In Sync: Keeping Your Home Directory Up To Date
16 April 2004 Justin Williams Skip to comments
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Do you always wish you could keep the home directory of your desktop and laptop synchronized? Justin Williams shows you how to using Econ Technologies' ChronoSync.
You have most likely had it happen to you in some form. You are sitting somewhere using your Powerbook, and you realize, "Hey, I need this file, but it is on my Powermac!" You promised that you were going to try and keep your data synchronized between your Macs, but it just never happened. Why?
One of the reasons is probably simplicity. Remembering to manually mount your PowerBook's hard drive on your PowerMac and copying over the selected folders is a tedious task. Add in the fact that you want to make sure you don't overwrite a newer version of a file on the PowerBook, and it can just get frustrating.
The purpose of this article is to introduce you to a few methods to keep your data synchronized between multiple locations. First, we will discuss iSync and what it does and doesn't synchronize. Next, we will cover iDisk and what it entails. Finally, we will wrap up with a discussion of an application from Econ Technologies that promises to keep your data synchronized with very little effort. Let's get started, shall we?
iSync
iSync is an application we have discussed before. Apple's iSync promises to keep your digital hub devices synchronized. Another feature it has is the ability to synchronize your data between multiple Macs, but only if you have a .Mac account.
For those that don't already know, .Mac is Apple's $100 a year service that provides Mac users 15 MB of email storage and an @mac.com e-mail account, 100MB of web-based storage, data synchronization, virus protection, and other special benefits and deals. I have personally been a .Mac subscriber since the service was changed over from the free iTools, and have been pleased for the most part. The feature I use more often than anything is the data synchronization with iSync.
Apple's iSync synchronizes your calendars, contacts, and Safari bookmarks. This lets you keep the same set of information among multiple Macs. If you are like me and use a Mac at work as well at home, you no doubt realize how convenient it is to have the same set of bookmarks among multiple locations.
To enable iSync synchronization, we need to first make sure our .Mac account is configured in Panther's System Preferences.
- Launch System Preferences
- Go to the .Mac Preference Pane
- Make sure you have your username and password entered into their respective fields.
You can also be sent to a page to sign up for a .Mac account if you don't have one yet.
Next, we want to launch iSync and click on the .Mac logo. A set of options will pop down that we are going to need to configure on each of the Macs that we are going to setup. As you can see from my setup, I have three Macs already configured: “Gavin” is my G5 at Home, “Work G4” is obviously my machine at the office, and “Helen” is my deceased iBook — May Helen have a wonderful home in that place where dead iBooks go.
Make sure you have the Turn on .Mac Synchronization enabled as well as the buttons for each item you want synchronized. Obviously, if you are using Entourage or some other application for your calendars and contacts, you probably don't want that data synchronized. Also, be sure you enable synchronization every hour so that you don't have to worry about manually syncing your data each time you update it.
Next step: Push that big gray _Sync Now_ button and let iSync work its magic.
iDisk
The next step in our quest for full data synchronization is the iDisk. iDisk is another feature included with .Mac and allows you to have an offline storage. iDisk is where your .Mac homepages are stored (the Sites folder), but another feature that Apple is touting a lot more with the introduction of Panther is using the iDisk to store your important files.
Panther introduced an offline iDisk feature. This allows you quicker access to the files stored on your disk. Whenever you add, delete, or modify a file stored on the iDisk, Panther will synchronize the data back up to the .Mac servers. This offline access is not enabled by default, so let's turn that on.
- Launch System Preferences
- Go to the .Mac Preference Pane
- Select the iDisk Tab
This window will give you an overview of how much of your iDisk storage you are using as well as the ability to buy more if you find you are running out. We won't concern yourself with that. Click on the Create Local Copy of Disk button and set it to synchronize Automatically.
You will notice a dialog popup saying that is is synchronizing your iDisk, and it will let you know when it is done. Feel free to continue with whatever else you are doing while it runs. It may take a while depending on how much stuff you have stored on there.
One problem with keeping your files up to date on the iDisk is that you have to remember to send drop them onto there after you are done with them (assuming you aren't just saving everything onto it). That's where ChronoSync comes in.
ChronoSync
ChronoSync is an application from Econ Technologies that makes it insanely simple to keep your important data synchronized between multiple locations. If you have a laptop and a desktop and want your home folder mirrored between them with as little effort as possible, this is an application you will definitely want to invest in.
What we are going to configure is a bi-directional synchronization of the _~/Documents_ folder between a desktop and a laptop that will run every morning at 5:00 am. This setup will allow me to have the most up-to-date files stored on my laptop. It will also copy over all the work I did on the laptop back to the desktop machine. Still with me? Good...
If you haven't launched ChronoSync, go ahead and do so. You will be greeted by the main window. You'll notice there is a drawer on the right side with a set of options. if you hold your mouse over each one, you will get a tool tip that explains what they are for. The other part of the interface we will focus on is the four tabs towards the top.
- Targets
- Rules
- Analyze
- and Advanced
Targets is where you set your source and destination disks. Go ahead and do that. You can mount your laptop's hard drive via target disk mode or over your network. I choose to just use the network because it's simpler than having to run the firewire cable. Obviously, if you have a lot of data, target disk mode is your best bet.
To get into target disk mode, connect the two machines with a Firewire cable and restart your laptop. Hold down the _T_ key as soon as you hear the startup chime. You should see an orange bouncing FireWire screen saver icon on your display, and the hard drive should show up shortly on the desktop of your other Mac.
The left entry should always be the local drive (my G5 for instance). The right drive has an options button that has options for mounting and ejecting the drive when it is done. If you are doing a network synchronization, you will most likely want to have these buttons checked.
In the drawer on the left of the screen, click Bi-directional. This will make sure that data is sent both ways. If you only want to push new material from one source to the other, you can also select Left-To-Right or Right-To-Left. It is up to you. Under Special Handling, feel free to enable whatever options you see fit as well. I only enabled Ignore Invisibles so that my hidden files aren't sent.
Under the Rules tab, you can set certain criteria for what will be synchronized. I didn't set any, because I thought it was a lot easier to use the Analyze feature to disable what I didn't want sent. Under that Analyze tab, you will see every folder that is going to be synchronized. This is where I disable stuff that i don't want synchronized.
For example, in this setup, I have no need for my eBooks or some tutorial files from my Flash MX HOT book review to be sent across, so I excluded them. Click on whatever file or folder you want to exclude and then under the Action menu, click Exclude. Anything excluded has a purple X under the Status column.
We are almost ready to synchronize the data. Under the Advanced Tab you can set ChronoSync to email you with what is has synchronized between the two machines, any Applescript you want to run before or after the synchronize, and what to do in case of a Conflict. In the case of resolving file attribute conflicts, I always selected Use the newer version.
Ready? Hit Trial Sync. This is going to show you a listing of everything that ChronoSync is going to do. If you are happy with the results, go ahead and synchronize that data. Depending on how much data you have and your preferred method of transfer, it could take anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or maybe longer.
Now that we have setup a synchronization setup that we like, we need to save it. Click the Save icon on the toolbar and put the file somewhere. Next, go up to the View menu and click on Show Scheduler. The ChronoSync Scheduler will appear. This is where we can set the application to run our data sync at 5:00 am. Click on the plus sign and you will be prompted with a dialog that lets you name your scheduled sync and set which sync to run. Name it whatever you want, and select the previously configured synchronization file as your source document.
Below is the actual scheduler. We want the sync to run Daily, so be sure to select that from the pull down menu. For Days, make sure all seven days are selected. For hours, we only need the first 5 selected (I wish it would use military time or have AM or PM). For minutes, just select 0. With all our options set, just click OK.
We are now in business and "good to go". You don't need to worry about having ChronoSync open, because the application has a _background daemon_ running that will take care of keeping track of what time it is.
Conclusion
Hopefully this tutorial has given you a better understanding of how easy it can be to keep your data synchronized using a .Mac account and ChronoSync. If you want to sign up for a .Mac account visit Mac.com The account is $99 a year.
ChronoSync is available for $30 from Econ Technologies. A demo version is available that allows you to synchronize up to five-hundred items. I would definitely recommend this application to anyone that wants to easily keep their data in sync between multiple Macs.
Justin Williams is founder and chief author for MacZealots. He switched to the Mac almost five years ago hasn't looked back since. When not blogging or coding, you can find him watching copious amounts of TV. Justin can be reached at
Reader Comments (3)
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#1) On April 27, 2004 9:32 AM
So if you have an IMAP email account, ChronoSync is the cheaper alternative if you want to synchronize data?
Paul
#2) On April 27, 2004 9:37 AM
Pretty much.
#3) On July 16, 2004 8:25 PM
I’ve been using Synk it definitely rates well the it’s competitors:
http://www.decimus.net/synk/