What Is Sync Center? How to Enable or Disable It on Windows 10?

What Is Sync Center?

Nowadays, data security is becoming more and more important, so more and more people choose to back up their files. To back up files, people can choose to create a backup image, save files to another location like an external hard drive, sync files to OneDrive or other locations, etc. To sync files, there is a built-in file sync program provided in Windows 10 and it is Sync Center.

Sync Center is a feature that was introduced in Windows Vista, and it has been supported in all modern versions of Windows. Sync Center is mainly used to copy network files and folders always in sync between the local computer and network servers, and to keep these files offline available on your computer, even when your server is slow, not connected or unavailable

With Sync Center, you are able to access a replica of the network files on your local computer even when the system is not linked to any network. That is to say, you can see all data made offline at anytime. Sync Center also allows you to maintain information accessible when syncing between your system & those files located in your network servers or cloud drives. By default, if the computer is not connected to the network drive, the network folder online is empty.

So, in this article, we will show you how to use Sync Center Windows 10.

How to Use Sync Center Windows 10?

In this part, we will show you how to access and use the Windows 10 Sync Center to manage offline files.

Now, here is the tutorial.

Open Sync Center Windows 10

1. Open Control Panel.
2. Click Sync Center to continue.
3. In the pop-up window, click Manage offline files from the left panel to continue.
4. Then click Enable offline files to open Windows 10 Sync Center.

Then it may require you to reboot your computer to take the changes into effect. If not, do it manually.

If you want to sync folders Windows 10 or manage offline files on your local hard drive, the shared folder on a network server is required. So, here is the tutorial on how to create the shared folder on a network server.

Create a Shared Folder

1. Go to Network and Sharing Center and click Sharing Options.

2. Check the three options: Turn on network discovery, Turn on file and printer sharing and Turn off password protected sharing.

3. Then click Save changes to continue.

Once all steps are finished, you can begin to create a shared folder on the network server.

4. Right-click the folder you want to share and choose Properties.

5. Switch to the Sharing tab and choose Share….

6. Add Everyone to share with and give it Read/Write control.

7. Then click the Share button to continue.

8. Then go back to the Sharing tab and choose Advanced Sharing to continue.

9. Next, check the option Share this folder.

10. At last, click Apply and OK to save the changes.

Once all steps are finished, you have created the shared folder on the network server.

To sync files from the network drive or sync files to it, you also need to know the IP address of the network server.

Get the IP Address of Network Server

Now, we will show you how to get the IP address of the network server.

1. Open Command Prompt.

2. Type ipconfig in the command line window and hit Enter to continue.

3. Next, find your IPv4 address.

Sync the Network Drive to Local Computer

Now, we will show you how to sync the network drive to the local computer so as to manage your offline files.

1. Press the Windows key and R key together to open the Run dialog.
2. Type \\ plus the IP address of the network server and click OK to continue.
3. Then access the shared folder.
4. Select the files or folders you want to access at the local computer, right-click it and choose Always available offline.
5. Then wait for the process to be finished.

After that, you can access the files or folders on your local computer even though the network server is not connected. If you change either the source file or the synced files, both will keep the pace and display the same. After making it offline, you can edit it on your computer and then the source file will be synced.

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How to Configure Files in Windows 10 Sync Center?

In this part, we will show you how to configure files in Windows 10 Sync Center.

How to Sync Schedule for Offline Files

In order to sync your files automatically, you can set scheduled sync for offline files.

Now, here is the tutorial.

1. Open Sync Center.

2. Right-click the offline task and choose Schedule for Offline Files.

3. Next, choose which items you want to sync on this schedule and click Next.

4. Decide when you want this sync task to begin. You can choose At a scheduled time or When an event occurs. Here, we choose a scheduled time.

5. Then set the time and click Next.

6. Name the scheduled sync and click Save changes to continue.

After all steps are finished, you have set the scheduled sync and it will begin to sync your files regularly as long as you do not remove it.

Change Windows Offline Files Disk Usage

The Disk Usage will show you the available disk space on your system as well as the disk space used for keeping the offline files. You can also modify it.

Now, here is the tutorial.

1. Open Sync Center.
2. Click Manage offline files on the left pane.
3. In the pop-up window, switch to the Disk Usage tab. 
4. You can see the available storage space on your system, the used space for the offline files, and the disk space for the temporary files.
5. You can also click Change limits to change it.

Encrypt Offline Files

In Windows 10 Sync Center, you can also encrypt it.

Now, here is the tutorial.

1. Open Sync Center.
2. Click Manage offline files.
3. Go to the Encryption tab.
4. Click the Encrypt button to continue.

Configure Windows Offline Files Network Settings

You can set your preferred time to check for slow connectivity and once a slow connection occurs. Windows will start working offline automatically.

How to Disable Sync Center?

If you do not want to use Sync Center, you can choose to disable it. To do that, you can choose to end the mobysync.exe in the Task Manager. After that, it will be disabled.

To disable it, you can also choose to do that in Sync Center itself. Open Sync Center, click Manage offline files and click Disable offline links. After that, the Sync Center will be disabled.

The above content is all about the Sync Center and shows how to use Sync Center to sync files from the network server to the local hard drive and manage the offline files. However, if you want to sync files to the network drive, how can you do it?

In the following part, we will show you the Sync Center alternative – MiniTool ShadowMaker. It enables you to sync files from a local computer to the external hard drive, internal hard drive or network drive. So, keep on your reading to find more detailed information.

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How to Sync Files to Network Drive?

MiniTool ShadowMaker is a piece of professional Windows 10 backup software and it is designed to back up the files, folders, disks, partitions and the operating system. It also comes with the Sync feature, ensuring the files are in two or more locations and kept in pace.

Now, we will show you how to use the Sync feature to sync files.

1. Download MiniTool ShadowMaker from the following button, install it and launch it.

MiniTool ShadowMaker TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

2. Click Keep Trial.

3. Then you enter the main interface of MiniTool ShadowMaker, and go to the Sync page.

4. Click the SOURCE module to choose the files or folders you want to sync.

5. Then click the DESTINATION module to choose the target disk. If you want to sync them to the network drive, choose Shared.

6. Then click Add New and input the path, name and password of the internet server.

7. MiniTool ShadowMaker also enables you to set the automatic file. You can go to Options > Schedule Settings to do that.

8. After the sync source and destination are selected, click Sync Now to start syncing files to the network drive.

After all steps are finished, you have synced files from the local computer to the network drive. So, if you want to sync files, try MiniTool ShadowMaker.

Apart from the file backup and sync feature, MiniTool ShadowMaker also allows you to perform some recovery solutions. If your computer is crashed, you can restore it to a previous state with the system image created before.

In addition, MiniTool ShadowMaker is also a hard drive clone tool that helps you to clone OS from HDD to SSD without data loss.

Bottom Line

To sum up, this post shows what the Sync Center is and how to enable and disable Sync Center Windows 10. If you have any different ideas for Windows 10 Sync Center, you can share them in the comment zone.

If you have any problem with MiniTool ShadowMaker, please feel free to contact us via the email [email protected] and we will reply to you as soon as possible.

Sync Center FAQ