Introducing a Stronger, Better, Faster Sync Desktop App

It’s a story we know all too well: a few files stored in Sync quickly grows to thousands of files across multiple computers, shared folders, and Vault. People rely on Sync to keep all their work safely stored. For some of our largest customers that means millions of files syncing to the cloud at any time. Billions of files are stored when you add it all up!

As more and more documents, images, and videos are uploaded to Sync, with ever-increasing file sizes, the technology syncing it must scale too. That’s why we rebuilt the Sync desktop app to run faster with large-scale file sets and massive file sizes. The latest desktop release makes getting your best work done significantly faster, whether you’ve got megabytes, gigabytes, or terabytes of data.

This update is rolling out gradually to all Sync customers over the next few months. Here are the highlights that make this the ultimate desktop app experience:

Meeting the need for faster upload speed

The new Sync desktop app now uploads files faster, which means less waiting and more doing. For large media files, uploading starts instantaneously. No more waiting for the app to verify each file for correctness (creating a cryptographic checksum or hash value in tech speak). Verification happens in parallel with the file transfer, saving time. Those minutes previously added up to lengthy delays. Now they don’t.

Copying files to Sync Vault is speedier too because Vault uploads are multi-threaded. This means multiple files in a folder upload simultaneously instead of sequentially, making backing up files located outside your Sync folder a breeze.

Additionally, processing of large recursive folder structures is up to 3x faster. No more waiting for what seems like an eternity when uploading large volumes of files organized in deeply nested folders. If you like keeping your files neat and tidy in subfolders of subfolders of subfolders, you’ll absolutely love this update!

Give your CPU a break

This desktop release uses less memory and less CPU while doing a whole lot more. For users with large file sets, memory usage remains constant regardless of size, which means more system resources for all your other apps. Displaying the sync status on individual files has been optimized to utilize less CPU, so navigating your files using Windows Explorer or Mac Finder feels smoother. CPU usage is further reduced because the app only does work when work needs to be done. All in all, your computer will thank you with hugs!

No more share folder breakups

If you ever found yourself unexpectedly quit on a share, you were not alone. The latest desktop app solves this with improved integrity checking on shared folders. Gone are the days when moving a share folder into another share folder brings your collaboration to a halt. Now the Sync app notifies you and fixes the issue before it happens.

The ultimate in desktop app syncing

But wait, there’s more! We’ve improved error messages under the Progress Tab (app Preferences) to indicate why a file is not syncing. Processing media files of all types is faster. And significant under-the-hood code optimizations will help us build future desktop features easier.

This update is rolling out gradually to all Sync customers over the next few months, and an in-app update notification will let you know as soon as it’s available. If you don’t have the Sync desktop yet, or you want to update right now, you can get the latest app (version 2.2) here.