Windows Live Mesh and Dropbox

I'm sure some of you have already made this discovery, but it didn't occur to me until today that Windows Live Mesh is not some poorly made version of Dropbox with more GB space. Though, that's in fact how I have been using it. Live Mesh gives you 5GB instead of Dropbox's 2GB. The interface, while simple, is difficult to understand. Dropbox is extremely intuitive and easy to use. But, that's the wrong reason to use Live Mesh.

Huh?

If you use Live Mesh by itself (without the Sky Drive), you can just use it to sync several machines together. So? The BFD is that there's no space limitation.

I am syncing 300GB of data right now. This is cloud, without the cloud. And if you're paranoid about privacy, this is even better.
EDIT: 300GB is too much for the app to handle. At least it's too much for one folder. It would probably work spread out across multiple sync folders.

You all probably use Dropbox, so let's start there. With Dropbox, you create, move a file in your Dropbox. That file then gets copied onto a Dropbox cloud server. Your DB folder and the cloud folder are the same. After you are synced, you turn off this machine (#1). Then you turn on machine #2, which also has a DB. The cloud server will tell machine #2 that it needs new info. Machine #2 pulls down the changed info and is synced.

Live Mesh is different because there's no cloud server (unless you use Sky Drive).

So, if you have a desktop machine at home that is always on, it is the same thing as having your own, private Dropbox cloud server. The only difference, though, is that there's no space limitation and it's free. And oh yeah, you don't have to name your folder "Dropbox," and you can have as many folders as you like.

The other downside is that Live Mesh doesn't sync to iPads/iPods/iPhones/iSteve. But it does work between Mac OS X and Windows. And for all your mobile gadgets, you can use Dropbox. And all free 2GB can just go to mobile use. How sweet is that? So, basically Live Mesh is used for creating a faux cloud environment between servers, desktops and laptops. Dropbox is useful for cloud on mobile devices, like manga PDFs on iPads and what not.

If this was Captain Obvious, I'm sorry. If it sounds like a good idea, I'll take questions.

 

Thanks. That part about using Live Mesh is very informative. I'll need to explore that a bit.

This is probably how I could save my bookmarks in IE9, which is something that I have not done (to my regret).

 

Good point. You'd get syncing that actually works. Unlike Xmarks, Chrome Sync, Firefox Sync which are all total failures rated between F- to F+.

 

are you kidding me? you're saying firefox sync is a 'failure'.

i'm going to request that you backup that claim.

 

Okay, let me try and clarify. I want the feature called, "Firefox Sync" to keep, manage and organize my bookmarks in an identical manner on two machines (or more). Whenever I change the layout or add/remove bookmarks on one machine, those changes should be reflected on the other machine.

I believe that Mozilla says that Firefox Sync is supposed to work this way. I would be quite happy if it did. It does not.

Firefox on both machines? Check.
Sync on both machines? Sometimes.

If they had named it Firefox Sometimes, I wouldn't call that a failure. I'd call that delivering as promised.
"Firefox Sync," however, is a FAILURE.

XMARKS also likes to engage in failure.

 

Chromes sync works perfectly fine between my 2 laptops.... anyways that's the issue with live mesh.. you have to have one machine always on to get "unlimited space" With dropbox I can have my files synced between 2 laptops without the laptop on and I can get to my files from my android devices... plus with 8gb I have never had the issue of running out of room

 

alright, your sync issues....are they NOT syncing sometimes? or are they just not syncing automatically?

i noticed that sync didn't always sync by itself in firefox 3.6(or w/e it was initially released). however, in ff4, its been quite flawless with 2 computers + iphone app.

 

Both. Only one company does sync correctly in my experience. Dropbox.

 

Hmm. Looks like I got moved to Windows forum. Live Mesh works cross platform if anyone's listening.

 

so wheres the OSX version client?

 

Very cool. If I ever have a computer that just stays on I'll do this. At the moment it's all laptops and I prefer to turn them off when possible.

 

Oh hey, glad to be of service. Feel free to throw some reps. Nothing wrong with that!

You get the best results if you have one machine always on. IMO, it's better than Dropbox because you never know who's going to steal your data off the cloud. Live Mesh is still kinda buggy though, so that kinda irritates me.

 

I just saw a Windows Update that is about Live Essential 2011 that only vaguely mentioned significant performance improvement which may include tweaks to Live Mesh.

And yes, Live Mesh is very nice feature wise(used to use their Sync which now get merged into Mesh), just needs some more polishing(i.e. more users to report problems). It even comes with an RDP service that works through typical NAT routers.

 

So, LiveMesh could be used to keep my itunes updated between my desktop and 2 laptops? Or at least keep the folder where my itunes music is kept synced?
And does the sync go omnidirectionally? Or does it set one computer as the "host" and mirror those folders to the other one?

 

That's what I was trying to do. It will fail because LiveMesh doesn't like the album art for some reason. MS says they're aware and working on it. Even if that worked, though, there's the .itl and .xml library issues. I hate iTunes. And yet, everything else is even worse than this turd.

 

So, could I at least use it to keep MP3's synced? Then just reimport them into itunes?

 

Thank you! Time to try it!

 

You can definitely keep your mp3s synced. I don't know how to just update the library without having to rebuild the entire database. If you find out specifics, I'm interested.

Yes, omnidirectional. The only thing is that it isn't perfect like Dropbox. Sometimes, things won't work and then they will. Smaller libraries shouldn't be a problem (like 20GB range).

 

I've been using Live Mesh to sync some folders between my T500 and X120e ever since I got the latter. Nice program, and does what it's supposed to do.

I've only had two (sort of three) issues with it
1.- The client on my T500 locks up every once in a while when I'm configuring some settings, for some reason. Never really happens on my X120e, even though both are running W7 64-bit. Strange.

2.- Syncing is delayed sometimes when one machine is powered up--it works flawlessly, though, if both machines are kept on all the time.

3.- Not really an issue, but WLM is kind of stupid sometimes when file names are changed--it resyncs the entire file, even if no changes were made to the file. This can be annoying sometimes when the file is a large 50MB+ PDF file or something. It'd be nice to see the program intelligently change the name of the file without recopying.

 

I have no idea why Live Mesh and Dropbox are not used by everyone with a home computer and mobile laptop. Personally I use Live Mesh to sync personal data that is frequently changed, namely my university office documents. Dropbox syncs my 1Password data to simplify my password management across multiple computers.

 

The big difference between live mesh and Dropbox is that Dropbox works!

I used live sync when it was out and then Microsoft insisted on changing it. After several months of trying to get live mesh to work on my mac I have given up. It's not worth the effort. They took a product that worked, change it and made it unusable.

So if it works for you now beware, they may change the name one day and make it unusable. It's a total waste of time.

 

I just switched to sugarsync.... its like dropbox with more features

 

Sure. The whole point of the original post was to point out that Dropbox is better at doing Dropbox type features. Live Mesh is buggy but it also does what others don't. A huge aspect is privacy because your data doesn't stay on anyone's server except your own.

 

I have somewhere around 6GB from dropbox by inviting people/ doing their virtual treasure hunt.

Can I use live mesh on XP? I'd love to use my old POS desktop as a local server.

 

Really??? That's not the case. Live synch is no longer available to use. And soon the version that followed it won't be available either. So you're wrong.

That's great. But the point of my post was that Live Mesh is beyond buggy, it does NOT work for many people, especially mac users. Their was no such problem with Microsoft live sync.

 

Did you try to unfriend Steve Ballmer? Maybe that'll get his attention.

 

You can refer to all kinds of anecdotes about how buggy Live Mesh is, but ultimately people should use whatever programs they prefer.

I've used Live Mesh since its inception as Live Sync, and the only difference is that Live Mesh has more unnecessary complexities. However, if you know how the program works then you can make it work for you and not against you. Dropbox is less picky, but with simplicity you do sacrifice utility. Ultimately the design of the program reflects the technical skills of the users and the user requirements of the program.

 

Live Mesh sounds awesome. I'm just curious if I could get it to work with a remote Windows Home Server so I can store critical stuff on my parents WHS as well.

 

It "works" cross platform, but it's pretty buggy. I've since uninstalled it from my MacBook. When I used it between my VAIO notebook and desktop, it worked very well.

 

You're expecting stuff from a Windows company to support Apple? Even if they do state support...?

I can use Mesh without issues on my own computer. It's just a regular Win7 x64. Though they do state it is incredibly picky and has pretty specific system requirements. I must say however after installing it I have barely used it... 5GB of space really isn't enough.

Oh and sugarkang, nice av mate

 

Maybe if more people stop using their products it will really get his attention. Then again I can't stop using it since it never worked!

There is no limit if you're syncing folder to folder.

And they told me it should work but their fixes did not work and after a while I ran out of patience.

 

Here since you don't want to believe me here's what their moderator said in their forum. So please stop busting my balls, I'm just the messenger.

"Yes, unfortunately, that means that once the back end environment for Live Mesh is shut down, your Mesh of XP machines will stop working. Since we have not heard when the updated Live Sync will ship as a final product, we also don't know when the existing Live Mesh infrastructure will be shut down. I am sure, however, that there will be a reasonable period of overlap - probably at least a few months - before Live Mesh will stop working entirely after Live Sync is released."

What happens to Live Mesh XP Users?

Folder share does not work. Live sync does not work. Live mesh may or may not still work. It seems that soon they will only be supporting Windows Live Mesh. What a friggen mess.