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Managing Two Macbooks

B

BigHam

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 23, 2013
47
58
Australia
So I'm up for a new Macbook next month. Going 15" retina.

I currently have a mid 2010 13" 250gb, 2.4, 8gb Ram. I'm perfectly happy with it, but being at the end of apple care its time to keep my 3 year compute schedule going.

But since it still works perfectly well, I'm going to use it as my second machine. So in effect one machine will be play the other work.

But when I'm out, at the library or overseas, I'll only be taking one... So my question is;

How do you guys manage two machines?

By the way. I'm thinking base line rmbp. 16g ram is tempting, but I don't see myself needing it in the next 3 years. I do lots of word processing, lots of PDF's, dozens of tabs in safari open. And I'm going to start using aperture as iPhoto isn't cutting it anymore.
 
What do you mean by "manage"?
For 2 different setups TimeMachine backups will do the most part (ie guarantee the ability to restore both to last known good configuration).
Then some file sharing for occasional data sync.
For perfect sync of the user account a network home folder could be used but that will call for 3rd computer running OS X Server 24/7 and probably still doesn't cut it over Internet.
PS working on home machine remotely via Screen Sharing is also a possible scenario.
 
I have an air and a four year old MBP. The air is taken to work where I do light Office stuff and on holiday as a place to back up my photos. The MBP I use for photo stuff and surfing etc. at home. I use Dropbox to synchronise my files excluding photos. It means that when I come in from work, any file that I have changed during the day is automatically synched with the other machine. It is very convenient if a little lazy. My photos are on hard drives and at one stage I did store my aperture library on the external hard drive so that I could use either machine with aperture but I have moved away from that now.
 
JackHobbs said:
I have an air and a four year old MBP. The air is taken to work where I do light Office stuff and on holiday as a place to back up my photos. The MBP I use for photo stuff and surfing etc. at home. I use Dropbox to synchronise my files excluding photos. It means that when I come in from work, any file that I have changed during the day is automatically synched with the other machine. It is very convenient if a little lazy. My photos are on hard drives and at one stage I did store my aperture library on the external hard drive so that I could use either machine with aperture but I have moved away from that now.
Click to expand...

Have a similar setup in that I want to synchronise my macs locally as well as to the cloud. Think I've pretty much settled on dropbox for this task.

But also have too many photos to use Dropbox - do you backup yours to another cloud service & if you do i'd be interested in your thoughts.
 
ChangshaNotes said:
I use iCloud and Chronosync for keeping specific folders synched between my iMac and rMBP
Click to expand...
I do the same thing, but manually, using SyncTwoFolders over the LAN between my MBP and a Mac mini. I only need to sync my data, a backup folder of installers, my MP3s and the iTunes folder. Works great.
Basically, I do not trust the cloud, so a LAN solution is better for my needs.
:cool:
 
Sell the 2010 to get a maxed rMBP and AppleCare. Totally avoid having to care how to run two machines.
 
ChangshaNotes said:
I use iCloud and Chronosync for keeping specific folders synched between my iMac and rMBP
Click to expand...


Thanks for all the replies!

I like the sound of Chronosync! So it essentially works off a drive connected within my home network? For $50, seems fairly reasonable.

For the price the price of a maxed retina, I'm happy to manage to computers.
 
I use a 27" iMac and a 15" rMBP. For me, it's works perfectly fine to just have my documents in Dropbox etc.

From here on, when I work on something on my iMac, it's always up-to-date on the rMBP.

Since the dropbox folder just acts as if it were to be a regular Finder folder, this is really convenient.

Most of the time I don't even notice working on two machines :cool:
 
Dropbox works great for me not only between my two macs running OSX but also in Mr Hyde mode running Windows 7 for both in bootcamp. Also runs on the server which mirrors my data.

Thanks to the referral bonus scheme I've maxed out referring and installing dropbox to my clients my free account is now over 18Gb. :D
 
I've several Macs around my house (refer my signature, not all are mine. Some are for my dad).

I keep them in sync by using an NAS connected to the two Mac Pros in the server room. All my Macs are connected via gigabit Ethernet and into a central router.

Meanwhile, I suggest you keep all your data in some sort of NAS.
 
I don't have 2 macs (for myself) right now, but I thought about getting an iMac so I searched how to keep two macs in sync and I didn't find a perfect solution yet.

The things I found where:
Sync via Time Machine
Sync via NAS
Dropbox

However lately I have been thinking, if it would be possible to just make your start up disc a bittorrent Sync folder (in general I think BitTorrent Sync is right now the best option to sync stuff between multiple devices)
 
I have a 15" Macbook Pro, 27" iMac and a Mac Mini Server all synced using an 11GB Dropbox Account and a 25GB Skydrive account. I keep personal stuff in Skydrive as they are all smaller files and client files in dropbox (disk images etc).

Had this setup running for 3 years now with no issues.

----------
Wuiffi said:
I don't have 2 macs (for myself) right now, but I thought about getting an iMac so I searched how to keep two macs in sync and I didn't find a perfect solution yet.

The things I found where:
Sync via Time Machine
Sync via NAS
Dropbox

However lately I have been thinking, if it would be possible to just make your start up disc a bittorrent Sync folder (in general I think BitTorrent Sync is right now the best option to sync stuff between multiple devices)
Click to expand...

BitTorrent sync works well but it is peer to peer so you don't have files in the cloud if all of your machines blow up. Which is fine if you run offsite backups etc to protect your data and you always have a machine online to sync with/to.
 
Dropbox is a must have even if you don't have 2 macs, just multiple devices. I'm in college, and since I my MBP only has a 250gb SSD, I generally just keep school related stuff and apps(Like Mathematica for Calculus Projects) and a few games on my MBP for on-the-go access but the iMac is the main workstation with it's 1TB HD, desktop processor, bootcamp, and large screen.

Other than dropbox, I use a combo of airdrop, emailing myself, and flash drives.
 
I'm going to have to make some drop box referrals. Anyone want one? Its a good service! ;)

I just bought an airport extreme. Didn't go time capsule as I already have a hard drive. In terms of connecting the hard drive (which currently houses my Time Machine back ups) it's not hard is it? I'll probably use this as well for large files like TV shows and movies.

Another quick question - running two macs with the same apple ID means I can install the same software on both machines can't I? So I won't have to buy it again?
 
BigHam said:
running two macs with the same apple ID means I can install the same software on both machines can't I? So I won't have to buy it again?
Click to expand...
Correct! You don't even need to "run" them with same Apple ID. Just log in to App Store with that specific ID and install.
PS you need to double-check on licencing terms. The Pro apps might not be entitled for whole household.
 
priitv8 said:
Correct! You don't even need to "run" them with same Apple ID. Just log in to App Store with that specific ID and install.
PS you need to double-check on licencing terms. The Pro apps might not be entitled for whole household.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that!


Thanks for your help everyone!
 
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