SyncToy is a very good free software from Microsoft. It can synchronize your images and files across multiple folders. One practical use of it is to sync your copy of digital photographs. If you are like me, you might be having photos lying across multiple folders. I run into this situation a lot of times that I end up copying some of the photos across multiple folders, and then it becomes really difficult to create a master folder with all the photographs. Using SyncToy, it becomes really easy to keep such folders in sync.
SyncToy starts with pairing folders together. You define the folders that you want to keep in sync with each other. Then, SyncToy evaluates the folders and makes the files in sync. At that time, SyncToy also makes a snapshot of both the folders to keep a note of the current state of those folders. When you use SyncToy again on that pair of folders, SyncToy will refer to the snapshot that it had taken earlier to identify the changes that have happened since last time, and then sync the folders.
One of the best feature that I like about SyncToy is that it can even identify if some file has been renamed, and then apply those renames to folder to be synced. Really cool.
SyncToy gives you three options to sync your files:
- Synchronize: New and updated files are copied both ways. Renames and deletes on either side are repeated on the other.
- Echo: New and updated files are copied left to right. Renames and deletes on the left are repeated on the right.
- Contribute: New and updated files are copied left to right. Renames on the left are repeated on the right. No deletions
Before syncing the files, SyncToy shows you a very intuitive preview of the actions that SyncToy will take. It also lets you unselect any of those actions. Any files that are deleted are moved to Recycle bin, so you can recover accidentally deleted files from there.
SyncToy is simple to use, powered by intuitive interface, and works very well. Download links, and video tutorials at the end.