This also allows me to watch the item being engraved through the engravers camera while sitting in my office.
If you have a cloud account, such as Google Drive, select that as your save to folder. The open Google Drive on your laptop to access the file.
I copy to my phone then to my laptop.
Microsoft Windows includes a file sharing service called OneDrive that will let you automatically keep copies on two or more computers the same as long as they’re logged in with the same Microsoft account and you’re online. It might be easiest if you find a local friend or relative to show you how to set this up, but there are many videos (search YouTube for “how do i set up a shared onedrive” for examples). It’s pretty straightforward. Once you’ve shared a OneDrive folder (Documents/LightBurn for example) between your two desktop and laptop, and saved your LightBurn files there, it will do what you’re describing.
I know how to “share” a photo between my desktop and laptop, but I thought, being logged into LB on both desktop and laptop would allow me to share the LB files with edits between computers. I guess like Adobe Sync does. It seems LB doesn’t have that capability, though. What I was hoping to do is - I have Adobe Photo Products on my desktop where I do all my photo editing. I would prefer to then also use my desktop to open LB, do all the necessary adjustments to get it ready for engraving, save the file in Lightburn as an lbrn file (on my desktop), then be able to open LB on my laptop, which is hooked to my engraver, and have the prepared file ready. I THOUGHT since I was logged into LB on both the desktop and laptop that’s what would happen but no. I guess LB would have to have some sort of cloud service to do that.
So doing all this will actually save the LB file with all the settings, adjustments and (show) notes on my desktop, then allow me to open the file on my laptop, showing all the settings (speed/power etc.) and adjustments (brightness, contrast, etc). that I made on my desktop to the file?
Thank you. I do use OneDrive for other things but had not tried it for what I’m trying to do. I’ll give it a try.
i have a home server, and save anything there to use from any computer / laptop / tablet / phone i choose to use
qnap ftw!
Onedrive is by far the easiest solution here, if you have it enabled on both machines. Just save whatever lightburn files you create there, and they should sync.
If you run out of the free storage, get an upgraded plan for a couple of bucks. If you want full local control, get a NAS, which is basically a local version of onedrive that you manage and own.
Lightburn has no cloud aspect, so you’re not “logging in to lightburn”, but simply entering the license key so the software knows it’s legitimate.
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LightBurn does not have a “cloud” service like some other laser software does (Xtool XCS). All lightburn files are stored on the computer hard drive. Photo files, Lightburn files, it dont mater they are files stored on the computer unless you upload them to some other device.
I use a USB drive to move files from one computer to another.
I also have a Sinology NAS drive (network drive attached to my WiFi router) that I can use for storage and file backup.
Since any computer that can log onto my WiFi and gain access to the NAS drive files can be shared and transferred that way as well.
Please let us know how it works out for you.
Interesting. thank you.
thank you.
You’re stating you’re saving the file to your Desktop.
Could you clarify exactly what you mean by “Desktop”?
May seem to be a silly question but I assure you it’s not. Let me explain. If by Desktop you mean you’re saving the file in Windows Desktop folder (yes, there’s a Desktop folder), I’m pretty certain that folder isn’t viewable by another computer unless you’ve set up Remote Desktop as someone has already stated. Cumbersome because you are basically only using the mouse & keyboard of the connected computer (client) to drive what’s happening in the host. That still doesn’t get the file into the realm of the computer connected to the laser.
If you mean Desktop as the “computer” itself, then you should be able to share the folder across the network (assuming you’ve set your network up correctly).
There’s two other ways to get the file(s) to where you can utilize it, both of which have already been stated.
Physical device (as in USB) or OneDrive (as long as both computers and logged in to the same account).
I actually use both at times. If I’m in a hurry to get the file running AND my network is slow, I’ll pop in a USB drive, copy the file there, safely remove the drive and walk it over to the computer connected to the laser and retrieve the file from there.
Sometimes (at least for me and my slow network) it doesn’t matter how long it takes to show up on the working computer via OneDrive because I have other things being engraved. I say this because it may take a minute or so for the edited file to show up.
Both have their merits as in it never hurts to have an older version on a physical device and also having the newer one on the stick as well gives me some peace of mind. Lol.
OneDrive works but even then you are limited to how much data you can store there without Microsoft pinging you that your drive is almost full and constantly asks if you want to PURCHASE more storage space. Nope, nada, no way… they’ve already got too much of my money already. Ha!
Get yourself a ridiculously large capacity USB stick and never look back. They’re so inexpensive these days, I’ve got two. AND I have current and older files in a safe place and duplicate when needed.
Paranoid, no, just have had my proverbial backside saved more than once by having duplicates after seeing colleagues hard drives crash then literally watch the get so nauseated from the realization (after being warned multiple times) that there data was lost for good. Unless of course they wanted to pay a data recovery specialist to ATTEMPT a costly recovery for “some” of there files.
Not a fun thing to watch someone hurl into the nearest garbage can. For real.
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Why not use an USB-memory stick? go to the laptop and open the LB file there?
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When I say “desktop”, I was meaning my desktop computer as opposed to my laptop. I prefer to do all my photo editing and other work on my desktop computer as it has all my photo editing programs on it, has a 27" screen, has a large comfy chair in front of it. My laptop, on the other hand, is very basic. I bought a very inexpensive laptop for the sole purpose of running the laser out in the garage which isn’t heated or cooled, has a 15" screen, and nothing to sit on in front of it. I understand and know how to share files between computers, but what I was asking was is there a way for me to do all my lightburn work on my desktop computer, save it in lightburn, then log into lightburn on my laptop, and the file would be there to use. Someone answered above “no” as that would require Lightburn to have a “cloud” which they don’t. I’m not really very techie, and just didn’t properly know exactly how to ask the question. I made the question more difficult to answer than necessary because I didn’t ask it the right way. 
Thanks so much for your suggestion, though.
By the way, I’ve had the very unfortunate event of having external hard drives go bad, too. It’s a sickening feeling, for sure, and even more so when you find out the cost of recovery, like you said. I have 10 external hard drives that I am slowly replacing with external SSDs.
I can do that, but it doesn’t show all the adjustments and notes by just using a memory stick, external hard drive, etc. Also, because my laptop is very basic, I can’t install any of my photo editing programs on it so if I need to make any other adjustments to the photo I’m using, I have to send the photo back over to my desktop computer for more editing. (I mostly engrave my photography on wood, and often have to do more editing to get the shading just right).
OneDrive is what you’re looking for. It also adds a folder that’s visible in your normal file explorer so you don’t have to use any Internet browser unless you prefer to. File is visible either way. But remember, just like using a stick to transfer a file, that file should be closed on the originating computer immediately after or before transferring. This routine prevents you from making a change on another computer, saving it there (on the OneDrive), then going back to the originating computer and realizing it’s not “closed” and then closing it. At that point, if you save it, you’ll overwrite the changed file. While that might be obvious, it’s still worth mentioning. Because I may have multiple instances of LightBurn open, it’s up to me to remember which files I may have edited elsewhere.
Ask me how I know…lol.
I started doing iterative saves years ago long before I got into lasering. Just append the filename with an increasing number at the end. Cleanup later once you’ve finalized the file (which I do away with the number and put “…-FINAL.lbrn2” at the end).
Hopefully this helps you and doesn’t insult your knowledge.
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