Smarky, Synkmark and BookMacster are designed, somewhat cleverly we think, to sync via any online file syncing service with no special configuration. This page explains the criteria which are important in choosing such a service for this purpose, our evaluations of popular services, and our methodology in case you’d like to do your own evaluation.
Note to Smarky users. Although you can sync a Smarky bkmslf file among multiple Macs as described below, we don’t know of any use case in which this would be a good idea. This is because Smarky supports only Safari, and Safari syncing is completely supported by iCloud, which also supports syncing of passwords and open tabs in addition to bookmarks. Therefore, you should activate System Preferences > iCloud > Safari and let iCloud sync among your Macs. Installing Smarky on one Mac is sufficient to keep your bookmarks alphabetized, because whatever Smarky does on one Mac will be copied to the other Mac by iCloud. But that will only happen when the Smarky Mac is running, so if you use only one or the other Mac for long periods of time, you might want to install Smarky on more than one Mac. Our Regular License allows this for Macs owned by a human person.
Criteria
Sync Function. Any service which will automatically sync arbitrary files among multiple Macs will work. Some services provide only backup, – although they may support multiple devices, the devices cannot see one another’s data. These services are not useable for our purposes.
Efficiency. If you have a large number of bookmarks and/or limited internet speed, it is also nice if the service syncs files incrementally, meaning that the whole .bkmslf file does not need to be re-uploaded and re-downloaded when add, say, one bookmark.
Speed. Some services sync any changed file more or less immediately, within a minute or so. Others wait 5 minutes or so. An argument can be made that either is better. Faster obviously is better, but slower is more efficient because groups of changes within 5 minutes will only cause one upload and download. But since our apps already (by default) wait 5 minutes in order to minimize resource usage on your Mac, faster is probably better for our purposes.
Cost. In case you are not using the service for anything else, it is nice for the service to offer a limited capacity at no cost. A typical .bkmslf file, containing less than 5000 bookmarks, is only several MB (megabyte) in size, which is a tiny drop in the several GB (gigabyte) bucket of free storage capacity offered by these services.
Reliability. We have not done any studies of reliability. Rely on the service’s reputation and your own experience.
Our Evaluation of Available Services (updated July 2014)
Copy provides the required sync function and was the best performer in our tests. Simple bookmarks changes to a huge 30 MB .bkmslf file caused only 2.1 MB upload and 6.2 MB download, typically within a minute. Currently, they offer 15 GB free. (Tested 2014-Jul-03)
Dropbox provides the required sync function, quite efficiently. Simple bookmarks changes to a huge 30 MB .bkmslf file cause 8.1 MB upload and 8.1 MB download, typically within a minute. They offer 2 GB free, and their reputation for reliability is legendary in the industry. (Tested 2014-Jul-05)
Google Drive provides the required sync function. Simple bookmarks changes to a huge 30 MB .bkmslf file cause 5.5 MB upload (which is good) but a 28 MB download (which is not so good), typically within a minute. Fortunately, most internet service providers offer faster download pipes than upload, so the pipes are well utilized. Google offers 15 GB free. (Tested 2014-Jul-05)
OneDrive, the Microsoft service, provides the required sync function. Simple bookmarks changes to a huge 30 MB .bkmslf file cause 28 MB upload (which is not good), but a 5.5 MB download (which is good). Unfortunately, this upload/download asymmetry is opposite the pipeline sizes offered by internet service providers, which offer faster downloads and slower uploads. There is typically a 5-minute delay before OneDrive syncs. They offer 15 GB free. (Tested 2014-Jul-06)
Box provides the required sync function. Their efficiency is not too good, though. Simple bookmarks changes to a huge 30 MB .bkmslf file cause 28 MB both upload and download. Also, they delay 5 minutes or so before syncing. Box offers 10 GB free. (Tested 2014-Jul-06)
iCloud Drive. iCloud Drive provides the required sync function and is quite efficient; often very efficient, transferring only a few kilobytes when a bookmark is added, and although it usually syncs within a couple minutes, we’ve seen it delay for five minutes or more. More importantly, if a .bkmslf document is open in one of our apps, or is being synced in the background by one of our apps, at the same time as iCloud Drive is pushing in changes from the cloud, the file system will deadlock. In Finder, the syncing icon (the little cloud) will appear, and in our app, if you try to close the document, it will beachball and require a force quit. So, although iCloud Drive can be used with care, we’re not recommending it until we study this further and see if there is a way to break the deadlock. (Tested 2015-Jan-04)
SugarSync looks like it should work based on their description, but we’ve not tested it. SugarSync does not offer any free storage.
Jungle Disk we did not test. We are not sure if JungleDisk provides syncing. Jungle Disk does not offer any free storage.
Memopal provides backup only, not syncing, and is therefore not useful for our purposes.
CrashPlan provides backup only, not syncing, and is therefore not useful for our purposes.
How we test Efficiency and Speed
Our test procedure is:
• Establish an account with the service, install and activate their syncing software on two Macs.
• Create a .bkmslf file using one of our apps. We test using a very large file, 30 MB, containing 33,000 bookmarks. For your own purposes, you should use your own .bkmslf file, or a copy of it.
• Move your .bkmslf file into the synced folder on Mac #1.
• Wait for the syncing service to completely copy your .bkmslf file to Mac #2. When it is done, the file sizes will be the same on both Macs, and the service may indicate this by badging the file’s icon and/or their own icon with a green checkmark.
• On Mac #1, launch the application /Utilities/Activity Monitor.
• On Mac #1, in Activity Monitor, click the Network tab in the toolbar.
• On Mac #1, type a fragment of the service's app name into the search field. For example, for Box.com or Dropbox, type box.
• Repeat the previous three steps on Mac #2. Find the line which refers to the service’s app.
• On Mac #1, note the number of Sent Bytes for the service's app.
• On Mac #2, note the number of Rcvd Bytes for the service's app. (Rcvd = received)
• On Mac #1, double-click the .bkmslf file. One of our bookmarks management apps will launch.
• Copy, add or rename any single bookmark.
• Click in the menu: File > Save.
• Watch the syncing service’s app and note how long it takes before it begins uploading the change.
• In Activity Monitor, note that the number of Sent Bytes for the service's app begins to increase. When it stops increasing, subtract the original number of bytes from the ending number of bytes. The answer is the number of bytes that this service sent send in order to change one bookmark.
• On Mac #2, watch the syncing service’s app and note how long it takes before it begins downloading the change.
• In Activity Monitor, note that the number of Rcvd Bytes for the service's app begins to increase. When it stops increasing, subtract the original number of bytes from the ending number of bytes. The answer is the number of bytes that this service receives in order to change one bookmark.
Regarding the number of sent and received bytes, note that the maximum number will be the size of the file itself. That is, the worst case is that of a completely dumb service, which will send the entire file. Typically, the number of sent and received bytes is the same whether one bookmark or 100 bookmarks are changed.