Best Way To Sync Files Between PC and iPad?

Professor Snugglesworth

Simple enough question: I tend to use either MS Word on my PC or the Pages app in my iPad to write something, then email whatever I've finished on one device to the other. Sometimes I'll partially finish something on my iPad then send it to my PC to finish the rest on Word, or vice versa.

What I was wondering about was if there was a way to automatically sync the progress I've made on a file without having to manually send it back and forth. For example, if I write something in Word, I would want those changes to automatically carry over once I open the same file on the iPad, or the other way around.

I'm sure there are a number of ways to do this, but I'm looking for the simplest and most convenient method.

LostNinja

Office 365 allows you to do this, but looking it up it looks like its a $10 a month subscription rather than just an annual cost.

MichaelLC

On Android and PC, I use Google Docs and Keep. Looks like Google QuickOffice is available for iPad.

Veevee

DropBox is the answer.

Other than google docs instead of Office. That's the other answer.

wonderpug

Another vote for DropBox!

Professor Snugglesworth

Can't seem to get Dropbox working correctly; I can put files up to download from separate devices just fine, but I was hoping that whatever change I made to the file in one device would automatically sync that changed file with all devices. I tried editing a word doc on my PC's end and my iPad's end, but whatever changes I make to the doc won't carry over.

I want an option where any edits I make to a file, regardless on what device, will reflect those changes on every device.

wonderpug

Huh, it should be doing what you're hoping for. Maybe you're closing it down before it syncs?

Veevee

If you're thinking you can have the same file on dropbox open on two different computers and see changes automatically, it doesn't work that way. For that you need google docs, which will show you changes as they are being done.

For Office and dropbox, lets say you open a file on Computer A and B that dropbox is monitoring. Dropbox wont recognize the file as being changed until you actually save the document on computer A, then it will upload it to the server where Computer B will see the file was changed then download it. You can then open the updated file on Computer B and see the changes, but you must wait for dropbox to update the file before opening it which can take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes.

Edit: I use dropbox to transfer game saves between computers automatically and it does exactly as your last sentence says, OP. One problem you may be running into is that dropbox knows what is an updated file or not by the "last changed date" that is recorded when you save a file. If you have a word document open on 2 computers (A and B ) then save and close the file on A which gets uploaded to dropbox but save and close the same file a minute or 2 later on a different computer without the updates on B, dropbox will think the file on B is the updated file and upload that file, and then download to A if that is set to auto sync undoing the changes you originally made to the file on A

AresProphet

I use Google Docs / Google Drive for this kind of thing. Docs lets you work on things with changes saved immediately, which is great for both backup and syncing purposes. you can get anything from your Drive anywhere you have access to a web browser, because it'll run on anything.

my only nitpick is that the formatting options in Google Docs are a bit limited, which is mostly fine for my purposes but could get in your way

iCloud can do this with Pages, but I'm not sure if that's something Apple makes doable with a PC on one end. if so, that's going to be dead simple to set up on an iPad

Calixtus

My experience from attempting to this between my samsung tablet and my PC is that Dropbox doesn't sync from the tablet intentionally, i.e. its been designed that way on the assumption that neither the bandwidth nor the harddrive space for automatic syncing will be available on the tablet.

I'd be delighted if someone would prove me wrong, but basically, dropbox doesn't do automatic upload syncs from tablets, which is stupid as hell, but there it is. Its fantastic for multiple PCs though.

Bubby

I use OneDrive.