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Hot Topic (More than 5 Replies) Sync everything everywhere? (Read 6759 times)
sporkman
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Re: Sync everything everywhere?
Reply #6 - Sep 11th, 2018 at 7:58pm
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Thanks for your help - license is working, and I sent the crash log off.

Also thanks for explaining where the sync process lives, that's helpful.
  
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Jerry Krinock
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Re: Sync everything everywhere?
Reply #5 - Sep 10th, 2018 at 7:43pm
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sporkman wrote on Sep 10th, 2018 at 5:22pm:
- During initial import, right after stating that it was restarting Chrome, it crashed.  It has not done that again, but I have the report if you're interested
Definitely interested.  Please send the crash report to support@sheepsystems.com.

sporkman wrote on Sep 10th, 2018 at 5:22pm:
- It's not finding my old license
I shall send you a coupon code momentarily.

sporkman wrote on Sep 10th, 2018 at 5:22pm:
- Is there a way to verify the background sync agent is running?  I'm not seeing anything in "ps" output other than the Chrome extension.
The current version (2.8.7 or earlier) of our apps do not have a background sync agent constantly running.  Instead, you should see several launchd jobs loaded.  In Terminal.app, enter the command:

launchctl list | grep com.sheepsystems

Those jobs launch short-lived Sheep-Sys-Worker processes whenever bookmarks changes are detected.  You can see these processes by filtering for Sheep-Sys-Worker in Activity Monitor, or by using ps if you keep pounding on it.

However, that is all going to change in a future version, because in macOS 10.14 Mojave, due to what appears to be an unintended side effect, only constantly-running background apps will be allowed access to Safari data, which of course we need.  Currently, we expect to have constantly-running sync agent named  BkmxAgent.

  

Jerry Krinock
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sporkman
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Re: Sync everything everywhere?
Reply #4 - Sep 10th, 2018 at 5:22pm
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Hmmm...  This sure looks simpler.

A few issues:

- During initial import, right after stating that it was restarting Chrome, it crashed.  It has not done that again, but I have the report if you're interested
- It's not finding my old license, nor is it accepting it if I copy/paste it in, or if I use "open with" on the old license file for BookMacster (running as a demo now)
- Is there a way to verify the background sync agent is running?  I'm not seeing anything in "ps" output other than the Chrome extension.

Thanks!

  
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Jerry Krinock
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Re: Sync everything everywhere?
Reply #3 - Sep 9th, 2018 at 12:13am
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sporkman wrote on Sep 8th, 2018 at 10:24pm:
with each sync my new Chrome bookmarks were being removed.
I can't think of any configuration in which BookMacster or Synkmark would do that.  Possibly the "removed" bookmarks are in some place where you're not looking such as Chrome's Other Bookmarks or Mobile Bookmarks.

sporkman wrote on Sep 8th, 2018 at 10:24pm:
Of note, in my scenario above, I only use Chrome regularly on one Mac (the desktop).
Are you using Chrome's built-in syncing and/or BookMacster or Synkmark on more than one Mac?  You might have a Sync Loop.  Sync Loops can do all kinds of weird things.

sporkman wrote on Sep 8th, 2018 at 10:24pm:
Dang.  I actually went ahead and bought BookMacster.
If you prefer Synkmark, proceed to buy Synkmark in the same way.  Synkmark's built-in store should detect your BookMacster license and give you a Synkmark license at no cost.  Then, uninstall BookMacster.  There is a menu item (BookMacster > Uninstall to do that.
  

Jerry Krinock
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sporkman
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Re: Sync everything everywhere?
Reply #2 - Sep 8th, 2018 at 10:24pm
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Jerry Krinock wrote on Jun 17th, 2018 at 6:11am:
Hello, sporkman.

• Trash the BookMacster application package, which you probably put in /Applications.
• Download and install Synkmark.
• Run Synkmark.


Dang.  I actually went ahead and bought BookMacster.

I also apparently already broke it - I thought I had things setup correctly and then realized that with each sync my new Chrome bookmarks were being removed.

Of note, in my scenario above, I only use Chrome regularly on one Mac (the desktop).  The two laptops I'm more concerned about memory/battery efficiency so Safari is my main browser on those.
  
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Jerry Krinock
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Re: Sync everything everywhere?
Reply #1 - Jun 17th, 2018 at 6:11am
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Hello, sporkman.

Thank you for contacting us.  BookMacster is our more advanced app which allows you to customize syncing, have multiple collections, and land bookmarks directly from browsers.  But, as always, more features means more cognitive overhead – more stuff to think about during configuration

To replace Xmarks, you should use our app Synkmark instead.  Synkmark is focused on just syncing.  I'd recommend you do this:

• Run BookMacster.
• If a .bmco document does not open automatically, click in the menu: File > Open Recent.
• Opening each .bmco document in turn, click in the menu: File > Close and Delete, and OK to trash it.
• Quit BookMacster.
• Trash the BookMacster application package, which you probably put in /Applications.
• Download and install Synkmark.
• Run Synkmark.
• When you get to the part in the setup where the Help Book opens in Apple Help Viewer, that is the guide you need, except I'm not sure it says this…
• Because you have used Xmarks for Safari, before doing the initial export to Safari, you should remove all bookmarks in Safari's menu Bookmarks > Edit Bookmarks and wait 20 minutes to ensure that no bookmarks return, then export from Synkmark onto the clean slate.  This will ensure that Xmarks has not left any loose ends (unregistered iCloud transactions) which will cause trouble later.  I don't think Xmarks ever figured out the iCloud thing.

Regarding those three Macs, our recommendation is to install Synkmark on only one Mac, using Alternative 1 in our example multi-Mac configurations.  This has the disadvantage of only syncing between Safari and Chrome when you are logged in to that one Mac, but has the advantage of fewer moving parts and makes it much more difficult to accidentally create a sync loop.  To sync Chrome among your multiple Macs, you should Sign in to Chrome.

* * *

If you don't like the idea of signing your data over to Google, you can sync via iCloud only and put Synkmark on each Mac.  If you are careful to use iCloud only, you will not have a sync loop.
  

Jerry Krinock
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sporkman
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Sync everything everywhere?
Jun 17th, 2018 at 5:42am
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I have 3 Macs, 2 that I use regularly as well as an iPhone.  For various reasons, I want all my bookmarks everywhere in at least Safari (primary browser on two laptops) and Chrome (primary browser on desktop).  I had mostly achieved this with iCloud bookmark syncing plus xmarks.

xmarks could be "quirky" - I'd generally find myself starting over once or twice a year, but setup was pretty simple - sign in to your account and that was that.

I'm not too concerned about paying for a replacement, but I grabbed BookMacster and I'm just not getting it. Is there a basic "I want to sync everything everywhere and I have iCloud" guide somewhere?
  
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