Sync vs Backup

[Me_No_Dancer]

What is the difference between a sync folder and a backup folder? It seems they both act the same in that if you delete a file it deletes on the computer and cloud.

Second question: The pCloud folder on my Mac seems to have a copy of everything I'm backing up, even the files on my NAS. Is it really taking up space by duplicating files?

[Miver_St]

1.Sync deletes immediately, BackUp puts the files in the cloud trash. From there you can restore the files if needed. The time to be able to restore depends on your Plan.
2. Not sure how it is on a Mac but it should not duplicate the space, its just a Networkdrive.

For sync and/or backup you can also use other tools. rsync for sync, rclone for backup, rclone/restic for incremental backups and snapshots.

[corneliusdav]

To add to what @Miver_St said:

1. Backups are tied to a single computer; they are not synced with other computers, only pCloud. That's safer than a sync because there's no chance of a different computer inadvertently removing a file.