OS X :: Syncing Two Macs Via A Network Drive With A Different Filesystem?
May 13, 2010
I've been looking at how to sync my two Macs.
There are lots of options out there but none I'm comfortable with:
DropBox. It appears that what people do is put their data files into the DropBox folder locally (or make symbolic links to that folder) and DropBox then monitors this folder locally, if changes are made it propogates the changes to their server and then out to other machines/devices under your account.
I could be wrong and it monitors both local and server.
Anyhow the trouble I have is that I've got tens of gigs and I don't see why I should ever have to take the bandwidth/time/security hit of using the Internet as the go-between.
Plus I'm uncomfortable with DropBox acting as a blackbox; i.e. no idea the logic it's using to determine changes, determine conflicts or manage resolution.
JungleDisk/BackBlaze with Chronosync. Using Chronosync means that you have full control and transparency, i.e. know logic and have logs.
I was going to put aside my concerns of using cloud storage (bandwidth/accessibility/security), however JungleDisk just purged around 60 gig of my data because a 2USD invoice failed to process and I was completely unaware of the invoice processing failure. So for now, cloud storage is out.
(if I do go to cloud, I'll try BackBlaze next time as JungleDisk clearly can't be trusted)
Sync over LAN between two Macs (e.g. via Bonjour) and use Chronosync to perform the sync.
Not a bad setup, but I've got the feeling that placing a third disk in between, is somehow cleaner and gives overall better protection.
Therefore I've decided to keep two Macs in sync, to use Chronosync plus a NAS (in my case a QNAP 639-pro) as the middle man.
Others must have done a similar setup (after all it's just a variation on using an external drive as the middle ground).
So some preliminary questions are:
do I need to be concerned that the NAS uses EXT3 (Linux) fielsystem; i.e. will ownership/group permissions or
extended file attributes be an issue?
Is there an issue with not syncing file metadata (.ds_store files comes to mind)?
Syncs take a very long time when you've got tens of gigs, however often it's just a handful of files changing, i.e. OmniFocus, Devonthink, 1Password plus a few active project files. So it seems it's a good idea to have a full sync and some quick sync.
Do people have a similar setup and can describe their Chronosync configs?
It would appear the safest option is to close down 1password, OmniFocus etc. on one machine before hitting sync on that machine, but this introduces overhead, but I guess it depends on how the likes of 1Password writes to file and when
I haven't found anything via the forum search on this topic, but can remember, that this topic was brought up in recent months.
I have two Macs, one for the road and one for home.
As I have a digital camera, I store the images (jpg and raw) on an external hard drive.
I want to be able to have another copy of those files on my MacBook, for editing on the road, and when I come home, to copy the modified and new images and files back to the external drive.
I also edit some pictures on my iMac, so the process has to be vice versa:
Do any of you know of a software that syncs only the modified files back and forth, and doesn't treat one file (or set of files) as the master and the other as copy like FileSync?
I have two Macs, one at each of two locations (home-office and business). One is a Mac Pro (2009) and the other is a recent MacMini, both with OS-X 10.6 and similar specifications.
Would like to have both machines seamlessly match so that I can travel between them with no loss of application functionality.
There is only one user, so one Mac will always have the more recent data.
I understand that there are work-arounds, such as just replacing everything with a new laptop. Or physically transporting an external drive, perhaps backed up via SuperDuper or Qdea for example.
But a backup/restore can take a long time (at each end). So, is it possible to do this without a hardware �sneaker-net� solution?
Third-party apps such as ChronoSync and Martian Slingshot would seem to offer some possibilities. But would that work with an Apple Mail database for example?
Obviously, it is the data that needs to be synced, not the apps, but would there be any issues with application licenses (since some Apps look at the machine ID)? And would it be necessary to sync the Library/Application Support files too?
And what about application updates etc?
Cloud solutions such as Dropbox and Mozy are great for smaller files, but some of the databases we use are several Gigs in size, which is way beyond their capability (both in upload time and capacity).
For example, even an iTunes database might have some minor changes each day, which would need to be synced.
I have an iMac at home and a MBA all running Mac OSX Lion 10.7.3.Â
I use Mail/ iCloud and whilst all my email folders sync, the two inboxes do not and I am forever 'filing' emails into folders on both computers, with a lot of duplication.Â
Is there any way of having my combined inboxes (multiple accounts) all synced too?Â
Have recently done a clean install of Lion onto a Mac Pro that was running Snow Leopard. Upgradede to 10.7.3  The Lion Mac sits on an office network of several macs running Snow Leopard and a Network Shared HDD.  In order to gain quick full access to the other computers we have been using "connect as" then inputting the macs registerred user administrator details, we were able us access to the full Mac and it's currently mounted hard drives. Since installing Lion I can see and fully access the network share which only uses guest access, see the Other macs in finder, add to their drop boxes but not connect as a registerred user to access one of the snow Leopard machines.  I get a pop up. Spinning wheel, and eventually a timeout. Can't even cancel this action as it comes up greyed out. Oddly the other macs can still log into the Lion machine. No joy so far toggling network preferrences and I'm pretty sure it's going to be a setting I have missed, So far have had not joy looking online or playing in seeing why it would now not be able to connect as before.Â
im getting a MBP for school blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda
i need a program that will allow me to automatically sync files between both my macs. (preferably wirelessly)
id like the notes i take in class on the mbp to sync with the imac when i get home. Id like my picture folders, design work folders, and documents folders to be in sync on both computers whenever im home.
if i add new pictures on the mbp, take new notes, or work on a .psd file.
I want them available on the imac without me having to manually bring them over and vice versa.
i just need a way for the folders to sync whenever im home.
that way when i do a back up on my imac, it also has a back up of the folders on the mbp.
I do use MobileMe and i know I'll be able to sync my mails that way, but due to the cost of internet connectivity in South Africa, I'd prefer not to be sharing my emails over the internet.
Is there a way that I can wirelessly sync my mails using my Airport?
Something automatic that would initiate the sync when both machines are detected on the network would be 1st prize.
I have a Mac Mini, which I primarily leave running to access any files I store on it with my macbook pro being my main machine for daily use.
I will download/buy music on the Pro and will sometimes be a little while before synching it to the Mini via "Home Sharing". Now I have to do this manually right now, but is there a way to setup a script to automatically run on a scheduled basis on the Mini to check for media not in the Mini library and download them automatically from my macbook pro? I only have the two macs using Home Sharing.
I tried looking at scripts, but I saw stuff from using rsync, not sure if automating syncing via Home Sharing would even work by using an applescript of some type or if rysnc is what I would want to use.
What exactly happens if I checkmark "documents and data" in the iCloud preferences on both my Macs? On iOS my understanding is that developers can build support for iCloud right into their apps, and so, only those apps that are coded to support iCloud syncing will be able to do it. However on the Mac, documents are not stored in an app-centric manner (and I'm glad because I loathe the app-centric document storage aspect of iOS).
So, I'm not clear what happens if you choose to sync "documents and data" over iCloud. Currently I use Chronosync to sync my documents folders between my desktop and laptop. However, this is a fairly hands-on process, and while I still plan on using Chronosync between my computers for several purposes, I would be happy to have iCloud sync certain documents and data between my Macs.
For example, I'd like iCloud to sync my Stickies, Downloads folders, and certain folders of documents like scanned receipts and saved web archives, etc. However I am scared to check the "Documents and Data" checkbox because I don't know what the heck it does. Is it going to scan my computer and upload everything in my documents folder? Or what? I read Apple's iCloud set-up guide but it did not give me a clue regarding this, and I didn't see any links to an advanced manual.
Info: Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 2009, 8-core 2.2ghz, 12GB RAM, 10TB
I have a MBP and a MacMini. I wish to have my iTunes library stored on an external HD (which I will share on the network) connected to the MacMini.
I would like to see this same library on my MBP (presumably just point the iTunes on the MBP to the networked external HD for the iTunes folder??).
But now I wish to ensure that any changes made on one machine (additions, artwork update, playlists etc) are synced and show up on the other, and vice versa.
This should be applicable to both content purchases on iTunes and my own content ripped from my CD collection.
I like the new iCloud Drive - and also its very neat priced.
But I don't like to upload all my data without encryption - and as no one really can promise me that my data is safe in his cloud I use Boxcryptor at the moment - so that I encrypt all data on my mac with my password before it's uploaded.Â
So what I like to know is if iCloud Drive will offer encryption on filesystem level like Boxcryptor.
If not - why isn't Apple innovative in that case - because Apple would be first with that feature !
I got the this Error while trying to partition my hard drive after deleting my boot camp partition and then trying to make my Macintosh HD the full 250gb... Partition failed with the error: Could not modify partition map because filesystem verification failed. After I got this error I went to the "first aid" tab in disk utility and tried to "repair disk permissions" then try it and got the same error...
I have two macs and strangely one mac is unable to connect to the internet via airport while the other one can via airport. What gives?What I'm observing is that when I open up Network Preferences in both macs, the Airport says its connected on the working one while it says no IP Address on the one that's not working.
However, when I change locations so that both macs have the same locations, the one that's not working says, Self-Assigned IP, yet, still no connection.One more thing, I also notice that in advanced settings under TCP/IP, both macs have two different IPv4's.
So my network is now exclusively Mac, yet in the sidebar in the Finder all my network Macs show up twice, but the 2nd one always has the BSOD icon. The MyBookWorld is my NAS drive that always shows up as a windows server because it has to connect via SMB. Anyone have any idea how to get my Macs to show up only once though? Besides it looks ugly with all those BSODs on the side,
I guess the answer to this might be iChat, but I've got two iMacs on my home network. My wife and I work on them, usually at the same time, and it would be great if we could just open a quick chat window to swap small files, links and bits of text back and forth as we work. At the moment we use the Finder and copy, paste, drag, etc. But there must be a quicker way. Back in the olde days there used to be a network message thing you could use. I guess iChat would be easiest if we both set up a login each and keep it running in the background?
I am using a dsl wireless router to create a home network (damned if im gonna pay 2 bills for a japanese cable router) every time I connect, the internet service provider intercepts my link and forces me to log in, when I try to log in on another computer it does the same thing, but I can only log in one computer at a time on the same user id.
Is there a way to split the connection from my wireless router to each mac without the service provider recognizing it is two separate machines? This is legit, if I shell out the 2 bills for their wireless router I can log two machines in, so its not like im stealing service here, just trying to get my wife and I on at the same time without having to buy new hardware that is redundant.
I have a MacBook (Intel 1.83 GHz Core 2 Duo) and an iMac (2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) and I can access the entire MacBook's file structure when I access it via the finder's "connect as" feature. I could do the same thing when I connected with the MacBook to the iMac, but a couple months ago I stopped being able to do this. One notable difference is, when I click the "connect as" button on the iMac I get a dialogue box that lets me enter the username and password. On the MacBook, I get no such dialogue - the finder simply tries to connect (spinning wheel in the bottom of the finder window, "connecting..." displays above the button) but it never seems to time out or stop. I have checked the sharing configuration on both machines, and they seem identical - I can't find a single setting that is causing the disparity and therefore the one-sided connection problem.
After quite a few searches online, I also found some advice that suggested I delete old keys related to this in my Keychain and use the Keychain Manager to repair all the existing ones. I did this, re-started the machine, and still no joy. All permissions have been repaired since I did this - no difference. While I suspect this is a system issue, I doubt it - the system has been re-installed completely off the same disc as the iMac, and is running the same latest revision of 10.5 as the MacBook. There seems to be no real difference - and as you can see from this email, I can connect to the internet on the same network, and have no other problems - I can even Screen Share with the iMac (which seems stupid, as it lets me completely control the iMac from the MacBook, but I can't access the files directly and run them in the MacBook.
I have a network of around 13 emacs, they're connected via ethernet to a router with a dhcp server. The emacs can browse the internet without problems, however they can't see each other in the network. I have activated the file sharing service, checked the permissions, but I still can't get them to see each other.
I want to get an airport extreme base station to replace an old Belkin router that I use now.I have Virgin broadband and I currently connect three MBP laptops and an iphone via wifi and a Mac Pro and an Xbox 360 via ethernet to the Belkin, which is connected to the Virgin modem.The Mac Pro and one MBP also run Windows 7 using Bootcamp.I also have an old PC upstairs running windows xp that connects via wifi using a Belkin USB N adapter.All of this works fine now, but it's a bit slow due to the old router which is only pre-N.
This is probably very basic but I don't know how to do it.I have an iMac (2007) running Leopard. I have an iBook (2004) running Tiger. They both share my home wireless network.
How can I best share documents between them? Eg how can I browse the hard drive of each machine from the other- ideally without entering passwords etc every time?
Additionally, the iMac is connected to the printer (because it is also a scanner); can the iBook share the printer too?
I wish to network an Apple Power Mac G4 (AGP graphics) using OSX and an Apple Beige G3 using OS9.2 to an ESystem Ei302 PC using Windows XP. I know it can be done but I'll be damned if I can work out how to configure it all and I have gone through Windows Network Set Up and still can't seem to fathom it. I have BT Business router and have connected all the units with cat5c 'straight through' patch cable to that and although I can connect to the internet through the G4 and the PC, I can't get any of the computers to see each other.
I have my Mac Pro connected to my hp c3100 printer. It is shared, all sharing options are enabled on the Mac Pro. 2 Macbooks and an iMac cannot find or see this printer. Networking, screensharing, file transfers, they all work fine. Just can't see the printer. Is AppleTalk required to do this? Here's some screenshots from the Mac Pro. I have never tried to network a printer in Leopard, I seem to remember it was easier in Tiger.
I need a little help with transferring files between my MacBook and my iMac on my wireless network. I'm using an AEBS (the newest one, just got it last week) and both computers connect to it through their AirPort cards. After fooling with my router for about 30 minutes after I got it I was finally able to connect to the internet, and after about 6 more hours I was able to wirelessly print so yea, I am pretty much a noob when it comes to wireless networking.
So my question now is, what is the easiest way to transfer files between my two Macs on my wireless network? I've tried copying files into my "Public" folder on one Mac and then accessing it on the other and that works fine sometimes but it's too time consuming and file permissions are killing me! Do I have to set the permissions on each individual file or folder so that all users can read and write to them when I transfer them? And better yet, can one Mac ONLY access the files in the "Public" folder of another?
How do I sync the contents of say, the desktop and documents folders between my Mac Pro and Macbook Pro so the same files are always on both? I only want to do this over the local network because these folders are enormous and I need the syncing done fast.
I've got a handful of dual layer DVDs of which I'd like 1 copy of each.
To save time I wondered if I could plug my machine to my mate's machine via a network cable, with the original DVD in one mac, a blank in the other, and just hit 'Copy' in Toast?
AFAIK the write machine can only do 8 speed - would the data throughput via the network cable be fast enough for this?
So my mom has her iMac & a white Macbook. She's interested in syncing just her documents folder over the network whenever both machines are on and on the WiFi in the house. I know there's gotta be a program that'll do this easily for her. I can get it it all setup for her via remote desktop, I just need to know what to use.
I'm trying to use Apple Remote Desktop to connect to multiple Mac's on a remote network. I've set the remote network's firewall/router to open up the ARD-specific ports for all the computers I want to connect to. I've also set each computer to accept Remote Management. On my ARD however, when I enter the network address of the remote network I'm trying to get to, I can only see ONE of the enabled computers, rather than all.
