Chapter 21

Synchronization

Having more than one computer is great. It gives you the flexibility of having a nice big screen on your desk and the ability to escape to the coffee shop with a laptop. The trouble occurs when you get seated with your venti triple-shot mocha latte and realize that the spreadsheet you need is on your office computer and not on your laptop. Your computers are out of sync, and you are unable to work.

Syncing used to be a real pain in the neck involving color-coded floppy disks and lots of praying. But it’s much easier now with local and Internet-based tools.

Local Syncing

 ChronoSync ($40; www.econtechnologies.com) was covered in Chapter 2 as a backup tool. However, ChronoSync really shines as a synchronization tool. Using ChronoSync, shown in Figure 21-1, you can synchronize files among multiple computers.

Figure 21-1

ChronoSync’s settings

 

ChronoSync can share any files your Mac sees. If you have PC files or servers networked to your Mac (see Chapter 20), you can synchronize the files to your Mac. For example, if your office’s Windows server holds your project documents, you can mount that server on your Mac and ChronoSync will synchronize those files to your Mac’s internal hard disk. That loads your Mac with all the files you need for your next trip to the coffee shop. When you return, you can run ChronoSync again, syncing your changed files back to the network drive.

Even if you use more complicated syncing and file-management tools, ChronoSync is great for helping things along. For example, if you have a mission-critical project that requires lots of work and you cannot lose any data, you can create a ChronoSync template that saves that project folder to a thumb drive or even to the cloud-based synchronization tools covered later in this chapter.

Internet Synchronization Tools

With the advantage of high-speed Internet connections and cheap storage, several companies now offer file synchronization among multiple computers using Internet-based (or cloud storage) synchronization services. This industry is in its infancy but is already proving useful to Mac workers. Three of the best tools are MobileMe, Dropbox, and Box.net.

MobileMe

 MobileMe ($100 per year; www.apple.com/mobileme) is Apple’s tool for online synchronization. MobileMe synchronizes many of the user settings on your Mac and is configured in the Sync pane of the MobileMe system preference, shown in Figure 21-2.

Figure 21-2

MobileMe’s synchronization settings

 

MobileMe synchronizes calendars and contacts, as explained in Chapter 6. It also synchronizes e-mail account settings and rules. Synchronizing e-mail settings is handy when working with multiple Macs. For example, if you have to change your e-mail server settings on one computer, most likely you need that change on all your computers. Using MobileMe, you only need to make the adjustment once. The MobileMe server keeps copies of your e-mail account settings and automatically updates the other devices. If you create custom rules and mailboxes, covered in Chapter 5, MobileMe also keeps those in sync.

Apple did not stop with just e-mail, contacts, and calendars, however. The MobileMe synchronization service also synchronizes your Safari bookmarks, keychains, Dock items, dashboard widgets, and system preferences. If you fully embrace the MobileMe synchronization settings, you can have identical preferences on all your Macs.

Apple also opened MobileMe synchronization to third-party application developers, so other applications can tap into MobileMe to sync data and settings. For example, TextExpander, covered in Chapter 3, allows you to synchronize your text snippets database through the MobileMe service. Once you add a snippet on any Mac, MobileMe synchronizes it to your other Macs.

In the MobileMe system preference, shown in Figure 21-2, you can set the frequency of your MobileMe synchronization to a specific interval (like once every hour), manually on your command, or automatically whenever there is a change. I find automatic syncing is best: It helps prevent the same record being independently modified on two Macs before syncing, which can cause syncing conflicts.

Sometimes files become corrupt and MobileMe gets confused. When this happens, the MobileMe service gives you a warning message explaining that two versions of some bit of data (an Address Book entry, for example) are inconsistent. You are then prompted to choose which version is correct, and the MobileMe service then does its best to sort things out.

Sometimes, these simple measures are not enough and you need to reset the MobileMe database. Do so in the MobileMe system preference as follows:

1. Click the Advanced button, as shown in Figure 21-2.
2. Once in the Advanced settings sheet, click the Reset Sync Data button to reset your database. The best strategy for resetting the database is to have one Mac with the correct version of the data. I’ll call that the Correct Mac. You can then instruct MobileMe to replace all the data in the MobileMe database with the data from the Correct Mac.
3. Once the master reset is completed, use the replaced MobileMe data to reset your other Macs again using the Reset Sync Data button. But this time, have the MobileMe database replace the data on your other Macs.

The MobileMe service also ties directly into the Apple iLife applications. If you have a MobileMe account, it is easy to share your photographs from iPhoto, your Web sites from iWeb, and your movies from iMovie directly to the Web. There are no settings to fiddle with or Internet protocols to master; you just click and share.

Apple also offers a Web interface for MobileMe, shown in Figure 21-3. You can log into your account from any computer (including Windows PCs) and have full access to your MobileMe calendar, contacts, and e-mail. You can also use the Web interface to send large files stored on your iDisk, as covered later in this chapter.

Figure 21-3

The MobileMe Web portal

 

The MobileMe synchronization service ties all this data together with your Apple mobile devices such as iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. You can wirelessly share and synchronize your contacts, calendar, e-mail settings, and Safari bookmarks. Using the MobileMe service, you can remain connected no matter where you go. (Chapter 7 covers MobileMe’s integration with Apple’s mobile devices in greater detail.)

With your MobileMe subscription, you also receive a 20GB allotment of space on the MobileMe servers, called iDisk, that can be split between file storage and mail storage. For the file storage, you can designate folders as public and make them available for friends, family, and co-workers to access; they can download files from your public folder and upload their files for you.

MobileMe also helps to tackle the problem of large e-mail attachments. Everyone has a war story about the time you sent a large proposal to a client or boss to find out the e-mail was not delivered because the attachment was too large, causing a missed deadline and leading to nothing but further misery and grief. Using MobileMe, you can store large files on your iDisk and then send them to clients and bosses with an e-mail that includes a download link to your iDisk file, as shown in Figure 21-4. You can even assign a password to keep the file secure. The recipient then clicks the link in his or her e-mail client to have the file downloaded. (This works for both PCs and Macs.) You can also place a time limit on the download link so it expires for time-sensitive files.

Figure 21-4

Sharing large files via iDisk

 

As with the rest of MobileMe, you can access your iDisk files from the Web interface. Before giving an important presentation, I often upload copies of the essential documents and Keynote files to my iDisk. If my computer does not work or the hard drive fails or there is some other last-minute problem, I can always get the files from another computer and keep marching forward. Apple has also released iPhone and iPad applications for iDisk that allow you to access the files from your mobile device and forward e-mail links to friends and colleagues.

The MobileMe settings allow you to keep a local copy of your MobileMe iDisk files on your Mac. This creates a second copy of your MobileMe data, one on your hard disk and the second on the MobileMe server. If you have your MobileMe account linked to an additional Mac and also have it set to keep local copies of your MobileMe data, you have a third copy. The MobileMe servers keep the computers synchronized. The next time you spend a few hours at the coffee shop working on your Pages sales proposal and then sync it to the MobileMe servers before closing the lid and heading to the office, your iMac at the office will download the most recent version while you drive back, and you will be able to continue where you left off.

MobileMe is a fantastic service for syncing Macs and does a great job with small data files, such as your address book, calendar, and individual documents. However, when synchronizing larger files, the MobileMe servers are simply too slow to keep up. If that sales proposal you worked on in the coffee shop includes video and music, you have to wait for it to finish syncing to the MobileMe server before closing your MacBook. Depending on the size of the file, that wait could be a long time. Although Apple does not control all the variables involved with synchronizing data over the Internet (such as Internet speed, wireless network speed, and traffic), the bottleneck very often is the MobileMe service.

The Achilles heel of MobileMe is its lack of speed. As Apple releases even more mobile devices and becomes the hub of our digital lifestyle, I suspect it will address this problem in the future.

Despite my concerns with the MobileMe service’s ability to quickly synchronize files, it is valuable to anyone who operates multiple Macs. The ability to sync so many elements of your computing experience among devices, plus the support for wireless synchronization of contact and calendar data with your iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, make the service worthwhile for many users in spite of its network speed issues.

Apple offers a 60-day free trial, so I recommend you give it a try and make your own decision. If you are looking for it only as a file-synchronization service, however, move on to a faster service such as Dropbox or Box.net.

Dropbox

 Dropbox (www.dropbox.com) is the reigning champ of online file syncing services for the Mac. When you sign up for the service, it creates a local Dropbox folder on your Mac. On the free service, you can then load that folder with up to 2GB of data, which is copied to the Dropbox servers. (You can get more storage capacity if you pay for it: 50GB costs $10 per month and 100GB costs $20 per month.) When the upload completes, your files are in both your local Dropbox folder and the cloud-based Dropbox servers.

Working on the files is done from the local copies on your Mac. For example, if you are syncing a text file, you open the file from your local Dropbox folder. When you are finished working on the file and save it, the Dropbox application automatically syncs the updated version to the Dropbox cloud storage. In this sense, Dropbox gives you a backup in addition to syncing service. (For more about backup, see Chapter 2.)

If you have two computers, they can both synchronize to the Dropbox server. Dropbox creates a local Dropbox on your second computer just like on the first one. All the data is synced both locally and in the cloud, so you can share data and files between the computers. When you update a text file on one Mac, it gets synced to both the Dropbox server and to your other Mac (as soon as it connects to the Internet, of course).

The service also handles connectivity problems like a champ: If you lose your Internet connection in the middle of syncing, Dropbox resumes syncing the next time you connect in a way that protects the file integrity. In the years that I’ve been using Dropbox, I have never experienced data corruption despite lost Internet connections and my complete disregard for in-progress syncing operations when closing the lid of my laptop.

Although there are several competing services that do essentially the same thing as Dropbox, what makes Dropbox so popular among Mac users is its speed and reliability. Dropbox is incredibly fast. So fast that you can modify a file on your laptop and, in the time it takes for you to push your chair to your iMac, the file is already synchronized. Dropbox accomplishes this speed by syncing only those parts of a file that have changed.

Your files stored on the Dropbox server are encrypted and inaccessible without your account password. All the data transmissions are done over an SSL-encrypted channel, which keeps your data safe from prying eyes.

The Dropbox service is not limited to Mac users. There are also clients for Windows and Linux, enabling you to easily share files between a work PC and your Mac laptop. Dropbox has also embraced the mobile operating systems with native applications for the iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, and Android devices.

The iPad and iPhone applications are particularly good: They keep an index of all files in your Dropbox server and allow you to star any file as a favorite and keep it downloaded locally to your iPad or iPhone so you have access to it regardless of your Internet connection. Dropbox also allow you to easily e-mail and forward files from your Dropbox storage via an e-mail link; During lunch, I can send a contract to a colleague that is stored on my Dropbox by just pressing a few buttons on the Dropbox app on my iPhone.

If you are away from your computer, you can still access all your Dropbox files by logging into the Dropbox Web site, shown in Figure 21-5 with your user name and password. Once logged in, you can search your entire Dropbox for files, recover previous versions, undelete files, and create shared folders.

Figure 21-5

Dropbox Web access

 

In addition to synchronizing, Dropbox is a great resource for sharing files. You can designate any folder in your Dropbox storage as a shared folder by creating a shared folder in the Dropbox Web interface. Dropbox then sends out invitations to the e-mail recipients you identify. Once they accept and install Dropbox on their computers, they will have the shared folder available on their computers.

A shared Dropbox folder allows you to get around the e-mail attachment size limitations that often plague telecommuters. Although you cannot place large attachments to your e-mail files, you can place large files in the Dropbox shared folder and send an e-mail to your colleagues informing them it has been loaded. But one note of caution when using a Dropbox shared file: Everyone in the shared group has administrative access to that folder and so can copy, modify, and delete the files.

Some businesses use a Dropbox account to replace their file server. They keep all their shared files on the Dropbox server where employees can access them from any location. A better tool for this, however, is Box.net, covered in the next section.

Another advantage of Dropbox is file versioning. The service keeps versions of your files for 30 days (or for an unlimited period with a paid account). This ability to fetch prior versions of files is similar to the Time Machine feature explained in Chapter 2. To obtain an earlier version of a document, log into the Dropbox Web interface and choose the desired version for download, as shown in Figure 21-6.

Figure 21-6

Restoring a previous version of a Dropbox file

 

In addition to syncing your files, Dropbox is useful for syncing system and application files. For example, both 1Password (covered in Chapter 23) and TextExpander (covered in Chapter 3) allow you to sync your application database over Dropbox, which makes using these applications on multiple computers much easier. In the case of TextExpander, it is better to sync your data with Dropbox than with MobileMe because of Dropbox’s speed advantages.

When using Dropbox, there is no way to limit the synchronization: It’s everything or nothing. Although this normally is not a problem, it can be an issue if you have mixed personal and work data in your Dropbox files. By synchronizing with your office PC or Mac, you’re making your personal data available to anyone who has access to that computer. Although Dropbox has promised it will add tools to limit the sync, it has not yet done so.

But there is a workaround: Run multiple Dropbox accounts. Keep your primary account on your Mac. Then add an additional free 2GB Dropbox account on the work computer under a different e-mail address and share a folder from the paid Dropbox account with the new account on the office PC. Just put files you want to share with the office computer in that shared folder. You can then control access of what gets synchronized and at the same time keep personal files off the work computer.

Box.net

 Box.net (www.box.net) is another popular online collaboration tool similar to Dropbox. It allows you to securely upload and store your online files and folders using 256-bit encryption. Box.net, shown in Figure 21-7, is specifically aimed at businesses. Box.net offers a free 2GB account, as well as a 15GB account for $15 per month. For larger businesses, Box.net offers additional usage-based pricing tiers.

Figure 21-7

Box.net’s Web interface

 

Box.net allows you to manage your files easily. You can create nested folders or even host your entire company file database on the Box.net server. You can then selectively set permissions for different users, such as edit, read only, or exclude from certain files. Using a business account, you can search the text in your Box.net files and access them from mobile devices such as an iPhone or iPad.

Once your files are located on the Box.net server, you can take advantage of several collaboration tools useful for business. Box.net supports discussion and commenting threads on documents and keeps version histories. You can also set up tasks around specific files that all team members can review and update. Because Box.net tracks each team member who accesses its files, it can also send e-mail notifications when changes are made or there is other activity in the Box.net account.

Box.net is marketed as a Web-based server replacement, which is pretty remarkable. It includes server administrative tools so you can manage user settings and permissions, manage file security, and get reports including an audit trail of all activity on any file in your Box.net storage. You can also customize the Box.net interface for your company account to reflect your company brand.

We’ve come along way since synchronizing was accomplished with floppy disks and sneakers. Although Web-based syncing is an emerging technology, it holds much promise to make the seamless sharing of data among computers even easier.