tag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:/discussions/syncspace-app-support/5687-can-a-shared-folder-be-put-on-more-than-one-usb-driveInfinite Kind: Discussion 2018-08-04T15:20:24Ztag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/452114972018-05-03T18:01:49Z2018-05-03T18:01:50ZCan a Shared Folder be put on more than one USB drive?<div><p>I've read much further back in this forum, and thanks to earlier contributions by derekkent23 and dwg, I think I've figured out the answer. But let's see if I've got this right.</p>
<p>A "Shared Folder" has to meet (at least) three conditions:</p>
<ol>
<li>It has to be a single folder that is accessible by both machines;<br></li>
<li>It has to be a folder that Moneydance (on either machine) can read from and write to whenever it is running; and<br></li>
<li>It has to be the same folder used from the moment that syncing began.<br></li>
</ol>
<p>(1) by itself doesn't rule out using a folder on an external drive or USB drive. (2) implies it would have to be present whenever one wants to run Moneydance. And (3) implies yes, one would have to use the very same USB whenever running Moneydance. Since one might lose that USB it is far better, as derekkent23 points out, to use a "Dropbox Folder" or at least a cloud server of some sort.</p>
<p>As I understand it Moneydance might read from or write to the Shared Folder any time it is running, not under user control, so that's why (2) is required. And since it is an incremental syncing scheme it has to have the whole sequence from the beginning, so that's why we need (3).</p></div>nhamdaktag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/452114972018-05-03T19:23:50Z2018-05-03T19:23:50ZCan a Shared Folder be put on more than one USB drive?<div><p>I am not support staff, just a user.</p>
<p>Your reading of the situation is essentially correct.</p>
<p>The best way to sync is using Dropbox as a minimum a free account using Dropbox folder as the syncing method. That’s what I do. If you intend to also sync to a mobile device such as a phone then Dropbox is the only option. Syncing between computers you can use other cloud servers using the sync method shared folder. Other than Dropbox connection you don’t have to be connected to the internet when you are running Moneydance provided the cloud system you are using has a local copy of the shared folder is on your hard drive. Data will then sync to your folder in the cloud when you do connect to the internet. Any conflicts that occur due to the other computer running Moneydance during this time should be resolved by internal time stamps in the transaction files continually being created to be synced. Moneydance tries to sync at about 30 second intervals even if Moneydance is running but inactive.</p>
<p>Hope this helps</p></div>derekkent23tag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/452114972018-05-03T21:59:43Z2018-05-03T21:59:43ZCan a Shared Folder be put on more than one USB drive?<div><p>Yes you are fundamentally correct.</p>
<p>A USB drive is probably not the best choice, it is acceptable for backups, but of course must be present.</p>
<p>A shared drive is typically some form of a file share at the simplest level. Dropbox folder is somewhat a special case in that the folder is local to your machine so it meets the requirement of always being available to Moneydance but in the background the dropbox client software is handling the synchronisation to the dropbox server from the local machine so that the overall moneydance requirements are being met with the help of a third party system and software.</p>
<p>Could you potentially use something other than dropbox to achieve this? Well you you could custom craft another solution but it would never work with mobile devices only with desktop/notebook type systems.</p></div>dwgtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/452114972018-05-05T15:20:18Z2018-05-05T15:20:18ZCan a Shared Folder be put on more than one USB drive?<div><p>Thank you derekkent23 and dwg! Your earlier posts on this topic were enormously useful in figuring this out, and in my opinion could be usefully incorporated into the knowledge base. I'll post a suggestion to that effect.</p>
<p>I've since backtracked and switched syncing from "Shared Folder" to "Dropbox Folder". (One aha! moment for me was reading that a Dropbox Folder is just a special instance of a Shared Folder; it was the differences between the various options that aren't all that clear in the knowledge base.)</p>
<p>Anyway the syncing feature works great and is quite impressive. And I finally understand why the program is called Money*dance*: what dances are all those little transaction files, dancing around inside Dropbox!</p></div>nhamdak