Jerry Krinock wrote on Aug 3^rd, 2016 at 1:56pm:


What about Synkmark?  I had assumed yes, but that is not what I've found.

I don't want all my browsers running all the time on my Mac (and it doesn't either.)  I also don't use Firefox all that often, but finding it too much to keep bookmarks in sync on my own among more than 2 browsers.

Historically, I had used one browser and only one browser everywhere....until I got a job (late 90's) where I needed to use IE a lot, but learned that some co-workers solved the issue by using their firefox bookmarks as IE's home page.

I had devised my own scheme doing import/export and emailing before I went to work or went home each day....later replaced the email with shared web hosting... which also meant I could have a place on line for when I used something else entirely.  Which then went on to have a things sectioned so that one work computer was authority for a work section, and one home computer was the authority for a home section.  Until things got really messy with having more than one home computer, and then one work computer.  Though all throughout Firefox was the master browser and IE my slave.  But, was 2000's progressed, I started having more and more computers at home...while at work I did move on two having two computers on my desk....officially it was the corporate Windows box to run Outlook at my Unix workstation (later replaced with a Linux box) that I did software development on...  Things were Windows centric at home...with slightly more Linux than Windows, but most as servers.  Until I started the move to abandon Windows.

In mid-2000, I got a new job...at a .edu, where it was norm to have at least 3 computers on our desks.....being a Unix job, the primary was usually a Unix workstation and a secondary of a Linux machine, plus either a Windows or Mac desktop.  Since I had to support a server and its Windows only clients....I had Windows desktop....but I got a Mac laptop (first generation MacBook Pro....just replaced the battery in it recently....)  The Sun workstation eventually aged out and got replaced with a FreeBSD workstation....which had also become my main workstation at home.

When I started, this .edu job, I had said that I would finally get back to having a Mac at home.  Before I had left home there had been a Mac SE, but it was primary my little brother's computer...as largely subsidized by his paper route.  I had been using Commodores for years before he had ever wanted to touch a computer....so when I had that paper route, it had subsidized 3 different models before I left home...VIC20, C64, Amiga 1000... the latter getting help from summer jobs while at college.  I paid $1200 for a 2MB memory upgrade one summer, and got in on a bulk purchase deal for 100MB SCSI harddrives that the local Mac users group and the local Amiga users group had put together....for $1000.  Sure wish I still had that kind of disposable income....and today's hardware.  'cause I could easily snap up 4 new 4TB+ drives for a used DROBO I picked up recently, instead of scrounging 1,1.5,2 TB drives from an old Linux array.  But, then I would I have still gone for the used DROBO?  It's only USB 2.0, but that's all the Airport Extreme does....so I'll stick with 8TB (Seagate Hub) on Mac Mini, for its backups...and use Airport for the other (I had picked up a used mid-2012 MacBookPro - 2.5GHz i5, last spring...)  And, more recently a mid-2011 21.5" iMac...which I still haven't unboxed, but have 32GB of RAM to try putting into it.  Just need to hurry up and find a place to put it.

Anyways...back to after DST life.  I decided to give Synkmarks a try (struggled with that or BookMacster, but decided I'd upgrade if I decided I wanted it...instead of downgrade if I didn't...)  So, years ago, Chrome had replaced Firefox as my primary browser (plus Chromium was faster than Firefox on FreeBSD.)  I had tried a multibrowser sync product, but it didn't get along with Chrome's bookmark sync....but anytime I started a new Chrome somewhere, the default is sync everything....including the other bookmark sync extension, and lead to trashed bookmarks.  Along the way, Firefox inroduced syncing, and then changed the protocol such that my open source solution that I had gotten working with it stopped working.  So, I abandonned Firefox.

Though it has since come back into my life, and nothing to do with having worked with a (now former) Mozilla employee as a Unix systems administrators mentorship coordinator.  Plus now I have Safari in my life (and a Windows VM that I fire up on occasion to run Quicken, which will probably get the axe once the Mac version catches up sufficiently.)

But, Chrome is still my primary browser, Safari comes up now and then as my secondary....and almost never, is Firefox (or Opera), but it would be nice if they had all my current bookmarks (especially, since the organization is still heavily Firefox influenced.)  Whenever I do have need to fire it up....

But, the norm is Chrome is almost always running (it insists on starting up on boot, even though I don't want it to...so I have a startup script that includes killing it.)  That first self launch won't restore my tabs, but they'll restore if I kill it and then relaunch it.  weird.  And, Safari for when I run into certain sites, or feel the urge to catch up on my reading list (that I keep filling up from my iOS devices.)

So, when I first setup Synkmarks...I had all three open, Chrome to make sure all my bookmarks were right and that they had made into Synkmarks right.  And, to wipe out Firefox and Safari and make sure they stayed that way.  Somehow managed to avoid dreaded the dreaded out of memory killer...  But, in the first sync it wanted me to quit Chrome and Firefox (and I opted to not let it restart them...)  It suggested the extension to avoid needing to do that in the future, which I installed.

Ran out of memory later...

But, after I had things working...I quit Firefox and Safari, but since I tend to have 100's of Chrome tabs...and a dozens of windows...I leave it running.  I'll have close to a hundred tabs in Safari, but keep to one window....though Safari 10 has broke my SafariStand... before calling it a night, and found the next morning that around 7:43am (probably because I had been on my iPhone, and added something to my reading list.) it had failed the firefox sync...extension socket error and stopped the sync.  Not sure what triggered this morning's need to export to all three, except maybe because DST ended.  But, found it had started up Firefox and then complained about socket timeouts.  Well, maybe if it hadn't tried to squeeze Firefox into RAM....switching between apps the day before often involved spinning beachballs before getting response to my clicks.  Taking the extension out, only makes it tell me that I should put it in so that it would need to tell me to quit it if I had it open.  Guess it really, really wants me to have the extension....so it can fail and turn off sync.

So, how do I get Synkmarks to work quietly on its own....with Chrome/Firefox and Safari.... without needing to either have Firefox running all the time or never running?

The Dreamer.

Will BookMacster sync Safari bookmarks to its database (import) if Safari is closed?

I added a bookmark to Safari then closed it.  It never seemed to pick up that bookmark.

What about the other browsers? (Chrome / Firefox)

Thanks.