If you have searched Resilio Sync, you have probably run into the pitch: no cloud, no subscription, no company holding your files. It sounds like it settles the argument. It leaves out the part that decides whether your files actually survive.
It quietly assumes something about your setup that is often not true, and it says nothing about where your copies physically sit. This post is about both, because together they decide whether that setup is a backup at all.
What Resilio Sync actually does
Resilio Sync is peer-to-peer. Its own listing describes transferring files directly from device to device using BitTorrent peer-to-peer technology, with files encrypted during transfer and your information never stored on servers in the cloud. The phrase it uses for the result is create your own private cloud, connecting your Mac, PC, NAS and even a server.
Everything else in its listing sits on top of that one mechanism: files travel from one of your devices directly to another of your devices, and nowhere else.
That last part is the whole design, and it is also the whole problem. A copy that only ever exists on devices you own only ever exists in the places you are. Taking the provider out of the middle also takes out the one copy that would still be there if everything in your home was gone.
The assumption in the middle
Here is the part that decides it.
Peer-to-peer moves files between peers. That is not a technicality, it is the entire mechanism. For a file to leave your phone, something else has to be there to receive it, and that something has to be switched on at the moment you want the copy to happen.
So the model quietly assumes you own a second machine that is powered up often enough to be useful. A desktop that runs all day, a NAS in a cupboard, a home server, a laptop that lives open on a desk. Its own listing takes this for granted, describing syncing between a Mac, a PC, a NAS and a server.
And even if you do own one, every copy is still under one roof. More on that below.
If your computing is a phone plus a laptop you open twice a week, the assumption does not hold, and it fails in a way that is easy to miss. Nothing errors. You simply have a backup that only exists during the windows when two devices happen to be awake at the same time, which is not the same as having a backup.
| What you own | Does peer-to-peer work for you |
|---|---|
| Desktop or NAS that is on most of the day | While both are awake, and every copy stays in one building |
| Two laptops, both used daily | Only when the timing lines up |
| A phone and an occasional laptop | Not really, there is rarely a second peer awake |
| Only a phone | No, there is no second peer at all |
How Sync approaches it instead
Sync by Miciniti starts from the opposite end: the second copy belongs somewhere other than your house, on a service that is awake whether or not any of your devices are.
Sync runs when you run it. It does not sync on a schedule or in the background. You create a task once and the copy happens when you start it, so whether your photos actually got backed up is something you can see rather than assume. A backup nobody has ever watched finish is a backup nobody has tested.
Sync does not back up to a NAS or network drive, and there is no SMB, FTP or WebDAV. A box in the house shares the house's fate, which is exactly the risk an off-site copy exists to remove.
One more thing worth checking before you build a decade of backups on any tool: where its attention is going. As of today, Resilio's own site leads with a business product, and the page aimed at individuals redirects there. The Android app is still listed, so this is not a claim that it has been discontinued.
Where the two models actually diverge
Both approaches make a second copy. The difference is where the second copy sits, and that difference only shows up on the day something goes wrong.
Peer-to-peer keeps your copies on your own devices. If one drive dies, the other machine still has the files. That covers a single failed drive and nothing else.
It does not cover losing the devices. A burglary takes the laptop and the desktop together. A flat fire takes the NAS in the cupboard along with everything else. A power surge can take several machines at once. In each of those, every copy was in the same building, so the count of copies was two and the number of places was one.
This is exactly the gap the 3-2-1 backup rule is built around, and the part people skip is the one. Three copies, two kinds of media, one off-site. Off-site is the property doing the work, and it is the property a purely peer-to-peer setup inside one home does not have. If you want the longer version of that argument, cloud versus external drive versus NAS walks through where backups are best kept and why.
So a peer-to-peer setup inside one home solves the dead-drive problem and leaves the building problem wide open. The building problem is the one that takes everything.
What replaces the second device
If you do not own a machine that is always on, the fix is not a different peer-to-peer app. It is a destination that is always available without you having to own it and power it.
That is the plain, unglamorous case for cloud storage. Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box and Amazon S3 are all awake at three in the morning whether or not anything of yours is. You are renting the always-on second device rather than buying one, and you never have to leave a machine switched on to make it work.
Sync by Miciniti connects to all five of those, plus USB and external drives, plus local folders on the device, from iPhone and iPad, Android, Mac and Windows on one account. The setup is the same on each: pick a source, pick a destination, pick an operation, run it.
That last point is the one that tends to matter more than any single feature. If you also want to move files between two devices on the same network without a cloud account involved, the Wi-Fi Web Server does that on iOS, Android and macOS, so the local case is covered too without giving up the off-site one.
The five operations, since the names mislead
Worth a short detour, because this is where people get burned by sync tools in general.
Sync by Miciniti has five operations, and only Full Sync ever deletes anything:
| Operation | What it does | Deletes |
|---|---|---|
| Backup | Copies source to destination | Never |
| Backup Sync | Copies only what changed since the last run | Never |
| Restore | Copies destination back to source | Never |
| Restore Sync | Copies back only what changed | Never |
| Full Sync | Makes both sides match | Yes, this one mirrors deletions |
The trap is the naming, and it is not just ours. Sync in "Backup Sync" means incremental, only what changed, not two-way reconciliation. Two-way sync is a genuinely different thing, and it is the reason sync tools sometimes lose files: you delete something on one side by accident, the deletion propagates, and the "backup" faithfully mirrors the mistake. A one-way Backup cannot do that to you. There is more on the distinction in backup versus sync and in the five sync modes post.
What Sync does not do
Stated plainly, so nothing here is a surprise after you install it:
- No automatic, scheduled or background syncing. Tasks run when you run them.
- No NAS or network drives. No SMB, FTP or WebDAV.
- No peer-to-peer or direct device-to-device transfer in the way described above. The Wi-Fi Web Server covers local transfers on iOS, Android and macOS, but the model is a cloud or drive destination, not a peer mesh.
- No direct cloud-to-cloud transfer. Moving files between two providers is a Restore down followed by a Backup up, which works but is two steps.
- No photo library integration on iPhone, iPad or Mac. On Android,
DCIMis an ordinary folder you can pick as a source; there is no equivalent on Apple platforms yet.
Everything that is not on that list, and above all a copy that survives losing the house, is what Sync is built for.
The bottom line
- You own an always-on desktop or NAS: your copies sync, but every one of them is still in one building. Add an off-site copy before the day you need it.
- You do not own an always-on second machine: peer-to-peer has nothing to send to. A cloud destination is awake whether your laptop is or not.
- You want the copy to survive losing the building, not just losing a drive: off-site is the whole point, and it is the one property a home-only setup can never have.
- You use more than one kind of device: Sync by Miciniti gives you one account and five operations across iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac and Windows, with the copy landing in Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, Amazon S3 or an external drive.
Sync by Miciniti has been running since 2014, across four platforms and more than 150 countries. Sync is free to start: connect any one drive at no cost, ad-supported, and set up your first Backup task in a few minutes. Additional drives and features unlock with a Sync subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase, whichever you prefer. Available on iPhone and iPad, Android, Mac, and Windows.
And whichever you pick, the useful test is the same one. Set up a single folder this week, then next week restore it somewhere new and check the files open. A backup you have never restored from is a theory. If you are coming at this from a phone rather than a desktop, switching phones without losing files is the practical version of the same exercise.
Frequently asked questions
What is Resilio Sync and how does it work?
Resilio Sync is a peer-to-peer file sync tool. Its own listing describes transferring files directly from device to device using BitTorrent peer-to-peer technology, with your information never stored on servers in the cloud. In practice you install it on two or more machines you own, pair them, and it keeps a folder matched between them. The phrase its listing uses is create your own private cloud, meaning the storage is your own hardware rather than a provider's. That is also the constraint: a transfer between two devices needs both of them switched on, and every copy ends up wherever those devices are, which is usually one home.
Do you need a second device to use Resilio Sync?
Yes. Peer-to-peer means files move between peers, so if your phone is the only device in the picture there is no second peer to send anything to. Its own listing assumes the other end exists, describing syncing between your Mac, PC, NAS and even server. If you own a desktop that is on most of the day, the copies sync, but they still sit in the same building. If your computing is a phone and an occasionally-opened laptop, a copy that only exists when two lids are open is not really a second copy. A cloud destination with Sync by Miciniti needs no second device at all.
Is peer-to-peer sync safer than cloud backup?
Not against the risk that takes everything at once. Peer-to-peer keeps every copy on devices you own, and devices you own tend to live in the same place. If your copies sit on a laptop and a desktop in the same flat, then theft, fire or a flood takes both together. That is the specific gap the off-site copy in the 3-2-1 rule exists to close. A backup to cloud storage with Sync by Miciniti puts that copy somewhere your home's bad day cannot reach.
Does Sync by Miciniti back up automatically?
No. Sync by Miciniti does not sync on a schedule or in the background. You set a task up once and it runs when you run it, so every backup is one you started and watched finish. That gives you an explicit record of what was copied and when, and it means whether your photos actually got backed up is something you can check rather than assume. On Android, the DCIM folder where your camera saves photos can be picked as an ordinary source folder for a Backup task.
What is the best Resilio Sync alternative if I only have one computer?
If the blocker is that peer-to-peer needs a second machine you do not own, then another peer-to-peer tool is not the alternative you want. What you want is a destination that is always available without you owning it, which is what cloud storage is for. Sync by Miciniti connects to Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box and Amazon S3, plus USB and external drives and local folders, from iPhone and iPad, Android, Mac and Windows on one account. The copy lands somewhere that is not in your house and does not need a second computer to be switched on.
Can Sync by Miciniti back up to a NAS?
No. Sync by Miciniti does not support NAS or network drives, and there is no SMB, FTP or WebDAV in it. A NAS also sits in the same building as everything it backs up, so a burglary, fire or flood takes the original and the copy together. Sync connects to Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box and Amazon S3, plus USB and external drives and local folders on the device, so the copy lands somewhere that survives the building. Sync is built for copies that leave the house, not copies that stay inside it.
