Ask Slashdot: Local Sync Options For Android Mobile To PC?

Bucc5062 writes "A previous mobile phone of mine, a Motorola Razr, had a very nice program call Motocast. With it any pictures and videos would be automatically uploaded to a local/home PC running something akin to a 'cloud' service. This was great tool for I did not want to store files in the greater 'cloud'. the Razr moved on and I currently have two phones at home, neither of which have the same ability to push files to a local PC automatically. I did some research and did not find any good substitute for local cloud type backup so I am putting this out to one of the most diverse crowds I know, Slashdot readers. Zumocast did not look like it did the trick (I don't want streaming to my mobile device) and Delite studios had local cloud, but they make no reference to automatically pushing files to the server. I have people at home who are not tech savvy and would never remember to do it manually. Rolling my one is a long term option though it would require me learning the APIs for Android and I guess Windows. Is there something out that that works as good as Motocast?" ownCloud seems like a reasonable contender (installation on Debian, at least in the case of a few users and sqlite, is pretty easy). Their Android app has an option to automatically sync videos and photos as they are taken. But are there other options that are easier to install for folks uncomfortable with the idea of running Apache and an SQL server?

Comments

Google Plus

[sanosuke001]

You can have Google Plus keep your photos/videos updated in your plus account as private. Then, you can download them to your pc if you need to. It does mean that google has your stuff but don't they anyway with it on your phone? If this bothers you, stop using your phone.

Re:Google Plus

[Lenbok]

I'm not sure why the parent got modded up as it does not meet the OP needs -- they explicitly said they wanted a local solution. For many people with data caps on their cellular and or home internet connection, syncing videos to your PC via the internet is not viable as you use double the bandwidth.

G+ is also monster for eating your cellular data -- even after telling it to sync photos etc via wifi only it still destroyed my data cap one day, I assume this was in some attempt to download an "autoawesome" video that had been generated but didn't obey the wifi-only preference.

To answer the local sync question, I use FolderSync, as another poster below mentioned already.

BitTorrent Sync

[Anonymous Coward]

BitTorrent Sync is what you are looking for.

Re:BitTorrent Sync

[pr0nbot]

I think you meant that both sync devices need to be on at the same time IF you want the sync to be immediate. Otherwise, BTSync will happily sync at the point where the missing device come online.

Duh?

[Keruo]

Isn't it obvious to use rsync+ssh for syncing unix to unix?
I don't use that one myself, just first result from google which is free.

Re:Duh?

[xaxa]

I use the rsync app linked above. I already had a server (low-power ARM thing), so it took a few minutes to create a username and public key. The app has a list of defined rsync commands, I run it every so often.

FolderSync app

[Fencepost]

I'd look at the FolderSync app, ~$3. It supports a huge number of backend connection types including FTP/SFTP, SMB/CIFS and WebDAV to cover most of your local server needs. It also covers most of the major and many minor cloud storage providers. You can set it up to sync only on specified wifi networks, to sync on schedules or when files change, etc.

There's also a "lite" version, which only allows 2 accounts, no Tasker support and no sync filters (which I've never fiddled with anyway, so may not be that important).

Sweet Home app

[werelnon]

Syncs images and videos to a SMB share whenever you are connected to your LAN:

https://play.google.com/store/...

Simple and works for me.

Re:Titanium Backup

[Shados]

Well, one of the primary requirements in the summary is to not use the public cloud in favor of a private one (so stuff goes straight to your PC without touching dropbox/google drive/whatever).

While I think that's kind of a waste of time, it was pretty clear.

Re:Titanium Backup

[mlts]

I use Titanium Media Sync for the files and Titanium Backup for everything else. If one is afraid of Dropbox or a cloud service, then that is one issue. However, if one is just backing up apps, Titanium Backup has very good encryption (encrypting, it uses a public key, decrypting, it prompts and unlocks a private key.)

Of course, Dropbox's app does a good job for saving photos to its storage.

If one needs encryption, there are always programs that use EncFS that remote sync to cloud providers. This allows files to be stored on Dropbox, et. al. encrypted completely.

Synology NAS

[Scutter]

This may be overkill for your needs, but I have a Synology NAS that does this. It's got a Dropbox-like app called Cloud Sync to sync all your devices with your NAS (and will sync WiFi-only for your Android if you want). It also has a separate photo app that will auto-upload your photos to your NAS. It includes many other apps that might interest you as well.