Error Question #94418

Question: If I have two or three PCs synced through MS OneDrive or Google Drive, does that present a problem to TheBrain 14? Is it safe? Will files get corrupted?

Drafted Answer:

Hello Joe!

Thank you for reaching out to us!

If you are considering to sync your entire brain databases through these third-party apps, we would not recommend it.

A simple file-based sync does not work properly for many reasons. For instance, many large files are modified in small but interdependent ways when the database is changed. Thus, a file-based sync is not only very inefficient, but also prone to corrupting the database. (When for example, the same database file is modified in two different places at once, a file-based sync will have no choice but to ignore one of those changes - likely corrupting the entire database!)

Additionally, there are factors beyond just the visible data that need to be kept in sync, such as index information, internal IDs that are different across machines, and so on.

This is why DropBox and other file-based sync services will work, but cannot be relied on since they tend to lead to corruption as soon as: 1) Changes are made to the data from more than one place at a time or 2) A sync is only partially completed before changes are made at the receiving computer. Worse yet, the database may only become partially corrupted so that you do not find out about the problem until weeks or months later when you cannot easily revert to a backup.

We recommend backing up your Brain on TheBrain Cloud. If syncing to TheBrain Cloud is not an option for you, a Brain Archive (.brz) is the next best thing. BRZ backups, however, need to be created manually.

Dropbox and other file based sync systems are a great service and they have managed to scale it to a huge number of users, however, syncing files and folders is far simpler than syncing Brains. A Brain is a complex, interconnected network of nodes built on a database backend, it's not as simple as syncing individual files. The sync of Brains is a highly specialized piece of engineering that we have literally been working on for well over 10 years.

Best regards,

John