Android Candy: Never Plug In Your Phone Again!

Last month, I showed you an awesome audiobook player app for Android, but I didn't share my frustration in getting the audio files on to my phone. When I plugged my phone in to the computer, I couldn't get the SD card to mount, no matter what settings I changed. It was very frustrating and forced me to come up with a better way. Enter: FolderSync.

First off, it's important to note that FolderSync isn't free. There is a free version, but it's limited to a single account and has ads, and although it works, it really isn't the same as the full app. If you're like me, you don't think twice about spending $5 on a fancy cup of coffee, but if you have to pay for an app on your phone, you debate internally for hours. I've never been so happy I spent $2.29 on an app.

Basically, FolderSync works on your phone sort of like Dropbox works on your desktop computer. Instead of syncing only your Dropbox files, however, FolderSync supports a wide variety of data sources. At the time of this writing, data can be synchronized with Amazon S3, Google Docs, Google Drive, SkyDrive, Dropbox, SugarSync, Box.net, Ubuntu One, NetDocuments, FTP/FTPES/FTPS, SFTP, WebDAV/WebDAVs and Samba/SMB/CIFS.

In my case, I keep an Audiobooks folder on a share at home, and every night the files are synced up. With the paid version, synchronizations can be forced as well. Although the Audiobook syncing is the only thing I use FolderSync for, it's the perfect tool to keep music, photos, documents or anything else synchronized on your phone without ever plugging it in to the computer. Because FolderSync supports two-way synchronization, it is possible to delete files from your home server, so be careful!

After configuring FolderSync to sync my Audiobooks automatically, but only over Wi-Fi and only while plugged in, I realized it had to be Editors' Choice for this month. That means two Android apps in a row win the coveted title, but once you try it, I suspect you'll agree. Check out FolderSync at the Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.tacit.android.foldersync.full, or if you'd prefer to keep your pumpkin latte money, try out the Lite version: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.tacit.android.foldersync.lite.