Easiest way to sync files between Laptop & Desktop - Chronosync vs Mobileme?

[discofuel]

I've just purchased a new Macbook Pro for my mum and I need to find the simplest, easiest and most fail proof solution to sync the two machines together.

She is an author and works off an iMac in her study and will use the laptop in another room, but also when traveling around.

She is a pretty much a computer novice so I need a method where she won't have to do anything or manually sync and won't have any issues with duplicate copies of files etc.

If I was doing this I'd definitely be looking at something like Chronosync as I have a large hard drive full of music and video files but my mum only really uses word documents that don't take up much space.

The guy in the Apple Store suggested moving all of her documents and files (only about 8GB) to MobileMe and then accessing them via iDisk from both machines.

Would this be her best option?

 

[Kvalnir]

Dropbox is another option. It's dead simple in keeping things sync'd.

The only issue is that the free account only offers 2GB, but you can upgrade to 50 or 100GB for a monthly fee.

 

[CrzyCanuck72]

If you just want to keep documents in sync, Dropbox is the way to go. You can either move all the files to the Dropbox folder and access them from there, or set up a system of symlinks so she can keep using the native Documents folder on each machine (see http://bit.ly/brjzfw).

I've been using Dropbox and symlinks to keep the documents folders of my MacBook and Hackintoshed netbook in sync for the past few months and it's been flawless.

 

[prss14]

I have used MobileMe for a while now and have loved it. I don't know if she would get much use out of the Mail adn iCal syncing. I use it a lot. I have heard a lot of good things about dropbox, though. The Find My iPhone feature is worth it for me alone. I don't think you will really go wrong either way.

 

[discofuel]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I'll run some tests and see which works best.

 

[jamesdmc]

I use a combination of Dropbox and iDisk. For setting up iDisk to work seamlessly, see post #11 in this thread. It's what I did and I've had no problems with iDisk sync. In fact, I've moved most of my Dropbox documents/folders to iDisk because I have 10x more space there.

The only thing is that iDisk sync is not automatic like Dropbox so if I want to access files and folders rather quickly on another mac, I manually sync from the Finder sidebar (not the menubar; it doesn't always work; sidebar works). Other than that, I've had no problems using the above method. Good luck.

 

[skerfoot]

I've just purchased a new Macbook Pro for my mum and I need to find the simplest, easiest and most fail proof solution to sync the two machines together.

She is an author and works off an iMac in her study and will use the laptop in another room, but also when traveling around.

She is a pretty much a computer novice so I need a method where she won't have to do anything or manually sync and won't have any issues with duplicate copies of files etc.

If I was doing this I'd definitely be looking at something like Chronosync as I have a large hard drive full of music and video files but my mum only really uses word documents that don't take up much space.

The guy in the Apple Store suggested moving all of her documents and files (only about 8GB) to MobileMe and then accessing them via iDisk from both machines.

Would this be her best option?

I've set up Chronosync on a number of machines to run backups to our server. It's a very powerful tool to do this, with lots of options. I'm not sure I'd call it "simple and easy", to set up though. You'll need to install an agent onto the reciprocal machines to get them to contact each other via the network.

 

[JoshBoy]

mobileme I would say. I started with a .Mac account and moved over to mobileme as did everyone. The great thing is if she gets an iphone she gets the benefit right away as well.

 

[Thunder82]

Dropbox is, without question, the best option for syncing multiple computers. It's quick, it's simple, and it just .. works.