ICloud :: Syncing Documents And Data Between Macs?
May 10, 2012
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 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
My understanding of Documents and Data in iCloud preferences is that when turned on, all of my iWork documents will be synced. I don't want to do that because some documents contain sensitive data. Is there a way to restrict syncing to a selected folder of documents?Â
How do I get my documents and data off of the iCloud? I lost my entire hard-rive, and I'm trying to get at least some of my papers and presentations back again...
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Is there a way to get my everything in my Documents folder onto my iDisk without having to actually moving the former? I tried symbolic links which worked for DropBox, but for MobileMe, I got an error saying that it's not compatible with symbolic links.
When I got my MBP over a year ago during the initial setup, I cloned my MP. As time has elapsed, the two machines are now out of sync i.e. programs, photos, documents etc. how I can copy specific programs, iphoto libraries and documents from one machine to the other?
We are transferring files from our old mac to our new and we bought a firewire cable. But we didn't get the option and it just started to do it wirelessly, which appears to be going to take about 12 hours. Does anyone know if you can connect the firewire cable in the middle of it transferring, or should we just wait for it to finish it wirelessly?Â
My dell computer has recently crashed, so I purchased a Mac mini hoping it would last. Now my problem is that I have to sync my iPad to my new computer, without loosing any data that I have made I have spent over a year using my iPad and would not be a happy camper if I lost my app data and music. So how would you sync it to do that? I know you can do it I have done it before I just forgot how to do it though.
After syncing my iPhone (4S, 32GB, iOS 7.1.1) with my iTunes (iTunes 11.2.2) on my MBP, iTunes said:
The data on the iPhone is corrupt, restore it (or something similar, my iOS is in German). iTunes did not even recognize my iPhone anymore.Â
So I did restore the iPhone from the last backup from a few days ago. Everything looks fine during the backup process. iTunes resets the iPhone, then syncs all my music (about 16 GB or some 4,000 titles).Â
But after completing, the music is not there! The iPhone's memory is filled with 18GB "other data" (the yellow one, you know), and when I open "music" on the iPhone, it is completely empty. Â
Obviously iTunes DOES transfer the music files to the iPhone, but they do not "arrive" there properly.Â
I moved my mobileme to icloud and everything is syncing well except my macbookair. I tried to go to the mobileme icon in settings and sign out and back in, but that still didn't allow it to sync.
I have an iCloud subscription.  A couple of thousand on a macBook. And i have an iMac. I am running the latest OSX on both. I have set BOTH devices to sync photos to iCloud. But it just doesn't do it. It syncs other material [notes, calendar etc] perfectly happily.Â
Info: iMac (27-inch, Late 2012), OS X Mavericks (10.9.4), also MacBook operating Mavericks
So I have set both my MacBookPro and my iPhone to sync my AddressBook via iCloud. The sync does seem to happen fine when I reboot my iPhone.But it does not seem to happen automatically whenever I change my Address Book on my MacBookPro.and I thought that is the whole point of this feature, isn't it?It seems to work fine when I click the Sync button in iTunes ...
1.iCloud is in my browser but I'd like to keep my calendar and contacts etc. open all the time outside Safari and on the dock.
2. I have iCloud in my iphone 4 and ipad2 , latest OS,but can't see icon or keep icloud open there?Do I really have to go through Safari everytime I want to see my icloud calendar or contacts?As you know, there's already my calendar and contacts icons from before iCloud.There and accessible but not synced to changes from my laptop.
Info: MacBookPro, Mac OS X (10.7.3), Ipad2 & iphone4
I have a MacBook Pro and an iPhone 4.I signed up for iCloud using a gmail address. I checked and its the same for both devices.Contacts seems to be syncing with iPhone, but NOT with MacBook?Calendar seems to be syncing with both?
Since migrating over to iCloud, my iCal entries aren't syncing with my iPhone. I'm getting a message saying - The calendar [url].. was not found on the server. Make sure the URL is correct.
I recently switched from a MacBookPro to a MacBook Air and have therefore been switching my iClour from one machine to another. Everything seemed to be working fine with iCloud, but today when I logged onto my work iMac, which alos yns with my iCloud and all my bookmarks are gone. I have checked and they should be synced but they just will not come up. why this would happen and how i can get to synd with my Air, IPhone, etc?
Since a few days, my Mac is constantly syncing (iCloud), I get the sync icon spinning in the menu bar. I am not using iCloud for file sync, I uses Dropbox, so I don't know why it's syncing frequently and for a long time.
I have an iMac and a MacBook Pro. Both are on Lion 10.7.3 and iCloud. Bookmarks are set to sync to iCloud on both computers, but they don't sync automatically. If I add a bookmark on one, it will not appear on the other unless on the second computer I go to System Preferences->iCloud and uncheck and recheck Bookmarks. Everything else seems to sync as expected.
