Single or Multiple

To help you keep track of synchronization across multiple data media, Synkron provides a tab structure in which each profile is shown in a separate program window, so you can process multiple profiles in succession.

Clicking top left on the New tab button in the taskbar opens another tab in the work area with a generic name (e.g., Sync #2 for the second tab), but you can change this by adding an intuitive name in the input box, top center in the tab. The new tab window has exactly the same structure as the original tab window. You can now define all the desired options for the sync absolutely independent of the first profile.

After completing the settings for the data sync, you can save the profile via Tab | Save Tab. If you have defined multiple profiles and closed some of them, you can open them again the next time you launch the program with Tab | Load Tab. To perform various sync actions, click on File | Sync all.

To perform mixed file syncs, look for the Multisync button in the button bar. The profile, which you also need to create in a new tab, lets you define a variety of directories as sources by pressing the + Add button in the Sources area and then selecting the datasets you want to sync.

In the Destination line, define the target to which all of your sources are synced. For more settings, go to the Advanced menu by pressing the button at the bottom left in the window. After completing the profile definition, save your entries again with Tab | Save Tab.

Filters

Besides defining blacklists with exclusion criteria, Synkron also allows you to define sets of files by means of a filter list; these files are taken into consideration exclusively in a synchronization run. You can define a filter list via the Filters button in the top right of the program window.

In the right-hand pane of a split window, you enter the file suffixes of the files to be included in the sync action. On the left are the various filters you have defined. For each filter you can define multiple extensions; each extension needs to be added by pressing the + Add button below the list of extensions (Figure 2).

Figure 2: The Filters include lists of file extensions.

Schedule

Of course, you do not need to trigger each sync manually after painstakingly selecting all the profile parameters. Synkron offers a convenient scheduler for automated backups. To launch it, press the Scheduler button in the button bar. The software then opens an input window with four list views.

Start by entering an intuitive name in Schedule options; this is transferred to the Schedule name column in the pane above. The task is first listed in the Status column as Off with a red background. You can now enable the sync profiles you want to automate by checking boxes in the lower left pane(s) of the window. Synkron shows you all the defined individual and multisync profiles in dedicated areas.

In the bottom right part of the window, you can enter schedules for automated syncs by selecting weekdays with the checkboxes to the left of the desired day; to add times, press the Add button and selecting the desired times in the calendar.

If you do not want to perform backups on a daily basis – which makes sense if you need to sync larger sets of data – but use a defined time interval instead, you can open the Synchronise periodically tab in the bottom right pane. In the small dropdown, then, select the time intervals between syncs in minutes.

To enable automated syncs, press the Start all button. The settings area is now grayed out and cannot be edited. If you want to change the existing parameters, you first need to press Stop all to return the software to setting mode (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Automating backups with just a few settings.