Resilio Sync (formerly BitTorrent Sync) by Resilio, Inc. is a proprietarypeer-to-peerfile synchronization tool available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Amazon Kindle Fire and BSD. It can sync files between devices on a local network, or between remote devices over the Internet via a modified version of the BitTorrent protocol.
Although not touted by the developers as an intended direct replacement nor competitor to cloud-based file synchronization services, it has attained much of its publicity in this potential role.[1]
History
On 24 January 2013, BitTorrent, Inc. announced a call for pre-alpha testers to help test a new "distributed syncing product to help manage personal files between multiple computers".[2]
Several private pre-alpha builds of "SyncApp" were subsequently made available to a limited group of alpha testers between January 2013 and April 2013. In mid-April 2013, the name "SyncApp" was dropped in favor of "BitTorrent Sync".[citation needed]
On 23 April 2013, the previously private "alpha" was opened up to general users.[1][3][4]
As of 6 May 2013, more than a petabyte of anonymous data had been synced between users, with over 70 terabytes synced daily.[5]
As of 16 July 2013, more than eight petabytes of data had been synced using the software.[6]
On 17 July 2013, BitTorrent Sync migrated from "alpha" to "beta", released an Android app, and introduced versioning.[7]
On 27 August 2013, BitTorrent Sync for iOS was announced.[8]
On 5 November 2013, BitTorrent announced the release of BitTorrent Sync Beta API and version 1.2 of the client, along with the milestone, having over 1 million monthly active users synced over 30 petabytes of data to date.[9]
As of 26 August 2014, there have been more than 10 million user installs and more than 80 petabytes of data synced between users.[10]
On 3 March 2015, the product finally exited beta as a commercial product, with the inclusion of a paid Pro version.[11]
On 9 September 2015, with the release of Sync 2.2, in the free version, the 10 folder limit that had been introduced in 2.0 was removed.[12]
On 21 January 2016, the release of Sync 2.3 introduced the Encrypted Folder,[13] as well as the ability to run as a Windows Service, to use SD cards on Android and, for paid users, Selective Sync support in Linux.[14]
On 1 June 2016, product and team were spun out of BitTorrent Inc. as an independent company, Resilio Inc. which will continue development of the product under the name Resilio Sync.[15][16] Former Bittorrent CEO Eric Klinker became the head of the new company.[17][18]
Technology
Resilio Sync synchronizes files using BitTorrent.[19] The user's data is stored on the user's local device instead of in a "cloud", therefore requiring at least two user devices, or "nodes," to be online to synchronize files between them. Resilio Sync encrypts data with an Advanced Encryption Standard AES-128 key in counter mode which may either be randomly generated or set by the user. This key is derived from a "secret" which can be shared to other users to share data. Data is sent between devices directly unless the target device is unreachable (e.g. behind a firewall), in which case the data will first be relayed via an intermediary node. Many devices can be connected simultaneously and files shared between them in a mesh networking topology.
There is no limit on the amount of data that can be synced, other than the available free space on each device.[20]
Compatibility
Current builds of Resilio Sync are available for the following operating systems:
