Sync OmniFocus With DropBox? [Not supported, use the free Omni Sync Server instead]
 

Syncing a program like OmniFocus that expects to find its database file at a particular spot on your Mac hard drive is really quite easy. Credit for this tip must go to Don McAllister over at [url]www.screencastsonline.com[/url]. There is a more elegant explanation than what is set forth below in the second segment of Don's ScreenCast #202. It deals with syncing TextExpander which, like OmniFocus, looks for data in a particular spot.

Main Mac Steps:
Go to your main Mac that has OmniFocus and DropBox installed. Go to the Apple start page and search for "Create Symbolic Link." You will be directed to a site called "JuneCloud" where you can download JuneClould Automator Actions. Please consider making a donation to JuneCloud; you will find many great uses for the Automator Actions that will appear when you open the downloaded disc image.

Next, open Automator in your Applications folder. Run file import in Automator and import "Create Symbolic Link" on the JuneCloud disc image.

Next open DropBox and create a folder called "Library." Now go to your Mac hard drive and navigate to user|Library|Application Support. There you will find an OmniFocus folder. This is where your OmniFocus database resides and where OmniFocus goes looking for your data when the program is opened.

Now drag the OmniFocus folder from user|Library|Application Support on your hard drive to the Library folder you created above in yur DropBox. You now have to replace the moved folder on your hard drive. You do this with Automator.

Open Automator and select Custom workflow. You will be looking at a window that wants you to drag something into it. Go back to your DropBox and drag the Omnifocus data file into this Automator window. In the column to the left of this window is a list of Automator actions. Go down to the "Create Symbolic Link" action and double click it. The action will appear below the Omnifocus data file in the Automator window.

The Create Symbolic Link box in Automator will have a window asking you where to place the Omnifocus Symbolic Link. Go down the menu to "Other" and navigate your hard drive to user|Library|Application Support and hit open.

There is a run button in the upper right hand of the Automator window. Hit Run and wait for the completion bell. Close Automator; there is no need to save anything.

Now you have to do something that is a bit different than what Don McAllister does in his ScreenCast regarding TextExpander. This is because, unlike TextExpander, Omnifocus makes an automatic backup of your data file. You need to bypass the backup. You do this by now doubleclicking the Omnifocus Symbolic Link folder on your hard drive in user|Library|Application Support to start Omnifocus.

Remaining Macs:

Get the JuneCloud Automator Actions and imput "Create Symbolic Link" into Automator per the above. Trash the OmniFocus file in user|Library|Application Support. Do the Automator dance described above on the second Mac to replace the OmniFocus file you just trashed with the OmniFocus file that will be found in your DropBox in a folder called Library.

Make sure the other Mac is not running OmniFocus [if it is you will get a locked out message]. Double-click the symbolic link and OmniFocus will open all synced up.

I like this solution because you don't have to be a Mac geek to pull it off and, as I said at the top, it will let you sync any program that looks for data in a particular place.

Alternatively, take a look at danielcompton's input. Thanks Daniel.

[url]http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=19271[/url]

DropBox knows how to copy around data, but it doesn't know how to resolve conflicts when data is edited in two places before being synchronized.

OmniFocus does know how to do this, so if you want to avoid potential data loss when resolving conflicts I strongly recommend using OmniFocus' built-in sync facility rather than using something else to try to synchronize your data. OmniFocus understands how to sync its data through the cloud (via MobileMe or WebDAV or a file server), through the local network (via Bonjour), and through portable drives (such as USB sticks).

One thing Dropbox [b]is[/b] good for with OmniFocus is keeping your Themes and Perspectives folders (OmniFocus scripts, too) in sync, as OmniFocus does not synchronize them. Relatively little risk that you're going to be editing those on more than one machine at a time, too :)

While I appreciate that some will do anything to avoid using the Terminal, that writeup of how to use another app to do the equivalent of typing one brief command is probably longer than even a fairly detailed description of how to do the same thing with the Terminal!

whpalmer4, Great point and I agree. Only thought is there are a bunch of people out there who are frightened of Terminal. The folks at the OmniGroup, I think will tell you they spend an inordinate amount of time helping folks correctly input Terminal script. This is the reason for my post.

Ken Case, As we have twitted back and forth, you make a solid point. Thank you for the post. Would expect a company response that says to the effect do it our way. That said, I've sent a little note to DropBox asking if they might add a conflict page for changes.

Just understand the following: A lot of us want our databases to be independent so that if a company say fails for whatever reason, we have access to our data.

[QUOTE=Lamike;63202]Just understand the following: A lot of us want our databases to be independent so that if a company say fails for whatever reason, we have access to our data.[/QUOTE]

With OmniFocus syncing, none of your data is held hostage: each device has its own local copy of the data, [B]and[/B] you have complete control over where the synchronization database is stored (it can be on your own computer or device, or on someone else's out in the cloud).

I should also mention that all Omni applications store their data in plain text files (which happen to be compressed with standard tools, generally zip or gzip), so even if you move to a platform which can't run our software you can still get at all of your data. (Your data belongs to you, not us!)

Doing good (not just, 'do no evil') !
 

[QUOTE=Ken Case;63209]With OmniFocus syncing, none of your data is held hostage [...] even if you move to a platform which can't run our software you can still get at all of your data. (Your data belongs to you, not us!)[/QUOTE]

Here here!

I only wish more companies took this attitude! Thanks for doing the right thing, Ken.

The payoff you reap in customer loyalty is an 'unvalued' item (in a numbers sense), but a very worthy indicator of your business' soundness, is worth a great deal to OG's shareholders whoever they may be (you, employees, others?), and is evident throughout these forums.

Kudos to you and everyone at OG,
Brad

PS Now if you only relocated to sunny Calif instead of overcast Seattle (yeah, I know, except this time of year), I'd want to come work for you! ;-) Hey, what's your telecommute policy?

1Password
 

Has anyone looked at the way Agile Web Solutions' 1Password does syncing via DropBox?

It's built into the app and I've never had a synchronization problem between machines/devices with 1P. Presumably 1P doesn't have any problems because it syncs on every change to the password database which I imagine is difficult to impossible with OF's infinite undo ability, it'd be updating DB with every letter you type... maybe I'm wrong though?

Regardless my biggest complaint with OF is that syncing between devices isn't instant. If I input something on my iPhone I expect it to show up in a few seconds on my Mac and not require manually clicking sync repeatedly. I've tried both Bonjour and WebDAV they both take too long to sync.

1Password is syncing small independent pieces of data. OmniFocus is syncing potentially large interrelated bits of data.

DropBox doesn't guarantee that the file you retrieve from their server will be the latest version which was sent to their server. (They just figure that if you don't get what you want immediately, you'll try again a little later—or if you're still getting the wrong copy somehow, you'll go retrieve a different version using their history mechanism.) Without that guarantee, we really can't use it as a basis for robust automatic syncing.

P.S. — Since this thread started, we've introduced our free [URL="http://sync.omnigroup.com/"]Omni Sync Server[/URL]. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in syncing with a free cloud server.

If I already have a WebDAV server that's working fine, is there any advantage to using Omni Sync Server? Looks great, just think I've got mine handled with my FastMail WebDAV service...

Thanks,
Brad

If the alternate solution is working well, then at the moment there's not much difference. There have certainly been people who have encountered WebDAV installations that didn't get along with OmniFocus. At some point in the future there may be additional services offered by Omni (perhaps being able to mail actions to an address to get them into your database without having to have a Mac running Mail 24/7, for example); probably you would need to use their server to take advantage of that. Given they've committed to providing the basic sync service for free, not much disadvantage to using them, either.

I switched from syncing with MobileMe to Omni's free Sync Server and it has been great -- faster and more reliable in my limited testing.

Omni Sync Server = Great
 

[QUOTE=Ken Case;86934]P.S. — Since this thread started, we've introduced our free Omni Sync Server. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in syncing with a free cloud server.[/QUOTE]

Great job with the sync server... I just used it to sync omnifocus across a Macpro, a macbook and an iphone. Very smooth transition.

I was using Dropbox before, but as Ken pointed out above, I had real problems with conflict-resolution when edits were done on two devices.

omni server really slow
 

Dropbox support would be fantastic, because the omni sync server is incredibly slow from my iphone. Even the desktop version is slow when compared to, say, evernote.

Would really like to have a faster (free) option, because the omni server beta isn't cutting it for me.

doubletake: Most people find the Omni Sync Server quite fast. If OmniFocus syncing is slow for you, it may be that your data is not getting compacted properly. Please contact our support ninjas (omnifocus@omnigroup.com) to see if there's an issue that can be resolved.

I've been using my own WebDav server for a while now. Although I had signed up for the beta in the beginning I had never actually cut over.

I just did and I have to admit that the OmniSync server is blindingly fast compared to my WebDav share, especially on the iPhone and iPad!

I'm sorry I waited so long to try it. Good work guys! You continue to impress.

Quick question on the Sync Server: I have a very different database locally on my Macbook Pro, i.e. I went away from using the Omni server and am now coming back. How do I tell OmniFocus (or the server) to take my laptop's database as truth and blow away what the server has?

[QUOTE=rcgottlieb;100443]Quick question on the Sync Server: I have a very different database locally on my Macbook Pro, i.e. I went away from using the Omni server and am now coming back. How do I tell OmniFocus (or the server) to take my laptop's database as truth and blow away what the server has?[/QUOTE]

Under the File menu, there's a "Replace Server Database..." menu item - that item contains the feature you seek. ;-)

(And thanks for the kind words, vramin; you're gonna make us blush!)

Brian - Thanks! That did the trick and I concur that your site is fast. Any chance on making the data viewable from the browser as well? I ask because I'm stuck with an Android Phone.

There's been some discussion of a browser-based interface, but our current slate of projects have us very busy. No ETA on doing one, but it's something we're thinking about.

[QUOTE=Ken Case;63190]DropBox knows how to copy around data, but it doesn't know how to resolve conflicts when data is edited in two places before being synchronized.

OmniFocus does know how to do this, so if you want to avoid potential data loss when resolving conflicts I strongly recommend using OmniFocus' built-in sync facility rather than using something else to try to synchronize your data. OmniFocus understands how to sync its data through the cloud (via MobileMe or WebDAV or a file server), through the local network (via Bonjour), and through portable drives (such as USB sticks).[/QUOTE]


Hi, wondering when we move to icloud, what happens? Thanks in advance.

Thanks for posting, Melts! Your iDisk will remain active until June of next year, but you're also welcome to set up an account on our [URL="https://www.omnigroup.com/sync"]Omni Sync Server[/URL].

There's no charge to create an account, and we don't plan to charge for access in the future. (We may add additional for-pay services at some point, but if all you need is a place to put your sync data, that'll stay free.)

Hope that helps!

Still in Beta
 

Ken,

I love your products (I own most of them) but the synching in OmniFocus is a huge gaping hole. I own OmniFocus for all three devices but I've stopped because of synching problems.

MobileMe is dead. Some would say Thank God but that option is gone for me now.
Personal Webdav is finicky and I don't feel like setting it up myself.
Purchased Webdav means a finding a new data provider and paying. The better ones like Rackspace don't support Webdav.
Free Webdav means hoping someone will take care of my data, some of it involving clients. It would violate most NDA's a lot of us live under.

Your synch service is in beta. There is no SLA or privacy policies that I've been able to find. And it tends to go down. Just check your twitter feed.

You truly need to support some obvious alternatives. I will continue to use your other fine products every day. Good luck.

Have you actually worked any of these problems with Omni support? My Macs sync every few minutes to the Omni sync server without trouble, and I've got a large database — 10,000 actions, 1,000 projects, approximately 20 megabytes.

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;103943]Have you actually worked any of these problems with Omni support? My Macs sync every few minutes to the Omni sync server without trouble, and I've got a large database — 10,000 actions, 1,000 projects, approximately 20 megabytes.[/QUOTE]

It does kinda stink though that every time I launch an iOS version I get 5-10 seconds of a modal "synchronizing with sync server" followed by 2 seconds of app availability followed by a modal "updating with synched data."

It's just... really crappy compared to the alternatives (The Hit List and Things with cloud sync). I'd hoped over the past 3 years a better alternative would come about... maybe 2.0 will make it not be so crappy.

It's not JUST about the speed... the whole blocking workflow (sure, you can enter inbox tasks) is pretty jarring on the iOS version. If you don't launch it every 30 minutes you're going to have the huge hulking blocking black screens EVERY time you launch.

Plus, I feel I need to sync EVERY iOS device EVERY day or stuff slows down.