How to Keep Your Data in Sync Across Platforms and Devices

Masses are no more tied to any specific location or device as they roam about getting process done connected laptops, tablets, or even smartphones. The challenge is to keep everything synced so you can access the same data from from each one of those platforms.

Your productivity at the neighborhood cafe grinds to a halt when the PowerPoint display you need is stuck on your PC at the office. Or, when you motive to make an urgent holler while out at lunch, you se the hard way that a guest's phone number on your laptop at place hasn't even so synced with the smartphone in your hand.

No perfect, seamless solution exists hitherto, but you can automate syncing crossways platforms arsenic very much like possible and avoid many of these annoying scenarios.

Syncing E-Mail, Contacts, and Calendars

Keeping these kinds of data synced between whatever two devices is normally non too difficult. Smartphones and tablets by and large have a USB cable of some sort that connects them with a PC to sync information. The problem is to keep things up up to now when you're away from the calculator. Consider these approaches.

You need access to the same information and data no matter which PC or mobile device you're using. — You need get at to the same information and data no count which Microcomputer or mobile device you're using.

1. Dance With Them What Brung You

For some platforms, nonremittal systems are in situ. E.g., smartphones and tablets running Google's Android OS work best when abutting with the set out of Google services, such as Gmail, Google Calendar, and Contacts. Blackberry bush devices work best with BlackBerry Enterprise Server. And Microsoft Windows Phone 7 devices puzzle out good with a Microsoft base. While IT is contingent to use new solutions for e-mail, contacts, and calendars, life is a lot easier if you embrace the factual system for your specific ambulatory device, and depend on that system for keeping your information synced along your Personal computer and on other devices too, if manageable.

2. Use Exchange Active Sync

If you use Microsoft Exchange Host OR Office 365, keeping your data synced is relatively simple. Exchange Server maintains the e-mail messages, contacts, and calendar info, so the information can live accessed from pretty much anywhere and any gimmick. Laptops can join to Exchange over any Internet connection, and most smartphones and tablets derriere stay synced using Exchange Active Sync. BlackBerry smartphones and tablets use Blackberry bush Commutation Server rather than Exchange Active Sync to accomplish the same goal.

3. Go Through Google

If you are non using Exchange Active Sync, Beaver State you need to keep data in sync with another PC, neither of the previous solutions leave help. For both iOS devices and secondary PCs, the easiest path to syncing information runs through Google.

The simple solution is to use the several Google tools. If you swear on Gmail, Google Calendar, and Contacts rather than electronic mail, calendar, and contacts maintained topically as with Microsoft Outlook, then you North Korean won't really have multiple copies of the comparable information to strain to keep in sync. You will simply connect to the Google information from your various devices, and any changes operating theatre additions will comprise ready-made on the Google inspection and repair itself, soh they will be reflected when you join from another device.

If you use Microsoft Post and rely happening Outlook topically for e-postal service, calendar, and contacts, Google smooth offers the way of least effort for keeping things in sync. Google Apps Sync for Mind-set will sync your e-mail, contacts, calendar, and notes between Google Apps and Outlook–but as the name implies, IT requires you to beryllium a paying customer of Google Apps.

Google Calendar Sync can sync between Microsoft Outlook and your Google Calendar. — Google Calendar Sync can synchronize 'tween Microsoft Outlook and your Google Calendar.

For users who are not Google Apps customers, though, Google has alternative tools. Google Calendar Synchronise wish perform ii-fashio syncing of your calendar between Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook. You can effectuate e-ring armou on triple computers as long as you configure each system to leave messages connected the waiter as well indeed they can be downloaded at each placement. That still leaves your contacts.

A variety of products help replete this void and keep data on Google synced with data connected Microsoft Outlook. Using a cartesian product like Sync2 ($30), or gSyncIt ($20) for each PC you neediness to keep in synchronize will make sure changes and additions from one Personal computer leave make their way to your other computers.

With your data synced to Google, you can then put back your iPhone operating room iPad to economic consumption Google Synchronise for e-mail, calendar, and contacts so those platforms will also have get at to the current, synced data. Google uses Exchange Overactive Sync, then you add Google Synchronise to your iOS gimmick As if IT were an Commutation e-ring mail account, then set your calendar and contacts to update using Google Sync.

Syncing All Kinds of Files

Keeping documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and other data synced among devices can comprise Sir Thomas More challenging. Email, contacts, and calendar data are au fond individual files that are meant to be the same from unity twist to another. Files so much atomic number 3 word processing documents, along the other script, are much more fluid and limitless. Documents, spreadsheets, and other files can also quickly exceed the storage capacity of mobile devices that a great deal have a exiguous 8GB or 16GB of storage.

Transmit It With You

The trick is non only to have the same file away available on apiece platform, just to be healthy to create or edit those files on any platform and see those changes and that calm reflected wherever you access them. It is possible to fund your files on an extrinsic USB hard drive or thumb drive that you carry around and arse access whether at your desktop operating theatre on your notebook at a Starbucks. The USB memory board also will work with some tablets, like the Motorola Xoom, but for near tablets and smartphones, you'll need another solution. One drawback of USB storage is that if you're financial support up that USB data on diverse devices, you could easily wind up with multiple versions of the same file cabinet.

A majority of smartphones and tablets have expansive storehouse through SD memory cards, and many desktops and laptops have memory card readers stacked in besides. But iPhones and iPads have neither a USB port nor an SD computer storage card slot. And again, carrying information with you on a card or fob means in that location's no elegant, automatic syncing behind the scenes; you moldiness save and back up the data yourself. You will have to find another fashio.

Cloud Syncing

You could use a portable USB drive or SD memory card to transport data between devices, but that's not so elegant. — You could economic consumption a movable USB drive or Coyote State memory card to transport information betwixt devices, merely that's non so elegant.

A with syncing e-mail, contacts, and calendars, the virtually elegant solution is to employment cloud-based storage, such as Microsoft Windows Viable SkyDrive or Google Docs. By storing your files online, you can access them from anywhere, using virtually any Entanglement-connected device, as long as you can find an Internet connection.

Ideally, you also want to be able to work offline when indispensable and static have the data stay in sync between your respective platforms and devices. SkyDrive provides a Microsoft-centric solution. Using Windows Live Mesh topology, data mechanically syncs from the desktop to the cloud–and Windows Phone 7 smartphones integrate with data stored on SkyDrive likewise. Users of other smartphone and pill platforms can still use the web browser to memory access the SkyDrive website, only without native support for SkyDrive OR Microsoft Office file formats, working with the files may not be as easy.

Google doesn't presently declare oneself a way to knead with Google Docs offline (although one is expected this summer), but you can use tools from Memeo to put up offline access to Google Docs data. And the free Google Cloud Colligate add-on lets you sync files from Microsoft Office software to Google's cloud–but be warned that Google Docs English hawthorn mess up your formatting.

For more superior general cloud information store that isn't so closely tied to Google Docs, you can enjoyment services like Box.net, Dropbox, or SugarSync. With each of these, designated folders along the topical anesthetic screen background are automatically synced with data stored online. The services have guest applications for both Windows and Mac OS X (Dropbox also has a Linux client), and for each one has apps to access synced data from various mobile platforms including iOS, Android, and Blackberry bush.

SugarSync provides 5GB of free storage across devices.

Dropbox provides 2GB of file storage and syncing for free, and SugarSync provides 5GB. Loge.net has free online storage, but you take over to pay for the next level up of service systematic to get the automatic desktop syncing. Corner.net offers more for paying customers, but SugarSync provides the to the highest degree storage mental ability and flexibility among the free services.

In many Utopian succeeding perhaps there bequeath be better normalization and a capableness to sync files and data across varied platforms and devices simply and seamlessly. For instantly, IT can be done, but depending on the devices you need to keep in synchronize it Crataegus laevigata affect some technical school acrobatics to pass all work.