I’m hoping to use the new DEVONthink Sync to keep two copies of a database on two different machines (namely home and work).
I’m using dropbox as my sync store. I can sync manually and that works fine, but what I’d like to do is leave DEVONthink open on both machines and have them update automatically.
I can set both machines to sync daily at different times, which works but then it could take a while for changes to show on the other machine.
If I set them both to sync hourly then they both seem to want to sync on the hour and so whichever machine is slightly slower to connect finds the sync store in use and so errors out.
Am I doing something wrong?
I’m assuming if work could sync on the half-hour and home on the hour or something I’d be fine?
From observation, determine the longest time that a sync normally takes on each machine – to account for differences in bandwidth, if any – then add a 15- or 30-minute penalty to allow for the inevitable network slowdown that happens to everyone sooner or later. The total is the time buffer that should separate the scheduled sync on each machine.
So, if you calculated that your buffer is 90 minutes, then schedule one machine at 11:00 AM and the other at 12:30 PM – for example – or 03:00 AM and 4:30 AM, etc. (Assuming both machines have accurate clocks, correctly calibrated, and both exist in the same time zone.) Over time, with more observation, you can shrink or expand the buffer as needed.