Keeping local windows folder in sync with remote ftp folder in real time

I know it has been asked before, but I would like it to happen in real time and transparently (without the need to open a separate FTP client such as FileZilla).

For example, if I edit a text file in the local folder and then save it, it should immediately detect it and push the changes to the remote folder. Also, if files/folder are added or removed in the local folder, the exact same changes have to be made on the remote folder.

It can be unidirectional (changes made on the local folder has to be pushed to the remote folder but the reverse is not necessary).

It would be great if it allows us to specify some excluded files/folders which do not need to be in sync.

Is there such an application that you know of?

bobo

Posted 2010-03-23T07:06:56.453

Reputation: 1 649

– Gnoupi – 2010-03-29T09:34:01.313

@Gnoupi yes but I would like the synchronization to occur in real time – bobo – 2010-04-03T23:21:21.900

Yes, I know, I was only adding this as a "related" one, it's not a duplicate. – Gnoupi – 2010-04-04T16:39:35.757

3can admin unclose this please, this was the first post i found in google, not the duplicate. which means this question drives more traffic to superuser.com not the original question. – DeerSpotter – 2017-08-21T13:57:32.860

– Anton Tarasenko – 2017-11-27T10:36:13.257

WILL YOU PLEASE STOP CLOSING TOPICS? – www-0av-Com – 2018-03-09T15:47:52.383

seems like FileZilla can almost do it. might be enough for some people: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/synchronize-filezilla-47982.html

– cregox – 2013-05-17T22:51:47.113

Answers

WinSCP can do exactly what you want with it's Synchronize feature. The only problem is that it will occasionally miss an update and you'll have to stop the monitoring and restart it (which forces a full sync). I've only ever noticed this when I'm doing lots of saves to the same file over short time intervals though.

afrazier

Posted 2010-03-23T07:06:56.453

Reputation: 21 316

Nice feature, but unfortunately it only runs in the foreground (minimized). It would be nice to have it sync without needing to start the program – Hugo Delsing – 2019-01-30T08:47:25.753

This took me a good half a day of endless testing - here's my findings: these days there's some beautiful automatic real-time FTP<->PC dropbox-like sync apps, which really are a dream to use. Well, almost. Only ONE truly can be considered (at this point in time): and it's GoodSync. It's consistently reliable and fast and smooth (enough). Other solutions have either deal-breaking bugs or glitches, or feature lackings.

There is a GREAT one called Fling - it's PERFECT - in EVERY WAY!!!! - except, oh, hmm, it doesn't update the ftp server when you DELETE files. it can only add, or modify....it's really an uploading tool, that one. unless someone asks them to add the lacking feature to the app.

And then FTPBox is the other mentionable, but after 10 minutes of trying it out, it's a no-go: it was jittery in its constant 'file x was uploaded' notifications when those certain files didn't even need to be re-synced, and while even updating a file from the local pc, it seemed to then override it with the penultimate version from on the server!!

So it's GoodSync, people, tried and tested.

Eventually, the golden daddy of them all looks to be SyncAny, but it's not out yet. Spose it's worth waiting for that one!

user78017

Posted 2010-03-23T07:06:56.453

Reputation:

Extra kudos for GoodSync. It's fantastic and Every dev should have it! – Yousof K. – 2016-06-25T21:45:06.470

What are your thoughts on WinSCP vs GoodSync @user78017 , seems like WinSCP is the most popular suggestions by the number of upvotes. – Ghos3t – 2019-02-20T00:42:14.857

Tried with goodsync, i only wanted to sync changed files. Instead i waited 5 hours for it to sync 4000 files and i found no way to skip a complete sync. – t.mikael.d – 2012-06-06T18:57:05.107

that is true. I think it does a complete sync every time, EVEN though it scans and only finds say one changed file! very annoying. i only use it for relatively simple websites of mine and I don't suffer from this issue, but again I haven't seen anything still as good or smooth, and SyncAny is still not out yet. Any more ideas? – None – 2012-06-07T12:25:51.460

2I found AutoVer, i have added it as an answer to the question in hand. – t.mikael.d – 2012-06-08T11:10:18.040

1Wow I think you've found a winner! After a small bug in setting up a new sync job (FTP invalid error - had to start afresh and add the FTP server details before going back and configuring the rest of the job), it seems pretty smooth and fast! I'll keep testing...it's much faster than goodsync, and seems to have JUST the feature set that I'm after. – None – 2012-06-08T16:07:22.123

Same here, i currently have a bug where the FTP passwords on all sites get reset every time i close the app, go into sleep mode or restart the computer. I also found this tool: http://www.duplicati.com/ it have more features, have a better GUI but it does not yet have real-time upload. I'm trying to get them to add the feature, it's in the to-do list here: http://code.google.com/p/duplicati/issues/detail?id=60 if you could star it and add a request we may get a better tool and cross-platform too.

– t.mikael.d – 2012-06-08T18:22:45.723

1ah man that's SO annoying - it really does that? if i find it happens to me too (does run as admin/trying exe compatability options/whole app folder/appdata permission tweaks improve things?), I guess I'll have to go back to goodsync for now - unless one can write a simple batch to re-write config files with ftp info upon win login (ah i spose password is not plain text? i'm no expert)...I'm sick of latching on to developers requesting features and pestering to fix bugs! (you can have great success sometimes though! if they're small and nice and...you're lucky!) i starred the duplicati issue. – None – 2012-06-08T23:36:46.020

You can also try my free open-source project, IQBox FTP. It's designed to be simple and sync over FTP-SSL by default: https://www.iqstorage.com/iqbox.php

– SilentSteel – 2013-10-20T10:22:49.670

SugarSync is a competitor for DropBox. It lets you select the folders you want to sync, rather than just using a special folder under My Documents. Either one is free for up to 2GB storage.

If you're trying to use your own FTP server, I think the free (abandonware) NetDrive plus Cobian Backup is your answer. Cobian will let you schedule the backup periodically.

If you don't mind paying for a backup scheduler, my favorite is Second Copy, which will let you backup files whenever they change.

Both Cobian and SecondCopy work directly with FTP servers, but I've found them to have issues with large filesets over FTP.

Ben

Posted 2010-03-23T07:06:56.453

Reputation: 454

1-1 for adding referal link... – Augustin Riedinger – 2015-03-14T09:30:22.030

AutoVer does what you ask and is free.

It will copy to FTP/USB/Disk when files change and supports many other features.

http://www.beanland.net.au/autover/

t.mikael.d

Posted 2010-03-23T07:06:56.453

Reputation: 278

AutoVer's forum mentions also DSynchronize as a simple alternative

– xmojmr – 2015-03-29T17:11:31.027

This is the best solution. I use it to synchronize my dev environement with my staging environement, it copies DLLs right after a build. The code is now hosted on GitHub : https://github.com/hunterbeanland/AutoVer

– Sébastien – 2017-05-18T08:56:38.607

Net drive www.netdrive.net

will mount your ftp servers as a separate drive on your computer. Then you can just use any free file sync service to move your files from one folder to another.

richzilla

Posted 2010-03-23T07:06:56.453

Reputation: 2 003

It seems like Super Flexible File Synchronizer can do this.

CGA

Posted 2010-03-23T07:06:56.453

Reputation: 3 767

I tried but it can't do it in real time. – bobo – 2010-03-23T14:32:09.857

1@bobo: It has a scheduler, you could tell it to check every x minutes? – Phoshi – 2010-03-23T15:58:59.523

According to this, it has: http://www.superflexible.com/realtime.htm

– CGA – 2010-03-23T21:07:46.740

1It's not free (dropbox is). – Mick – 2010-03-25T08:14:12.073

http://ftpbox.org/

Late to the party! But this works great for me. And is free.

maxfridbe

Posted 2010-03-23T07:06:56.453

Reputation: 387

Try out GoodSync. It is free for three sync folders and is compatible with FTP, SFTP, and many cloud sync options.

BrendonWBrown

Posted 2010-03-23T07:06:56.453

Reputation: 21

I'm a programmer for the open-source IQBox FTP project: https://code.google.com/p/iqbox-ftp/

It syncs FTP in real-time (although it scans the FTP server as FTP servers don't support real-time notifications) and has an optional command-line tool for automation. There's a download for Windows. Also, the Python code works on Windows, Mac or Linux.

SilentSteel

Posted 2010-03-23T07:06:56.453

Reputation: 119

Total Commander has built-in functionality for FTP and synchronization. Just download and install it, connect to the FTP folder in the left pane, open local folder on the right, and choose Commands -> Synchronize Dirs.

ruruskyi

Posted 2010-03-23T07:06:56.453

Reputation: 101

Did you try FTP Synchronizer? It's designed for ftp file sync. It doesn't support real time sync, but you can let it sync files every few minutes.

trudger

Posted 2010-03-23T07:06:56.453

Reputation: 1

-2

Dropbox seems to do this.

JRobert

Posted 2010-03-23T07:06:56.453

Reputation: 6 128

8Dropbox works with their servers, not any FTP. – Gnoupi – 2010-03-29T09:40:30.863

2Correct. The OP asked how to do it "without the need to open a separate FTP client". – JRobert – 2010-03-29T13:50:21.777

-3

Dropbox is your answer. Works on PC's, Mac's Linux and iPhone. You can have 2GB for free and there are option to pay if you need more memory. I've been using it for the past few months and now I couldn't live without it.

Mick

Posted 2010-03-23T07:06:56.453

Reputation: 1 607

5Dropbox works with their servers, not any FTP. Also, check other answers before posting yours, to avoid duplicates. – Gnoupi – 2010-03-29T09:41:06.010

@gnoupi: I knew about the other answer, but it gave too little information IMHO. – Mick – 2010-03-30T10:04:48.377

Before having the reputation to edit posts, you can add details also under another answer. I agree that it lacked information, but it was posted an hour earlier. It also doesn't really match for the question, so. – Gnoupi – 2010-03-30T11:11:17.627

@gnoupi: In what way doesn't it "match for the question"? It looks a perfect match to me. – Mick – 2010-03-30T16:24:36.193

4in the way that from the question, it seems that the OP wants a solution to sync with his own FTP, and as such, Dropbox doesn't match. It is matching in the general "sync your files between computers", but there are other questions more dedicated to that. – Gnoupi – 2010-03-30T16:29:54.730