I have the pleasure of working with two macs. One is a Mac Pro and the other is a first generation MacBook Pro for working remotely. This has been especially helpful given the rise in fuel costs. What has been challenging is keeping the data on the two machines in sync. There are several ways to do this and in this article I will discuss three ways.
1. Time Machine Synchronization
Apple created Time Machine so you would never lose a file, which makes it a good candidate to keep files in sync. In this case, You use your external drive with Time Machine to keep backups of each machine. When you switch machines you would then restore from the Time Machine backup of the other machine. There are two ways to access Time Machine backups of different machines (on the same drive). The first is to hold down the option key after you have clicked on the Time Machine menu icon
The other way is to right click the Time Machine icon in the doc:
Clicking on either option will bring up a dialog where you can choose which Time Machine Backup to use. After that point, Time Machine behaves just as before and you can restore any file or folders as you normally would.
In my case, all of my important files are in my Documents folder and each morning when I changed machines, I would restore the Documents folder from the other machine’s Time Machine backup. Time Machine is effective, but not the brightest program when it comes to restoring files. Time Machine copies over everything, even files that that are identical on the machine and the backup. My Documents folder was just over 4 gigabytes in size and this took Time Machine about 10 minutes to restore on my macbook pro using a USB cable. The Mac Pro was faster as it has firewire 800.
Because Time Machine copies over everything from the backup to the new machine, that meant that every file in my Documents Folder had changed and Time Machine would then backup the entire Documents folder again. Backuping up the same data over and over each day quickly filled up my external drive.
Yet I found that keeping just the Documents folder in sync wasn’t quite enough. My iTunes folder was now scattered across two Macs along with photos and applications. Adding those folders to Time Machine would cause my drive to fill up even faster.
But this path had one final flaw which was human error. Time Machine gives you the sense of security that everything has been backed up. But that’s only true each time Time Machine successfully runs. So it does you no good to quit 1 minute before a scheduled backup. This leaves Time Machine without that last hour’s worth of work. So the flaw was forgetting to run Time Machine’s backup before quitting for the day which unfortunately is all too easy to do.
Bottom line: It does work but be sure to have lots of space and never forget to backup
2. Network Based Synchronization
While there are quite of few online places to keep files in sync, including drop.io, it’s not allowed at my company. In talking with one of our IT guys, he mentioned that I could use something called rsync. I learned that rsync is an app that comes with OS X, but you have to run it from the Terminal (i.e. command line). Some of us use Macs to get away from all that “Unix-y” stuff. On the other hand, rsync can copy only the files that have changed and it can do it over the net through a secure encrypted connection. rsync can also sync up local folders too but that’s not as interesting.
In order to get this to work, you first have to enable remote login from the Sharing section of system preferences.
The next part is determining whether or not you can connect to your Mac from your remote location. This might include talking to your IT staff, wrangling with your ISP and adjusting settings on your home router/DSL or cable modem. Those issues are beyond the scope of this article. Here’s an example of what using rsync looks like:
As you can see, there’s a lot of options for rsync, and this method by far is the most technical and detail oriented. You can easily sync up the wrong folder, or the right folder to the wrong location on the remote machine. However, when it is done right, rsync works fast and secure.
As with Time Machine above, keeping my Documents Folder in sync worked fairly well. But my iTunes library is even larger than my Documents folder and syncing changes would take too long especially after downloading a movie. Also, if the remote machine unexpectedly becomes unavailable before you are able to sync up the files you get to make an unplanned trip to the office.
Bottom line: It does work as long as you don’t mind getting through all the technical details and the net. Head on over to the forum if you want to know more.
3. Shared Home Folder
Back when Tiger first came out, there was talk that Apple would let people store their home folders on their ipods. That never quite happened. Again, with Leopard, there was talk that Apple would bring that back. While I don’t know about the iPod, you can move your Home folder to a remote drive. The idea of course, is to keep the home folder in sync between two machines because both machines use the same home folder. This eliminates the human error portion of remembering to backup or restore. Again, this has some technical steps, but the end result so far seems to be much better.
First, make sure your external drive is formatted properly. Apple uses the HFS+ filesystem, most external drives are formatted for use with PC’s. You can use the Disk Utility App to reformat your drive or a part of it to Apple’s filesystem.
Once you have the drive formatted and connected to your mac, then you’ll want to copy your home folder to it. To do that, you will need to use the Terminal and a command called ditto. Open Terminal and type: sudo ditto -rsrc “/Users/username” “/Volumes/new_home_folder_path”
where username is your account’s short name and new_home_folder_path is where you want your new home folder to be. For example, the caption below shows me copying my home folder to /Volumes/Users/aaron.
You will be prompted for your password (you have to do this logged in an administrator account) and the copying will commence. ditto will create the new folder if it doesn’t exist which is nice. This is the most techie part of the process.
Next you need to open System Preferences and click on Accounts. Then click the padlock at the bottom left and enter your password whem prompted. Now right-click on your account name and a menu “Advanced Options…” should appear.
Clicking on Advanced Options will take you to a screen where you can change your home folder’s location. Do note the giant warning at the top of the window. Changing these settings can really mess things up. As always, proceed with caution.
You can click the “Choose” and select the folder you want for your Home folder or if you’re really brave, you can just type it. Once you have chosen your new home folder’s location, log out and restart. If everything went well, logging in will look like before. If everything didn’t go well, you’ll get an error. I set up a second administrator account so I could change things back in case something went horribly wrong. Luckily, it didn’t. Repeat the process for each machine.
Now I don’t have to synchronize anything anymore as it is all stored in one portable location. There have been a few quirks. Time Machine doesn’t like it and it causes backups to fail. So you should have some backup plan in mind when the external drive fails (and it will). Also, some apps behaved as if they were freshly installed and prompted me for their license keys. But all in all, it has worked out better than the other two options.
Bottom line: Most convenient option but also the easiest to completely mess up your Mac
29 Responses so far.
Stuart
February 13, 2009 at 7:56 pmHi
I am thinking of getting a Macbook air for work and was wondering how I would sync my iMac with it. I came across your information and have a question.
With option three, do you need to be connected to your external hard drive when you turn on and log in to your laptop to be able to use your mac book? if your home folder is not on your macbook and you try to login/turn it on (say at work when your not on your home network or connected to your external harddrive) will it allow you use your macbook?
surely if it cant connect to your home folder it cant work?
Home you can help
Aaron
February 15, 2009 at 1:52 pmHi Stuart,
Depending on how your Mac is configured, you may need to have your drive connected before you power on your Mac (i.e. automatic login). You absolutely need to have your drive connected before you log in with the account on the external drive, otherwise you will get an error at the login prompt. This is why it's a good idea to create a secondary login. Using an external drive just one of the many options available. It really depends on if you want your entire home folder shared between Macs or if there are just parts you want to share.
–
Aaron
Andrei
March 24, 2009 at 12:03 pmHi, Aaron
After reading your post, I'm still not content with the aforementioned solutions. You see, when TimeMachine came out I wasn't sure what to expect, but when I got to know what it actually does, I was disappointed. I don't know how many people out there are so clueless that they frequently delete files they then have to recover, but that's not at all what I would think most people would want. Don't get me wrong, TimeMachine would have been a great piece of software had it allowed me to keep 2+ macs in sync.
The fact that it creates 2 separate backup libraries renders it useless to me. I have an iMac and I'm planning on getting a MacBook. I'm also planning on getting a 2TB external hdd with FW800 in order to hook up to my iMac. Alternatively, a 2Tb TimeCapsule would suffice. However, what I need to do is to have the same set of files syncronized across these 3 locations. My iMac has a 1TB hdd and my MacBook would have only 250GB. Hence, I wouldn't be able to keep them fully in sync. That's where TimeCapsule or external hdd come into play. I would have one single library syncing file changes form my iMac and my MacBook simultaneously. For that, I would use something like SuperDuper or ChronoSync.
I think by elaborating on the set-up I just answered my own question, but my point is that none of the proposed solutions, including TimeMachine, would allow me to synchronize 2 macs with one single master Home folder. I guess, I'll just wait until a 2TB TimeCapsule comes out, hopefully, with a ratified 802.11n chipset inside.
-
Andrei
sage
July 23, 2009 at 5:50 amthis is a much simpler solution:
http://www.econtechnologies.com/pages/cs/chrono_o…
Billy Barulle
September 10, 2009 at 2:42 pmI own the Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus 500 GB external hard drive; http://www.practicallynetworked.com/review.asp?pi… and I used to have it hooked up to my XP Pro PC, but since I have abandoned Windows and bought a new iMac I'm trying to configure my external drive to this computer. I re-formated the drive to Mac OS Extended, but I have not installed any backup software yet, and as you described, "I don’t like to ask the drive to spin up on the hour, as good evidence suggests excessive spinning up and spinning down lessens the life of a hard drive." So, how could my external drive be spinning up every 12 minutes with nothing on the drive to make it spin? No installed backup software yet, no files on the Maxtor at all?
And with Time Machine every time that I change anything in a file like small incremental changes of 1 word in a file Time Machine creates a new folder "with everything" on my external drive where I have 15 new folders each day? I still have the 1 updated or "Latest" folder which is the first folder in that folder, but I would rather have just this 1 folder instead of 15 additional per day. Is there a setting that I could do to make that happen? Also am I able to go further out then 86,400 seconds in between my backups in that Time Machine change that you described? Can I push it to 2 or 3 days out? I've already had to completely erase my external drive and start off fresh again which is where I am at now. And I was going to just use the Maxtor Manager but for some reason the Sync feature isn't lit up and editable, so I can't sync my files to the Maxtor for my incremental changes on the iMac even though I was able to do so with my old PC? I've included their PDF booklet if you know anything about this product.
Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks a bunch!
Aaron
September 10, 2009 at 3:35 pmBilly,
I don't have an answer as to why the drive would spin up every 12 minutes. I can only speculate that it has something to do with how OS X talks to the maxtor drive. You may be able to find better drivers on maxtor's support site that are more efficient.
As for Time Machine, it uses some special tricks with the OS X filesystem called "hard links" to make it appear that it has copied everything when it has only copied the files that have changed. A hard link the connection between a filename and the data that is in the file (kind of like a mailing address connects a person to a location). When you create a new file, the file name is essentially a hard link that points to the file's data. Most of the time, files can only have one hard link. Time Machine uses hard links to point to the data of each backed up file, so while there may be 15 folders, any unchanged files are just hard links back to the same file data. When a file is changed, the changed file is copied over and future backups use hard links to connect to the latest copy and so no. Otherwise, Time Machine Backups will fill drives even faster than they do.
I'm not sure if there is a maximum limit on the number of seconds between Time Machine backups. My best advice there is to try it and see. However, if you want to do daily backups, there are some alternatives you can try. I happen to like Carbon Copy Cloner http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html and would recommend checking it out if Time Machine is too restrictive on the interval between backups. Also, there are few things that CCC can do that TIme Machine can't. As always, your mileage may vary and best of luck.
–
Aaron
A Snow Leopard Is Coming! « BeginnerPC : Tips , Tricks & Tutorials
September 26, 2009 at 8:28 am[...] for the business environment. Mail, iCal, and Address Book will all now come with the capability to sync with your Microsoft Exchange servers and sync your latest business emails, [...]
mark
May 19, 2010 at 5:48 amOr just use dropbox. 5 mins to setup, works across mec, pc and iphone, lots of great social features, seems pretty secure, keeps all your files synced across all machines.
sebstck
August 21, 2011 at 1:58 pm2 Gb…. not much space. Professional accounts are rather expensive
derek
August 29, 2010 at 6:48 ami have a modbook* (modified original macbook) and a macbook pro(2010 with the i5) and i use rsync i set up a vpn between the two computers and run rsync on an hourly basis allowing me keep both laptops in sync and allow me to pick up and use ether laptop when ever i want. the down side is that it slows down my network quite a bit. i actually go a letter from my isp telling me that if i didn't stop they would have to charge me extra for a non neighborhood line so I switched to FiOS (I LOVE IT)
this is a modbook –> http://www.axiotron.com/index.php?id=modbook
Russell
October 28, 2010 at 4:43 amDoes the shared home folder option keep applications in sync? For example, I have and use a Mac mini as my daily computer and then when I travel I have a MacBook pro. If I install various new applications on my Mac mini either via either an internet download or cd/DVD will those apps automatically be on my MacBook pro?
wkentfatt@yahoo.com
December 20, 2010 at 2:47 ami just buy used macbookpro i5 15.4 but without instalation cd so i cant reinstall my mac so i need yo download the driver.thks!
Bob
January 16, 2011 at 1:10 pmDepends – is the /Applications folder part of the shared home folder – not likely. The issue is that when you install a program by merely copying the app to the /Applications folder you could do the same thing to the MacBook. Then frequently the app creates items in special places that are sometimes not a part of your home folder – sometimes /Library or other "special" places in the OS that users aren't normally allowed/recommended to mess around with. Also when you install an app via a "Package" this oftentimes creates files and folders in special places, so with these types of installs copying the app from the /Applications folder won't be enough. You would still have to "install" the app on each of your computers (if the license allows it – some do and some don't so read the EULA which is the "end user license agreement").
-Bob
AJ B
November 29, 2010 at 5:48 pmWouldn't option 3 also be possible without an external drive?
I'm thinking that you could set up the laptop as you normally would set up any mac with the home folder in it's correct location, then you could shut it down and put it into Target Disk mode (ie restart with the T key held down so that it pretends to be an external firewire drive). THen you could tell the Mac Pro to find the home folder on the "docked" macbook. That way you don't need an external drive when you're trying to be portable, and the external drive you connect when you're sitting at your Mac Pro is simple the laptop itself. Then time machine should be happy to back up the laptop because it is set up normally.
I'm wondering if you've tried this, because I have exactly the same situation and I'm considering it myself. It wouldn't even mean that the Mac Pro was unusable without the laptop attached because you could set up a second user on the Mac Pro for use by yourself or others when the Mac Book is not attached.
Michael
December 30, 2010 at 4:05 pmIt seems to me that the Time Machine option has one big advantage in that it can sync your entire system including applications, preferences, and any other little system tweaks that you make to you main machine.
Imagine that you are working on a project on your desktop (Mac Pro), and you have had to install some new programs or change some settings in photoshop, etc. Syncing using Time Machine would pull all of those changes over to the other machine.
However, I am very disappointed with the limitations that you mention here regarding the two machines needing to have separate backups. It seems that this would be ideal if both machines could share a single time machine backup. It would be even sweeter if Time Machine would be able to prompt you to pull in changes made on the other machine when you log in and it discovers that there are new changes to the Time Machine backup since the last time the computer was used.
I guess my search for the perfect solution will continue for a while.
Thanks for the article.
gjm
February 3, 2011 at 6:51 pmIf only Apple could get your idea and factors it into the future release
Matt
January 7, 2011 at 4:30 amThe third option sounds like the one closest to what i would be looking for.
However, I also use my Imac at my home office, and need to use my Macbook pro at my other job. I work on the same projects at both locations, and so it would be most useful for me to have the same information on both machines. That way i could finish work on my imac that i started on my laptop.
Would it not be an easier solution then to sync my home folder or maybe just my work foder between the machines and then run a time machine backup from my imac to an external disk? That way all information from both machines is always available on both machines and always backed up on the external hd.
Would this be as simple as i think? and how could i best sync these folders automatically as soon as my macs connect to the airport network?
Thanks!
Matt
Dan
January 7, 2011 at 5:56 amif you just need to connect work documents, I suggest using a service like DropBox – https://www.dropbox.com/
Mark Hofer
January 13, 2011 at 4:05 pmI also use dropbox to sync files between my MacBook Pro and my Mac Pro, each of which also has its own TM backup system. So theoretically I have at least 5 identical copies of the same file. It is easy to set up and is all 'automatic'.
M
Mark H
January 13, 2011 at 4:45 pmI however have a new related issue/problem for which I would like to solicit comments. On my Mac Pro I have my OS and applications on an SSD and my home folder on a separate 1.5 TB drive. Drive Genius recently informed me the home folder HD needed repair and this was confirmed by Disk Utility. However, neither could unmount the drive to repair it. So, I started the Pro in Target mode slaved to my laptop and ran Disk Repair Utility from the Snow Leopard install disk. It could not repair it and said I needed to reformat drive and copy files back. Drive Genius was equally unable to Repair or Rebuild. My home folder is backed up by TM on a 8 TB unit. So, my thought is to set up a guest Administrator (on the SSD), reformat the 1.5 TB HD, create a new User folder (as currently exists) for housing my home folder, from there start up TM and then restore everything inside that folder, and make sure the Account Options still points to the right file. Or, should I create and redirect Account options to a new 'home folder' and then restore and then redirect to it. My concern is to protect the links, etc. However, I am also concerned that all this will do is reimport the same corruption in its currently unfixable state. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. M
Bob
January 16, 2011 at 1:34 pmSome disk problems need to be repaired in single user mode – the best way to try this is boot from the Mac OS X DVD and run "Disk Utility" – you start up from the DVD as if you're going to install the OS, then you tell it what language and then in the next screen the Installer program starts (I think) – so pick the "Utilities" menu and then pick the "Disk Utility" program and try the repair.
I'm not sure if what you did is equivalent or not but would try booting the system that has the problem drive from it's Down Mac OS X VD directly, rather than mounting the system in Target mode to another Mac. You're likely to get the same result, but it's worth a try since it's so easy.
Some kinds of disk problems are not fixable with Disk Utility. Another good program is called "Disk Warrior" and there are some problems that it can't even fix, but it might allow you to recover files that haven't been backed up at all or recently.
By the way – what was the error message about the 1.5TB drive?
Good luck …
-Bob
Coronel Tigh
January 28, 2011 at 4:39 amChronosync, is the best frakking application for keeping macs in Sync.
I use it everyday to keep in sync only the folders that I want from my MacPro to my MacBook Pro.
It frakking works so seamlessly!
Alexhunt@planet.nl
February 20, 2011 at 5:15 amMY HUSBAND AND I BOTH HAVE MAC'S I HAVE THE MAC BOOK PRO AND HE HAS THE MAC BOOK. WE HAVE A TIME CAPSULE AND WOULD LIKE TO SHARE PROGRAMS BETWEEN THE TWO COMPUTERS. IS THIS POSSIBLE AND WHAT WOULD BE THE RIGHT SETTINGS IN TIME CAPSULE? WE HAVETHE CURRENT TIME CAPSULE.
THANKS
ALEX
Abby Gnanendran
February 24, 2011 at 1:40 pmOpen time capsule, hit the Caps button and you should have it working in no time.
Bunnyslippers
March 10, 2011 at 5:49 amI have ChronoSync, and it does a great job of syncing documents, but I'm a little nervous about running it on application configurations and preferences. Has anyone used it to sync app settings? Have you experienced any problems? For example, Dreamweaver's configuration contains paths to the Web sites I'm working on, but those paths are different on my two machines (because my account name on the two machines is different). Also the information on how to connect to the ftp server is different because I use one from my company network and one from home. I imagine there are other apps that also contain paths. If I sync my app settings between the two machines, I will get incorrect paths. And yet, it's my app preferences that I'm most interested in synchronizing. When I set up a custom toolbar or custom keyboard shortcuts in an app, I want to be able to use them on both machines. Any advice?
Richard
July 15, 2011 at 9:42 amThanks for the post. Some interesting options for keeping 2 or more macs in sync. I've also been looking at some of the 3rd party apps like Chronosync, SyncMate and Sync Together.
I'm curious though, in your third example, wouldn't this only work if the two computers were actually physically connected to the same external drive? How would this work with the laptop when it is on the road?
Aaron Rose
August 16, 2011 at 3:23 amI have a Mac Pro and have just purchased a Macbook Pro (early 2011). With my MacPro I have 2 internal hardrives, 1 for the system and apps etc and the other for my work folder. Both 500Gb.
I have purchased the Macbook Pro so that I can work remotely when needed. I need to find a way of ensuring my work folder on my MacPro is synced with the new Macbook Pro for when required.
Obviously time machine is not possible as my work folder on the MacPro is on the second hard drive and not the primary. I currently back up my MacPro work folder to 2 separate Lacie 500Gb Hard drives every week.
Is there a better, cleaner way of ensuring both computers are seamlessly up-to-date without backing up to the Lacie's and connecting to the laptop and copying over etc… then copying back to the MacPro?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Aaron.
Jeanie B.
November 20, 2011 at 7:12 pmStrangely enough, the answer for great syncing between computers comes from, Microsoft! Their product Windows Live Mesh, works great to sync 2 computers, Mac or Windows. You do have to sign up for a Windows Live ID, but you can use an existing email address, you don't have to get a new one. You then install the Live Mesh client on each computer, then go to your "main" computer and set up the folder sync. I've used this product since 2003 when it was called FolderShare before Microsoft bought that little company and it works great. It does take a while to get the first sync done and both computers do have to be connected to the internet. Nothing is stored online, it just syncs the folders you set up.
Christian F
January 24, 2012 at 8:53 amThe Microsoft Website says Mesh is not available for Macs.
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