Advice needed for sync software

[EnesM]

I've been trying hard to choose software which would help keep my Macs in sync OFFLINE.

In short, I have a Mac at home, and a Macbook Pro which I carry with me around the world. I'd like to be able to sync them every time I come home from a trip, and also be able to pick which folders are synced.

GoodSync2Go seems to be the right thing for me, but I wanted to ask if anyone here has any experience with it? If you can recommend anything better it would be highly appreciate it. One thing that worries me about GoodSync is it seems outdated, I can't find their release log, but it definitely doesn't look too fresh judging by their site.

 

[MacUser2525]

Seems like you want only the files changed in certain directories once you get back. If so a simple bash script using the already present rsync will suit your needs, something like this.

#!/bin/bash
rsync -avP /path/on/source/machine/to/synced/directory username@local.machine.ip:/path/on/destination/machine/to/synced/

This tells rsync to archive the files verbosely so you see what is going on the P allows you to use ctrl + c to interrupt the transfer and start it again without having to recopy the part of the file that has already been transferred. If using something like this then the $1 can accept a argument like --dry-run so you can see what it will do first then sync without it being there eg. sync_script.sh --dry-run in Terminal.app then to do it sync_script.sh

#!/bin/bash
rsync -avP $1 /path/on/source/machine/to/synced/directory username@local.machine.ip:/path/on/destination/machine/to/synced/

If you want to get real fancy and have choice of directories to sync in script then this would do.

#!/bin/bash
read -p "Sync directory (y/n)?"
[ "$REPLY" == "y" ] ||
rsync -avP $1 /path/on/source/machine/to/synced/directory username@local.machine.ip:/path/on/destination/machine/to/synced/

read -p "Sync directory1 (y/n)?"
[ "$REPLY" == "y" ] ||
rsync -avP $1 /path/on/source/machine/to/synced/directory1 username@local.machine.ip:/path/on/destination/machine/to/synced/

 

[Weaselboy]

http://www.econtechnologies.com/chronosync/overview.html

Chronosync does exactly what you want.

 

[EnesM]

Can Apps and Photos folders be synced too? Photos I can live without, I don't intend to have all photos on my Macbook, just the iMac, but I'd like to have all Apps on both. So when I travel and I install some new apps or even updates, I'd like to transfer that to my iMac. Of course I can do it manually, but it would be cool if it were automated.

 

[EnesM]

http://www.econtechnologies.com/chronosync/overview.html

Chronosync does exactly what you want.

Chronosync does look attractive, I'll give it a try. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Weaselboy]

Can Apps and Photos folders be synced too? Photos I can live without, I don't intend to have all photos on my Macbook, just the iMac, but I'd like to have all Apps on both. So when I travel and I install some new apps or even updates, I'd like to transfer that to my iMac. Of course I can do it manually, but it would be cool if it were automated.

Some apps you just download the DMG, then open the DMG and drag and drop the app into your Applications folder. Apps like that I think would sync over okay. But other apps like Office and Adobe apps that us pkg installers and install support files in other folder in addition to just installing the app file, I don't think those are going to sync over and work. If it was me, I would do this manually. I guess if you synced the entire drive, perhaps those support files would come over?

 

[EnesM]

Some apps you just download the DMG, then open the DMG and drag and drop the app into your Applications folder. Apps like that I think would sync over okay. But other apps like Office and Adobe apps that us pkg installers and install support files in other folder in addition to just installing the app file, I don't think those are going to sync over and work. If it was me, I would do this manually. I guess if you synced the entire drive, perhaps those support files would come over?

I get your point, my worries exactly. But I can't sync the entire drive because of space difference, and I don't want to keep all files on both, especially photos and movies, which take up some 1TB on the main Mac. I guess it's best to try and see. But I'm pretty sure apps like Adobe wont work. Must be reinstalled 100%.