I’ve used DropBox for over a decade, but they’re ending support for Windows 7 before I’m ready to ditch it, so I need an alternative for a fairly particular set of requirements:
- The files being managed need to sync across multiple PC’s (all running Windows 7) with no user action required beyond writing the file in a particular directory. I create “C:\Whatever\foo\bar.txt” on one machine, and moments later, the same file appears in the same place on my other machines. And if another machine changes or deletes it, that change propagates to the others as well.
- The files need to remain on each computer continuously — as long as I can turn off an option to “save disk space by storing only in the cloud”, that’s fine.
- Don’t need “free” — I’m entirely willing to pay for a good service.
- Don’t need cosmic secure-against-the-NSA security features. While I obviously don’t want the files exposed to the public, I don’t need to protect against theoretical threats that don’t actually target small fish. This isn’t customers’ health or credit card data being protected.
- Don’t really need mobile access, although it wouldn’t hurt to be able to access a file occasionally from an i-device. But that’s not the main use case.
- Bonus points for the same functionality with a Mac (i.e. syncs to/from that computer’s disk) as well, but again, not essential.
In 2025, is there a service out there that does this reliably, or am I barking up the wrong tree? I’ve seen threads dating from years ago discussing various solutions, not always specific to the requirements that I have, but so far I’m not finding a clear yes/no answer. Thanks!
