Instructor: In this lesson
we're going to talk about data for synchronization.
Now we've previously discussed that there are multiple ways
to synchronize data across the cloud,
including Microsoft 365, Google Workspaces,
and iCloud from Apple.
In this lesson, we're going to focus
on the specific types of data
that these services will sync for you across your devices
using their cloud-based resources.
Now when we talk about
mobile device synchronization or sync,
we're referring to the act
of copying data back and forth between different devices.
This means you might have a desktop or laptop,
as well as a smartphone or tablet,
and you can actually have data
syncing back and forth between them,
so no matter which device you're using,
all of your data is there and ready for you to use it.
For example, I use a lot of Apple products,
including an iPhone, an iPad, a MacBook,
and an iMac for my desktop.
Now all of these devices work really well together
and sync the data across them,
in my case, for my personal data,
I actually use iCloud from Apple.
But for my work needs,
I synchronize all my data using Google Workspace,
and so you could see that even with the same devices
you may have multiple solutions to be able to
synchronize your data across them,
depending on your use case.
In my case, I have different accounts on different devices
for my personal and work needs,
and therefore I can use different services
to synchronize those different data sets.
Now when I talk about mobile device data
for synchronization,
I'm really talking about things like your contacts,
your calendar, your mail, your pictures,
your music, your video, your documents,
your applications, and your passwords,
and all these are things that you can synchronize
using these three services,
as well as some other third-party tools.
Now the first one we have is your contacts.
When we're referring to a contact,
we're referring to a record inside of your address book
that contains fields for your names, addresses,
emails, phone numbers, notes,
and other pertinent information.
It's really important to keep all
of your contacts synchronized across your devices,
because when you're in the office
or you're working from home or you're on the go,
you might be using a different device each time,
and if you don't have the device with you
that you originally created that contact on
and that contact hasn't been synchronized,
you're not going to have that information
to be able to get a hold of who you need to.
Now when it comes to contacts,
there's a couple of different formats
that are commonly used.
The first one is known as a vCard,
now a vCard represents a standard format
that is widely supported by most address books
and software applications.
Each vCard is essentially a virtual business card
or a virtual RoloNext card
that you can use with all the information
for one single person.
In my address book,
I have hundreds and hundreds of people in there,
and each one has their own unique vCard
associated with them.
Now if I wanted to take one of those and synchronize it,
I could synchronize that one vCard across my laptop,
my desktop, my smartphone, and my tablet,
or I can actually take an entire export
of my entire address book
with all of my several hundred people
and be able to synchronize it across all of those devices.
If I needed to export my entire address book,
I can do that to a file known as a CSV,
or comma separated value file.
This export will create a single line in that file
for each and every contact record,
so if I have information such as the first name,
the address, the email, and the phone number,
each line will have four things in it separated by commas,
like Jason, 123 Main Street,
support@diontraining.com, 123-456-7890,
and that would have one record
for a person named Jason,
with the address of 123 Main Street,
the email address of support@deiontraining.com,
and the phone number of 123-456-7890,
and then the next line
would have the next person's information, and so on,
for all of the records inside of my address book.
CSVs are a very common file format
that you'll be exposed to as a technician,
especially when you're taking data
from one system to another,
that is some sort of a list,
like an address list, a contact list,
or even just a list of files and information about a system.
The next type of data we have is calendar information,
and a single item in your calendar
is any record with fields for appointments
or task information
that might include things like the subject, the date,
the location, and who the attendees are going to be.
If I go into my calendar for tomorrow,
I can see I have a meeting at 9:00 AM.
It tells me what the meeting is about,
who is going to be there, and the location that meeting,
so I know I go to the right place,
whether that's in person in the office,
or in a virtual setting like a Zoom, Google Meets,
or Microsoft Teams meeting.
To synchronize data across calendars,
you will again be using that cloud-based system,
or you can download that calendar
as an iCalendar formatted file,
and then that file can be loaded into those other systems.
But using a cloud-based service is definitely easier
and keeps everything synchronized up to the minute.
The third type of data we have is mail,
and mail is a really important thing to keep synchronized
across your devices.
Remember, there are three different ways to receive email.
You can receive it using POP3,
you can receive it using IMAP,
or you can receive it using Exchange.
These are the three most common protocols for email.
The problem with POP3
is it is the oldest format,
and it doesn't support synchronization across devices,
including the status of the emails.
So if I read an email on my desktop
and I download it from the server using POP3
and I check the button to let it remain on the server,
when I grab my smartphone
and I walk out of the office at the end of the day,
it's going to redownload that email
and show me it's a new message that hasn't been read.
Conversely, if you're using IMAP or Exchange,
these can manage the state of that email,
so if I read it on one system, like my desktop,
it's also going to show as read on my phone and my tablet.
Similarly, if I move things out of my inbox
and into a sub folder, or I delete an item,
that will also show up synchronized across all of my devices
if I'm using IMAP or Exchange for my email service.
The next thing we have is our pictures, our music,
our videos, and our documents,
and all of these are what I like to call,
our personal effects.
All of these things are being created
all the time on our devices,
especially on our smartphones.
When we're out and about,
we're taking pictures and videos of our lives
as they're happening,
and a lot of times we're posting these
to things like Instagram or Twitter or Facebook,
but in addition to that, it's being saved
to the internal camera roll on your device.
Now if it's on your smartphone
and you want it on your laptop, your tablet,
your desktop, and things like that,
you can also synchronize these
through online cloud storage devices,
or using a synchronization tool.
Another area that we want to concern ourselves
when we're dealing with synchronization is applications,
also known as apps.
Now most apps out there are going to have desktop versions,
tablet versions, and smartphone versions.
For example, I use Slack
as a messaging tool inside my business,
I have a Slack app on my iPhone,
as well as on my iPad and my Mac laptop.
Now some of my other team members use Android devices,
and they have Slack on there as well.
So as a company,
we've decided that is our messaging solution,
and one of the reasons we chose it
is because it was cross platform.
It's supported by Windows, Mac, Linux,
iPhones, Android devices,
and most of the devices out there can run Slack.
If there's not a native app for it,
they also have a web app version of it too,
and so this allows us all to use the same platform
using our own username and password as credentials,
and regardless of what underlying operating system we use,
all of that data and all of our communication
will still get synced across all of those applications.
In addition to that, as you're buying an application,
you want to consider what apps are going to be supported
on what devices.
There are some things that only work on Windows,
some things only work on Mac,
some things work on both,
and some things only work on Android,
or only work on iOS,
or some work on both.
These are important things to consider
as you're looking across all of your devices
and how well they're going to synchronize their data
across all of your different devices
that you're going to be using.
The last area of data for synchronization we need to cover
is passwords.
Now passwords are these special secret things
that we want to hold
that gives us access to different applications,
resources, and websites.
Now there are lots of ways to save your passwords,
depending on what applications you're using.
Some of these are going to be stored locally in your device,
some will be saved in your browser,
and some will be stored in a third-party tool,
depending on how you've configured it.
Personally, I recommend using a third-party app
to save your passwords,
something like Bitwarden, OnePass, or LastPass.
All of these are great third-party tools
that are dedicated to password sharing
across all devices and all operating systems,
so I personally use Bitwarden,
that works on Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, and iOS,
and so no matter which device I'm using,
all of my passwords are synced across all of those devices.
Conversely,
if you're using a web browser like Google Chrome,
you can set up a profile in that,
and regardless of what device you're using Google Chrome on,
those passwords will follow you from device to device
and remain synchronized.
It's important to ensure that whatever tool you're using
to store your passwords,
you are always using one that is encrypting your passwords,
so nobody else has access to them.
You'll then have one master password
that can unlock that vault
and get access to any of the other passwords you need.
Additionally, a lot of these third-party password managers,
like Bitwarden, LastPass, and OnePass,
will give you the ability to generate
strong random passwords
when you're signing up for a new account
with some kind of cloud-based service.
This is another good security practice to follow
because then you'll have long strong passwords
that are harder for attackers to crack.
So remember, when it comes to the types of data
you can synchronize using mobile device synchronization,
you can use this for your contacts, your calendar items,
your email, your pictures, music, video, and documents,
as well as your applications, and even your passwords.