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Synchronization and Backup Solutions

Tips and Traps

  1. Almost all sychronization tools have problems with symbolic links. Most of them just ignore symbolic links. This makes sense as following symbolic links can causes serious disk problems. If not followed then symbolic links are likely broken on other device. The simple suggestion is do not place symbolic links in your synchronization folders.

  2. Backup (relatively) small files to Dropbox (or a similar tool), and Backup large non-privacy files on Baidu Yun. If a large file is sensitive, encrypt it first before uploding it to Baidu Yun.

Service

Linux Support Level

Official Linux App Details

pCloud

Native (Full Support)

Provides a fully featured AppImage client with file syncing, GUI management, virtual drive mounting, and selective sync.

Nextcloud

Native (Full Support)

Offers full desktop sync client support for Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch, openSUSE, and AppImage formats.

Proton Drive

Limited (CLI Only)

Official support is limited to a Command-Line Interface (CLI) app; no official native GUI sync app for desktop Linux.

Google Drive

Web / 3rd-Party Only

No official Google sync client for Linux. Requires web browser usage or third-party sync apps (e.g., Insync, Rclone).

Microsoft OneDrive

Web / 3rd-Party Only

No official desktop client. Requires web app or open-source tools (e.g., onedrive CLI or Rclone).

Sync.com

Web Only

Offers no native desktop sync app for Linux; web portal access only.

Name

Opensource/free

OS

GUI/CLI

Sync/Backup

Directly Accessible from Mainland of China

Comments

Dropbox

free for 3 devices and 2G space

Windows, macOS, Linux

GUI

Sync

No

  1. Best solution for small data backup

  2. every thing is in the same folder, no way to sync a folder with higher priority over others while you can do this with TeamDrive or BTSync

Baidu Net Disk

free for 2T space and limited download speed

Windows, macOS, Linux

GUI

Sync

Yes

Best solution for large data backup

Synqion (TeamDrive)

free for 2G space

Windows, macOS, Linux

GUI

Sync

Yes

  1. Best solution for small data backup

  2. extremely secure, good for private, sensitive docs

  3. separated spaces which is much better than dropbox

Syncthing

free

Windows, macOS, Linux

Both

Sync

Yes

  1. extremely secure, good for private, sensitive docs

  2. good performance on large files but poor performance on small files

  3. Best solution for private personal backup

Google Drive

free for 15G space

Windows, macOS

GUI

Sync

No

  1. good for backing up Google products

OneDrive

free for 15G space

Windows, macOS

GUI

Sync

No

  1. good for backing up MS products

NAS / NFS

free

Windows, macOS, Linux

Both

network file system

Yes

  1. easy to use

  2. provided to employees by many companies

  3. relatively low performance

Mutagen

Opensource

Windows, macOS, Linux

CLI

sync

Yes

  1. fast file synchronization;

  2. network forwarding

Unison

Opensource

Windows, macOS, Linux

CLI

2-way sync

Yes

2-way sync, fault tolerance

osync

Opensource

Windows, macOS, Linux

CLI

2-way sync

Yes

2-way sync, rsync-based, fault tolerance

Rsnapshot

free

Windows, macOS, Linux

CLI

Backup

Yes

  1. easy to use

  2. quick access

  3. copy on change which takes more disk space than incremental backup tools but it is much simpler to use and is very robust

duplicity

free

Windows, macOS, Linux

CLI

Backup

Yes

  1. incremental backup

  2. support encryption

backupPC

free

Windows, macOS, Linux

?

Backup

Yes

high performance, enterprise-grade system

Bacula

Opensource

Windows, macOS, Linux

?

Backup

Yes

enterprise-level computer backup system for heterogeneous networks

References

Mar
Compare Two Directories on Linux
Mar
Transfer Files over Network in Linux