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Syncing certain folders between 2 macs

R

rascalz

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 5, 2010
17
1
Hi there,

Im in need of a way to sync a few folders between two separate mac computers running on Mavericks. I don't want to use dropbox as it can be slow, so something over the LAN would be much better and fast incase i need to quickly sync and leave the house.

I have a main system that stays in the house and another mac laptop to take out and on trips. I do a lot of Lightroom work on my main and at times use my outside mac for Lightroom as well. Atm i have to do it manually so I'd much rather a option to just click a sync now button and have the Lightroom catalogue folders sync as well as a folder with the photos I'm currently working on.

As well as this Id also like to sync some music folders and other general folders between he two macs.

Cheers in advance
 
I'm amazed by the lack of solutions to fill this need: LAN sync between two computers on the same network. It seems like such a simple request (and on the request side of things, it IS simple). Implementation is a whole different beast, because there are so many factors to consider - this I know all too well from being a programmer called upon to make a sync solution for my team at work.

That being said, I'd be happy to help out here - even if that means reworking my existing sync tool for the Mac platform and to meet more general needs than it serves now. :)
 
Same network just use AirDrop. If one or both of the Macs are outside a network just use a VPN setup between on your network & Mac and tunnel both Macs to the same NAS.

Another option is something like PogoPlug.

Lastly with an Airport Extreme or Time Capsule watch the video:

 
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decimus Synk

I've used it in past to sync some document folders between mac book and mac mini. Their live sync feature carried it out automatically, so I used to make a point of firing up the laptop whenever I got back home then leaving them to it.

as with any software of this sort I'd put it thru its paces on a few test folders and make sure I had decent backups before letting it loose on its own (you dont want things syncing in wrong direction, or suddenly finding the app who's databases etc you're doing the syncs of doesn't take kindly to any third party intervention)
 
rascalz said:
Hi there,

Im in need of a way to sync a few folders between two separate mac computers running on Mavericks. I don't want to use dropbox as it can be slow, so something over the LAN would be much better and fast incase i need to quickly sync and leave the house.

I have a main system that stays in the house and another mac laptop to take out and on trips. I do a lot of Lightroom work on my main and at times use my outside mac for Lightroom as well. Atm i have to do it manually so I'd much rather a option to just click a sync now button and have the Lightroom catalogue folders sync as well as a folder with the photos I'm currently working on.

As well as this Id also like to sync some music folders and other general folders between he two macs.

Cheers in advance
Click to expand...

DropSync a program which is a front end for the command line program rsync which does the syncing over a network connection. You would need to go into your system preferences and turn on the Remote Login item under Sharing to sync via ssh to both machines over the network.
 
Thanks for the reply guys, as soon as the weekend is pretty much done I can take a better look at some of the suggestions and get back to you, Cheers guys
 
I am looking for the same solution except that I want it work outside of the network as well as on the LAN. I used to use microsoft's foldershare program between two macs which worked great. But they changed it to skydrive where you are required to sync to the cloud. I don't want my private info going to the cloud so dropbox, google drive etc does not work for me.

Does anyone have any suggestions for this? I found goodsync.com which seems good but they charge $40 per computer which seems steep. Anyone have experience good or bad with goodsync.com or anything else?

Any help much appreciated.
 
I use GoodSync Pro for Mac to sync my Mac Mini with the Macbook. Simply turn on the network sharing ability on your Macs and create a new profile in GoodSync. There you have to add the newly created AFP network shares you want to sync with.

GoodSync is very good because it supports to restore deleted files. You could specified an period of time in which your deleted files will be reserved for restoring. If you configured GoodSync correctly it will be your 1-click-sync solution.

I found an coupon code to get 8$ off the original price. If you want to buy it, simply use this coupon: SCGS1
 
Dropbox now supports LAN update

Dropbox has a newer feature that if the destination computer is on the same network, it will copy directly to that computer and not wait for a copy to go to the cloud and back down to the other computer. It still sends the copy to the cloud.
 
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