[SOLVED] Netgear router, better way to sync attached USB drive remotely to Android phone?

[Nova43]

I have a 14GB mp3 collection which I have on my micro SD card and which I use on my Android phone. I also have the entire collection backed up to my 1TB WD My Passport external drive which is attached to my computer. I find it unproductive to update the phone's mp3 collection every time I update the mirrored collection on my WD external drive, and vice versa.

So, I decided to make the WD drive available on the internet and then sync to its mp3 collection on my phone. Attempting this proved to be a major headache. I have a Netgear AC1750 R6400 router which I bought just a few days ago. And Netgear's ReadyCloud approach seemed to a great solution at first glance, but after setting it up and installing the ReadyCloud app on my phone, I was sorely disappointed. The android app is horrible. Utterly useless. UX experience is terrible and its functionality is very limited. I can't even download a whole directory to my phone at once let alone setup sync, which is nonexistent in the app.

So, I abandoned this approach in favor of finding a more efficient solution. Searching google proved to be lackluster to say the least. With a myriad of confusing, conflicting technologies and techniques available, I'm unable to come up with a viable solution. I would appreciate it if anyone here could inform me of an alternative approach other than ReadyCloud. Your solution should include the ability to establish a 2 way sync between my Android phone and the WD drive attached to the router. I should be able to sync to it at home on the local network and also remotely over the internet. I wouldn't mind paying for an Android app if it comes to that. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[jojesa]

If your router supports ReadySHARE and it is enabled for USB storage, then you can access USB storage from Android device.
You can connect via the web using a mobile web browser on your Android .
Also you could stream music and videos and open supported files (images, music, movies, documents, etc) with the ES file manager app within the home network and away when FTP is configured in the router.

 

[Nova43]

If your router supports ReadySHARE and it is enabled for USB storage, then you can access USB storage from Android device.
You can connect via the web using a mobile web browser on your Android .
Also you could stream music and videos and open supported files (images, music, movies, documents, etc) with the ES file manager app within the home network and away when FTP is configured in the router.

Yes, ReadySHARE is available on the router. This is how I used ReadyCLOUD on the router.

Does ES File Manager have the ability to sync the files remotely on the USB storage device connected to the router? It appears that this is not possible.

I have 2 Android phones. So if sync is available in ES File Manager, downloading 14GB of data to my phone from the router would take forever even if done locally at home on the LAN. So my plan is to put the 14GB mp3 collection onto another micro SD card and pop it into the other Android phone. But here's the problem, how do I do a one-to-one mapping of the existing mp3 collection on the SD card including the folder structure with the sync capable Android app or PC software?

 

[jojesa]

I have 2 Android phones.

I thought you had one Android phone as stated on the first post.
Also, I thought you wanted to play the music stored on the USB drive that was connected to the router.
That only requires opening the ES File Manager, accessing the files on the USB drive and selecting the music you want to play. There is no need to copy any files to the device to play the music. Music can be streamed.
By the way, ES File Manager allows you browse files stored on your Android device from your computer, if they are in the same network.

If you want to have the same files on your two phones that you have stored on your USB, then you should only transfer the new files,.
There is no need to transfer the whole 14GB each time.
By the way transferring 14GB to my android phone over WiFi took less than 20 minutes.
Also you could just plug your phone to your computer and copy the whole 14GB, which is even faster.

I have a larger music collection (and also video) and I play from all devices (iPad, TV, android Phones, computers, etc).
I never copy the files to any device, I just stream whatever files I want to play.
That way I just update the files in one location and theses files are available to all devices.
But I have a NAS which is a lot more flexible.
If you want to sync files located in the NAS with a folder on pretty much any device.. you could also accomplish that.

 

[Nova43]

Yes, I have 2 Android phones, 1 that is functional, has a cracked screen but is without phone service. And the other which is new and has phone service. I use the phone with the cracked screen for listening to the mp3 files and other tasks and the new phone mostly for performing tasks that require phone service like making calls etc.

I listen to the mp3 files a lot and they are fairly large (mostly Old Time Radio shows that are over 20 minutes long). And I only have 3GB of LTE data with my phone service. So, streaming over the internet while I'm away from home will surely wipe out my data allowance quickly. That's why I want to store the mp3 files locally on the micro SD cards first and then establish a 2 way sync between the SD cards and the USB drive. The whole point of this setup is to avoid having to manually update changes on all devices, including the USB drive, in order to maintain a mirrored collection between them every time a change happens.

A NAS seems too expensive for me and overly complicated in setting up a sync between the phone and the NAS. It seems like the rsync app for a NAS is not even in the Play Store. So, I'm temporarily going back to the old, manual way of maintaining a mirrored collection between all the devices. But, I hope to implement a viable solution with the help of the great community here at Tom's Hardware. ... By the way, I was told that using a USB storage for local and remote file sharing taxes the router's CPU heavily. So, a NAS connected to the router via an ethernet cable would be ideal. But again, a NAS seems to be beyond my budget at the moment. So, I'm hoping to use the USB drive instead...

 

[jojesa]

I have used several services (sync.com, Resilio, Onedrive & Google Drive) that could provided what you need but the are all require one time or monthly or yearly payments. Some start as low as $1.99 monthly.

If you had 10GB or less, I would have recommend Syncplicity (free version).
With Syncplicity you could have a folder on your computer and sync it with any numbers of devices.

 

[Nova43]

I have used several services (sync.com, Resilio, Onedrive & Google Drive) that could provided what you need but the are all require one time or monthly or yearly payments. Some start as low as $1.99 monthly.

If you had 10GB or less, I would have recommend Syncplicity (free version).
With Syncplicity you could have a folder on your computer and sync it with any numbers of devices.

Thanks for these suggestions. I'll consider them. But, if possible, I would like to avoid the need to have an internet connection all together in order to have all my devices synced, like physically connecting the phone to the computer (USB drive connected to computer) periodically for the sync or locally over the LAN with the USB drive connected to the computer, thus avoiding the need to have the USB connected to the router all together.

My original goal was not to establish a streaming setup between the USB drive and phone, either over the internet or locally on the LAN. Rather, it was to come up with a 2-way auto sync setup that would allow me to maintain a mirrored mp3 collection between the phone and USB drive automatically. I searched online for possible solutions and I think I may have found a few that might work, like Allway Sync, FolderSync, or GoodSync. All the same, thank you for your suggestions. I'll keep them in mind.

 

[jojesa]

... I would like to avoid the need to have an internet connection all together in order to have all my devices synced, like physically connecting the phone to the computer (USB drive connected to computer) periodically for the sync or locally over the LAN with the USB drive connected to the computer, thus avoiding the need to have the USB connected to the router all together.

For that you could use Microsoft SyncToy.
Connect the phone to your computer, setup SyncToy and select the folder on your phone and your computer to keep synchronized.
Every time you connect the phone to your computer, SyncToy will sync both folders.
Also you could create different instances and even use Windows Task Scheduler to run SyncToy automatically.

Before installing SyncToy go to Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> Turn Windows Features On or Off and select .Net Framework 3.5 .

 

[Nova43]

For that you could use Microsoft SyncToy.
Connect the phone to your computer, setup SyncToy and select the folder on your phone and your computer to keep synchronized.
Every time you connect the phone to your computer, SyncToy will sync both folders.
Also you could create different instances and even use Windows Task Scheduler to run SyncToy automatically.

Before installing SyncToy go to Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> Turn Windows Features On or Off and select .Net Framework 3.5 .

Excellent! I'll check it out. I also found the Syncme app for android which will allow me to 2 way sync between the phone and PC automatically over the local LAN. And it doesn't require physically connecting the phone to my PC. It's done over wi-fi. And I'm possibly considering the ability to sync over the internet too with the USB drive connected to the router, just for good measure. I know I could use a cloud service like dropbox for this purpose, but I want to maintain a mirrored mp3 collection on my USB drive, not on some third party cloud server. Thanks!