I have a folder on my Mac hard drive named “My Cloud” and it looks as if the files I am syncing are being copied there as well as o he Mycloud drive. This defeats my purpose since I am syncing files from one network drive to mycloud. I want to save as much room as possible on the hard drive.
You installed (I assume) the WD Sync program which creates a “WD” folder on the computer (Mac or Windows) that is preconfigured as a sync folder.
Check the settings of the WD Sync program and more importantly see the WD Sync Help which explains how to use the program and how to remove sync folders…
I read the help files. If I read correctly than if I use sync, there has to be a sync folder on my macbook hard drive and copies of synced files will be copied to it, even though I am syncing files on two different network drives.
The WD Sync program creates a default “sync folder” so a user can drag and drop files from other locations on their hard drive that are not synced into the sync folder to sync file(s) to the My Cloud. If one copies files from other computers/devices into the sync folder on the My Cloud, those files should be synced to the PC running WD Sync. On Windows the WD Sync program, during installation, will present the option to monitor the Windows Documents, Music, Photos, Videos, and possibly other standard Windows file folders in addition to creating a separate WD Sync folder.
The way many sync programs including WD Sync typically work is they have to have folders on BOTH devices (your computer and the My Cloud) that the sync software monitors. Then it copies the files between each folder location when those files are updated in each folder. That is what “syncing” typically does. WD Sync will also create a version history (which causes additional storage space to be used on the My Cloud) and backup up to five versions of each file that is synced. This is to allow a user to recover a deleted synced file or to recover an older synced version of an existing synced file.
And that’s one of the reasons I don’t use it.
I want a program that I can simply instruct to sync any of my existing folders that I choose, not just a limited subset, or a special sync folder.
I don’t use any of the windows standard folders; I have my own, long-established file structure. And I don’t want to be forced to create a special folder just files that are synced.
And some folders I want to mirror, rather than sync. So I choose a tool that lets me select which folders to monitor, and what to do with them.
I like to control tools, not be controlled by them…
You can do the same with the WD Sync software. Its just the software automatically checks off the four or five default Windows folders and it is up to the user to uncheck them from that installer screen if they don’t want those default folders monitored. One can choose different folder locations to monitor through the WD Sync program post install as well. The WD Sync can be controlled for the most part, but it still has its problems and quirks. The Free File Sync program just has fewer issues but may require a bit more work to setup for autonomous syncing.
That’s good. I’m still not going to use it, though… 
Thanks for the explanation. I guess what I really want to do is to mirror some folders rather than sync. A while ago my Windows computer with a 1TB drive bit the dust. Although I periodically saved files to the network drive, I wasn’t always up to date. And the backup that was being done for some reason wasn’t working correcty. It wasn’t a disaster because I had most of the stuff, haphazard as it was.
SO I bought a MacBook Pro. After years with windows, since 3.0 I decided to go with the mac. However since I have an investment in some Windows software that is expensive to replace (non subscription Adobe programs Dreamweaver and Photoshop) I have also purchased a Windows laptop that my associate can use as well.
What I had hoped to do was to have the Mac copy any files that were changed on my 2TB GoFlex Drive which is where I save all my data to the MYcloud drive. Since the Mac SSD is only 256 GB, I want to keep as much as possible available for performance.
So, I guess I’ll have to find another way to accomplisg what I want to do.
Thanks for the help and the Information. Now I have a better understanding of what to look for under the hood.
Why?
FreeFileSync will do what you want; it’s what I use to mirror and sync selected folders.
If you were to move your files to the USB drive, and make that your primary data store (leaving the SSD for OS/program use only), you can get FFS to mirror or sync your USB drive to a mapped MyCloud share.
FFS will do real-time sync, or create a batch file to run mirror/sync. You can get it to shutdown or hibernate the machine when it’s finished, so I use it when I’ve finished working to backup/sync and turn off the PC. I just set it running and go.
You can create multiple batch scripts to do different backups; I use a different batch file to do regular, but infrequent backups of my MyCloud media files to USB HDDs on the PC.
FFS is available for Windows and Mac.
I’ll check that out. In fact I downloaded it got the mac yesterday. I’m not using any usb drives. I have a 2TB Go_Flex drive attached to my router as well as the Mycloud drive.
When I get the time I’ll explore FFS.
Thanks
Sorry; I assumed the GoFlex was a USB HDD. Same advice applies, though.
