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Do you have educational or volume pricing? We do not offer educational pricing, but do offer volume discounts to everyone. Contact our sales department with your inquiry. Back to Top What are the system requirements? Requires Mac OS X 10.3 or later. 4 MB of free disk space is also needed. ChronoSync runs on Panther, Tiger and Leopard. You might say it's cross-catform! Back to Top Can I do a bi-directional synchronization between two different operating systems? Yes. You can synchronize certain files, like document files, between any OS that your Mac can copy to. For instance, you can synchronize your Documents between Tiger and Leopard or even Tiger and Windows XP. However, you can only perform a Home-to-Home sync between the same version of Mac OS X, meaning you must sync Tiger to Tiger but not Tiger to Leopard. Furthermore, you need to make sure that your iApps like iPhoto, iTunes and iCal are the same version. If you are unsure if you can synchronize a particular scenario, ask us by filling out our support form describing your situation. Back to Top I want to synchronize the files between two Macs. Do I need to install ChronoSync on each computer to do this? No. If you are synchronizing between two computers, you only need to install ChronoSync on one of them. You simply need to mount the other computer from the Mac that you'll be running ChronoSync on. If you are connecting via file sharing, ChronoSync can automatically mount the remote computer for you. Back to Top I want to install ChronoSync on two Macs. Do I need to buy two License Keys to do this? Yes. You need to buy a License Key for each Mac you install ChronoSync on. There are discounts available for purchasing multiple copies of ChronoSync. Back to Top I've renamed some files and moved some others to different folders. Why are my old files still in my backup target? You must have "Sync. Deletions" turned on in the Setup panel in order for renamed or moved files to synchronize properly. This instructs ChronoSync to delete the file from the old location and synchronize it to the new location. Back to Top I've setup a synchronizer document and have been using it to sync my files. Is it safe to change one of my targets to another hard disk? Generally, no. Once you set up a ChronoSync document it is important to always run your synchronizations from the same document and not switch targets. This is because ChronoSync takes a "snapshot" of all your files and their various properties. If you switch targets, ChronoSync may behave in an unexpected way. For instance, if synchronize deletions was enabled, and you switched targets, ChronoSync may think you deleted all the files in one target and proceed to delete all the files in the other target! In some cases, it IS safe to change targets - such as when doing a unidirectional synchronization. However, if you need to start synchronizing files to another location, we strongly suggest creating another synchronizer document from scratch. Back to Top I've just configured a synchronization and want to schedule it, but the "Schedule..." button is dimmed and won't work. You must first save your ChronoSync document before you can schedule it. Be sure to choose a meaningful file name! Back to Top I followed the instructions for scheduling a daily backup but whenever I click on the "Schedule..." button, the schedule dialogue box indicates that I am scheduled for a weekly backup. What gives? The Scheduled Documents Manager window is a list of all your scheduled Synchronization Documents. Double click any scheduled entry to edit it. Clicking the "Schedule..." button on the toolbar simply adds a NEW schedule time to the Synchronization Document. It does not change existing scheduled times. Back to Top I've heard that I can use my iPod to backup and transport data files. How can I use ChronoSync to do this? From iTunes Preferences: 1. Choose the iPod preference pane. 2. Turn on the "Enable disk use" checkbox. Your iPod will now appear on your desktop just as any other external hard disk would. You may open it in Finder and copy files/folders to/from it. We suggest you create a folder on your iPod and name it something meaningful such as "Backups" or "My Data". This folder can then be selected as a target in ChronoSync. Back to Top I want to keep the data files on my work computer synchronized with my home computer. How can I do this? Connecting and synchronizing two Macs is easy if they are both on the same network. However, if the two Macs can not be connected, you can still keep them synchronized. How? Use an external hard drive and follow these steps: 1. Setup a bidirectional sync between your work Mac with the (empty) external hard drive. Save the synchronizer document locally on your work computer. 2. Perform the synchronization using the document you just created. 3. Take the hard drive home and set up a bidirectional sync between your home Mac and the external hard drive. Save the synchronizer document locally on your home computer. 4. Perform the synchronization using the document you just created. 5. When you are finished working at home, run the synchronizer document again to synchronize your changes back to the hard drive. 6. When you return to work, connect the hard drive to your computer and run the synchronizer document you created in step 1. Repeat the steps 2, 4, 5 & 6 on a daily basis to keep your two computers synchronized. When you get real comfortable with the process, you may even want to set up a scheduled synchronization that will sync your computer and hard drive automatically whenever you plug the hard drive in. Back to Top How can I connect my laptop to my desktop so I can synchronize files? If you have a network (either wired or wireless) you can connect to another Mac using built-in file sharing. To do this, open the "System Preferences" on the computer you want to share files with and enable "File Sharing" in the "Sharing" preference pane (you only need to do this on ONE of your computers). Then, on the other computer, you can use Finder's "Network" browser to locate the shared computer. Double click it to login. Once connected, the shared computer appears as just another hard drive on your desktop and it can be specified as a target in ChronoSync. If you have the proper cable, a much faster way to transfer files is to use Target Disk Mode. Just connect your Macs with the proper cable and start up you laptop holding the "T" key down. Almost instantly, your laptop's hard drive will appear on you desktop. Not only is this solution faster, but it circumvents many of the file access restrictions you'll encounter while transferring files using file sharing. See Chapter 8 - Examples, in the ChronoSync manual for more details on both connection methods. Back to Top I don't want some of the files and folders in my targets to synchronize. How can I get ChronoSync to skip them? From the Analyze panel, select the file or folder pair you wish to skip and then invoke the "Exclude" command from the "Actions" menu. If you exclude a folder, all the files and folders contained within it are likewise excluded. To undo an exclusion, select an excluded file/folder pair and choose "Include" from the actions menu. Note: A contextual menu will appear if you hold the CONTROL key down while selecting a file/folder pair (or right-click if you have a two button mouse). This menu contains all the actions available to you. Also, shortcuts to the "Exclude" and "Include" actions can be placed on your toolbar. Customizing the toolbar is discussed elsewhere in the online help as well as in the ChronoSync manual. Back to Top I want to synchronize multiple folders but I can only select one folder as my target. How can I do this? ChronoSync is a very flexible application so there are lots of ways to handle multiple folders. Option 1: Select a root folder above all of the folders you want to sync and then use the "Exclude" action to skip the folders you do not want to sync. Option 2: Create multiple ChronoSync documents for each folder you want to synchronize and combine them as one in a container document. Option 3: Create rules to exclude folders you don't want to sync or rules to include only the folders you do want to sync. The Finder Labels rule is very useful for this because you can control what gets synchronized by changing its color label in the Finder. Option 4: Use a combination of the above concepts. For instance, suppose you want to synchronize your entire Home folder but want to skip everything inside your Library folder with the exception of Mail (located inside Library). You could create a synchronizer document to sync your entire Home folder but exclude your entire Library folder. Then you would create a second synchronizer document to sync just your Mail folder. Finally you would combine both synchronizer documents into a single container document. Back to Top I've setup some rules but they don't give me the desired results. What gives? Four important points to remember about rules: 1. Rules determine what files are and are not considered for synchronization. Even if a file passes the rules, ChronoSync must detect that it has changed for that file to be synchronized. 2. Simple and Intermediate-mode rules are inclusion rules. They determine what files are included for consideration. Advanced-mode rules can be either inclusion or exclusion rules and thus can exclude a file from consideration. 3. Inclusion rules will only consider files that pass all the stated rules. Files that fail will be skipped. 4. If you use a rule to exclude a folder, ChronoSync will not examine ANY of the files or folders within it. Back to Top I've setup some rules but I don't want to synchronize to see if they're correct. How can I check my rules? You can visibly see the results of a synchronization before it occurs by checking the status of the file-pairs in the Analyze panel. You can also run a Trial Synchronization to see all the files that ChronoSync intends to synchronize, and Cancel the operation if you aren't satisfied. Back to Top I've scheduled a synchronization but it won't run. First, check that you've scheduled the synchronization correctly. If this is the only scheduled item, the Scheduled Documents Manager will display the date and time of the next scheduled sync. If this doesn't match what you intended, edit the scheduled entry and correct your mistake. If you have multiple items already scheduled, just temporarily disable all the others so that the one you just added is the only active scheduled item. You can then examine the next scheduled sync date and time for accuracy. Second, make sure your Mac and the device you are synchronizing with are available at the time of the scheduled synchronization. For example, if you've setup a synchronizer document that mounts a file server automatically, but have saved the synchronizer document on the file server, ChronoSync wont be able to load the synchronizer document to mount the file server for you! Last, check to see if your computer is scheduled to fall asleep at the intended time of synchronization. If your Mac is asleep during the scheduled time, it won't synchronize, but should attempt a synchronization immediately upon waking up. You can have ChronoSync automatically wake your computer at the scheduled time by turning on the "Wake system to synchronize" feature in the ChronoSync Preferences dialog. Back to Top Why am I getting permission errors when I synchronize? This is the most common error you're likely to encounter. Mac OS X, given its UNIX heritage, enforces ownership and access permissions on every file it manages. Most of the files that you normally access are owned by you and you have no problem synchronizing. Some files, however, are owned by other users of your system and some are owned by the operating system itself. You may not have the ability to see and/or modify these types of files. When you get a permission error, It simply means that you do not have permission to copy the file. It may be because you don't "own" the file or perhaps it's just because you don't have read-access to the file. There are typically three solutions: Solution #1: Ignore the error. When you encounter such a file, you should ask yourself if this is really a file that you need to be synchronizing? This is especially true if it is owned by the system. If you choose to ignore the error, we recommend that you Exclude the file from synchronization so you don't see the error again. Solution #2: Grant yourself access to the file. Locate the file in question using the Finder and then use the "Get Info" command to raise the permissions of the file to the point that you can access it. If the file is not owned by you, you'll have to provide administrative authorization before doing so. Again, you should ask yourself if this really is a file you need to synchronize before doing this. Solution #3: If you absolutely, positively must be able to synchronize files that are owned by other users or by the operating system, you can run ChronoSync in "Administrative Mode". Contact us by using our support form for a special installer that will do this. Back to Top Can I run ChronoSync as root or in Administrative mode to synchronize files? Yes. But this is only needed to copy files at the root level of the drive and should only be performed by advanced Macintosh users. Contact us by using our support form for a special installer that will do this. Back to Top Can I create a bootable backup with ChronoSync? Currently you can not. It is not designed as a utility for cloning an entire hard drive. There is more to creating a bootable backup than just copying files. However, ChronoSync 4.0 will do this easily. ChronoSync 4.0 is complete and is being tested as an internal beta. We expect to release a public beta in April 2008. You can, however, have ChronoSync maintain a bootable backup of your hard drive using ChronoSync to update only changed files after a bootable is created. Contact us by using our support form for more details regarding the above procedure. ChronoSync can be used quite effectively alongside a disk cloning utility. You can use the cloning utility periodically, such as after applying a system update or security patch, to ensure that your bootable backup volume is up-to-date. You can then use ChronoSync to frequently and efficiently synchronize just your working data files on the bootable backup. This combination would be far more efficient than simply using a cloning tool by itself for synchronization or using ChronoSync by itself for cloning. Back to Top I backup to an external hard drive. How do I format the drive? Most external drives you purchase are formatted for PCs. If you are only going to use it with your Mac then you should reformat the drive by using "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". If you are gong to use it with your Mac and a PC then use "MS-DOS file system" format. There are some limitations to "MS-DOS" file system: - File naming limitations (lack of support for many special characters). - Lack of support for file metadata such as type/creator code, Finder labels, creation date, etc. - Lack of support for resource forks (they are 'faked' by creating an invisible counterpart). To format or reformat a drive you will have to erase it. So before you erase the drive, copy your files to another drive. To find out how your drive is formatted: 1. Open Disk Utility and select the drive. 2. Click on the Info button. To re-format a drive: 1. Open Disk Utility and select the drive. 2. Click on the Erase panel. 3. Choose a format from the Volume Format pop-up menu. 4. Type a name for the volume. 5. Click Erase. Back to Top Can ChronoSync protect and encrypt the data that I am backing up? Yes. Take a look at how to Synchronize with a Disk Image to see how you can protect and encrypt your data. Back to Top What is the Archive panel and how do I activate this feature? Archiving is when ChronoSync retains old versions of files instead of trashing them. You can turn this feature on by clicking on the Options panel, displaying the "Archive Handling" options and enabling the "Archive when replacing existing files" option. The other two options in the group limit the number of old files you retain. Remember keeping older files requires extra disk space. Back to Top How can I get a copy of an archived file without restoring it and copying over the existing file? Select the file you want from the Archive panel list. Control-click and choose "Restore...". Once the Single Item Restore sheet appears, choose "Specific Folder" and then browse to find the folder you would like to use. Doing this retains the original file name. Back to Top Can I synchronize my two iPhoto libraries into one? ChronoSync can keep iPhoto or any Apple program on two Macs in sync but it can not merge data together. What's the difference? ChronoSync can replace the newer data files with the older data files but not merge two files together. Why? Because most of the iApps or Apple programs store their data in a unique way that can only be created by importing data using the application. For more information, read our tip on how to Synchronize or Backup iPhoto. Back to Top How do I remove ChronoSync from my system? To remove ChronoSync from your system, you need to locate the following files and drag them to the trash.
After removing these files you should either reboot or logout/login, then empty your trash.. |
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