Sync clients or good old mass storage mode for transfers to your phone?

[Twiggy]

Let's talk about syncing your mobile devices!

Many modern consumer devices allow you to add your own content in one way or another. iPhones and iPads, for example, relies on iTunes for all media management tasks, while all pre-8 Windows Phone devices rely on Zune. Most, if not all, Android devices allow the use of the phone as mass storage device, or an external media card. The same deal also happens with Windows Phone 8 devices.

I use Zune to sync files. It does its job reasonably well, and does keep a cache, so I don't really have to worry about transcoding time for all these 1080p videos. I kind of have to, anyway, as it's not these new phones.

What do you prefer to use? What do you think of sync clients? If you could just copy and paste files, would you? I find sync clients to be more organized, to be honest, but a mass storage mode would mean that I could conceivably put anything on my phone's storage.

[Ningamer]

Originally Posted by Twiggy

iPhones and iPads, for example, relies on iTunes for all media management tasks

Whoever decided this needs to be shot in the face. I tried to put a film that I'd downloaded outside of iTunes on my mum's iPad, but I had to go through iTunes. Not only did the bloody thing forget that the two devices were ever synched, but I also had the wrong file format, and what would've taken me all of two minutes with Windows Explorer and a decent phone ended up taking three hours, which was troublesome because we were busy packing for a long car journey, which is the reason I wanted the damn movie on the iPad in the first place.

tl;dr - **** iTunes.

Everything should be able to use mass storage mode. Sure, if you /really/ want to use Zune or iTunes then fine, you can but it's your loss, but mass storage mode is a million miles easier and faster.

[Cat333Pokémon]

I've decided that SkyDrive is perhaps the easiest thing to sync multiple computers (comparable to other easy services like Dropbox and Google Drive), and the mobile apps do allow you to access and download your files anywhere with an Internet connection. (Now only if the Android app had a couple more small features, like uploading any filetype or managing items.)

[Twiggy]

Originally Posted by Ningamer

Whoever decided this needs to be shot in the face. I tried to put a film that I'd downloaded outside of iTunes on my mum's iPad, but I had to go through iTunes. Not only did the bloody thing forget that the two devices were ever synched, but I also had the wrong file format, and what would've taken me all of two minutes with Windows Explorer and a decent phone ended up taking three hours, which was troublesome because we were busy packing for a long car journey, which is the reason I wanted the damn movie on the iPad in the first place.

tl;dr - **** iTunes.

Everything should be able to use mass storage mode. Sure, if you /really/ want to use Zune or iTunes then fine, you can but it's your loss, but mass storage mode is a million miles easier and faster.

Transcoding speed depends largely on CPU speed on many transcoders, but I've always heard that iTunes is a total pain when it comes to syncing devices. And people say that Zune is iTunes done right, but it only runs in Windows and bothers with Windows only, so I guess it sorta evens out.

I kinda like how Zune doesn't care and just copies as long as the file is supported and not too much for the phone itself to handle - it only transcode files if needed. But yeah, mass storage can be fun (and I can fudge with the computer's registry to get exactly that, but I don't like the idea of me playing around.) Also, it doesn't care where the file is - it chases moved files that are still in the library! Even if I shuffle directories, the same thing will play. Even if the originals were deleted and a new, fresh set were copied to a different place without the additional metadata.

Cloud storage can be fun, but I use it as a separate area just in case. The important stuff is still on the desktop.

[The Spirit of Time]

I prefer mass storage mode. Sending music files or anything to my iPhone is now a big hassle and time consuming. It seems that companies create technology that somehow forces users to buy another product of theirs for good functionality of a product the consumer already bought, which I find extremely greedy.