I'm thinking of purchasing a second Mac in the distant future and was wondering what is the easiest/best way to sync all files between both Macs?


Thanks,
Mason

[mduell]

https://www.foldershare.com/

Use it to sync whichever folders you want. Completely automated and works through NAT/etc in case you have the two machines in different places.

Is FolderShare free? If it isn't would you recommend anything else?

[mduell]

Yes, it's free.

Thank you for your help.

[gbhgbh]

ChronoSync is another option.

[besson3c]

Are you looking to keep folders in sync on a real-time basis? These tools listed, I believe, will simply allow you to schedule folder syncs.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

Are you looking to keep folders in sync on a real-time basis? These tools listed, I believe, will simply allow you to schedule folder syncs.

No, FolderShare keeps the folders in sync continuously by default.
Sometimes it may take 30 seconds to notice that there are new files (so it's not constantly banging away at your hard drive), but it does not require you to schedule syncs.

Or you can set it to sync individual files on demand, which can be useful if you want a lot of large files to be available, but only want to download what you need at the time over a slow connection.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by mduell 

No, FolderShare keeps the folders in sync continuously by default.
Sometimes it may take 30 seconds to notice that there are new files (so it's not constantly banging away at your hard drive), but it does not require you to schedule syncs.

Or you can set it to sync individual files on demand, which can be useful if you want a lot of large files to be available, but only want to download what you need at the time over a slow connection.

Cool...

Well, my suggestion was simply to establish a network mount point via something like SSHfs/NFS/AFP/Samba and simply save to this network volume, but it may or may not apply for this person...

Lots of options to do this.

[mduell]

There are about three different threads going on right now where people want to sync files between multiple Macs and a lot of recommendations for setups with a lot of unnecessary complexity and manual work.

FolderShare is very "Mac-like" in my opinion. Install the software on both ends, set up two folders to sync (with a web based interface), and from that point on it's magic.

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

Well, my suggestion was simply to establish a network mount point via something like SSHfs/NFS/AFP/Samba and simply save to this network volume, but it may or may not apply for this person...

Samba (aka Windows' sharing protocol) and NFS don't work over the internet (yes, yes, I know, you can set up a tunnel, but then again, this ain't really simple to set up). Is there something akin to sshfs for Windows by the way?

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie 

Samba (aka Windows' sharing protocol) and NFS don't work over the internet (yes, yes, I know, you can set up a tunnel, but then again, this ain't really simple to set up). Is there something akin to sshfs for Windows by the way?

Good point, somebody should have asked whether these computers are on the same network or not

I don't know of anything like sshfs for Windows....

Thanks again for the helpful answers. FolderShare will do just fine and seems to be the easiest solution.

I was just reading that some people are having trouble getting FolderShare to work on 10.4.9. Is this happening with anyone else?

[charmdustio]

Kind of off topic, but anyone here know an alternative to VSS, compatible with Windows & Mac?

[mduell]

Originally Posted by charmdustio 

Kind of off topic, but anyone here know an alternative to VSS, compatible with Windows & Mac?

VSS... as in Visual Source Safe?

Try CVS or Subversion.