10-30-2008, 08:38 AM

Greetings,

I'll start by saying that I briefly searched for my answer on the board with no luck. So sorry if it's out there but I couldn't find it.

To get to the point, I have two main macs (desktop & laptop) that I use interchangeably. I would like to be able to access the same files with both computers and more importantly, stay in sync with those files. Example, I work on my FileMaker Pro database on my Mac Pro, then when it's time to leave for the office, I have to copy the file over to my MacBook (if I remember to do that). Which means that I always have two files out there at the same time. This has been ok to deal for one file but I'm finding more and more apps that I'd like to share the files with (Things, Quicken, Filemaker, iBank, OmniFocus...etc).

I do have a MobileMe account (prev .mac) but not sure if I can do it with that or iDisk. I would love it to work as seamlessly as my Mail, Address Book, and iCal syncs with MobileMe. What Mac or 3rd party options do I have for this feature/service? And can someone explain how it would work? Meaning, when I launch an app like iBank, would my app be working on the file in the "cloud"? or would the service/app push the file down to my computer for me to work on it locally and then push it back up when I close the app?

Hope my question was clear but here it is again;

What service or application will allow me to share files between my Macs?

Thanks!

10-30-2008, 12:52 PM

I think your best option is just to use an external drive, like a USB hard drive, and save your files on it. That way you can work on your files from one computer, saving all your work on the external hard drive, then just unplug it and use your laptop to work on the same file, without having two seperate copies. Try something like this, it doesn't need a power supply or anything, just a USB cord, so it is quite convenient.

10-30-2008, 01:45 PM

Basically you could just store your Filemaker database on your mobileme iDisk and work off it from there.

The problem is that the iDisk is accessed via webDAV on Apple's slow-as-mollasses mobileme servers, so it won't be very speedy.

As an alternative you could try DropBox. Basically Dropbox creates a local folder that you could put your Filemaker DB in. Then whenever it detects a change to that file, it syncs it to your Dropbox account "in the cloud" and back down to any clients you've configured.

Simply set up both Macs to access the filemaker file located inside your dropbox folder and the dropbox service that runs in the background will keep them both in sync for you. You won't have any performance hit and the free account should be fine for most apps.

Check out my comparison here if you want more info:
Jetplane Journal » Blog Archive » DropBox vs iDisk- it’s not even a contest


Just to be clear: I love MobileMe for some services and have used the service for several years now. But the iDisk speed is pretty crippling for running apps off it, so Dropbox's seamless syncing approach seems a lot better for that kind of usage.