Sync login data across different computers?

Hi,

I'm a long time user of CuteFTP (some really old version too), and I think I need to update my FTP client. What I really need is something where I can sync all my login information between multiple computers. E.g. Work, Home, Laptop etc.

Can WinSCP do this?

If not can anybody recommend something that can?

Thanks,

Chris.

Well, you can store your settings to an INI file and synchronize that.
https://winscp.net/eng/docs/config

Or do you have another suggestion?

Thanks for the reply.

Not the ideal solution because I can currently do this with Cute. It makes things awkward if I'm constantly exporting and importing INI files all the time. I really need a modern, many device, almost cloud-centric solution.

Devs, something for the to-do list? I think it would be a great addition.

My Google Chrome experience is the same on every computer I use it on because it's all synced to my account, so an approach like this would be wonderful.

Chris.

You do not have to export/import the INI file. WinSCP can work directly with the INI file. You can have the INI file synchronized automatically to from FTP/SFTP/Dropbox/Cloud. There are lots of tools that can do that. Including WinSCP itself.

Hi,

Ok this seems like it might work. I've checked the preferences, and I have the option of choosing an INI file instead of Windows Registry. But I can't speficy the location of the INI file. Am I right in saying that I simply install the whole WinSCP program in Dropbox or something? As the INI file would then be in the same location.

I've just done a spot of googling and read a few forum posts, but it's really not clear how this exactly works.

Cheers.

Just figured it out, and I've moved the INI location to my Dropbox, and changed my start menu shortcut so that the target is such:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\WinSCP\WinSCP.exe" /ini="C:\LOCAL-DROPBOX-PATH\WinSCP.ini"

Seems to work fine, and I'll recreate the same setup at home.

suprtickets wrote:

Just figured it out, and I've moved the INI location to my Dropbox, and changed my start menu shortcut so that the target is such:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\WinSCP\WinSCP.exe" /ini="C:\LOCAL-DROPBOX-PATH\WinSCP.ini"

Seems to work fine, and I'll recreate the same setup at home.

That's correct.

Just discovered a big problem with this method.

I installed WinSCP at home, and created a shortcut to the ini file in the same way as before, but noticed it had loaded an older version of the ini file, as only a few sites were present.

It seems that the WinSCP installation at work had not updated the ini file for some reason. Why would this be? I leave my computer on all the time, so does the ini file only get re-written when the app is closed down and re-opened? This seems strange.

Suffice to say, the ini file has now been overwritten by the new installation at home, losing the latest additions I had made at work!

Yes, the INI file is saved only when your close WinSCP.

Hi Pikryl,

In this case then it's not a viable solution for me, as my work PC is left on 24/7 and I leave all my applications open and running. I wouldn't want to have to close down and re-open the program each and every time I want a change to be saved.

I'll have to look for an alternative app that can do this.

Cheers.

But then you also require that the running application reloads the configuration when the ini/configuration file changes. I'm afraid you will have troubles finding an application that does this.

I've found a working solution using FileZilla. The ini/configuration changes are saved and re-loaded every time, so it works perfectly.

FileZilla does not reload its configuration (filezilla.xml) on run-time. Though it indeed reloads its site list (sitemanager.xml).

If you are happy with reloading site list (but not configuration), it's pretty easy to make WinSCP do that too. It actually already does that, when you open menu Session > Sites. We can make it reload the sites also when the Login dialog is opened. I can provide you a development build for testing, if you are interested.

Also WinSCP saves site list when it changes (again, not configuration).

This request has been added to the tracker:
https://winscp.net/tracker/1322