Synching iCal via Dropbox

Question

Hi there,
I wish to sync my iCal calendars and Address Book data using Dropbox. I wondered whether anyone on the forums has been able to do this successfully, and whether they could offer any insight as to how reliable this is.
I know there are a few tutorials on the web on how to achieve this, but I am a little reluctant to move the iCal data folder to dropbox (would prefer to create the symlink within the Dropbox folder).
Any advice appreciated!

Answer 1

Hi Stig,
Merry Christmas to you too! I managed to get this working in the end, so I'll replicate the directions here for completeness.
*Before you begin ensure you have backed up your data, and have quit iCal and AddressBook on ALL computers that you intend to run this process on!*
1. Download and install [SymLinker|http://seiryu.home.comcast.net/~seiryu/symboliclinker.html] on ALL computers that you wish to sync to.
2. On the 'master' computer, create a Symlink for the entire AddressBook and iCal folder. These are stored at:
iCal Database is at: ~User/Library/Calendars
AddressBook Database is at: ~User/Library/Application Support/AddressBook
3. To create a symlink, right click on each of the above iCal and AddressBook folders and select 'Make Symbolic Link' from the context menu.
4. Move both of these symlinks to your desktop, and rename them to 'AddressBook' and 'Calendars', i.e., the exact same names as they appear in the Library folders (this is important).
5. On Dropbox, you may wish to create a folder called 'Applications'. This is not really necessary, however it helps with keeping the folder organised.
6. Drag the two symlinks from your Desktop to your Dropbox folder. This should then begin the process of uploading them to your Dropbox account.
7. On each of the 'slave' computers, delete the Calendars and AddressBook folders which appear in the library (Obviously back these up if you need to);
8. Quit Dropbox on the slave computers;
9. Right click on the Calendars and AddressBook folders (in your Dropbox folder) and create the symlinks for each. Drop the generated symlinks to your desktop and rename them to the names as per step 4.
10. Place these renamed symlinks to their Library positions (see step 1);
11. Start dropbox on the slave computer. Wait for Dropbox to complete synching.
12.Done!
Your data should now begin to trickle down on your 'slave' computers. Please bear in mind that it is best to only ever run iCal and Addressbook on one computer at a time, otherwise there is a risk of creating data conflicts.
For even faster synching, ensure all your computers are running version 0.7.2 of Dropbox which supports LAN synching.
I already have 1Password and The Hit List working this way and it's great!
Hope this helps all Dropbox users!
Saj
(Please mark this post helpful/solved if you like).
Message was edited by: snkhan Changed the order of the instructions.
Message was edited by: snkhan
Message was edited by: snkhan