Conflict Resolution
While using any file synchronizer, you may encounter conflicts. A conflict occurs when two copies of a file are changed at the same time. Since the synchronizer doesn’t know which change is the correct one, it has to ask you for assistance.
It’s possible that neither change is correct - if you change the same file in different ways, you may want to keep both changes. Say you’ve got a shopping list on your laptop and desktop. It starts out like so:
| Laptop | Desktop |
|---|---|
| Shopping list Milk Eggs Ham |
Shopping list Milk Eggs Ham |
While you’re out-and-about with your laptop, you remember that your annoying Great Aunt Gladice is coming to visit tomorrow and you’d prefer that she go home early. So you decide to ’spice up’ her meal a little bit:
| Laptop | Desktop |
|---|---|
| Shopping list Milk Eggs Ham Chilli Powder Cat food |
Shopping list Milk Eggs Ham |
Then, while you’re at home, you remember that your kid’s birthday is coming up:
| Laptop | Desktop |
|---|---|
| Shopping list Milk Eggs Ham |
Shopping list Milk Eggs Ham Birthday cake Headache tablets A big box for the kids to play in |
When it comes time to synchronize this, you end up with:
| Laptop | Desktop |
|---|---|
| Shopping list Milk Eggs Ham Chilli Powder Cat food |
Shopping list Milk Eggs Ham Birthday cake Headache tablets A big box for the kids to play in |
Neither the desktop nor the laptop have the correct list. SyncDroid will detect that the list has changed on both computers and ask you to help resolve the issue.
Your choices are:
- Do nothing. The files will be left alone. You’ll be able to fix the problem later.
- Don’t try to sync this file in the future. Sometimes, you just don’t need a file to be synchronized. If you’d prefer not to be bothered about this file again, choose this option.
- Use the file on <name>. If one of the computers or disks has the correct version of the file, choose it here. (largeman and kaysen are just two of my computers - yours will have different names).
If you’re in the situation above where neither side is correct, you’ll need to correct the problem yourself. If you hit the ‘Preview’ buttons next to each computer, you can see both files at the same time and match them up yourself.