Hey, I've got an iBook and am wanting a iMac for a desktop. I'm looking to SYNC the two computer's home directory. Is there any program that does this automatically?
Speciffically iSync would be nice, but I don't think it can.
This is a very simple to do. I have been using this for years, and never had any problems. This is a solution for a multitude of backup probelms as well.
Couple of suggestions. The fastest way to transfer files is to put your laptop into firewire disk mode. Just hold down the T while starting up, and the screen will go blank and have a firewire logo appear. Your laptop now acts just like a firewire drive, and if you plug a firewire cable between your laptop and desktop your laptop will show up on your desktop just like any other removable drive. Make sure to unmount the drive before unplugging your laptop, then just hit the power button again to shut if off.
Second thing, the new iDisk in Panther is very cool. If you check a preference, iDisk will keep local copies of your files, making them available for offline work. Any changes are updated in the background. This is how I keep my current project files shared between my home office, office, and laptop.
How do you get the iDisk thing to work... I click on the Icon and nothing happens. I can't find the box to check in a normal folder either to make a back-up copy to iDisk.
Synching a laptop and a desktop is not always simple. Some aspects of it might be simple, and perhaps many users can manage with only simple synching, but that's not always the case.
E-mail can present a number of complications. The typical default e-mail set-up is for incoming messages to be deleted from your mail server as soon as they are downloaded. With two computers reading the same e-mail account, both configured like this, what one computer downloads, the other computer won't.
What happens if you do a simple sync of your mail files? You don't get the merger of messages that both computers have downloaded that you'd probably want to get. Chances are that all you'll get is the messages read by the computer which most recently downloaded e-mail. Why? E-mail messages are not saved as separate files. They're all thrown together in big mailbox files containing multiple messages. A simple sync will do nothing more than look at which mailbox file has the latest modification date, and that file and its messages will be all you're left with. To do otherwise would require software that understands the format of your mail software's mailboxes and which can analyze and merge the contents of two mailboxes.
The above problem can be reduced by setting your mail software to not delete messages from your mail server immediately, but that only solves the issue of your In box, not your Sent messages or any other mailboxes into which you might sort your mail.
How do you get the iDisk thing to work... I click on the Icon and nothing happens. I can't find the box to check in a normal folder either to make a back-up copy to iDisk.
System Preferences, .Mac pane, click the iDisk section: there's an option there to make a local copy of your iDisk, either automatically or manually
Synching a laptop and a desktop is not always simple. Some aspects of it might be simple, and perhaps many users can manage with only simple synching, but that's not always the case.
You're right, perhaps I was a bit flippant. I having been using IMAP for awhile on all my servers, and forgot about the mail issue. Using Folder Synchronizer is great when what you want to do regular file syncs, but datafile syncs are a bit different. If you have made changes on both iCals for example, one will get over written. For what its worth, I use a combination of IMAP mail accounts, iDisk, and Folder Synchronizer. I'll be a little more realistic this time and say that there are challenges in getting this all set up. But if you are an average user, it is not out of your reach. Just be careful what you sync. I don't sync my home library folders, or my documents folder either, because that is where your Mac will genereate files unique to each machine.
So... use .mac to synchronize your bookmarks, iDisk to keep your most current projects available, and the occassional folder sync for your big projects.
My solution was to put all of my files on a portible firewire drive. I then have aliases from the Eudora, iPhoto, iTunes and Downloads folders to corresponding folders on this drive. A little annoying to have to attach the drive to the portible but mostly I am using one of two desktop machines anyway. What would be really nice for me is the phantom "Home on iPod" feature but I guess we will be waiting on that.
Email is not easy to synchronize. I sometimes use multiple machines. In this case I only set one machine to delete messages on the server after they are downloaded. If I am sending a message which I think is important I will cc or bcc myself. This way it will eventually show up on the main machine. It is not elegent but it works.
Comments
There are third party applications that will synchronize folder contents. Search on Version Tracker.
Couple of suggestions. The fastest way to transfer files is to put your laptop into firewire disk mode. Just hold down the T while starting up, and the screen will go blank and have a firewire logo appear. Your laptop now acts just like a firewire drive, and if you plug a firewire cable between your laptop and desktop your laptop will show up on your desktop just like any other removable drive. Make sure to unmount the drive before unplugging your laptop, then just hit the power button again to shut if off.
Second thing, the new iDisk in Panther is very cool. If you check a preference, iDisk will keep local copies of your files, making them available for offline work. Any changes are updated in the background. This is how I keep my current project files shared between my home office, office, and laptop.
Good luck...
Originally posted by blue2kdave
This is a very simple to do.
Synching a laptop and a desktop is not always simple. Some aspects of it might be simple, and perhaps many users can manage with only simple synching, but that's not always the case.
E-mail can present a number of complications. The typical default e-mail set-up is for incoming messages to be deleted from your mail server as soon as they are downloaded. With two computers reading the same e-mail account, both configured like this, what one computer downloads, the other computer won't.
What happens if you do a simple sync of your mail files? You don't get the merger of messages that both computers have downloaded that you'd probably want to get. Chances are that all you'll get is the messages read by the computer which most recently downloaded e-mail. Why? E-mail messages are not saved as separate files. They're all thrown together in big mailbox files containing multiple messages. A simple sync will do nothing more than look at which mailbox file has the latest modification date, and that file and its messages will be all you're left with. To do otherwise would require software that understands the format of your mail software's mailboxes and which can analyze and merge the contents of two mailboxes.
The above problem can be reduced by setting your mail software to not delete messages from your mail server immediately, but that only solves the issue of your In box, not your Sent messages or any other mailboxes into which you might sort your mail.
Originally posted by Dr_Holistic
How do you get the iDisk thing to work... I click on the Icon and nothing happens. I can't find the box to check in a normal folder either to make a back-up copy to iDisk.
System Preferences, .Mac pane, click the iDisk section: there's an option there to make a local copy of your iDisk, either automatically or manually
Originally posted by shetline
Synching a laptop and a desktop is not always simple. Some aspects of it might be simple, and perhaps many users can manage with only simple synching, but that's not always the case.
You're right, perhaps I was a bit flippant. I having been using IMAP for awhile on all my servers, and forgot about the mail issue. Using Folder Synchronizer is great when what you want to do regular file syncs, but datafile syncs are a bit different. If you have made changes on both iCals for example, one will get over written. For what its worth, I use a combination of IMAP mail accounts, iDisk, and Folder Synchronizer. I'll be a little more realistic this time and say that there are challenges in getting this all set up. But if you are an average user, it is not out of your reach. Just be careful what you sync. I don't sync my home library folders, or my documents folder either, because that is where your Mac will genereate files unique to each machine.
So... use .mac to synchronize your bookmarks, iDisk to keep your most current projects available, and the occassional folder sync for your big projects.