Sync

Sync lets you synchronize files between your local Mac and PostLab Drive, without leaving PostLab. Sync is especially useful when your workflow requires syncing files from shared storage – such as an Avid NEXIS – to PostLab Drive.

Add a Sync Job

In PostLab, go to Preferences > Sync and click ➕ to add a Sync job.

Give your Sync job a helpful Name, then make sure it's Enabled ☑️.

Click SOURCE, then select the folder from where your files will sync.

Click TARGET, then select the folder to where your files will sync.

Next, decide if the sync should be One-way or Bi-directional. Click the > (or <>) to change the sync type.

One-way (>)

One-way jobs sync the contents of the SOURCE to the TARGET. By default, all new Sync jobs are One-way.

Bi-Directional (<>)

With Bi-Directional jobs, files on the SOURCE sync to the TARGET, and vice versa.

When setting up a Bi-directional sync between multiple Team Members, if there's a lot of data involved, it's best practice to push all data to Drive using a One-way job first.

If multiple Team Members do an initial upload to Drive at the same time, don't upload into the same folder to prevent sync conflicts. Instead, have each Team Member upload their files into a subfolder, then appoint someone on your Team to consolidate those into a single folder. Once the initial upload to Drive is complete and someone consolidates those subfolders into one folder, change the Sync job(s) to Bi-directional.

Sync Options

Fine-tune your job with these sync-specific options:

Option
Sync Job Type
Description

Optimize for small files

One-way, Bi-directional

If the files to sync consist primarily of smaller files (e.g. .txt, .xml), Sync performance will improve when enabled.

Archive deleted files

One-way

Files that are deleted on the SOURCE will be archived on the TARGET in a new folder called -ARCHIVE- and sifted into subfolders based on when it was deleted. Subfolders are created using this naming convention - YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.

Archive replaced files

One-way

Files replaced on the SOURCE will be archived on the TARGET in a new folder called -ARCHIVE-. Subfolders are created using this naming convention - YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.

Ignore files or folders matching...

One-way, Bi-directional

A comma-separated list of folders or files Sync will ignore. The default values are -ARCHIVE-, .Trashes, .TemporaryItems, Render Files, *.lck.

It's good practice to set up separate Sync jobs for mutable (projects, bins) and immutable files (media, assets). That way, syncing media doesn't hold up tiny changes to bins.

Syncing

To perform your sync, make sure the SOURCE and TARGET volumes are connected and available.

Next, make sure your job is Enabled ☑️ then click OK.

Toggle Drive Sync from OFF to ON and Sync is now fully operational.

Once you enable Sync or launch PostLab with Sync enabled, it will attempt a sync cycle every 60 seconds. (A sync cycle occurs when Sync attempts to execute any Enabled ☑️ jobs.)

Modify a Sync Job

To modify an existing Sync job, toggle Drive Sync from ON to OFF, double-click a job in the list, then change the job settings.

Delete a Sync Job

Toggle Drive Sync from ON to OFF, select a job in the list, then click ➖.

Questions

Why should I use Sync when I can upload directly to PostLab Drive?

Sharing files from your on-premise shared storage can be tricky and traditionally slow.

With Sync, you can keep those files in your on-premise shared storage and sync them to Drive. Once the files are on Drive, you can either use Drive as your shared storage in the cloud or set up another Sync job for each Team Member to sync those files from Drive to a local volume.

What if Sync isn’t working?

First, make sure Drive Sync is toggled to ON.

Next, confirm all of your Sync jobs are Enabled ☑️ and listed as green 🟢.

If a job reports a grey ⚪️ status, it’s disabled and needs to be Enabled ☑️.

If a job’s SOURCE or TARGET becomes unavailable, Sync will list that job with a red 🔴 status and exclude it from the next sync cycle until both the SOURCE and TARGET are available.

A SOURCE or TARGET is rendered unavailable when the folder or volume used in a Sync job is renamed or disconnected from your Mac.

Make sure the SOURCE and/or TARGET volume(s) are connected, mounted, and named as expected in the Sync job. Once they’re available, the job will report a green 🟢 status and Sync will execute it on the next sync cycle.

I just realized -ARCHIVE- is a special folder and I deleted it from Sync's Ignore files or folders matching... list. How do I tell Sync to ignore it again?

Copy/paste -ARCHIVE- back into the Ignore files or folders matching... list, separating it from the other entries with a comma. You can also copy/paste the default values for Ignore files or folders matching... from here:

.Trashes, .TemporaryItems, -ARCHIVE-, Render Files, *.lck.

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