Hi Sam, I have two paid versions of fence 6 on two different windows devices where is setup to sync fences layout across both?   thank you 

Hi ejmdc, we'd love to learn more about what you need in a Sync feature.

- Do you use OneDrive, or some other thing to sync desktop contents?

- Are the monitor configurations different between the two devices? Can you share the monitor configuration for each machine so that we can ask a followup question here?

- Are their any icon files located on the "Public" desktop of either machine, "%public%\Desktop"? Are the icons different between the two machines in that folder?

Hi ejmdc, checking back in, if you have thoughts on the above?

HI, thanks for quick reply!

- Do you use OneDrive, or some other thing to sync desktop contents? YES

- Are the monitor configurations different between the two devices? YES, one is a desktop PC the other is my travel laptop.

- Can you share the monitor configuration for each machine so that we can ask a follow-up question here? Am not sure how to check, can you assist?

- Are there any icon files located on the "Public" desktop of either machine, "%public%\Desktop"? YES, all files should be exactly the same on both devices.

- Are the icons different between the two machines in that folder? There could be some differences. However, I can make them identical if they are not.

Hi ejmdc, thank you for the detail!

Great, a few followup question.

- Would it bother you if OneDrive emitted notifications ("file changed") just like any other file, when the layout changed. I.e. if you move an icon in/out of a group, or move a group, if OneDrive notifications are enabled for you, you might see a few notifications like "Icons.cfg updated" in OneDrive. Or, would this be a deal-breaker annoyance for you.

- Your desktop PC, is that a single monitor or multi-monitor? Your travel laptop, do you ever dock/undock it from an external screen?

- Since the screen resolutions & monitor configs are likely different between the two machines, would it be satisfactory if the system worked like this for you?
* All groups sync, i.e. the groups themselves – their names and properties, would sync live.
* All icon memberships, i.e. which icons are in which groups & the order therein, would sync live. 
* Group positions/sizes would not sync. You could choose to import group positions/sizes from another machine from the config dialog, to make it easier to keep them in sync after major changes.
* Loose desktop icon sorting would not sync. Only icons within groups would sync their positions.

- Regarding the %public%\Desktop, yup, we're figuring it will be a common scenario that two machines will have different contents, so as we evaluate the feature we're aware we'd have to deal with that. We would not expect the user to have to ensure the two machines have the same Public desktop folder contents.

Hi ejmdc! Just following up on the above, thoughts? Thanks for any feedback as we consider this functionality

Hi again, thanks for coming back. I hope I understand you correctly - so let try your approach and see! 

1. OneDrive notifications
I’m okay with OneDrive showing occasional “file changed” notifications such as “Icons.cfg updated” when the layout changes. That wouldn’t be a deal-breaker for me as long as it’s not spamming constantly. The main priority for me is that the layouts sync reliably between my machines.

1. Monitor setups

• My desktop PC uses a dual-monitor setup. 

• My laptop also sometimes runs with an extra monitor.   

3. Proposed sync behaviour
   The behaviour you described would be acceptable for my use case:

• Syncing all groups (names, properties, rules) live between machines is exactly what I want.

• Syncing icon membership and ordering within groups live is also what I’m after.

• I’m happy for group positions and sizes to be stored per-machine, with the ability to import positions/sizes from another machine if and when needed.

• I’m fine with loose desktop icon sorting not syncing, as long as icons inside the Fences groups stay in sync.

4. Different Desktop contents
   I understand that %public%\Desktop and local desktops may differ between machines, and I wouldn’t expect them to be identical. I’m comfortable with the sync feature handling those differences.

Let's try this approach would already be very useful for me - thank you!