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Syncing workspaces


djaneb

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Hello

 

I use Dropbox (similar in some ways to iDisk) to keep my files synchronised between my iMac and MacBook. I have tried saving an Accordance workspace to the Dropbox but when I try to open that workspace on the other computer it does not seem to recognise that it is a workspace.

 

I have read the topic on migrating, which was suggested in response to this topic

but was wondering if there was anyway of using a common folder as I am trying to do.

 

Thanks heaps

 

Deb

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I love Dropbox! I found that syncing Accordance user files should work if you use symlinks to the folder (aliases will not work, as you probably discovered).

 

1. On one machine (you should use the one with the most recent versions of all your user files), I moved (not copied) my Accordance Files folder from ~/Documents to my Dropbox folder (mine lives at ~/Desktop/Dropbox, but yours may be elsewhere, possibly your home directory--more on this below).

 

2. I opened the Terminal and typed the following at the shell prompts:

 

imac:~ username$ cd ~/Documents

imac:Documents username$ ln -s ~/Desktop/Dropbox/Accordance\ Files Accordance\ Files

Note: there is a single space after each of the backslashes.

 

If your Dropbox folder is in your home directory (~), then the second line should read:

imac:Documents username$ ln -s Dropbox/Accordance\ Files Accordance\ Files

 

3. Finally, you will need to repeat steps 2 and 3 on each machine that is syncing these files (making sure to first remove the local copy of ~/Accordance Files).

 

The usual disclaimers apply: you should back up your ~/Accordance Files folder, you should be comfortable working in the Unix command line, and you should never run multiple instances of Accordance on Dropbox-synced machines, or Unpredictably Awful Things May Occur.

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Thank you so much!

 

I love Dropbox! I found that syncing Accordance user files should work if you use symlinks to the folder (aliases will not work, as you probably discovered).

 

I tried your procedure.

 

I ended up with everything looking as it should but get the following error when trying to open Accordance on the MacBook

 

"The name "My Highlights.hlt" cannot be used, since it is used by an existing file with a different type."

 

Accordance still opens but when I choose to open something I am still taken to the Documents folder and it looks more like a shortcut. If I doubleclick on the shortcut it takes me to the Accordance folder in DropBox but, again, the files are not recognised as Accordance files.

 

How can I check that the symlinks are actually symlinks and not just aliases?

 

Pls don't worry if you haven't got time to answer this.

 

Deb

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Sorry, I spoke too soon! It appears that this solution will not work until Dropbox addresses Mac OS file type and creator attributes (currently not preserved by Dropbox--I found that manually restoring them allows files to be opened on another machine, but they are subsequently lost again on sync). This general issue appears to be on the Dropbox team's to-do, to judge by this thread. (If Accordance relied on file extensions instead of the older-Mac OS file type/creator, that would also probably solve the issue, but my guess is Dropbox could/should add this Mac-specific support).

 

To answer another question: symlinks are tiny (4K on my 80GB MacBook Pro boot partition) while aliases are variable in size and typically much larger (50K

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Thank you very much for this follow up - I appreciate it.

 

(Yes, you might be able to sync currently using the Mac-friendly MobileMe's iDisk feature, with the local Sync feature on, but that's not a free solution and I think the sync speed would be unpredictable...)

 

I'll test out MobileMe because I have an account. Apparently it has undergone a great improvement in the last couple of weeks so some of the slow syncing problems may have been ironed out.

 

Thanks again

 

Deb

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  • 11 months later...

I understand that Dropbox just update to 8.1 beta and it is supposed to resolve the metadata problem with storage. It should be possible to sync data.

 

Anyone successful yet.

 

-Dan

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  • 2 months later...

Bump. I notice dropbox on the iPad will allow filesharing between apps. Don't know if it works both ways - if it's possible to create notes on the iPad that sync to dropbox, but is there any further word on these scenarios?

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