Program to auto sync folder with mobile me

[66217]

I'm interested in trying this for all my school documents. Just one doubt: does Time Machines backs-up the iDisk Drive in my desktop?

What I am doing is moving all my school files to my iDisk, and then create an alias of that folder in my MacBook.

Also, if I make a change while offline to one document (in my MacBook), would this document be updated in the cloud when the iDisk syncs?


Thanks,

 

[JackieTreehorn]

As long as it works for you, that's what matters.

While the initial setup takes some time with MobileMe (I just let mine do it's thing overnight - you can start and stop the sync process) after it's done it syncs very fast, and does it in the background with no user input. You forget it's there working after a while!

So I took this 'after a while' into consideration when I tried iDisk for a third time with my folder structure the way I liked it.

After two weeks of using it, I have to admit iDisk does the trick pretty well. Combining iDisk and Smart Folders in Leopard is a very easy way to keep my documents synched and my workflow similar across several Macs. And with the OneDisk app on my iPhone, I can even access my work-files on the iPhone.

So, I stand corrected. iDisk had to grow on me, but now it's working just fine.

 

[lolliffe]

Yep. Just be sure to turn iDisk syncing on. What that does is create a copy of your iDisk on your Mac, which allows you to use it offline. Any changes you make will then be automatically synced the next time you're online...

I swear that I remember this setting, but I have a client with a brand new MacBook, and can't seem to find it anywhere. Can someone point me in the right direction on the latest OS?

The way that I remember it, if you clicked this setting, it put a local version of your iDisk on the desktop, and would auto-synch it, when either was changed, and there was a net connection.

Thanks in advance

 

[frogatmac]

Time machine and local idisk

Be carefull: time machine does NOT backup your local idisk!

Does anyone know if snow leopard supports this function?

Thanks in advance

 

[BroadcastDoc]

I swear that I remember this setting, but I have a client with a brand new MacBook, and can't seem to find it anywhere. Can someone point me in the right direction on the latest OS?

The way that I remember it, if you clicked this setting, it put a local version of your iDisk on the desktop, and would auto-synch it, when either was changed, and there was a net connection.

Thanks in advance

System Prefs -> MobileMe -> iDisk. At the bottom of the Pref Pane, there is a section for iDisk syncing. Turn that on.

 

[BroadcastDoc]

Be carefull: time machine does NOT backup your local idisk!

Does anyone know if snow leopard supports this function?

Thanks in advance

Shouldn't be too hard to come up with something. The local iDisk is just a disk image. Back that up and you're good to go.

 

[frogatmac]

System Prefs -> MobileMe -> iDisk. At the bottom of the Pref Pane, there is a section for iDisk syncing. Turn that on.

...and never turn it off. I did so (distracted) thinking that my local idisk was saved on my desktop and lost some documents.

It was hard to find the image in the library and it cost me 2 hours to restore the documents by restoring the whole idisk. Getting back the documents only without restoring the whole idisk was not possible. Surfing through the documents via time machine is also not possible...

 

[BroadcastDoc]

Something was very wrong then.

When you turn your iDisk off, it will create a normal disk image on your desktop (labeled something like username_idisk_old) that contains the synced iDisk.

Then if you turn syncing back on, it just re-creates the local iDisk with whatever was online.

 

[Macsterguy]

This all sounds really cool but I'm a little leary about putting my original files on the iDisk and relying on alais'.

Is there a danger of losing the originals (maybe MM goes down or subscription runs out) leaving the alais' worthless?

Yes, the alias' will be totally worthless...

I don't care what you are doing - locally or on MobileMe - YOU NEED TO BACKUP! Yes, that's right, you even need to backup what is on MobileMe!!!

If you have your local iDisk turned on and you are doing regular backups, then you are backing up your MobileMe data. If you do not have your local iDisk turned on, then you are trusting only Apple with your information... If your data is important to you - trust no one... Also, if you have only one backup, then you are NOT backed up!!

I have lost all contents of my iDisk thru no fault of my own - but I had a backup...

I keep 3-Mac's and 2 iPhones in sync with all the MobileMe tools and it really works well for me.

 

[frogatmac]

Something was very wrong then.

When you turn your iDisk off, it will create a normal disk image on your desktop (labeled something like username_idisk_old) that contains the synced iDisk.

Then if you turn syncing back on, it just re-creates the local iDisk with whatever was online.

I unfortunately lost the local disc before it was synced (I was on the road) and so the files were not on the mobileme server.
Thats how I finally restored the old idisk: I turned it back on and replaced the "new" disk with the old image.

However, the problem is that time machine is not possible for the local idisk and I hope that snow leopard solves this problem. But there has been no information regarding this yet....

 

[Macsterguy]

I unfortunately lost the local disc before it was synced (I was on the road) and so the files were not on the mobileme server.
Thats how I finally restored the old idisk: I turned it back on and replaced the "new" disk with the old image.

However, the problem is that time machine is not possible for the local idisk and I hope that snow leopard solves this problem. But there has been no information regarding this yet....

You are correct - TM will not backup your iDisk per say... but it does back up a sparse image file that represents your local iDisk. It is located in your home / Library / FileSync folder. This is your local iDisk...

Personally, I use SuperDuper to backup my iDisk every night!

 

[eleuthero]

alternative to box.net

a bit of refresh for this forum thread but Microsoft (yes, yes, I know) has a great and free syncing program that now works for the mac (no issues thus far and allows the local folder to stay in its original location (not a single sparse bundle). Mesh.com runs well in the background and can be updated on the server side, the mac side or any other client you happen to be using (windows, os x, or mobile). It offers 5 gb of free cloud space with unlimited linking between accounts.

 

[PreetinderBajwa]

How would mail work ?

Thats a very interesting thread, I have been grappling with the issues myself. So Dropbox would take care of the documents part , but how about mail ? It was all sweet till I got my second Mac !

The challenge is to have access to documents and mail (exact matches) when I am offline.

Right now I have the following (only dealing with mail, I carry a USB for documents) :

- I had mail on my uMBP and rules moved the mail to a folder on 'on my Mac', with rules set up to do it automatically.
- When I logged in from my MBA, all I can see is the inbox, items that were not moved to the 'on my mac' of the UMBP.
- So I dragged and dropped all the 'on my mac' folders to .mac, and now I can see the same mail from iPhone, MBA and UMBP, however only when I am online (ignore iPhone here).
- Then I went to the uMBP and "unchecked" all rules, I was thinking of doing copy message "on my Mac" rather than move message -??
- As the rules are unchecked, the mails are not sorted anymore because the rules were in the mail app and even if UMBP rule applied is "copy" to "on my mac", the same update doesn't happen online i.e. email on the web, and the mail still resides in the inbox online
- When I had the uMBP only, all that was needed was to go through the "inbox" and "on my mac folders" and I had a full view of all my mails, now as the move - on my mac - rule is off, everything is loaded in inbox, even if I do copy - on my mac - the mail would still reside in the inbox every time I log in... its messy to look at inbox with a 1000 emails !
- plus when if I am offline I can't see any messages !

I hope you get the direction and problem !

How are you solving this ?

cheers

 

[miamialley]

+1

All you need to do is create folders for your documents out on your iDisk, and then create aliases to those items in your documents folder.

Instant automatic sync of all of your documents.

This is what I do. Works perfectly.