Anybody find a better syncing solution for EF than DropBox?

I really love EF (as I’ve posted in numerous places) and use it multiple times a day. Finally I can actually find miscellaneous pieces of information and important files when I need them.

The big shortcoming to me, as we get more and more mobile, is the lack of syncing between, say, my iPhone and iPad.

I do keep my library in my DropBox. And the files do sync. But it’s really almost a useless solution because searching the DropBox to find info in the EF library doesn’t work well. Actually “not work well” is an understatement. I can almost never find anything in EF doing a mobile DropBox search.

So I was wondering. Does anybody have any better solutions to syncing EF libraries with their mobile devices?

Michael - I’d pay extra for mobile EF versions. :slight_smile:

Thanks,

doug

better syncing than dropbox
Hi,

I agree wholeheartedly. I love my iPad - mainly because it is so portable. I currently use Docs2Go to sync my MS Office docs and that works well but I would love to e able to sync rtf, rtfd and eml files as well.

Still hoping for a better syncing solution than DropBox!
I don’t suppose anybody’s found a better way, have they?

With DropBox you just can’t search your EagleFiler contents or easy change contents. So when I need to make things portable I end up putting notes into EverNote.

For many reasons I generally prefer EagleFiler over EverNote (standard files, maintains imported file dates, more flexible with allowed file types, great Mac client, etc.).

But I have a Mac, iPad and iPhone and would really love some practical syncing solution for EagleFiler and don’t think DropBox is it.

Any better ideas would be welcome.

And like I posted originally, Michael, I would gladly pay extra for an iPad/iPhone app for EagleFiler!

Thanks,

doug

Not with the Dropbox app. However, you can use Notesy to search and edit plain text files in an EagleFiler library on Dropbox. You might also like PlainText or one of the other iPhone text editors that lets you choose the folder on Dropbox.

Glad to hear that. I hope to be able to offer an iOS app in the future.

I’ve only tried DropText so far. But the problem is that it only works well with plain text files and the text files created with EagleFilter are rich text.

I saw your page of recommended editors and your personal review. You didn’t mention how well they work with EagleFilter though.

A friend highly recommends Nebulous Notes, which you also listed. And they have a free version, so I think I’ll test with that and see if it works better than DropText.

Thanks,

doug

Answering my own question, Nebulous doesn’t seem to work well with EagleFiler files either, because they are .rtf.

doug

EagleFiler gives you the choice of creating rich text or plain text files, and you can convert between the two formats. I know there are some iOS apps that can edit Microsoft Word format, but I’m not sure about RTF.

When importing (like selecting text in an email and using Service > Import to EagleFilter) is there a way to import as plain text?

Thanks,

doug

Not currently, although that’s a feature I’d like to add.

Still frustrated over a lack of a usable sync
DropBox search doesn’t work well, and doesn’t seem to work with EagleFiler at all. That’s the reason I’ve been scratching my head over the best way to sync. I don’t know why it’s the recommended syncing solution for EagleFiler. You can’t find anything using DropBox search with it. :slight_smile:

I am concerned about the privacy thing, so the best solution would be a wifi or even tethered sync directly with my iMac.

But if it has to be in the cloud, my main concern is actually being able to find and read notes. DropBox and EagleFiler, the recommended solution, just doesn’t work because you can’t find stuff.

At least with Evernote it actually finds things. That’s why even though I continue to use EagleFiler as my main database for “all sorts of scraps of info” when I go out and need to refer to the data I end up creating extra Evernote notes so the info is easily accessible to me on my iPhone and iPad.

I just wonder why everybody is so blase about keeping their personal data online…

I wish EagleFiler just had an iOS app that did wifi syncing - something conceptually like Bento and FileMaker to Go does.

doug

Dropbox is not the recommended solution, although in my personal opinion it’s the cloud service that works the best (especially between Macs). The Dropbox app works fine for viewing the contents of an EagleFiler library and for searching an individual folder by filename. There are various other apps that can also view the contents of a Dropbox, and some can edit different file types. So it’s important to distinguish between Dropbox the service and Dropbox the app. Granted, it would be great if Dropbox offered full content searching, but it currently doesn’t, and I’m not aware of a similar service/app that does (aside from the Dropbox-aware text editors).

The How can I put my library on my iPhone? page lists a variety of non-cloud options.

I hear you.

Another Eaglefiler/Dropbox Question
I use Notebooks (Alfons Schmid) on iPad and iPhone. Notebooks syncs .txt files to Dropbox into a “Notebooks” folder. Is it possible to import these files into EagleFiler in some way that would leave the Notebooks folder structure intact? Can EagleFiler link to folders that have not been physically imported and manage their content?

Thanks!

No, although you can use symlinks to let it manage folders outside of the library folder. Another option (not sure whether Notebooks supports this, but some other iOS editors do) would be to pick a folder inside the EagleFiler library as the “root” folder for the text files.

EagleFiler 1.5.7 adds the PrefersRichText esoteric preference, which lets you control whether text is imported as plain text or RTF.

Update?
Michael,

Is Dropbox still most recommended for synching EF? I already use DB.

Also, is Notesy still your noter of choice for accessing text files on iPhone and iPad? I see you preferred it two years ago: http://mjtsai.com/blog/2011/05/17/comparing-iphone-text-editors-v3/

Thanks,

Steve

Yes.

These days I prefer WriteUp.

If there is a better option, it isn’t BitTorrent Sync
I tried syncing my EF library across two Macs (each with read and write permissions from btsync) and an Ubuntu laptop (read-only permissions), with an always-on Ubuntu server (also read-only) replicating the Dropbox functionality. It worked fine for a while but as soon as I made the easy mistake of shutting down my laptop without checking that the upstream sync was complete, btsync corrupted my library.

Don’t try this at home. This is the second time I’ve tried syncing through btsync… The first time was when the software was even less mature.

I may give it another shot, but this time, syncing only the /Files subfolder, not the library file itself. Or maybe I’ll make do with read-only copies on the portable machines. Or maybe I’ll just put my library on a USB stick. Come to think of it, that might be the best option.

I don’t trust Dropbox, and EF loses too much speed access libraries through the network, so Bonjour/NAS solutions are out, as well.

Keeping the Thread Alive - Best Options for Dropbox Connections
Hi Michael -

Curious if you have gone back to Notesy or moved to another choice on iOS. I’ve tried several and none really seems to give me what I want.

F

I really like Editorial.

Best Dropbox Option - try Day One
When out and about with my iPhone and wanting to record something for Eaglefiler I enter the information into Day One which I’ve been using now for a few years. I also have Day One on my Mac at home and the synch using their service is fast and reliable. I therefore highlight the entry on Day One on the Mac that I’d previously entered on my iPhone and simply bring it into Eaglefiler using the service shortcut - Shift-Option-Command-C . This way I have the same information available on my iPhone (in DayOne) for searching as I have on my Mac in Eaglefiler. Of course I realize this is not quite the synchronization that people are asking for but it certainly works for me although of course it does involve the added expense of the Day One apps.