mac sync, easiest way to do it?

[Jet-Fighter7700]

Hi guys,

A PC man here, so forgive my ignorance on common mac problems,
(dont try convert me, I'm not the type)

so a client of mine wants to constantly sync 2 macs (2017/2016) versions with an ipad,
in other words, whatever goes on one macs desktop, goes on another at the same time, and on the ipad as well

did a bit of googling, and found this program,
https://www.econtechnologies.com/about/products.html

anybody used something like this before?
as I understand it icloud can also do this, but the files in question are MASSIVE, videos mainly.
so it would slow down the network quite a bit synchronizing constantly.

what else can be suggested, mac OSX server? easy or difficult to set up?
or is there a NAS one can use specifically for Macs?

like I mentioned before, not a mac fan,
but thought id ask around as to what are peoples way of syncing macs with each other usually entails.

 

[samcro]

Hi,
All you need to do is to enable iCloud drive on the 2 Macs, drag the desktop folder and documents into icloud and you are good to go.All filers will be synced and you can access them on the iPad through the Files folder.

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

Hi,
All you need to do is to enable iCloud drive on the 2 Macs, drag the desktop folder and documents into icloud and you are good to go.All filers will be synced and you can access them on the iPad through the Files folder.

ok, that is one way, but in this case as I mentioned, big video files involved,

any other way to do this?

 

[SauRoNZA]

ok, that is one way, but in this case as I mentioned, big video files involved,

any other way to do this?

So pay for larger iCloud?

Or use any of the hundreds of others options. Dropbox, Onedrive, Google Drive etc.

Considering the iPads themselves are quite low on storage usually actually syncing to them would be a bit silly as they probably won't have the space to support it anyway so you'd rather want it in the Cloud.

Failing that there is good old Wifi Sync via iTunes but that requires being on the same network etc.

Either way really no need for a third party tool.

A lot of these Western Digital / Seagate storage solutions offer built-in iPad sync tools so I would imagine they have some form of NAS offering to make it happen.

But as i said with iPads having limited storage I don't quite see the point here or the use case.

For strictly the two Macs there are a million RSync-like options including custom scripts, Applescript/Automator or just using Shared Folders so dropping the iPad out of the equation or only having it available via Cloud storage is another option.

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/43198/sync-folders-free
https://www.resilio.com/ (I see they have some mobile device support as well now, so may be an option but costs money).


****

Now just imagine if you had opened you mind some years ago already when we had the PC vs Mac or iPhone vs Android arguments how you could have solved your own problems now.

But no...gay for Windows/Android at the detriment of all else.

Especially considering this is a client...it could money in your pocket if you weren't so stubborn.

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

don't think Im a mac fanboy now sauron.... Id rather be tortured in Saddams Iraqi jail then admit that (abu garieb here I come:crylaugh


this client only uses them for adobe aftereffects and I have very little interest in that,


I still maintain what I said before that if you need to do 5 very specific things on a mac, and thats is it, nothing else more, not even a bit,
mac is brilliant, much much better than PC, as its build very specifically for creative industries even the design is meant to draw creative people into its design.
honestly look better than a boring and grey PC, even I will admit that.


if you want a more general purpose PC, that not optimized, but can still do most things you ask from it, then PC is best,
if you want something that is cheaper, and customization is your thing then android is best....
if its not iphone is best, honestly its all dependent on your usage and what you intend to do with it,

that is the keyword here, SPECIFIC use.
as I said before. thats why I posted, as I have very little knowledge in Mac, but googling can only take one so far,
thought to ask around what I can find others have done.


I mentioned I used a Ipad previously and could never work out for myself why one would buy it, for my specific use,
I mean I copying from VLC and streaming from a network, and it never copied anything properly,

IF you use itunes, problem solved, but you pay for it, and its meant to be as easy as possible.

dont worry I still use a win 10 laptop, at home and work, so no point to say I been converted,
I still not convinced they worth the extra price,

kind of like a MPV like a Renault scenic/Toyota verso
I mean whats wrong with a normal hatchback? 5 doors, seating for 5, seats that fold ect....
unless you a stovepipe hat salesman, why not just buy a normal car?

what justifies the price of apple? in my case, yes adobe aftereffects and SPECIALIZED software and equipment,
that they never came out with a windows version, or its extremely expensive to retrain people.

but this is this specific client, others have different setups, some use windows like everybody else,
some even use ubuntu customized to their needs,

its all dependent on what you do with it, myself I never saw a need for it, for MYSELF.
and true to form, I never owned a Ipod or ipod touch or ipad or iphone in my life,
I briefly used a Ipad that I could try out, and could never work out why its so expensive to what you get.
but others might see a bargain, and buy the things by the millions.

honestly I think apple is a cult sometimes, kind of like Scientology

 

[scud]

iCloud would work

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

iCloud would work

thats what I said initially, as I know a bit about that,
but they want these things to happen automatically, and really large video files involved,

sure there is a NAS device one can set up, with OSX, heard there is a OSX server even,
anybody done these things before?

 

[SauRoNZA]

don't think Im a mac fanboy now sauron.... Id rather be tortured in Saddams Iraqi jail then admit that (abu garieb here I come:crylaugh

That was my entire point. You don't need to be a fan boy but at least open your mind so you can upskill yourself and you would already have been genuinely informed in this regard already without needing help.




this client only uses them for adobe aftereffects and I have very little interest in that,

I still maintain what I said before that if you need to do 5 very specific things on a mac, and thats is it, nothing else more, not even a bit,
mac is brilliant, much much better than PC, as its build very specifically for creative industries even the design is meant to draw creative people into its design.
honestly look better than a boring and grey PC, even I will admit that.

And anything you can do on a PC you can do on a Mac and vice versa. There is no specialist need or purpose to either.

No specific use, no specialist concept. They can both do the very same things although in slightly different ways.

There is nothing especially design worthy to Macs either. You can do the very same design on PC.

Particular people just like a particular workflow and methodology, that is the only difference.

if you want a more general purpose PC, that not optimized, but can still do most things you ask from it, then PC is best,
if you want something that is cheaper, and customization is your thing then android is best....
if its not iphone is best, honestly its all dependent on your usage and what you intend to do with it,

Mac / PC are both general purpose.

MacOS can customize just as much as Windows. In fact more so for being a Linux driven system.

Your usage and intention is actually irrelevant because both can do everything


As an IT support oke I cannot understand why you would limit yourself to only a single facet of that industry and literally throw money and clients away.

[quote
that is the keyword here, SPECIFIC use.[/quote]

Nothings specific about it.

as I said before. thats why I posted, as I have very little knowledge in Mac, but googling can only take one so far,
thought to ask around what I can find others have done.

No, you CHOOSE to have very little knowledge of Macs.

That can all change very quickly by simply opening yourself up to learning.

I mentioned I used a Ipad previously and could never work out for myself why one would buy it, for my specific use,
I mean I copying from VLC and streaming from a network, and it never copied anything properly,

Forget about your specific needs. As a customer support person you should care about the needs of your customers, not your own.

How on earth can you help customers if you don't know what their needs are and how to cater to them?

IF you use itunes, problem solved, but you pay for it, and its meant to be as easy as possible.

If you customers choose to use iTunes then you learn to deal with it. DOen't mean you need to use it yourself or even like it.

dont worry I still use a win 10 laptop, at home and work, so no point to say I been converted,
I still not convinced they worth the extra price,

Can you read? Nowhere did I say you were converted. I said you NEED conversion to open yourself up to opportunity.

kind of like a MPV like a Renault scenic/Toyota verso
I mean whats wrong with a normal hatchback? 5 doors, seating for 5, seats that fold ect....
unless you a stovepipe hat salesman, why not just buy a normal car?

So if you were a mechanic you would turn all your customers with MPV's away because you think Hatchbacks are the only things that make sense because you use them?

What a backwards outlook of the world.

what justifies the price of apple? in my case, yes adobe aftereffects and SPECIALIZED software and equipment,
that they never came out with a windows version, or its extremely expensive to retrain people.

Again why are you worried about the price? All you should care about it that other people don't care about the money. If anything you should be happy that they are spending the money on Apple so you can get a specialist avenue of income for yourself.

but this is this specific client, others have different setups, some use windows like everybody else,
some even use ubuntu customized to their needs,

And let me guess...you know jack**** about Ubuntu as well because for your personal use care Windows is best.

OPEN YOUR MIND.

its all dependent on what you do with it, myself I never saw a need for it, for MYSELF.
and true to form, I never owned a Ipod or ipod touch or ipad or iphone in my life,
I briefly used a Ipad that I could try out, and could never work out why its so expensive to what you get.
but others might see a bargain, and buy the things by the millions.

Again...how can you be in customer services when all you can think of is yourself?

Are you not maybe in the wrong line of work because you seem to completely miss the point of what you do.

 

[SauRoNZA]

thats what I said initially, as I know a bit about that,
but they want these things to happen automatically, and really large video files involved,

sure there is a NAS device one can set up, with OSX, heard there is a OSX server even,
anybody done these things before?

Any shared server would work just fine. Doesn't have to be an OSX server.

MacOS can connect to SMB/CIFS/NFS/AFP just like Windows can.

And honestly if they haven't got this little bit right i'm guessing there are no backups either and the business will fall flat on its' face when there's a disaster of any kind.

iCloud is locked to a single user so probably won't work here unless it's the same user account on all systems which I doubt.

A networked server with RAID storage and backups is what you really need here to keep even the smallest of businesses operational.

Or a complete cloud-based solution or a combination of both.

Locally storing stuff on single machine and syncing them is really a piss poor answer to such a problem.

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

Any shared server would work just fine. Doesn't have to be an OSX server.

MacOS can connect to SMB/CIFS/NFS/AFP just like Windows can.

And honestly if they haven't got this little bit right i'm guessing there are no backups either and the business will fall flat on its' face when there's a disaster of any kind.

iCloud is locked to a single user so probably won't work here unless it's the same user account on all systems which I doubt.

A networked server with RAID storage and backups is what you really need here to keep even the smallest of businesses operational.

Or a complete cloud-based solution or a combination of both.

Locally storing stuff on single machine and syncing them is really a piss poor answer to such a problem.

they already have all of this, have a NAS with space, and somebody to manage the storage allocated to it,
and a cloud backup regime with Icloud, and shared folders that get written to ultrium backups as well,

so overall a very solid backup strategy, done by people that know a bit more about this,

just thought to ask if there isnt an easier way to do all of this? again my fiddling and asking question skills are top notch.
I mean just like myself when I briefly used VLC on an Ipad, isnt there another way to do all of this?

I mean sure Icloud and NAS and things like that, but apparently there is a way to do it via cable,
thats one of the things I wanted to find out.

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

OPEN YOUR MIND.


.

Ive opened my mind plenty to it, ive given it its fair shot,
for somebody who never had ANY IOS devices, I went above and beyond what was asked from me,

and as I mentioned before, I learned plenty,
and learned why I would never recommend one to anybody else, unless they already know a bit about it.
I know you think thats me being very closed minded and stubborn,

but my experience has taught me that people want options and flexibility in what they use on a daily basis, especially in SA
if your business runs on IOS and you ONLY have Macs for certain people and you have the knowledge and experience on IOS,

ïf it aint broke, dont fix it"

but for the rest of the world, those of us that want CHOICE, not sameness and locked in everything,
and want it as cheap as possible, then anything else is your key,
I mean I would never recommend to a school in the bush IOS, unless they live across from a istore and have great internet.

but I might recommend a PC, or a linux mint laptop to them, simply as I figure its easier and cheaper to maintain,
myself personally, I would never own one for my own use, as its very limiting.

but others might see a better use for it than myself,

same reason I would say if you want a car with 5 doors, buy a golf,
there is really no need for a golf SV with a high roof, or an MPV with 5 seats, (worst selling car in SA)
as buy what you need , not something that is silly and impractical, and doesn't add value in any conceivable way
(unless you a stovepipe hat salesman).

same thing with the mac (2013) I have next to me, yes it can do most things, but as an example
if the stand is too low for you, tough, live with it, it its too upright, tough live with it, if its canted a bit too much for you, tough live with it.

not so if you brought a PC, you have choice and options,
and even if you brought the wrong one, its usually possible to figure out how to adjust things to your preference,

apple isnt like that, live with it, or die....we not interested in your complaints, only in overpricing everything.

I just have to add, the same argument I can use for a PS4 or Xbox,
I dont see the point personally of them, I understand why they around, people like simple things more than complex things.
but you pay a monetary price for "simplicity" and "ease of use", same with apple products,

are you willing to fork out the cash for it? are you willing to put up with its limitations?
do you have 5 things that you need to do? are you not interested in ANYTHING other than what you asked from it,

buy a mac, and take out an overdraft and sell a kidney while you at it,
and make sure you have great internet and live next to an istore.

 

[creeper]

So, if it is big files, then iCloud might hog the bandwidth, but it is the simplest and solution. iCloud isn't that expensive, so 1TB might be easily justified.

Then there is another option. Go and investigate Synology as a NAS and their iOS app. It integrates with Files (according to my research) or runs stand-alone. This solves the iPad issue. Just setup some network drives on the Mac, and it should work. The only bad part about this is that if you leave the network, you will need to ensure that you have a local copy saved.

 

[Tman*]

Try resilio sync.

It's free, it can sync folders, files etc to and from multiple devices. Works on both pc and Mac, and is also compatible cross platform. I've been using it for years

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

thanks guys, will check both of those options,

both valid suggestions instead of icloud, especially for large videos

 

[SauRoNZA]

Ive opened my mind plenty to it, ive given it its fair shot,
for somebody who never had ANY IOS devices, I went above and beyond what was asked from me,

and as I mentioned before, I learned plenty,
and learned why I would never recommend one to anybody else, unless they already know a bit about it.
I know you think thats me being very closed minded and stubborn,

but my experience has taught me that people want options and flexibility in what they use on a daily basis, especially in SA
if your business runs on IOS and you ONLY have Macs for certain people and you have the knowledge and experience on IOS,

Oh I see the problem now. You've only used iOS for a few hours and now believe MacOS is the same thing.

Your experience is completely lacking and misinformed and it's quite obvious from the above.

It's not remotely the same.

ïf it aint broke, dont fix it"

But there is nothing broken about it. They chose a Mac solution and you just can't deal with these concept. Doesn't mean it's broken.

but for the rest of the world, those of us that want CHOICE, not sameness and locked in everything,
and want it as cheap as possible, then anything else is your key,
I mean I would never recommend to a school in the bush IOS, unless they live across from a istore and have great internet.

Again so ignorant. There is nothing locked about MacOS.

You are making it and iOS one and the same thing. It would be like me calling Ubuntu and Android the same thing.

Also, on a 5 year lifespan average Macs are cheaper to run and maintain than same spec PC's.

but I might recommend a PC, or a linux mint laptop to them, simply as I figure its easier and cheaper to maintain,
myself personally, I would never own one for my own use, as its very limiting.

You figure wrong.

And there's nothing limiting about them. Just because YOU don't know how to do something doesn't make it limiting.

but others might see a better use for it than myself,

apple isnt like that, live with it, or die....we not interested in your complaints, only in overpricing everything.

Dying is a little extreme don't you think?

Also you confuse overpricing with value and quality.

You cannot build an equivalent PC in all aspects of contruction and footprint and qualify for the same money.

are you willing to fork out the cash for it? are you willing to put up with its limitations?
do you have 5 things that you need to do? are you not interested in ANYTHING other than what you asked from it,

There are no limitations. It's all in your mind or lack of skill.

I can do EVERYTHING on a MacBook or iMac that I can on Windows and so it faster at that.

Sadly I'm forced to use a Windows machine so even if I wanted to fork out the money for one it doesn't make sense.

buy a mac, and take out an overdraft and sell a kidney while you at it,
and make sure you have great internet and live next to an istore.

I worked on Macs for 10+ years and never paid a cent for them and only had one working kidney to start with.

You don't need internet at all, but it helps. Just like Windows.

The people I know who use Macs today don't pay for them either. Why? Because they help them to generate more money more quickly and therefore pay for themselves.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Try resilio sync.

It's free, it can sync folders, files etc to and from multiple devices. Works on both pc and Mac, and is also compatible cross platform. I've been using it for years

Was literally in my first post above...