Can iDisk be like Dropbox?

[legaleye3000]

Can I setup iDisk to automatically (lets use the Documents folder) update the Documents folder whenever a file inside it changes. So if I edit a Microsoft Word document in my Documents folder, when I save it, will iDisk automatically update my other computer with MobileMe installed (even a Windows computer)?

Thanks

 

[J the Ninja]

No. If you try, iDisk will tell you that you cannot have symlinks in your iDisk.

 

[swiftaw]

Kind of.

Turn iDisk Sync on in System Preferences on all of your computers. Now, use your iDisk only, in other words, stop using your Documents folder.

iDisk syncing keeps a local copy of the iDisk contents on each of your computers, so you can still access your files when you're not connected to the internet.

 

[BroadcastDoc]

Even better, add folders to your local iDisk, and place aliases (you can do this with actual documents as well) in the Documents folder so that the stuff actually "lives" on the iDisk. Doing it that way, the documents appear to be in the Documents folder, but they'll be updated on your iDisk and be updated across computers.

 

[317342]

Can I setup iDisk to automatically (lets use the Documents folder) update the Documents folder whenever a file inside it changes. So if I edit a Microsoft Word document in my Documents folder, when I save it, will iDisk automatically update my other computer with MobileMe installed (even a Windows computer)?

Thanks

I use the iDisk between my laptop and my iMac, works fine and it automatically syncs changes between them. I don't believe you can access the iDisk on a Windows machine except through a web browser.

 

[legaleye3000]

JuanGuapo-

SO how do you set that up? If I want my documents folder on my Mac to automatically update to my iDisk (for example, when I edit a Word document within the folder), what do I do?

Thanks

 

[maflynn]

Am I the first to ask why not use dropbox, its faster, automated and can sync multiple computers and platforms.

Personally I find iDisk much to slow for me to use, moving photoshop files or images is a painful experience.

 

[legaleye3000]

I guess because I'm already paying for MobileMe and it would be great to have everything integrated. But until the speed improves and the syncing is better like dropbox, I'm going to use dropbox

 

[J the Ninja]

Am I the first to ask why not use dropbox, its faster, automated and can sync multiple computers and platforms.

Personally I find iDisk much to slow for me to use, moving photoshop files or images is a painful experience.

I was going to say something about iDisk being a crappy version of Dropbox, but I didn't want to seem bitchy.

 

[kmaute]

Has anyone been able to get the iPhone iDisk application?

I spoke with a MM rep and they couldn't seem to understand that the link was broke and apparently it's a large coincidence that my iPhone and MBP can't download the app.

 

[317342]

JuanGuapo-

SO how do you set that up? If I want my documents folder on my Mac to automatically update to my iDisk (for example, when I edit a Word document within the folder), what do I do?

Thanks

You don't use your Documents folder (ie. ~/Documents) but use the iDisk as your pseudo-documents folder. Just turn on iDisk Sync and it'll do the rest. I have the iMac set the same way.

iDisk is very finicky with Word files. Because Word saves your work as a .TMP file first, then copies it to the actual .DOC/.DOCX file, it's a good idea to either turn off automatic syncing or save your work on the desktop, manually copy it to the iDisk later.

 

[317342]

Am I the first to ask why not use dropbox, its faster, automated and can sync multiple computers and platforms.

Personally I find iDisk much to slow for me to use, moving photoshop files or images is a painful experience.

No, you're not the first. Some of us still use iDisk for one reason or another.

I have a Dropbox account and while it's nice to have a freebie account, I still prefer to use iDisk if for no other reason that personal preference. Performance-wise they're the same for me.

 

[maflynn]

I still use iDisk but not as a dropbox replacement. I find storing some documents (generally not large documents) on the idisk to be helpful. I find the performance to be so poor that I generally don't like to move large files there.

This is one reason why I think iDisk is a poor replacement, there are other reasons as well but performance is a big one.

 

[legaleye3000]

I just installed dropbox and I thought you can make any folder a dropbox, but it seems that you must place the folder within the dropbox it creeates. I want to be able to select folders to sync without moving them into a dropbox.

 

[J the Ninja]

I just installed dropbox and I thought you can make any folder a dropbox, but it seems that you must place the folder within the dropbox it creeates. I want to be able to select folders to sync without moving them into a dropbox.

That feature will be coming eventually. In the meantime, you can kinda cheat and get it to work:

http://wiki.dropbox.com/TipsAndTricks/SyncOtherFolders

 

[317342]

This is one reason why I think iDisk is a poor replacement, there are other reasons as well but performance is a big one.

What's funny is I have it the other way around--the iDisk is faster for me than Dropbox is.

 

[maflynn]

What's funny is I have it the other way around--the iDisk is faster for me than Dropbox is.

Wow, I have to measure the performance of the iDisk with a sundial its so slow for me.

For me to upload a gigabyte's worth of files it can take 2 - 4 hours.

Maybe newer subscribers are on faster servers, I've been a member since it was called iTools and it was free. Perhaps they've never migrated me to a faster server but one thing is clear. iDisk is currently not feasible for me to use to any extent.

 

[Vanarak19]

I use the iDisk between my laptop and my iMac, works fine and it automatically syncs changes between them. I don't believe you can access the iDisk on a Windows machine except through a web browser.

wrong, you can in fact "map network drive" using idisk. How well it works, well, its possible.

 

[317342]

wrong, you can in fact "map network drive" using idisk. How well it works, well, its possible.

At one time I believe you could do it (Apple even supplied an application to map it for you), but I believe it was when it was .Mac.

 

[317342]

Wow, I have to measure the performance of the iDisk with a sundial its so slow for me.

For me to upload a gigabyte's worth of files it can take 2 - 4 hours.

Maybe newer subscribers are on faster servers, I've been a member since it was called iTools and it was free. Perhaps they've never migrated me to a faster server but one thing is clear. iDisk is currently not feasible for me to use to any extent.

You could be right about the servers--it's usually people who are older subscribers who have issues with the service. The longer you have .Mac/MM, the more problems seem to creep up.

I decided to try Dropbox this evening and it appears they have included a bandwidth throttling feature (nice!). I disabled it and allowed it to upload some files....it saturated my entire upstream, so it was moving pretty quickly. iDisk has never saturated my entire upstream so this was very promising. I'm going to have to give Dropbox a second glance this weekend.

 

[macbookairman]

wrong, you can in fact "map network drive" using idisk. How well it works, well, its possible.

I got my iDisk working great on windows by creating a .bat file that runs at startup. Here is what is included in that file:

net use x: https://idisk.me.com/username password /user:username@me.com /persistent:no

works excellently