Desktop Sync – the Very Basics [ Edited ]

[YouSendIt_Kyle]

Originally, today’s post was going to focus on online collaboration. I started writing the post, and something didn't feel right. I really couldn’t pinpoint what felt wrong about the post until I got into the third paragraph, and realized that we haven’t even talked about our YouSendIt Desktop App yet! While one of the many great features in the Desktop App is the ability to easily collaborate on files online, we really ought to discuss how to use the application before we focus on any individual feature, right? Nod your head. Yeah, that’s what I thought. So let’s get into the Desktop App, how it works, and what you can do with it. We’ll definitely discuss online collaboration at a later date.

The YouSendIt Desktop Sync Feature

The YousendIt Desktop App is your desktop’s most powerful folder. It gives you drag and drop simplicity, and makes it easy to move files from folders right onto the cloud from your desktop. Once the files are in the cloud, you can easily keep them synced across multiple computers. Once you’ve downloaded and installed the application, adding files to your space in the cloud is quick and easy. If you haven’t downloaded and installed the application yet, please click here.

Once installed, there will be a shortcut on your desktop. Double click on this to open your YouSendIt folder space:

You can also access the folder by opening up a new window and clicking on the Yousendit folder from the Favorites panel on the left:

And finally, you can click on the Yousendit folder icon in your System Tray. Here, you can also see the current status of the folder. If you have files that are currently being synced, you will see an orange icon, indicating that the sync is in progress:

When everything is synced, you will see a green icon:

The Desktop App is a really great way to keep important documents in sync across your various computers and mobile devices.

Say, for example, I’m writing my autobiography on my work laptop, and in the middle of telling a story about my best friend Alex’s 7^th birthday party, I realize that I don’t remember his dog’s name. Heck, I can still remember Alex’s phone number, but I can’t remember his dog’s name. I was going to transition into an entire chapter about his dog, so this information is essential!  What I’ll do is simply drag and drop the document to my desktop sync app to save the file to the YouSendIt cloud.

 Then, from my home desktop, I simply open up my Yousendit folder, and continue right where I left off in document. In my living room hangs a photo of my friend, his dog and myself. I check the back of the photo, which reads “Alex, Benji, & Kyle, 1988.” Benji - that’s right! Now, how did I ever forget that?

Also, if you use a mobile device, such as an iPhone, iPad, or Android device, all of your files saved to the cloud will be available on the go with your mobile device and our mobile apps.
With Yousendit, you have instant access to your important files from any device!

Another great benefit of the Desktop App is the power it has to allow for online collaboration, which we’ll get into in another post. If you’d like to learn more about online collaboration right now, you can watch our Flight School video on the subject here.

We’d like to know how you plan on using this Desktop App, or how you’re using it already. Let us know your thoughts on the Desktop App in this thread. Thanks! 

To read past Feature Friday posts, click here.

tags: #featurefriday

[DSnodgrass]

I tried using the desktop app (OS X) and found the concept great but the app to be totally unusable. If you try to reorganize folders or files in such a way that a fair amount of data has to be moved around during the sync, the app drags the machine to a literal standstill.  

I can have NO apps running except YouSendIt and Activity Monitor and I when I turn on syncing, I can watch the CPU usage climb gradually to 100%.  But worse than this (if that is possible) the app starts grabbing all available RAM until all active memory is taken (but of course, the system itself likes to have a little RAM for its own to run) so when YouSendIt finally has taken 7 Gigs of the 8Gigs I have installed, the computer will lock up with a dialog saying that there are not enough system resources to continue to run!

I'm syncing the same YSI folder on a MacPro with 32 Gigs of installed RAM and the app does the same thing. Eventually, YSI will grab about 25 Gigs of active memory leaving this otherwise screaming machine, whimpering in the corner. 

I have used hundreds of OS X apps and this is the only one that is so poorly written that it takes over the computer to the exclusion of everything else including the system itself.

I had hoped to use YouSendIt instead of DropBox since the functionality is somewhat similar and actually, YSI is more economical (assuming syncing worked - which it doesn't).  So I'm reluctantly looking at returning to the more expensive but better crafted DropBox service.

[YouSendIt_Kyle]

Hi DSnodgrass, and welcome back to the community!

Thank you for giving your feedback on the Mac Desktop app. I'm sorry to hear you weren't happy with it. We'll be releasing an updated version of the Desktop app very soon, with many improvements and added features - I hope that when it is released, you'll give it a try to see if it works better on your system.

If anyone else reading this wants to share their thoughts on the Desktop app, please feel free to post in this thread. Thank you!

[DSnodgrass]

It's very good news that the desktop app is being reworked.  I'm hopeful that you guys will release it soon.  I reorganized my YSI folder on one machine a few weeks back and have not been able to sync the other machine (my MBPro) ever since.  If I unpause the sync eventually the app drags my machine to a standstill.

As for other thoughts:

-needs a way to log out and back in.

-needs a way to show status from menu bar (amount of storage used, how many files are being synced and what size, etc.)

-needs the same level of preferences as DropBox (selective sync, bandwidth throttling, etc.)

But mostly, the app should just behave.

Thanks!

Dan

[jasper4]

Hi Dan,

Selective Sync is here!  

This was just released last week you can get it here:

http://www.yousendit.com/applications

Your other suggestions are great and we have lots of things coming in the future so please stay tuned.

Thanks,
mark 

[DSnodgrass]

Mark,

This is tremendous progress.  I've installed the new app and am trying it out now.  Any chance that your developers looked at why the app uses up all system memory while it is syncing a lot of folders?

[edi151]

Might be helpful if you first told us where this App can be found, or are we expected to search aimlessly around you web site?

I refuse to do that so until you tell us where it is no go from me.

But first it would be even morehelpful if there was a simple way to send a link to the desk top so that when we wanted to use your program we didn't have to go to to the web and connect on it every time.

Bye

edi151

[YouSendIt_Kyle]

Hi edi! Sorry for the confusion - I forgot to add a hyperlink to our Apps page in the original post. Here you go!

http://www.yousendit.com/applications

[DEWNR]

Hello,

I installed the desktop app using an old account. I've since started using the work account but my desktop app still syncs with the old one. I can't find a way to change this.

On a mac.

Help!

Thanks,

Luke

[YouSendIt_Kyle]

Hi DEWNR! Currently, you have to uninstall and reinstall the Desktop App if you wish to change your login information on the Desktop App. Here are instructions on how to do this:

http://support.yousendit.com/t5/Applications-Knowledge-Base/How-to-Uninstall-YouSendIt-Applications-...

[DEWNR]

Thanks for that - all fixed!

[football303]

Hi YouSendIt_Kyle,

I wanted to ask you about your post above -- "Hi DEWNR! Currently, you have to uninstall and reinstall the Desktop App if you wish to change your login information on the Desktop App."

I have more than one account, in order to keep things separate.  I would like to start utilizing the Desktop App.  Will I be able to interact with both of my accounts using the Desktop App?  I would also like to use the Express App, and possibly others.  Could you tell me if there are any confines in using them with more than one account, too?  (If you could mention them individually, if there are differences, that would be great.)

Thank you!

[YouSendIt_Kyle]

Hi Football, welcome to the community! Let's talk about a few of our apps.

The Desktop App:Unfortunately, there isn't any way to use the Desktop App to sync to multiple accounts. The Desktop App is designed to sync with a single account.

YouSendIt Express: You can use YouSendIt Express to send and receive files, and can log in/out of your multiple accounts with ease.

YouSendIt for iPhone, iPad, Kindle and Android Devices: You can use all of these applications with multiple YouSendIt accounts as well.

The YouSendIt Outlook Plugin, and YouSendIt For Webmail: With these plugins/extensions, you can also log into/out of any YouSendIt account.

If you have any other questions about these applications, please do not hesitate to let me know. Thanks!

[football303]

re: "The Desktop App: Unfortunately, there isn't any way to use the Desktop App to sync to multiple accounts. The Desktop App is designed to sync with a single account."

Hi YouSendIt_Kyle!

Thank you for your response -- I really appreciate it!  And thank you for such a thorough answer.

Would it be possible for you to ask the developers if they would consider making it possible to "sign in" and "sign out" of the app, if necessary, so that someone would have the ability to use the Desktop App for more than one account?

That would be terrific!, as it isn't really possible to uninstall and reinstall each time you need to switch accounts, and the app is such a useful app!

Thanks for all of your help! 

[football303]

Hi again YouSendIt_Kyle!

Thought of another question.

I thought I would ask, just to clarify, what the difference is between the Desktop App and YouSendIt Express.

Do they have different functions?

Could you tell me what the functions and capabilities are of both?

Can you select and upload or download multiple files at the same time (i.e., vs. just single files) with Express, as well?

If I utilize Express, since you can sign into two different accounts with it, will there be any functionality that I will be missing that are in the Desktop App?

Does Express require the Desktop App?

When would one choose Express over the Desktop App, and vise versa?

I'm sure there are a lot more things to consider, so if you can be as detailed as possible, it would be great! 

I truly appreciate your time.  It's really terrific to be able to ask!

Thank you for your thoughtfulness!

[YouSendIt_Kyle]

Great questions. Let me try to answer them all, and please let me know if I miss anything.

We are working on making it easier to login and logout of the Desktop App. However, this functionality won't allow access to multiple accounts. In the event that you change the account attached to your Desktop App, all synced data from the first account will be deleted from your device, and then all data from your new account will be synced to that advice. I don't know of any plans to add the option to sync multiple accounts. As it stands, we have a number of Enterprise accounts setup, and allowing this could be a potential nightmare for account administrators, who don't want their subusers logging into their personal accounts at work.

Now, let's talk about the Desktop App vs. YouSendIt Express. These two apps are used for very different functions:

• The Desktop App is used for sharing files, syncing files, and for the collaboration of files across multiple computers.
• YouSendIt Express is used for sending and receiving files.

With YouSendIt Express, you can upload multiple files/folders at once if you are a premium account user (using a Pro account or above). If someone sent you an attachment via YouSendIt which includes multiple files, you can download them all at once with the application as well.

The functionality missing in YouSendIt Express is that to sync, share, and collaborate on files, all of which are available with the Desktop App. When using the Desktop App, say you have a Word document in a shared YouSendIt folder. This folder has also been shared with a co-worker. If you modify that Word document in your Desktop App, the modifications you've made will appear on the document in your online folder, as well as on the file on in your co-workers folder. This type of collaboration isn't possible with YouSendIt Express.

You can use either application or both, but they do not require each other to function properly, as they are entirely separate programs.

In summation, if you have a bunch of files you want to send to someone, you're going to want to use YouSendIt Express. If you have a bunch of files that you're working on with people, that you want to continue working on at home or on other computers, you're going to want to use the Desktop App.

I hope all of this makes sense, and I'm sure there's more to it than what I explained, so if you have any questions or thoughts, please feel free to let me know. Thanks, and have a great weekend!

In the future, we plan on having the functionality of YouSendIt Express built into the Desktop App.

[Maisys-mumma2]

Hi Just signed up for YSI and am a bit frustrated, but maybe its just beacuse I dont have all the right info on how to do things....

Im trying to sync all the photos on my phone and samsung galexy tablet and it seems like I have to do it ONE photo at a time....ARG!!! thats several hundred photos...is there a way to do "batch " syncing??

Thanks Meghan

[skaneby]

Hi,

I need to set my yousendit sync folder to another drive. My home catalouge is on an SSD and thats not the place for large files. how can I re direct the yousendit syncfolder to another drive?

[kat205]

How can I share folders from the cloud without having the people I am sharing

with not have to sign up for an account.  Sometimes it asks and others it just

sends the link.  I only want to send the link, how can I do this.