Windows 7 Briefcase is not viable

Anonymous

I use briefcase extensively to sync my travel laptop with my office desktop. I carry virtually my entire working life in two large synced files. Windows 7 seems to render briefcase unusable. 1) a.sync source file and b. status are missing from the default Windows Explorer display. I finally figured out how to restore them, but it is hardly user friendly. 2) Syncing analysis is so slow it needs to speed up to stop (usually Task Manager says it is non-responsive) but it does (I think) usually come back if you wait long enough. I've given up on wireless as I believe that is worse. 3) If there is a way to "split from original" so that files or directories may be removed from the briefcase, I haven't figured out how. 4)Other strange things happen. My "Critical" briefcase just changed from a briefcase into a normal folder for reasons I haven't figured. Had a file marked read only, which wouldn't sync, and after removing the read only attribute, resyncing and exiting, the briefcase icon was replaced by the folder icon and no longer had briefcase characteristics. (That may not bee the reason, I did other things, but that was the strangest.). - If anybody at MS is interested in making Briefcase viable, I'd love to help. - SY Wink

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Anonymous

SYWink,

I stumbled across your post in looking for answers to the Windows 7 Briefcase. What I was able to find as an answer (at least for my situation) was that the necessary menu bar for the briefcase was hidden by default in Win7. The standard Windows 7 folder view doesn't have the familiar File, Edit, View, etc. You can re-enable the normal menu bar by clicking on Organize-Layout-Menu Bar. Once this is enabled you will also see the familiar "Briefcase" option in that menu bar when you're in your Briefcase. Under Briefcase you should see the "Split From Original" option.

I have not yet looked into the sync speed, so I have no insight as to that. However, as for the briefcase magically turning into a regular folder, I have actually seen that on just about every Microsoft OS, I've never found a reason for it.

I hope this helps you, at least a little.

Toledohitman

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Anonymous

If one requires synchronization so urgently and in a professional capacity perhaps one should purchase synchronization software such as Allway Sync or BellSync or GoodSync or others. Also, if data management is part of ones profession, than one may have buddies that can try out the different software and collaborate on the best of what's out there. Again, if you make more money by being on your A-game with file synchronization than it pays to purchase specialized software instead of kicking yourself and crying about it for all to hear, no?. Good software is only about 20 bucks. I make less than 30k a year and can afford that :)

To all, this thread raises an important problem of compounding a problem with frustrated ranting. If one is frustrated than take a moment to focus on the goal before one speaks out. Otherwise you don't solve anything and you reinforce and popularize adolescent behavior. Readers should also consider ranting to possibly be trolling or competitor negative advertising. Compulsive insincerity and cowardly rude behavior are going to cause big problems if we don't all recognize them as bringing society into very dark times.

Dear S Wink, you could do your listening audience a great service and post reviews of software like the aforementioned. Maybe even get into a Linux club and work with GNU projects perhaps? If your job involves these things than you stand to really contribute to making things better. If your job is to talk down Microsoft than you're doing great, lol.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

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65 additional answers

Anonymous

2011-10-02T16:07:08+00:00
Briefcase on Win7 is not good. So, I add myself to this chain.
1. It keeps loosing itself meaning that the briefcase database gets corrupted which is VERY dangerous. You WILL lose data!!! It tells you there are no updates to sync but there are! This is because of the corrupted Briefcase database.
2. Since Briefcase is a database it can't stor a database. That's why MDB files won't sync.
3. When there are hidden files like the system desktop.ini and thumbs.db Briefcase sync says there are unknown errors and all files were not sync'd. Well, since I don't care about those it should either sync them or ignore them.
XP is the better way to go. With Win7 we are all chancing data loss!!!!

Thanks,

Ron
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Anonymous

2011-06-08T22:05:32+00:00

Hi S Wink,

I agree that Briefcase in Windows 7 is unusable. I used to use it all the time in XP as well. There are more issues than just what you have noticed. If you add a Briefcase location to a Library (like your Documents library) it causes nasty hangs in explorer.exe. I stopped using Briefcase (unfortunately, I would recommend you do the same) and moved to a tool called SyncToy which is available for download on microsoft.com. I found it to be much more reliable and straightforward. Also, the speed is much better.

Thanks,

Daniel
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Anonymous

2011-05-27T02:24:09+00:00

In addition to the issues outlined with briefcase under windows 7 I also have an issue synching over a network using briefcase under windows 7. I seem to be able to update individual folders in the briefcase but whenever I try to update all items I receive a dialog box saying, "There is not enough memory to view the Update dilog box. Quit some files or programs and try again." This dialog box appears regardles of whether anything else is open. - JM
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