Merged
This conversation has been merged. Please reference the main conversation: Allow Snagit Library to be put on a network drive
Please add the ability to save the library location of snags to a Dropbox or OneDrive folder so that you can access that same library on the other computer that has access to that same cloud location.
Posted 10 months ago
Has DropBox changed? I see many mentions from lots of places where folks refer to DropBox as if it's just a cloud storage place and that's that.
For those of you that seem to be under this assumption, are you aware that you can actually configure DropBox in such a manner that you have a specific folder designated on your computer that is linked to DropBox? And anything you add to that folder is automagickally uploaded to DropBox so that you then have easy access to it from anywhere else?
For example, I used to work in a media booth at a church I once attended. I'd create all sorts of visuals while at home, then copy them to the DropBox folder on my PC. Silently, they all uploaded to the DropBox cloudy place. Then when I got to the church and fired up the PC, the same files would be downloaded silently from the cloudy DropBox place to the folder on the church PC.
Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
So my thought on this is that it should be possible to configure a DropBox folder on your local drive, then configure your SnagIt library folder to point to this folder.
Wouldn't that solve the problem?
Cheers... Rick :)
For those of you that seem to be under this assumption, are you aware that you can actually configure DropBox in such a manner that you have a specific folder designated on your computer that is linked to DropBox? And anything you add to that folder is automagickally uploaded to DropBox so that you then have easy access to it from anywhere else?
For example, I used to work in a media booth at a church I once attended. I'd create all sorts of visuals while at home, then copy them to the DropBox folder on my PC. Silently, they all uploaded to the DropBox cloudy place. Then when I got to the church and fired up the PC, the same files would be downloaded silently from the cloudy DropBox place to the folder on the church PC.
Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
So my thought on this is that it should be possible to configure a DropBox folder on your local drive, then configure your SnagIt library folder to point to this folder.
Wouldn't that solve the problem?
Cheers... Rick :)
Rick, this unfortunately does not work because snagit stores the snags in an internal file. So while you will see those snags on Computer A in your Dropbox folder, you cannot open those snags on Computer B with Snagit installed, even if you have the library of Computer B also set to that same Dropbox folder. The only way to make it work is, after snagging something, you can save your snag as a jpg or some other standard file type to your dropbox folder, but not only does that create an additional step but you will no longer be able to change the edits you made in snagit to that snagged file on Computer B.
(Edited)
Hey Rick
Than you buddy. Your post got me thinking. I experimented, and I have great news for owners of Synology NAS devices.
I have always wanted to store my library on a shared folder (on my NAS) because then it's RAID protected and backed up daily, and I can access it from wherever I am. But every time I try, SnagIt says it can't used shared folders, hence the reason for a long standing Feature Request to permit it.
But your post got me thinking. Synology have just released a product called Synology Drive - their take on Google Drive, One Drive and DropBox, and it has the same feature that they all have - the ability to create a local virtual drive, as you describe.
So I thought, what the hell, and went into Editor Preferences and tried changing the Snagit Library to a Synology Drive folder, and BINGO, it worked. The migration process kicked in and my SnagIt Library now sits on my NAS drive, the same NAS drive that I couldn't use as a shared folder.
I am a happy man.
Than you buddy. Your post got me thinking. I experimented, and I have great news for owners of Synology NAS devices.
I have always wanted to store my library on a shared folder (on my NAS) because then it's RAID protected and backed up daily, and I can access it from wherever I am. But every time I try, SnagIt says it can't used shared folders, hence the reason for a long standing Feature Request to permit it.
But your post got me thinking. Synology have just released a product called Synology Drive - their take on Google Drive, One Drive and DropBox, and it has the same feature that they all have - the ability to create a local virtual drive, as you describe.
So I thought, what the hell, and went into Editor Preferences and tried changing the Snagit Library to a Synology Drive folder, and BINGO, it worked. The migration process kicked in and my SnagIt Library now sits on my NAS drive, the same NAS drive that I couldn't use as a shared folder.
I am a happy man.
Paul, I am very confused how this worked for you any better than DropBox, One Drive, etc.
When I tried changing my Snagit library location to DropBox, I was still unable to access those snags on my other computers that share the same Dropbox account. I called Techsmith and asked them how I can accomplish this and their response was, "It's not possible". They are the ones who suggested that I add this to the list of requested features. They say people request this feature all the time.
When I tried changing my Snagit library location to DropBox, I was still unable to access those snags on my other computers that share the same Dropbox account. I called Techsmith and asked them how I can accomplish this and their response was, "It's not possible". They are the ones who suggested that I add this to the list of requested features. They say people request this feature all the time.
No need to be confused. Probably my bad.
What you don't know is that I do not trust any cloud service with my data.
Instead I have a Synology NAS drive. And Synology have their version of One Drive etc called Synology Drive, that works just the same. I have a folder on my local hard drive that auto syncs to my Synology private cloud, and the latter is accessible from wherever I am around the world.
What you don't know is that I do not trust any cloud service with my data.
Instead I have a Synology NAS drive. And Synology have their version of One Drive etc called Synology Drive, that works just the same. I have a folder on my local hard drive that auto syncs to my Synology private cloud, and the latter is accessible from wherever I am around the world.
I see, but you are accessing those snags stored on the NAS drive from one computer, right? You could not access those files from a 2nd computer that also had Snagit installed on it since that 2nd computer would have its own internal hidden library file.
If I log onto the second computer as me, I will be able to access the same space on computers 1 and 2
Yesterday I tested my own theory about how DropBox can be used. It seems it would work, but also in a way, fails miserably.
I have two laptops. One is in a small studio I constructed. The other is my daily use computer. These aren't connected in any manner such as one might see on a corporate network. Each is independent.
So I installed the DropBox client on each machine. Deleted all the SnagIt library data on the studio machine then configured both machines to point to the DropBox folder. As I fully expected, all the content in that folder was copied to the DropBox cloud automagickally and was then dutifully copied from there to the studio machine. Took a while, but all was there. Once it all synced, I then performed a capture on the studio machine and when the editor opened and I looked at the library, poof! I saw exactly what my daily machine had. So far so good!
The problem seems to be with the large database file. For me, the file name is: SnagIt900.sdf
This file seems to take for-ev-er to properly sync up.
I'm not sure how things would behave if I were able to place things on perhaps a company network. Or perhaps if I had a higher speed internet connection. Mine's pretty slow with 1 meg up and 5 down.
Anyway, just thought I'd chime in with what I was able to see first hand.
Cheers... Rick :)
I have two laptops. One is in a small studio I constructed. The other is my daily use computer. These aren't connected in any manner such as one might see on a corporate network. Each is independent.
So I installed the DropBox client on each machine. Deleted all the SnagIt library data on the studio machine then configured both machines to point to the DropBox folder. As I fully expected, all the content in that folder was copied to the DropBox cloud automagickally and was then dutifully copied from there to the studio machine. Took a while, but all was there. Once it all synced, I then performed a capture on the studio machine and when the editor opened and I looked at the library, poof! I saw exactly what my daily machine had. So far so good!
The problem seems to be with the large database file. For me, the file name is: SnagIt900.sdf
This file seems to take for-ev-er to properly sync up.
I'm not sure how things would behave if I were able to place things on perhaps a company network. Or perhaps if I had a higher speed internet connection. Mine's pretty slow with 1 meg up and 5 down.
Anyway, just thought I'd chime in with what I was able to see first hand.
Cheers... Rick :)
As jcieben said, at this point, TechSmith would simply be playing catch up to Microsoft by adding cloud storage to their snags library. MS now has this feature built in when you install OneDrive and asks you if you want to save all your screenshots to OneDrive. When this option is enabled, your screenshots are saved to your local clipboard AND OneDrive/Pictures/Screenshots. This page on their site shows how.
Techsmith, please don't get behind the times - everyone wants access to all their data from all their devices. Local storage is going the way of the VHS tapes!
Techsmith, please don't get behind the times - everyone wants access to all their data from all their devices. Local storage is going the way of the VHS tapes!
Techsmith, please don't get behind the times - everyone wants access to all their data from all their devices. Local storage is going the way of the VHS tapes!Sorry but that's just not true. A lot a people are getting sucked into cloud services, at which point valuable data is in the hands of people who can pretty much do with it what that they will, with no liability, and hold you hostage to hosting fees.. (Read the fine print of their Ts & Cs).
Meanwhile one of the most rapid growth sectors in IT has been Network Attached Storage devices for people like me who trust cloud services about as far as could throw a horse. NAS devices are so much more than just simple local storage.
My Synology Drive has an equivalent of OneDrive, a local set of folders that are synced in real time to my NAS (one level of redundancy) backed up to a local device each night (two levels of redundancy and to a remote location too (3 levels of redundancy.) I have complete control over my data. My .sdf files syncs flawlessly and fast (at Gigabit LAN speeds instead of throttled WAN speeds)
And my SnagIt Library is located on that Synology Drive from where it's accessible everywhere.
But that also assumes I have SnagIt at every place where I want to access those files. SnagIt is not available on mobile devices so you can't do anything other than view them in PNG format because .snag is a proprietary format. There's an existing request for them to use a standard format such as TIFF.
Assuming that SnagIt is happy to work with a Library located on the One Drive local directory there's no reason why you cannot do what I do and relocate the library there.
But the heart of the problem is another long running request, that when asked to save an image as a non .snag format, it automatically saves every image as .snag as well - and you could reverse that function too and have SnagIt save every image both file formats, in the library which, if located on One Drive, would automatically be synced to One Drive
