Synchronizing two Leopard machines

[NovaScotian]

I have an MBP laptop coming next week and for all practical purposes, I'd like to keep its files synchronized with my PM G5 Tower, at least at the User level. Is there software for doing this? The objective at first thought would be to have both machines own the newest copy of everything on either of them. Am I dreaming in technicolor?

[trevor]

It sounds like you're looking for .Mac Sync (http://www.apple.com/dotmac/sync.html).

Trevor

[NovaScotian]

My experience with .Mac from Nova Scotia has not been good, and .Mac will only sync a few Apple iApps (and I don't use Mail). I was hoping there was something generic that would do my documents folder, scripts folder etc. No such app?

Won't rsync or possibly psync do that sort of thing?

[anthlover]

Others can give you more elegant answers. It is not a step to be taken lightly.

Apple's Migration Assistant does an excellent one way job, over Firewire. To the best of my knowledge it is unidirectional. CCC and SuperDuper may be of some help. The Latter I believes offers an option to that effect but not a true bidirectional sync, its Sandbox feature.

Of course the easist way is to have a drive in common that acts as a "Master" go between then systems.

If you mean a true bidirectional sync app I can not recommend any though I know they exist. And I believe you are correct that rync/psync does have that capabilty.

[NovaScotian]

If you mean a true bidirectional sync app I can not recommend any though I know they exist. And I believe you are correct that rync/psync does have that capabilty.

They'll both be backed up to the same drive -- perhaps that's an approach. I too suspect that true bidirectional apps must exist, but I haven't found one.

[GavinBKK]

I use Chronosync. Works very well.

[NovaScotian]

That looks like just the ticket. Thanks for the recommendation, Gavin

[NovaScotian]

Reading the manual for Chronosync just now, I must say that it is one of the best I have ever read. Clear, well laid out, concise, good examples. New users are encouraged to RTFM; this is a powerful, well thought out application.

[stellarvisions]

Try http://qdea.com/

I've been using pro for years.

[ThreeBKK]

It sounds like you're looking for .Mac Sync (http://www.apple.com/dotmac/sync.html).

It doesn't work exactly as advertised.

Today, I tried to synchronize my Mail data from one Mac to another. Apple provides synchronization of settings, but not of actual data files in this case. So, my account settings (such as server names, POP and IMAP accounts), my smart mailboxes, and my Mail rules showed up on the other Mac, but my e-mail messages did not.

Using .Mac Sync with "contacts", I was able to send all of my contacts, but my previous recipients didn't show up in Mail. Previous recipients is a data file that is kept under the Address Book directory in ~/Library/Address Support. It is the file that allows auto-completions when typing addresses or names in Mail. It's fairly important, and I was surprised that it's not included under "contacts" in .Mac Sync.

[ThreeBKK]

I have an MBP laptop coming next week and for all practical purposes, I'd like to keep its files synchronized with my PM G5 Tower…

I have a feeling that since you are trying to sync between PPC and Intel Macs, things might get a little tricky. Be aware that auto-synchronization software is going to be indiscriminate, and you might end up with PPC-only files on the Intel and vice-versa. You might need to build a blacklist of files that are incompatible, and exclude those from the sync.

Otherwise, you can transfer files across your network manually until you are familiar with what's compatible. It takes more time, but it's worth the effort.

[NovaScotian]

I have a feeling that since you are trying to sync between PPC and Intel Macs, things might get a little tricky. Be aware that auto-synchronization software is going to be indiscriminate, and you might end up with PPC-only files on the Intel and vice-versa. You might need to build a blacklist of files that are incompatible, and exclude those from the sync.

Otherwise, you can transfer files across your network manually until you are familiar with what's compatible. It takes more time, but it's worth the effort.
ChronoSync has a trial run function so I'll get to see what it wants to move where. I wasn't aware that storage on a PPC was any different than on an Intel Mac.

[ThreeBKK]

Well, in terms of storage, my Intel Mac uses a GUID Partition Table instead of the Apple Partition Map which I use for my PPC Mac.

Applications are the other main difference. You might find that some of yours are PPC only. Running them on an Intel Mac will take a performance hit under Rosetta (if they run at all). You might also find that certain support files from your iMac, such as preferences, need to be deleted and built from scratch on the new machine.

[NovaScotian]

Ahh, thanks -- I hadn't paid attention to the distinctions before; I can see there's a learning curve involved.

[ThreeBKK]

I've been using the Intel version of Leopard side-by-side with the PPC version for the past two or three weeks. There are lots of differences between the two. Certain bugs that exist in one don't exist in the other, and some small details have been added or removed from this one or that one, etc. From now on, I'll be sure to make the distinction between PPC Leopard and Intel Leopard. They really are two different OSs.

The GUID vs. APM situation doesn't seem to make a big difference in daily usage. I can boot my MB Pro from a Leopard partition on APM, but I haven't tried the other way around yet.

[lostinspace2011]

You might want to try out Address Book Server to keep the Address Book on your Macs in sync. http://www.addressbookserver.com


Have fun

[NovaScotian]

You might want to try out Address Book Server to keep the Address Book on your Macs in sync. http://www.addressbookserver.com


Have fun
I assume I run one machine as the server and the other as a client, but I don't have a third machine to act as the server for both.