Best Option for Folder Syncing Between Macs

Greetings.

I want to have a folder of teaching material for a current term locally stored on both my MacStudio and MacBook Pro that stay sync’d.

In the past, I have used Dropbox with excellent results however my understanding is that this will no longer be possible with the new Dropbox Mac extension.

Last term, I decided to try migrating away from Dropbox to iCloud Drive. I placed these folders in iCloud Drive on both computers but the syncing was spotty at best. For example, I might update some grades in a Numbers file on my MacStudio, but it would not always update on the MacBook Pro and vice-versa. Some files would not sync. Some folders would not sync. Very frustrating.

All I want is this folder and all of its contents to be exactly the same on both systems. One would think that this shouldn’t be very difficult.

iCloud Drive should be able to do this reliably, no?

Thanks in advance,
Bill

If your Macs reside on the same network then, once again, I’m going to recommend ChronoSync. And possibly ChronoAgent. I used CS for several years at work and even longer at home.

5 Likes

Have a look at Syncthing.
It’s been very reliable in my experience.

5 Likes

Dropbox for Mac will still continue to work as normal - there are some changes but for the majority of users, this should be invisible.

That said, I’m a keen user of Resilo Sync, and use it to keep my Mac Mini, Synology and Laptop in sync and have been using it rock solid since 2015 when I bought my Sync Home Premium license.

Only issue I have found is that some networks block it due to its BitTorrent based nature - including my workplace.

1 Like

iCloud Drive should be able to do this reliably, no?

I would think so! Actually, I made a similar switch from Dropbox to iCloud Drive a couple years back and the context is similar: I have a Mac at home, a Mac on campus, and then an iPad I use in the classroom. I also sometimes might review notes or a lesson plan on my iPhone while commuting, so now we’re up to four devices that need to reliably be in sync.

iCloud Drive has worked for me to accomplish this syncing set up. (Dropbox also worked for me, at least a few years ago, but I was getting tired of the additional features being added that I didn’t really need/want.) So in any case, I’m wondering: might there be another issue here causing the syncing problem—perhaps a network issue? Or perhaps one of those devices?

1 Like

Here’s a good resource to help you diagnose

4 Likes

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

I believe that I have a license for ChronoSync, albeit several years old by now. I used to use it for syncing a folder on my computer with a one on a portable USB drive, but I haven’t worked that way in years.

I think that I’ll try to see why iCloud Drive isn’t doing the job reliably before I explore 3rd party solutions. You’d think that this shouldn’t be a big deal, so perhaps it’s something minor that is causing the reliability issues.

Bill

1 Like

Echoing what @drezha said, I don’t think there are any Dropbox changes that would affect your ability to do this.

1 Like

Thanks, that’s good to know. I currently have my semester folder in my Dropbox folder as well as my client work folder. Maybe I’ll just leave them for now and then try to sort out the iCloud Drive stuff when my teaching term ends. I am currently paying for storage to both Apple and Dropbox. I’d like to consolidate and save some $$.

B

I purchased Chronosync 13 years ago today and my license works with the latest version.

4 Likes

I use both Chronosync and Resilio Sync.

Both require that both computers be on to perform syncing. That should be obvious! When I was using Chronosync to synchronize between a MacBook Pro and an iMac I had to remember to have both on before leaving the house and returning and force a sync. I now use Chronosync for backups to a server computer, not for synchronizing folders between computers.

For folder sync I now use Resilio Sync, however I sync among three computers, my iMac, my MacBook Pro, and my server (a mini) that is always on. Now it is not necessary to have both computers on to sync them as they can sync using the server as an intermediary. Also Resilio Sync works through the home firewall so that when I am away from home my MacBook Pro syncs to home (the server) and when I return home and turn on my iMac it then completes the syncing by syncing with the server.

I’ve been doing this for probably 10 years, maybe more, now. It’s never messed up.

1 Like

+1 Resilio Sync. It also works with iOS.

That’s exactly my use case between personal and work laptops, and my mobile devices (iPad, iPhone) and I can say that it works as you would expect. I throw anything at iCloud Drive, even multi-gigabyte Logic Pro projects, and they get synced.

I have had my share of stuck syncs (specially after resuming from sleep) but they happen rarely, perhaps not even once a month, and they usually resolve by themselves or by running ‘’‘killall bird’‘’ from the Terminal (go figure).

I’m sorry to say that there is something particularly broken in your setup if you spotted this issues right away. Most obvious I can suggest would be disabling “Optimise Mac Storage” in the iCloud Settings pane for all your devices and see if that helps, but even with this setting you should be seeing your files on all the devices. You can identify which device has the issues (perhaps one machine is not uploading stuff, or the other one is not dowloading it) triangulating with three iCloud devices and using www.icloud.com to check the source of truth.

How many files are you syncing? Are they big? Perhaps the initial sync didn’t really finish and you may keep working with Dropbox and see if after some days iCloud Drive sorts itself out and everything magically begins working.

1 Like

Also Windows, Linux, Android, and NAS systems, if you need that as well.

1 Like

I’ve had excellent luck with Box.com. It seems to sync very quickly. The only two issues are a 250 MB per file size limit (on the free account) and if you fat finger a space at the end of a file name, it will not upload. It will warn you that the file didn’t sync, and will tell you there is an error in the filename.

1 Like

I’ve been using Syncthing for a while to sync a folder between 2 Macs, an OpenBSD laptop, and a FreeBSD vps. It’s been flawless so far.

1 Like

why not use the native rsync? It’s on your mac (or linux machine) by default and has all the capabilities needed, and more + it is free, scriptable and very very robust

Here’s a short “howto” from Digital Ocean to get you started:

2 Likes