Windows Live Skydrive has a Mac client that downloads files from the SkyDrive to my computer. However, this is only the files I've uploaded, not the ones shared with me.
So I end up having to download them from the web client and then copy them to the desktop client in order to get them, and of course they aren't syncing at that point.
Is there a way to make the shared files sync, like in Dropbox?
It is not possible to sync a shared folder. The best option is to download the files/folders and put them into your own Skydrive account.
SkyDrive sync with groups and shared folders.
As we in our small company like to benefit from the SkyDrive functionality, and also want to have selected shared and group folders offline available, we found a more or less perfect workaround.
We use the Goodsync software to synchronize. For this you create a sync job within Goodsync for the single folders you want to have available offline. Such a sync definition (call it folder pair) has a reference to the local folder, and on the other side a reference to the SkyDrive folder. The reference tot he SkyDrive folder you describe like this:
sds://d.docs.live.net/<SkyDrive CID, 15 digits>/<folder name optional>
The SkyDrive CID you can see for any SkyDrive folder in SkyDrive web whithin the web address (example for a group: https://skydrive.live.com/?mkt=xx-xx#cid=123456789012345&group=x). Similarly it works for shared SkyDrive folders.
Our experience is very good with this workaround, only to be aware to have co-owner rights, then Goodsync can even create or delete folders within shared and group SkyDrives.
