Syncing 2 macs

ekimeno

ekimeno

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Mike
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Right, here's the scenario: I have 2 macs - 1 is an iMac 24-inch 2.4Ghz Core 2 (320GB hard drive) with Leopard loaded and the other is a Macbook 2.16Ghz Core 2 (320GB hard drive) with Tiger loaded.

What I would like would be a way for me to have the same software and data on both computers all the time, so that when I leave my 'mothership iMac' at home and go wondering off with my 'shuttlecraft Macbook' I can do the same stuff away from home. And of course, when I return home to the mothership, I can update the iMac with stuff that was changed on the Macbook.

I'm thinking iSync or Carbon Copy Cloner would be a way of doing this, but not sure how. Also, if there was a way, could my computer's Airports speak to each other wirelessly without going via my shared home router, or would it be easier and faster to link them using an ethernet cable?

Any help appreciated.

PS - I'm aware of software licensing issues (having the same software licence on 2 computers), but lets put that aside for the minute. Also, if there is an issue with having 2 different OS's, this can be rectified by rolling the iMac back to Tiger...

Thanks
Mike (y)
 
it would probably be better to have 2 separate installs and have a "work" folder with your files in which uses a sync app to copy back and forth.

but yes, illegal for 2 installs on 1 licence.
 
Might make the thread off topic, but is there a way to do this on Windows?

I have a laptop and desktop and i'm forever copying and pasting across between the two.
 
For the data, do you have a .Mac/MobileMe subscription? Piece of cake to do this if you do.

Software may pose more of a problem. I wouldn't try syncing apps between the two machines, it probably won't work.
Licence wise, most Apple S/W (excluding OSX) will let you install it on a desktop and a laptop (Aperture does this) and I got multiple serial numbers with Office 2008). And you'll have iLife on both machines anyway.
Photoshop & Lightroom may pose more of a problem if you want to stay legal.
 
Hi Mike... I synch all three of my Macs using MobileMe - downside is you pay an annual fee and you have to make sure files you want to work on are saved to the common iDisk through MobileMe... :shrug:

For me it is a real boon because my calendars and e-mails (@me.com) are also fully synched as well - even to our iPhones... :eek:

Gets over the licensing and different operating system issues as well... :thinking:


For me it is well worth it... a small price to pay for the convenience and it's also tax deductible... :naughty:



Worth thinking about as an easy option... :shrug:





:p
 
Have a look through the Adobe EULA, but I'm pretty sure it says you can have a copy on a desktop and on a laptop, providing they are for the same person and not used at the same time. Infact I'm pretty sure i posted that ection of the EULA a while back...
 
Hi - thanks for the replies. I didn't think this would pose much of a problem, but it seems that if you're not spending money on a .Mac account, it will be. I don't have this as I use a different hosting solution and don't feel like changing - I know .mac provides all these cool features, but I would have thought a free solution existed.

Neil_g, your solution of using a sync app to sync a few folders sounds good and I may investigate doing this - can you recommend any good freeware for mac that does this?

I guess another solution would be to simply store all the stuff in my home folder on a portable hard drive like this one, and just use that between my two computers (I could keep a full cloned backup of this at home as well). The only problem I see there is the Library folder with all the app support/preferences etc. causing some sort of errors...
 
I have a similar situation where I need the same material on a lappy as on my main work machine.

I sync all the address books/bookmarks/email accounts etc via MobileMe (over three macs and one XP computer).

But for most of my data I've had to resort to other tactics. I did try sync via iDisk but it was taking too long. So I rearranged all my key data into one folder which is copied to the lappy before going on hols/whatever and copied back again on my return. Much quicker doing this over the lan.

As for applications. That's a different matter. Some apps you can install on more than one machine. Some eula's allow for a lappy to be used. I'm also upgrading to family packs for iLife, iWork and Snow Leopard when the latter comes out as it is far cheaper buying them as a bundle.
 
I know this is an old thread but it seemed better to re open this than post again. I am trying to rectify this problem and really do not want to pay an anual fee to just sync folders on my macbook pro and imac. I have looked at chronosync and Chronoagent not sure really which one I need.

I have a group of work folders that change when I am mobile which then need to sync with the imac when I return. My other issue is Lightroom and how to sync that. To press using drop box to hold the cat file isn't working and all the photo's are on the NAS.

Ideas pointers advice always greatfully recieved

Cheers

Paul
 
Google? Google Doc's, cal, contacts etc.

Exactly what sort of files are you looking to be doing/editing/creating on each device?
 
I had this thread book marked a while ago as I am looking at options on a good solution for me, too.

Personally, Mobile Me has been my preferred choice. I know google do a free solution; but I haven't tried that. I am very happy with the solution of Mobile Me. Syncs my MacBook Air, MacBook Pro., iMac and iPhone.

For software, I have Lightroom installed on both my iMac and MacBook Air. The iMac is my home workstation where I do all my photo-work; as for the MacBook Air is my travel machine (obviously) and use it when away from home, it helps me to view and cull my photos while I am away from home.
 
Mattwood said:
Google? Google Doc's, cal, contacts etc.

Exactly what sort of files are you looking to be doing/editing/creating on each device?
Click to expand...

Thanks Matt and Wail for responding

I have my mail fully sorted to macpro, imac and iphone through Imap which works reasonably well although I would like to cut the ridiculous number of accounts to one master with all others feeding that one and at present can't achieve this through a few rouge accounts that I can't move. Anyway mail is sorted.

Cals are sorted through google and are sync'd with iphone and thunderbird and work a charm so again no problem.

The area that I need to sort is the client folder which consists of anywhere between 5 and 15 folders of various word docs, excel sheets, graphics, web pages etc etc. The file size of the full clients folder is just over 5gig at present without any photographs to proof. At present its a removable drive which is just hassel. I will work on the folders on the imac then visit a client with the macbook possibly change things whilst there and then update the imac.

Lightroom is used to approve which photographs are used and where and it would be useful to have these sync'd up between the imac and macbook. I would have thought that this was a fairly comon senario for lightroom yet the web appears not to have a solution other than drop box which isn't working for me.

I don't mind a one off payment but I am not into this subscription thing it just makes the senario expensive

cheers

Paul
 
MobileMe is not that expensive.

Your other option is Dropbox. You get just over 2Gb for free, but again, expanding to 5Gb is not overly expensive. Your only other way of syncing them is with an Airport storage device, but you can't back up to the cloud, which is probably the most convenient way of doing it.

With Dropbox, I get 2.25Gb free, and for $50/year you get 50Gb. That's a lot of storage for that money, and it backs up my iMac, my laptop, my iPad, and my iPhone.

Steve
 
I would also suggest Drop box for the client folder.

I don't know what you mean by:
Lightroom is used to approve which photographs are used and where and it would be useful to have these sync'd up between the imac and macbook. I would have thought that this was a fairly comon senario for lightroom yet the web appears not to have a solution other than drop box which isn't working for me.
Click to expand...

The thing with Lightroom is that it uses a database, if the database/application hasn't been designed with multiple access in mind it is a recipe for disaster.

You will probably need to explain your workflow more for people to be able to come up with workarounds.
 
I can honestly see where you are comming from with drop box, its a fantastic means of transfering files from one place to another but I don't see it being a cost effective solution for the long term. It's very cost effective for several users all pulling from one place but what I need is the sync when I am at home because I am only ever using either imac or macpro never both. Even though others maybe using the macs they will not be using my files (or better hadn't be:nono:)

I know lightroom is a single user application and that is exactly how I want to use it. Like so many people these days I don't want to wait until I am sat at my imac to do any editing. What I want to do is sync the database file so that any alterations that I carry out on my laptop are updated on my imac

Example I start editing on Imac and then Imac is required by someone else so I opt over onto Macbook. Now I am stuck because the catalogue is tied to the imac so macbook is now as useful as a brick:LOL:

I can't put the catalogue on the network drive it doesn't like it, and the same goes with Dropbox. The photo's are sat on the nas drive which is available to all on the network but the cat file needs to be copied between the two, now that is a problem.

Hope that is a bit clearer

Cheers

Paul

I suppose what I need is a server
 
I don't think a server would help, as the Lightroom catalogue file needs to be on the same machine.

In fact I have just tried it with a small test catalogue on Dropbox, as this syncs files to your hard drive rather than accessing a remote file, and it works, however I'm not too sure how good it would be in a real world situation, as it would involve a lot of data syncing.

When I'm working on my MacBook I just keep a small catalogue for the files I'm working on, then import them into the catalog on the iMac when I'm finished with them.
 
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