end up with conflicts. It is possible to disable conflicts completely, which would then cause the newest modification to always win and overwrite the other side, however this can be dangerous.

5

Okeay, thanks for the input. I appreciate it.

6

You can always manually pause the folders Syncthing works with, and unpause them when you get home. There is also a setting for a remote device to connect only on certain networks, which might help your use case.

Not really related to conflicts though. I don’t see how those could happen with the scenario you describe. Maybe just try it out and see if you get conflicts?