Sync 2.0 supports boths new 2.0 folders and classic 1.4 folders, s
o when you upgrade your Sync it will leave existing folders as is.
If we compare 2.0 and 1.4 folder briefly, we‘ll get:
2.0 folders are:
- certificate-based (you can‘t copy key and should always use link, also more secure than key)
- support user access change
1.4 folders are:
- key-based (you can copy and distribute key or link)
- do not support user access change or on-demand sync.
Folder Types and Management
FOLDERS
Since BitTorrent Sync 2.0 offers a great deal of flexibility with syncing your data,
there are several types of folder icons used in the program,
each denoting a specific folder behavior:
Pending folders - require approval of the person who shared the folder.
If that user has approved you before, then the folder will automatically connect when one of their devices is online.
Disconnected folders - these do not take up any space on your device, and do not even have a folder path associated with them.
They are only shown to allow you to take action on them at a future time. If you remove a disconnected folder, it will be removed from all your linked devices.
Connected folders take up minimal space while showing you the contents of the folder.
The ‘real’ files inside the folder are represented by placeholder files in the file system.
By double clicking on the placeholder file you will fetch the full file from another device and save it to your device.
Synced folders synchronize all of the content of the folder between the devices. All the files in the folder will be added to your device.
Read Only folders indicate that you may not send any changes, additions, or deletions to the rest of the swarm.
Depending on your local settings, you may be able to change your local copies of synced files - if you do this, you will no longer receive updates to those files.
The crown shows that you are an Owner and, consequently, you can share the folder with other peers.
Classic folders (marked with a blue "1.4" label) feature the original folder behavior of Sync:
because they are connected using the Sync Key architecture, permissions cannot be changed after a peer is connected.
There is no concept of an "owner" with this type of folder, and in your peer list you won‘t see any user identities reflected.
Since each user‘s devices are seen as separate entities by this folder, it‘s easy to give your devices different permission levels.
This is useful if you want one of your devices to have Read Only access, and another one to have Read & Write access.
You can create Classic folders in the latest desktop version of Sync by holding the shift button on your keyboard
while clicking the "Add folder" button in the Sync interface.
To learn more about differences between 2.0 and 1.4, folders click here.
What‘s the difference between 2.0 and 1.4 folders?
There is a great difference between Sync 2.0 and 1.4 folders in terms of their architecture.
To connect to other devices and sync data between them, Sync 1.4 used randomly generated keys,
whereas Sync 2.0 is based on public key infrastructure (PKI),
which enables users to verify each other‘s identity with the help of digital certificates.
This innovation has ensured three major things:
Additional security.
All connection operations (adding peers, sharing folders, etc) are carried out with the help of X.509 digital certificate.
New functionality and convenience.
Such features as My Devices and On-the-fly Permission Changes have become possible due to the new architecture.
Besides, since Sync 2.0 stores certificates of previously dealt-with users, it can tell ‘new‘ and ‘old‘ peers apart.
If you have successfully exchanged data with some peer,
you may disable approval requirement for that peer while keeping it active for new peers.
Despite implementing drastic architecture changes in the new Sync,
BitTorrent has made it possible to continue using 1.4, or classic, folders in Sync 2.0.
However, due to the improvements discussed above, 1.4 folders have limited functionality compared to standard 2.0 folders:
- The concept of folder Owner is not applicable to 1.4 folders.
- On-the-fly permission changes are not possible. *
- No user identity will be reflected in your peer list - only peer details and device names. Besides,
if you share a folder with a user who has several devices linked under one identity,
on a 1.4 peer list each device will be displayed as a separate entity.
All 1.4 folders can be shared further on, no matter whether they have RO or RW key.
To be able to share 2.0 folders, you need to have Owner permission.
Remember that you cannot update the key from RO to R&W. 1.4 folder architecture
only allows you to reduce access rights from R&W to RO.
To have more flexibility with managing peer access, use 2.0 folders.
Also note that you cannot covert 1.4 folders into 2.0.
If you have 1.4 folders and would like to use all the benefits of the Sync 2.0 architecture,
simply remove 1.4. folders from the app, then re-add them as 2.0 folders (2.0 folders are created in Sync 2.0 by default).