Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Sharing between 2 Macs...

fisherking

fisherking

macrumors G4
Original poster
Jul 16, 2010
11,478
5,866
ny somewhere
have a friend who will be working in 2 cities for about a year. she has an iMac and home, and just got an iMac for the 2nd location...

thought she could use dropbox for all her files (all her documents, and an alias to her desktop in dropbox...)

her email accounts are imap accounts. so that should be fine.

she wants to work on either mac, and have her work always update...and she is NOT tech-savvy.

does this plan make sense? any suggestions, thoughts??

thanx...!
 
Several options:

1) Store all documents on a cloud service, dropbox/box/google drive/ microsoft one drive. Then they would automatically be accessible in both places

2) Store all documents on an external drive and transport it front site to site.

3) Use a sync program (e.g. Chronosync) to sync the documents folders on each machine (She should be able to use Back to My Mac to access each machine from the other).
 
swiftaw said:
Several options:

1) Store all documents on a cloud service, dropbox/box/google drive/ microsoft one drive. Then they would automatically be accessible in both places

2) Store all documents on an external drive and transport it front site to site.

3) Use a sync program (e.g. Chronosync) to sync the documents folders on each machine (She should be able to use Back to My Mac to access each machine from the other).
Click to expand...

gonna use dropbox (she already uses it); just wondered if anyone had any other ideas... can i put an alias of the Desktop Folder in dropbox?..
 
fisherking said:
gonna use dropbox (she already uses it); just wondered if anyone had any other ideas... can i put an alias of the Desktop Folder in dropbox?..
Click to expand...

It is times like these that I wish Apple would include some sort of utility for creating mobile user accounts without the need for OS X server. Mobile accounts allow you to place a user's home directory on an external drive, like a flash drive or hard drive. When you plug the drive into another mac, the user account makes itself available for login. All the user's data is stored on the external drive and can be encrypted with filevault. A very elegant solution for situations like this.
 
Dropbox is fine, I have my wife's MacBook Air and iMac set up much as you describe. She doesn't use her Desktop for file storage but this article describes a way to sync desktop via Dropbox.

----------
sevoneone said:
It is times like these that I wish Apple would include some sort of utility for creating mobile user accounts without the need for OS X server. Mobile accounts allow you to place a user's home directory on an external drive, like a flash drive or hard drive. When you plug the drive into another mac, the user account makes itself available for login. All the user's data is stored on the external drive and can be encrypted with filevault. A very elegant solution for situations like this.
Click to expand...

That's an option. It's not like Server is terribly expensive, it's only $19.99
 
You can do that too. if you explain to her to keep all the data she wants to share in the dropbox folder.
The more elegant way of doing it is with the software tool i mentioned above.

Above program is a gui (graphical user interface), it creates the symbolic links for sharing folders via dropbox without having to move the folder structure. (http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20120803093247391)
For users who are not familiar using terminal commands.

For example you can share the documents folder (incl. subfolders) between two iMac's using Dropbox, without having to move any of the folders/sub-folders. (subject to dropbox size limitations -> money)

This is transparent to the user and typically the easiest way to achieve what you wanted.
It is very easy to do.

If you want to know more google: symbolic links os x dropbox


Another thing she might want to do is leave her iMac in the remote location on standby. Using "back to my Mac" she can see her remote iMac in finder and get to her files in case she forgot something or even use screen sharing to remotely control that iMac. (http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13863?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US)
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14179
google: setup back to my mac
 
Last edited:
eduardrw said:
You can do that too. if you explain to her to keep all the data she wants to share in the dropbox folder.
The more elegant way of doing it is with the software tool i mentioned above.

Above program is a gui (graphical user interface), it creates the symbolic links for sharing folders via dropbox without having to move the folder structure. (http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20120803093247391)
For users who are not familiar using terminal commands.

For example you can share the documents folder (incl. subfolders) between two iMac's using Dropbox, without having to move any of the folders/sub-folders. (subject to dropbox size limitations -> money)

This is transparent to the user and typically the easiest way to achieve what you wanted.
It is very easy to do.

If you want to know more google: symbolic links os x dropbox


Another thing she might want to do is leave her iMac in the remote location on standby. Using "back to my Mac" she can see her remote iMac in finder and get to her files in case she forgot something or even use screen sharing to remotely control that iMac. (http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13863?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US)
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14179
google: setup back to my mac
Click to expand...

great info, thank you. am definitely gonna work with dropbox, i need to keep this simple (and invisible) for her, she's NOT tech-savvy. will add options as needed...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back