Skydrive on windows phone vs iPhone?

[dgr_874]

I really love skydrive, it's one of the things that keeps me in the Microsoft world. I noticed that the app for ios devices has finally been upgraded and Im wondering, other than automatic upload of pictures, is there any function that the windows phone version provides that the iOS version does not? I can't seem to find any differences...Thanks in advance.

 

[Curtieson]

Other then one of the key features, haha.

If you are talking strictly Skydrive App vs. Skydrive App, I do not think there is any difference. However, SkyDrive is built into a windows phone, and that (in the day to day use) is where the difference comes in.

The app for the iOS and Win8 brought my wife into the MS world. She can not get her documents she types up for class on the laptop, the desktop and phone...always in sync.

 

[dgr_874]

Sadly, I find the automatic upload to be less than useful because as far as I know, SkyDrive does not update the photo library on my computer. It only reflects what I have on my computer. Is there a way to do a two way sync with my camera roll from SkyDrive to my computer?

 

[Curtieson]

Sadly, I find the automatic upload to be less than useful because as far as I know, SkyDrive does not update the photo library on my computer. It only reflects what I have on my computer. Is there a way to do a two way sync with my camera roll from SkyDrive to my computer?

What OS are you using? Win8 is automatic. When you go to your Pics you will see all your SkyDrive photos and your photos on your PC all in the one location.

If you are on Win7, you can add SkyDrive as a remote drive (I think...) and from there add folders to your picture library. I am not too familiar with that process.

 

[jhguth]

you don't need to mount a drive or do anything special in Win7 for files and photos to update automatically, just install Skydrive and select the folders you want to sync. It's very easy, its the same process as installing the desktop-side client on Win 8.

it should work, it works for me and i have various folders syncing on a Windows 8 Laptop, Windows 8 Tablet, Windows 7 Laptop, Windows 7 desktop, and my WP8 phone.

 

[dgr_874]

I do have windows 8 and have SkyDrive set up to sync my picture folders on my computer, but the sync is only one way, from my pc to SkyDrive. If I take a picture with my Lumia 920, it gets uploaded to SkyDrive but does not get downloaded to my PC until I plug my Lumia 920 in or download it manually from SkyDrive. I find syncing such a pain with this system. I'm almost ready to go back to my iPhone...

 

[Curtieson]

I do have windows 8 and have SkyDrive set up to sync my picture folders on my computer, but the sync is only one way, from my pc to SkyDrive. If I take a picture with my Lumia 920, it gets uploaded to SkyDrive but does not get downloaded to my PC until I plug my Lumia 920 in or download it manually from SkyDrive.

Not sure why you need to download them from SkyDrive to your computer so often. You have access to view them nearly instantly. That isn't enough? I guess if you travel and are in/out of WiFi a lot...I could see that.

I find syncing such a pain with this system. I'm almost ready to go back to my iPhone...

Because the iPhone syncs automatically with your computer without being plugged in and automatically saves items to your PC and SkyDrive?

 

[dgr_874]

Not sure why you need to download them from SkyDrive to your computer so often. You have access to view them nearly instantly. That isn't enough? I guess if you travel and are in/out of WiFi a lot...I could see that.



Because the iPhone syncs automatically with your computer without being plugged in and automatically saves items to your PC and SkyDrive?

Yes, it actually does. I plug it in to charge at night and it wirelessly syncs everything through iTunes. Then later, my SkyDrive syncs the folders (including pictures) I told it to SkyDrive. I now have a perfect copy of all my files from my computer in SkyDrive. I'm not trying to say Apple is better before I make sure I'm using Microsoft's services to their full advantage before deciding which way works for me. Thanks everyone for the help so far.

 

[jhguth]

I do have windows 8 and have SkyDrive set up to sync my picture folders on my computer, but the sync is only one way, from my pc to SkyDrive. If I take a picture with my Lumia 920, it gets uploaded to SkyDrive but does not get downloaded to my PC until I plug my Lumia 920 in or download it manually from SkyDrive

you have skydrive installed on your computer, or you are downloading from the skydrive website? If you have skydrive installed, and have selected your camera roll to sync to your computer, it will show up on your computer as soon as its uploaded to skydrive. there is no downloading, its automatic.

You have this installed:
Microsoft SkyDrive - Microsoft Windows
not the metro-side app, right?

i'm not sure what your problem is, i use this feature daily and in my experience its much more reliable than iCloud. i take a picture and that picture is automatically uploaded to skydrive and since i have skydrive desktop app on my 3 computers its automatically downloaded to all 3 of them. In fact, for this post I decided to time the entire loop. From the time I clicked the shutter to the time it was downloaded onto my computer (all automatically, all i did was watch the folder and wait for it to show up) was 25 seconds. with iCloud there were frequent outages and times where it wasn't working and i haven't experienced a single problem or outage with skydrive.

show me a screenshot of your skydrive settings menu with what folders are syncing, do you see camera roll?

 

[Par_T]

I have Skydrive app on my ipod touch (4th generation) recently updated and on my Samsung Focus. On Ipod touch (and my brother's iPhone 4) app is read only for files. On Focus, I can edit my office documents. My brother told me this was the difference since he has an iphone.

 

[dgr_874]

you have skydrive installed on your computer, or you are downloading from the skydrive website? If you have skydrive installed, and have selected your camera roll to sync to your computer, it will show up on your computer as soon as its uploaded to skydrive. there is no downloading, its automatic.

You have this installed:
Microsoft SkyDrive - Microsoft Windows
not the metro-side app, right?

i'm not sure what your problem is, i use this feature daily and in my experience its much more reliable than iCloud. i take a picture and that picture is automatically uploaded to skydrive and since i have skydrive desktop app on my 3 computers its automatically downloaded to all 3 of them. In fact, for this post I decided to time the entire loop. From the time I clicked the shutter to the time it was downloaded onto my computer (all automatically, all i did was watch the folder and wait for it to show up) was 25 seconds. with iCloud there were frequent outages and times where it wasn't working and i haven't experienced a single problem or outage with skydrive.

show me a screenshot of your skydrive settings menu with what folders are syncing, do you see camera roll?

I deleted everything that was related to my SkyDrive, desktop and metro, and purged all my pictures. I reloaded everything and set it all up from scratch again. Apparently its now working. I took some pictures from various locations and times to day at work and when I logged into my computer there they were on my hard drive just like you said they would be. I guess I must have messed something up when I set it up last time. Thank you so much for taking the time to help me with this. I can not thank you enough!

 

[mikeOmatic]

Windows phone keeps a copy of the de documents (excel, word, etc) on the phone it self after viewing or editing. It wil then synchronise every time you open it with the latest updated version of skydrive. this means that you can access it offline and do not have to download the whole file every time you want to have a look at it.
iPhone will not sync or store the file, so you will have to download the data, every time you view/edit it. I find it to be very slow on large documents.
Windows phone is more productive for me.

 

[dgr_874]

I do much prefer skydrives ability to save email attachments directly to a SkyDrive folder of my choosing, unlike the windows phone version.

It wouldn't be windows phone if something worked better on it than iOS, lol.