Zoli's Blog - Latest Comments in Windows “Live” Foldershare Dead For a Week

Re: Windows “Live” Foldershare Dead For a Week

Genie — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:34:31 -0000

PowerFolder has totally unjustified price and does not get the job done. Definitely you can NOT rely on it because it dies and loses connection between computers all the time - so when you would need that file from remote machine chances are you would get an old copy. Or nothing at all.

I chose getdropbox, after trying most of the other alternatives - it just works. Price? Free. Usability? 3 minute setup and it just works after that. Can't really beat this.

Re: Windows “Live” Foldershare Dead For a Week

Basmentman — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:03:46 -0000

Well dropbox looked nice to me but finally its only another service which stores your data on their servers and when the servers are down you are lost. And I dislike to store data on other peoples computer.

Thanks to this blog I found an solution which is really great for me: I bought a PowerFolder lifetime Home license i put an old linux computer in my basement and thanx to my flatrate I AM the service now doesn't matter what Powerfolders server does. I really think they are the only one who really can work in LAN.

From the cost side well you need to pay but only once and as far as I see I get all updates and support.

Re: Windows “Live” Foldershare Dead For a Week

Ken — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 09:46:40 -0000

Dropbox (getdropbox.com) looks like a good option to me. I've toyed with it a bit, but haven't switched over because Foldershare's ability to let me browse my machine remotely is handy. If I were to drop FS, I'd switch over to Dropbox.

Re: Windows “Live” Foldershare Dead For a Week

Rob — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 09:37:37 -0000

I'm using Mesh with pretty good results. I have a laptop running both Mesh and FS monitoring the same folder, with each syncing to an individual desktop to compare. Both work pretty well with Mesh allowing you to store an on-line copy (up to 5GB) so you can still access data even if your PCs are off-line.

Re: Windows “Live” Foldershare Dead For a Week

Justin — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 08:27:12 -0000

Zoli, are you still using Foldershare or something else? Foldershare has been down since last night, so I am once again thinking about trying something else...maybe BeInSync or PowerFolder but they aren't free. I have been using Foldershare for years, but maybe it is time to move away to something else. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Re: Windows “Live” Foldershare Dead For a Week

Justin — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:57:53 -0000

Zoli, thanks for the hints. I will give them them a try when I can. Funny how dependent I am on FS. I am going to have to rethink my filing syncing.

Re: Windows “Live” Foldershare Dead For a Week

Zoli Erdos — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:11:15 -0000

Justin, I saw that error several times. One, rather clumsy way to fix it is to delete the placeholder file it tries to sync, and rename the file on the other machine. Then FS thinks it's new and will sync it.

Of course the real trouble is files it misses without you noticing it :-(

Oh, and when it can’t sync an open file and there’s not way to skip the file; the only options are “retry” or close the entire apps. That’s just pathetic.

Re: Windows “Live” Foldershare Dead For a Week

Justin — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 02:13:41 -0000

I was thinking of checking out PowerFolder, but OUCH...it is expensive. Sorry Christian, too much $$ for me.

Re: Windows “Live” Foldershare Dead For a Week

Justin — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 02:03:32 -0000

Anyone else having this problem...some of my folders sync while other do not. For a file under the "status" column, it just says "sending request". It ends up timing out or something then moving on to another file. Pretty frustrating.

Re: Windows “Live” Foldershare Dead For a Week

Christian Sprajc — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:32:06 -0000

I still recommend PowerFolder (http://www.powerfolder.com) as alternative.

Re: Windows “Live” Foldershare Dead For a Week

Christian — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:31:03 -0000

I'll still recommend PowerFolder (http://www.powerfolder.com) as alternative solution.

Re: Windows “Live” Foldershare Dead For a Week

Steve — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:04:33 -0000

Well, it's been down today for some sort of update. I still can't get connected even though the update is complete according to the fs homepage.

Like others, I have come to rely heavily on foldershare for my business, syncing work computers with home computers and laptops. I'd gladly pay for it in exchangfe for guaranteed uptime.

Re: Windows “Live” Foldershare Dead For a Week

Carlos E Ferrero — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:05:36 -0000

It is hard to add anything. Nearly everything has been said. It has become a vital part of my system and now it is dead, dead, DEAD! MARCH 20, 2008

Re: Windows “Live” Foldershare Dead For a Week

Christian — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:39:53 -0000

Heyho, PowerFolder might not be that intuitive for a mom :) But for professionals PowerFolder is a tool that rules.

Just three benefits of PowerFolder:
- It's pure p-2-p. So you are pretty independed from any third party.
- It offers delta syncing (copies only the changed parts of a file).
- and data CAN but is not required to be stored on a Online Storage. So it's always accessible, even if the computer(s) are offline. Useful if you need the data highly available or want offsite backup.

Re: Windows “Live” Foldershare Dead For a Week

Cliff Allen — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:27:45 -0000

Glad to have FolderShare working again. It came up this morning quickly and synced everything just like it's supposed to!

Re: Windows “Live” Foldershare Dead For a Week

Alan — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:42:49 -0000

Can't wait to see read the excuses.

Re: Windows “Live” Foldershare Dead For a Week

Craig Bartels — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:10:31 -0000

an update!!!!

Nov 18, 4:30PM PST
Maintenance Update:

* We are wrapping up our maintenance operations and are starting to bring the FolderShare service online.
* We are allowing FolderShare clients to re-connect in a controlled fashion to confirm the system is operating correctly.
* Your client will re-connect over the next few hours. Once connected you will be able resume synchronization between your clients.
* Access to the the www.foldershare.com will resume on Monday Nov 19th by 8:30AM(PST).

Re: Windows “Live” Foldershare Dead For a Week

Justin — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 15:03:00 -0000

I am glad that I found your site. I was beginning to wonder if my firewall was the cause of my Foldershare problems or some "critical" update. "Nice" to know that I am not the only one with connection issues. I hope it comes back online soon. I am worried about have duplicate files between home and work. In the past, FS downtime seems to have been few and far between. I am going to stick with it and not switch for now. I agree with one of the previous posters...I would pay again if it meant less downtime. Cheers all.

Re: Windows “Live” Foldershare Dead For a Week

ron — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 11:39:36 -0000

Well, Beinsync (http://www.beinsync.com) still works and is in fact much more comprehensive that Foldershare. It includes online backup as well as file synch.

Re: Windows “Live” Foldershare Dead For a Week

Alan — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 11:37:19 -0000

Powerfolder is a problem. I can't convince my clients to go to sourceforge and download it - it just doesn't look good.

I followed the steps myself for downloading and installing and it's complicated. I think PowerFolder has too many options, only syncs automatically every 5 minutes, and messes up things like folder renames and doesn't deal with file change conflict very well. For example, I renamed a folder and it didn't delete the old one on the remote machines. Another example is where I edited the same file on both machines at slightly different times. Conflict resolution is not handled - the newest file simply wins and the old is not revved.

Also, I think the PowerFolder has too many options. FS is easy to set up and go. Remember, we are all geeky people so we tend to try this stuff out. But when dealing with clients who are less geeky, it becomes problematic.

Re: Windows “Live” Foldershare Dead For a Week

Craig Bartels — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 10:44:43 -0000

I think I have been using this program before all of you! This was a pay for service, I was paying, I believe, $100/year back before Microsoft purchased it. Then suddenly Microsoft emailed me and said that since they bought it, they are crediting my account for the rest I hadn't used and it was now free.

I was happy to see it was now free, but worried about what that would mean. Apparently, that means Microsft won't support it right.

I would gladly go back to paying for this, if it increased reliability.

I have been relying on this product so much over the past 3 years, I don't know what I would do without it. I use this on no less then 8 computers, keeping my real estate office in sync and keeping clients happy. I don't know what I am going to do if Microsoft can't get this fixed.

Re: Windows “Live” Foldershare Dead For a Week

Christian Sprajc — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 23:12:33 -0000

Hi,

PowerFolder is an open-source alternative to FolderShare.
Try it: http://www.powerfolder.com

Re: Windows “Live” Foldershare Dead For a Week

Paul Vodrazka — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 22:42:22 -0000

My biggest complaint is that the online servers need to be up for the service to work locally. Why can't my LAN machines stay synced when the MS server is down. Such a capability would seem way too obvious to me.
You can also use MS Groove which installs with Office 2007, but it has some limitations too.

Re: Windows “Live” Foldershare Dead For a Week

Alan — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 20:53:10 -0000

With all honesty, I have tried them all. They are either unreliable or damn expensive, charging prices per gig or just not usable in the way that we like FS. BoxCloud is another, but it just is not the same.

We kept coming back to FS and as a software design consultancy have come to rely on it heavily. It is sad to see that this product has not progressed at all since it was aquired from ByteTaxi.

What is more frustrating is that it has a lot of potential, especially around collaboration. And when it is up it "just works" which is why we all love it so much.

I had spoken to some MS support people there a while back, asking if they had a premier paid service since ByteTaxi used to offer it and they said (and this was over 2 years ago) that they were working on it. It's sad to see that it has not gone anywhere.

I've since developed some ties deep into M$ and am probing in there to figure out what the hell is going on. It's just a damn shame. Then you see stuff that is in the Mac Leopard release and have to wonder if it is time to switch.

Re: Windows “Live” Foldershare Dead For a Week

Irian — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 20:20:31 -0000

Alan, thanks for letting us know about your experience with BeInSync. I tried PowerFolder, and did not quite like it. Even though I had two folders that were almost in sync from the last time I used Foldershare, PowerFolder decided it needed to resynchronize by copying an overwriting all the files in one location. No harm done, but took forever, and only one file of the 900 it was copying had actually changed.