Connecting to social sites
- Why connect SocialFolders to my social sites?
SocialFolders enables you to sync your social sites with your computer. That means that you will be able to store and manage all the photos, documents and other files that today are spread across multiple online websites. You will enjoy instant access to them, even without an Internet connection. And it works in both directions: if you want to upload a large set of photos to a website, just drop it into the associated folder and SocialFolders will do it for you – no more waiting time in front of your browser.
If you connect to multiple sites, SocialFolders will also make copying them from one website to another very easy. Instead of downloading and uploading again, you will be able to copy your files directly between your folders, and SocialFolders will do the same in the Cloud between the two websites.
- How do I connect SocialFolders to my social sites?
Log in at the SocialFolders website and go to the “My websites” page. Click on the “Add new websites” button and connect to one of the websites listed there.
You need to already be a registered user of the website you want to connect to.
- Which websites are currently supported by SocialFolders?
As of today, SocialFolders supports Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket, Google Docs, Box, YouTube, Twitter, SmugMug, Instagram, and Picasa. We are working on adding many others that will be announced through our blog, our Facebook page, and our Twitter account.
- My favorite website is not listed as supported by SocialFolders, what can I do?
We are very interested to know about which sites you would like to connect to through SocialFolders. Send us your wish list at hello@socialfolders.me.
Downloading files
- Where does SocialFolders download my files to?
When you install SocialFolders, it creates a folder named “SocialFolders” in your local Documents folder.
On Mac, a shortcut is automatically added in the Finder sidebar.
- How do I get SocialFolders to download files from my social sites?
When you add a new website, your files will start downloading shortly afterward. However, we cannot constantly check for updates to your websites – that would generate an overload on their servers. Once you’ve received the initial copy of your online files, SocialFolders will check for new content at least once a day.
If you know that you have some new files available online and want to get them back into your social folders right away, then you can use the “Refresh all my websites” option from the system menu.
- Can I change the location where SocialFolders downloads my files?
Yes, you can do so by accessing the application preferences from the SocialFolders icon in the system menu.
- How can I stop SocialFolders from downloading from a given social site?
Log into the SocialFolders website, go to the “My websites” page and click on the “disconnect” link for the website you don’t want to sync anymore.
- I can’t get SocialFolders to download from YouTube
We don’t support downloading from YouTube as of now. YouTube doesn’t offer an API (the developer interfaces we use to connect to other websites) for downloading as of now. We might use other ways to download from YouTube in the future, but first we want to make sure that they agree to this.
Downloading friend's content
- How do friends share information on SocialFolders?
Just browse your friends in the settings of a friend-enabled service (today: Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and Instagram). Select which friends’ albums you want to sync, and you’ll start automatically receiving their files in your SocialFolders.
We do not directly manage the privacy settings of these files. Instead, we rely on the social sites’ settings to determine what can be downloaded from a friend. So you don’t have to worry about who accesses your files. The privacy settings that you have defined on Facebook, Flickr, or any other social site that we support will be applied.
- I added files into one of my friend’s folders but he/she didn’t receive it.
That’s normal. You can’t upload directly to your friends’ social sites.
Uploading files
- Why upload files using SocialFolders?
SocialFolders lets you upload files much quicker than the usual way. You don’t have to pick files one-by-one or wait in front of your browser for the upload to be completed.
- How do I upload files with SocialFolders?
Just drop a selection of files into the social folder linked to the website you want to upload to, and the upload will start right away.
- When does the upload occur?
The upload starts a few seconds after you add or update a file in one of your social folders.
- How much time does it take to upload files?
It depends! The size of your files and the bandwidth of your network connection are important factors. When you upload files through SocialFolders, they are sent to our servers and then we upload them to their final destination. If for some reason there is an issue when we attempt to contact the website, we will try again regularly until we succeed.
- I can’t get SocialFolders to upload to Instagram nor to Twitter
We don’t support uploading to these services. Instagram doesn’t offer an API (the developer interfaces we use to connect to other websites) for uploading as of now. We will support Twitter uploads soon.
Copying files between social sites
- Why use SocialFolders to copy files between websites?
When you want to move your files from one social site to another, the common way to do this is to download them onto your computer and then upload them to their final destination. SocialFolders saves you the effort by copying your files directly between the websites in the Cloud, without transfer through your machine.
- How do I copy files between websites?
Just as you would copy files between two locations on your hard drive. Use drag and drop, or copy and paste your folders and files.
- I’ve dragged and dropped files from one folder to another and the source folder is now empty
You have to press a special key (Ctrl on Windows, alt on Mac) while doing the drag and drop in order to copy them, otherwise they will be moved. But if this happens by mistake, your files will be downloaded again automatically by SocialFolders.
Deleting files
- How can I delete files or folders through SocialFolders?
We don’t provide this feature right now. We will do it in the future, using a contextual menu to prevent accidental suppression of your online files.
- I have deleted files in my social folders, but they keep reappearing
This is normal. Since we don’t provide a way to delete your online files through SocialFolders, when you delete them they will be downloaded again in the next synchronization cycle.
If you want to remove files from your social folders, you need to delete them from the website they are stored on, and then refresh your local folders. Another option is to change the settings of your website connection, or even to disconnect the whole website from your social folders.
Privacy and security
- Are my files secure when using SocialFolders?
The security of your information and the protection of your privacy are a top priority for us. We use Amazon’s infrastructure to run SocialFolders, one of the most secure and reliable server infrastructures in the world.
In addition, we do not keep your files! SocialFolders’ purpose is to make it easy for you to access, transfer, and manage your online files; it is not an online storage service. So you don’t have to worry about how your files are being used on our servers.
When you download files using SocialFolders, we don’t even see them. They are directly downloaded from your websites onto your computer. When you upload files through SocialFolders, they are sent via our servers. We don’t keep them there permanently. That would be costly for us and useless to you. So we delete them after we have confirmation that the upload has completed.
- Do you use encryption to protect my files?
We use encryption (SSL) between your computer and our servers when you upload files. When you download your files directly from your websites using SocialFolders, or when we send them from our servers to our website, we use encrypted channels as much as we can, but they are not always available, depending on the policy of each website.
- Can my friends see all my files on SocialFolders?
Your friends can only see the files that you let them see, as defined in the privacy and access rights settings of each website you have connected to SocialFolder
- I’ve changed my privacy settings within my social site, how fast does this reflect in SocialFolders?
Any change of your privacy or access rights settings within your websites is immediately applied to SocialFolders. However, if one of your friends has already downloaded your files when he or she had the right to do so, they won’t be removed from his or her computer.
Misc
- Is SocialFolders free?
SocialFolders is free to try out and use to synchronize up to 3 services and 2000 files. You can increase these limits by referring friends: every friend that downloads the SocialFolders app and signs up will increase your limit by 1000 files! You can also remove all limits by subscribing to SocialFolders Premium at $9.99/year or $1.99/month.
- I have downloaded SocialFolders but it won’t run
Please email us at help@socialfolders.me. We will need some technical details on your computer in order to understand the nature of the problem.
- The SocialFolders icon is black, what does it mean?
This means that SocialFolders cannot reach our servers because of a network problem. The sync process cannot start as long as the connection is not established with our servers. One common problem is when you use your computer at work and there is a proxy between you and the Internet. You can set your proxy settings in the Preferences dialog, accessible through SocialFolders menu.
- I have a folder or a file marked as conflict – what does it mean?
Files and folders may be marked as conflicting by SocialFolders when they have been changed about the same time on both sides: on your computer and on the website. For instance, if you add a photo to your Flickr folder, and if you add a photo with the same name on the Flickr website, on the next synchronization cycle, one of them will be marked as conflicting – SocialFolders being unable to determine which one is the “good” one. You can remove or rename conflicting files.
- How can I stop SocialFolders from syncing on one computer, while keeping my account?
Use the SocialFolders icon in the system menu to access the application preferences, and click on “unlink this computer”. Unlinking means that your social folders will be removed, but your account will still be active. If you install SocialFolders on another computer, you will be able to recover your files just as they were before the unlinking operation.
- Do you support Linux?
SocialFolders doesn’t run on Linux yet. We support Windows XP, Vista, and 7, and Mac OSX 10.6 or later (Snow Leopard and Lion).
- I need support; can I call someone?
Unfortunately we don’t provide phone support right now, but you can email us athelp@socialfolders.me. We try to be as responsive as possible, so you should get a response within a few hours.