How do I sync files on Mac mini and MacBook pro

I want to sync files between my Mac Mini and my MacBook Pro. Is there a way to do this? Primarily, I want to access photos in my LightRoom Catalog from both platforms. Thanks for any help you can provide.

Note that there's a difference between sharing and syncing.
Sharing will allow you to access the files on your Mini from your MBP, but the files won't be on your MBP when you take it somewhere else.
Syncing is making both Macs have identical copies of files, so that a change on one Mac makes a change on the other Mac.
If you've got a large LightRoom catalogue and limited space on your MBP, then you want sharing. The link above should get you started with that.
For syncing, I recommend BitTorrent Sync, which is free. It's basically "DropBox without the cloud". You select a folder to sync, and then whenever your two Macs are on the same network, any file in that folder that changes is synced to the other Mac.
I use it to keep my entire Documents folder synced between my Mini and MBP.
http://www.bittorrent.com/sync
You may need to be careful about modifying the same document on both computers at the same time, though I believe BS does handle this in some way. Also, if you're syncing an app's data library, then some database files (e.g. with computer-specific data like file path names) may not sync well.
Of course, you could use DropBox, though you'll need to subscribe if you want more than a couple of GB.

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How can I share my LR catalog between Mac Mini and MacBook Pro?

How can I share my LR Catalog between my Mac Mini and MacBook Pro?

Your Lightroom license key is
a. Single user / owner
b. You are allowed two active installations, with one in use at any point in time.
c. It is cross platform Mac and or PC.
d. You can install / uninstall as many times it is necessary, as long as you meet the criteria above.
The latest updates can be accessed from the link below.
Product updates

Sharing between Mac mini and Macbook Pro

I have recently switched to using Macs and can't figure out my issue. I am trying to figure out how to share both my files and my internet between my mac mini and MBP at work. My mac mini is hardlined to the internet and I would like to use airport to connect my MBP to the internet. I would hope I could also share files between the two computers. Can anyone help me?

Hi Dr. Poultry-
This may be helpful: Mac OS: Connecting to the Internet and sharing files locally at the same time
Luck-
-DaddyPaycheck

Coordinating files between Mac Mini and Powerbook Pro

How can I synchronize email between 2 computers.
Posted: Jan 15, 2008 12:53 PM
Reply Email
I have my own domain which I use for email <edited by moderator>. When I am at home I use my Mac Mini. When I travel I use my Macbook Pro. I use Mail for email. What is the easiest way to keep my email synched on my two Macs, including Sent mail? When I am about to travel I would also like to synch my Address book, iCal, and my Documents. Can this be done automatically?
I would appreciate any assistance.
Thanks
Stan Trollip

I'm going to go ahead and assume that you have your Mail client set up as POP and that you've permanently downloaded all of your mail onto one machine. That one machine I will refer to as your primary machine. The machine you want to add the same messages to, I will refer to as your secondary machine. (I'm not sure as to how much knowledge you have of this subject, so please pardon some of my explanations if they seem too simple or beginner level for you.) If you have downloaded all of your mail off the server and onto your machine then I want to be very sure that you first save off the mail stored on your Mac before changing account settings to IMAP. If you don't save a copy of your mail off before you delete the account settings for POP, then you will loose all of your mail forever.
To manually back up all of your e-mail from Mac OS X Mail:
1. First close Mac OS X Mail
2. In the Finder, go to your Home directory and open the "Library" folder.
3. Copy the "Mail" folder to a safe place.
The "Mail" folder contains all of your e-mail and all of the folders they reside in... meaning, Inbox, Outbox, Sent, Trash, and any other folders you may have created to store messages in.
After copying your "Mail" directory to a safe location, open Mac OS X Mail and delete the POP account and then set up your IMAP account. Go ahead and click the "Get Mail" button at the top to import any new mail you might have.
At this point, you need to be able to access your old e-mail messages from within Mac OS X Mail. We're going to do some rather complex copying of files around, so take your time as you work through this process. You can go ahead and close Mac OS X Mail for the moment. On your desktop, you're going to need to have two Finder windows open. First open the Finder to your Home directory. Open "Library" and then "Mail." Keep that Finder window open and then open up the "Mail" directory that you saved off earlier. If you don't know how to open up a second separate Finder window, you may do that by holding down the Command key (aka "Apple" key) while clicking on the folder to open. In the first Finder window that you opened (Home > Library > Mail), you should see a folder named "IMAP-your account name." Go ahead and open that folder and look for another folder named, "INBOX.imapmbox." Inside this folder is another folder called, "Messages." Open the Messages folder. (If you do not yet have a "Messages" folder, then you may create one... just be sure that you put in a capital "M" for "Messages.") This is the folder where you are going to copy your old Inbox mail into. In the other Finder window you have open, you should see a "POP-your account name" folder there. In a similar manner browse to: "INBOX.mbox" > "Messages." In this folder, you will see all of the e-mail you had in your Inbox. All email messages are named with a number and have a ".emlx" extension. Just press Command + A to select all the files and then press Command + C to copy them all into memory. In your first Finder window for your IMAP account, paste (Command + V) the messages you copied from your old account.
At this point, go ahead and leave both Finder windows open for now and open up Mac OS X Mail. At first you won't see all the e-mail messages you copied over. In order to make Mail see what you have done, you need to go up to the menu item "Mailbox" and then select "Rebuild." Within a few moments you should begin to see all of your old mail in your Inbox. If you have seen success from this, then you are beginning to understand how the Mac OS X Mail client interacts with the raw files on the filesystem. Pretty interesting, eh?
Ok, now you may want to copy over all of your old "Sent" messages. To do this, first create a new message (contents don't matter... it's just a sample test message) and e-mail it to a different mail account. Once the message has been sent, close Mail.
In your first Finder window (for your IMAP account), you need to back up a couple of folders to get back to your "IMAP-your account name" folder. Now you should see a "Sent Messages.imapmbox" folder. Much like what we have done before... you should see a "Messages" folder here. It may only contain 1 item - that being the test e-mail you just sent. Like before, you need to browse to your old "POP-your account name" folder and look for your "Sent.mbox" folder. Again, go into the "Messages" folder and copy all the messages here and then go to your first Finder window and paste the files there. Open Mac OS X Mail again, but this time click on your "Sent" folder on the left to view your sent messages. With this folder selected, again go up to the menu item, "Mailbox" and click on "Rebuild." Now you should see all of your old sent messages.
Apply this knowledge to copying over any "Outbox" and/or "Deleted" items you may want to keep.
Let's say that you had custom folders created in your old Mail account that you stored e-mail messages in... For example, you filed all of your financial e-mail in the "Financial" folder, and all e-mail from family in your "Family" folder... and you want those old folders and e-mail messages to show up in your newly configured mail client. This process is fairly easy, but it is very different from what we did above. Go ahead and close out Mac OS X Mail if you still have it open. In your first Finder window back up a couple of directories or just go to Home directory > "Library" > "Mail." Inside the "Mail" folder you should see a folder simply called, "Mailboxes." If not, then open Mac OS X Mail back up and create a temporary folder for now and then exit Mail again. Now you should see the "Mailboxes" folder. Open this folder and you should see the directory that you just created and it will have a ".mbox" extension on it. All you need to do is go to the old "POP-your account name" directory (where you saved off your old mail) and browse to the "Mailboxes" folder and then copy each folder from there to your IMAP "Mailboxes" folder. When you open up Mac OS X mail, you should see those folders appear after a few moments. If by chance you don't see any e-mail inside any of those folders, then just "Rebuild" each folder... from inside each folder.
Let me know how this works for you and if you have any further questions.

How do I transfer data from Mac Mini to Macbook Pro

How do I transfer data from a Mac Mini (10.6.8) to a Macbook Pro (10.7)?

Hi David,
When you first start the MBP, run Setup Assistant and connect the two machines with a FireWire cable.

Mac Mini and Macbook Pro

Hello there,
I wonder if you could help. I have a new macbook pro with the largest HD I can get and faster processor. It's a lovely piece of kit. But the problem is that that I edit a lot of films and have lots of stuff already on it so I have almost maxed out my HD space. I don't want to delete anything and I know that I will add more stuff onto it.
I thought of having a separate machine on which I can store and manage all my media - use this to edit films as well as store movies for my ipad.
Could the Mac Mini be the answer, plugging it into my macbook? Or should I just buy a whole new machine and delete all the raw films from my first macbook and only store films on the new one?
I don't want a massive display or anything as my place is short on space.
I hope you can help!!
Bianca

I may be misunderstanding what you are wanting to accomplish but it sounds like you need more disk storage rather than another computer. Getting two larger capacity external hard drives, one for your video files and one for backup should solve your full internal drive problem. If you are storing irreplaceable video you would want to get another drive so you would have two backups. Newer drives don't take up much space. For example, my 2TB LaCie Quadra is relatively small (4 5/8" x 7 5/8" x 1 5/8").
The Mac Mini's specs aren't really heavy video editing friendly if you are wanting a second computer for that purpose. You would want to buy the fastest specs your budget and space allows.

Share cinema display between Mac Mini and MacBook Pro

Hello -
I am keen to get an LED cinema display to use on my new MacBook Pro - but I share my study with my children - so want to give them a MacMini to use.
How easy is it two swap between the MacMini and the MacBook Pro ? I guess there is only one input in the LED cinema display ???
Thanks in advance.
Andrew

Interesting - I have the same idea: sharing a 24" cinema display between a Macbook Pro for myself and a Mac mini for my wife.
The only problem I see is that the display doesn't have any Firewire ports. So if I want to use an external harddrive (or a mini-DV camcorder) on both computers when connected to the display, then I'd have to plug that into the computer instead of the display ...

Connecting Both Mac Mini and MacBook Pro to single LED display

Is it possible to dock two mac computers to the same monitor, and have the ability to switch between each computer on the fly?
I am trying to dock both a MacBook Pro and a Mac Mini to the same 24" Apple LED display. I would like it to be as close to a "switch" solution as possible, where it takes only a single button push to change between which computer is being displayed on the monitor. I am used to a PC, where I can hook two computers up to the same monitor, and change the input in the monitor to switch between the two computers that are hooked up to it.
Since there are not any buttons on my monitor, and I am not used to Mac's yet, I am not sure how to easily switch? I was told I could do it when I bought it, but now the help desk is closed....
Message was edited by: colsonjm

I was hoping there was a better option. I have the wireless keyboard and mouse, and the two computers. I doubt there is a way to switch the wireless keyboard/mouse without disabling and reconnecting the bluetooth connection (and I really do not think there is a KVM switch for bluetooth devices yet)...
That being said, I was hoping to continue to control the laptop with the laptop keyboard, and the mini with the wireless devices, and NOT go the KVM switch route... I was hoping there was a way to have the mini and the macbook both connected, and either push a button or access a menu to switch between the two...
So am I hearing that this is not a viable option? I need to invest in a potentially expensive KVM switch, or run one of the two computers remotely from the other?
The reason I am frustrated is that I was told when making the purchase that it was very much possible (by multiple employees over the phone and in store). I was also told by the tech people over the phone that everything I needed to do so would be in the box (no extra cables or anything needing purchase).
Message was edited by: colsonjm
Message was edited by: colsonjm

Do Mac Mini and Macbook Pro Retina use the exact same i7 processor?

If not why do I get the exact same info from both computers:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3615QM CPU @ 2.30GHz
Processor Speed: 2.3 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 6 MB
Isn't it strange that they are using a mobile CPU in a desktop computer?

One way to tel is the the specs for the laptop
http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs-retina/
Says it has
Intel Iris Graphics
While the specs for the Mac Mini
http://support.apple.com/kb/SP659
Say it has
Intel HD Graphics 4000
The graphis for both are integrated with the CPU chip
Also, the wifi's for the Mini and laptops provide more detail inof
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_Pro
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_Mini

I have the Numbers-applications on both Mac mini and Macbook Air. My problem is that they don't sync so when I create a Numbers-file on the MacBook while travelling, it will not be on my Mac mini when I get home :(((

I have the Numbers-applications on both Mac mini and Macbook Air. My problem is that they don't sync so when I create a Numbers-file on the MacBook while travelling, it will not be on my Mac mini when I get home :(((

Hey iWeb plubishing problems,
I would first check to make sure that you meet the system requirements for OS X to support Documents in the Cloud. For that your Mac’s needs to be running at least OS X Lion 10.7.5 or later to make sure that everything syncs. Take a look at the article below for more information.
iCloud: Troubleshooting Documents in the Cloud
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203517
Take care,
-Norm G.

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The simplest method would be to drag & drop the files you want to move to the external drive using the Finder. Just open both the source and destination locations in separate Finder windows.

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If you have OSX 10.8 (Mountain Lion) installed on your Mac mini, set-up iCloud in your System preferences.
Peter

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To switch between your Mac mini and iMac, you just have to turn on or off Target Display mode. To do it, press Command and F2 keys in your iMac, not only F2

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When I restart my mac mini, it takes approximately 16-18 HOURS to boot. During this time the grey screen is displayed with the Apple logo, and the turning wheel is turning and turning but nothing happens.
I updated the mac mini to Mountain Lion.
What is funny, my macbook air has exactly the same problem. So I dont think that this is a hardware related problem. My macbook air takes about 8-10 hours to restart.
Anybody has the same experience or has a solution?
Again, both my mac mini and macbook air have this problem.
Thanks!!

Whew, this is incredible!?
See if the Disk is issuing any S.M.A.R.T errors in Disk Utility...
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH7029
Open Activity Monitor in Applications>Utilities, select All Processes & sort on CPU%, any indications there?
How much RAM & free Disk space do you have also, click on the Memory & Disk Usage Tabs.
Open Console in Utilities & see if there are any clues or repeating messages when this happens.
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How do I sync files on Mac mini and MacBook pro

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