BitTorrent Sync update brings usability improvements
The recent update to BitTorrent Sync 2.0.120 introduces several usability improvements to the file synchronization and sharing application.
The new version introduces a search function, optional columns to display additional information in the program interface and an option to hide offline devices in the My devices list.
The update has been released for all supported desktop operating systems and both free and pro licenses.
The new search is probably the biggest new feature that the update introduces. It is available at the top and enables you to search folders, users and devices.
If you search by user for instance, you get a listing of all folders that the particular user is linked to. As you may have noticed already, file search is not supported which seems strange as you are left with using the operating system for that.
It would make sense to include file search directly in the program as well, for instance to quickly launch specific files right form it.
Since files are not included, its use increases with the number of folders, users and devices that the software manages for you.
If you just use it to sync between two of your devices, it may not be beneficial at all but if you use the Pro version with hundreds of folders, users and dozens of devices, then you will benefit from it as it enables you to quickly jump to specific items.
The two new columns owner and last transferred can be added to the interface with a right-click on the header and the selection of the items in the menu.
There you find additional items that you can activate, for instance information about data transfers, dates when a folder was added or synced, or the path of it on the local system.
The final feature addition enables you to hide offline devices on My Devices which you access with a click on the settings icon in the top right corner of the screen.
This can be useful to remove old devices from the list of devices, for instance if you no longer use them.
The full changelog lists additional improvements and fixes in this release. For instance, the settings you make in a folder's share dialog are now remembered the next time you open it.
New context menu icons have been added to the native file explorers on Windows and Mac systems. A preference to remove these menu items is not provided right now which means that you need to use a program like ShellExView for that or remove the modifications manually.
Closing Words
The new version introduces features that move BitTorrent Sync closer to existing file sharing synchronization solutions
Now Read: A full review of BitTorrent Sync is available here.
I’ve used BT Sync since alpha. So far it’s improved with time. Things that didn’t use to sync in alpha now sync properly (ie. sometimes file scan didn’t see a newly added file but now it always does). Big hoola over 1.4 to 2.0 upgrade with the paid model, but 2.0 is much better at syncing for me then 1.4 ever was. I no longer have to run a script to close and re-open BT Sync 1.4 every day now to make sync work.
I used BitTorrent Sync back when they first came out… It used to work pretty darn good too! My music and files would sync easily to my phone. But ever since version 2.0 came out this piece of shit won’t sync anything, they broke it completely not only that, they now offer “enhanced options” that you can pay for. No thanks you idiot developers, you guys sent BitTorrent Sync to an early grave.
This latest version of BitTorrent Sync is a real disappointment, I tried syncing files over the network (through Ethernet no less) but the program would hardly sync anything, the transfer would proceed for a few minutes only to stall shortly afterwards, I had to resort to using TeamViewer’s ‘File Transfer’ feature to finish off the damn job (and to add insult to injury, the speed of the file transfer feature of TeamViewer was faster than that of BitTorrent Sync!).
This is ridiculous, I thought BitTorrent Sync was supposed to the ####(!?)
tinyurl .com/p2x3skx
it seems i just have no luck when it comes to sync software. i installed bt sync on my pc and phone yesterday to sync changes in my music folder to my phone and after hours of indexing and doing “whatever” it’s stuck exactly at 65.2/66gb, which happens to be about the same amount as the new files i wanted to copy to my phone.
the software doesn’t seem to be doing anything now, although i repeatedly clicked “sync all” on both my pc and my phone, the tray icon only spinned for a short time and when viewing the file history it showed mostly entries from folders and files that didn’t even change.
i had the hope i finally found a simple and reliable solution to automatically sync my music on demand, wireless and over my router, but as it stands i only wasted hours for no appearant result. yay.
Trying Syncthing. Open source, free unlimited.
Early days in it’s development so some trouble such as it’s unable to set itself to run automatically on Linux. Raspberry Pi APT repo busted as well. IRC support was very helpful though, at the time I tried it.
Room for improvement but definitely a good start.