1. Chronosync Software
2. Chronosync Express

I’ve been using ChronoSync for many years, and depend on it to manage backup from several machines to a central file server. It has worked quite reliably over the years, and I have only had to do some occasional maintenance. That changed over the weekend.

ChronoSync 3.3.6 from Econ Technologies is about as full-featured as synchronization programs get. It's easy enough for a novice to use immediately, but has enough geeky options to satisfy the. ChronoSync is a complete, all-in-one solution for file & folder synchronizations, incremental backups, bootable backups (a.k.a clones) and cloud storage. In use by thousands of photographers, video editors, filmmakers, musicians and other data professionals.

I’ve retired the old 2007 iMac that was my file server in favor of a 2015 model. This allows me more flexibility in drive enclosures, since it supports USB 3 and Thunderbolt.

The 2007 was still running 10.6, which is from 2009, but everything worked just fine. However the new computer (running 10.13) kept failing when I tried to synchronize. I tried everything I could think of – clean install of the OS, run a test sync on newly formatted backup drive, change permissions. And still the problems persisted.

• ChronoSync is an application that runs on a Mac that can synchronize, backup, and create bootable backups. ChronoSync can synchronize or backup to almost any.
• Welcome to ChronoSync ChronoSync is a file synchronization and backup utility for macOS. Its fundamental role is to take a collection of files stored in one place and maintain an identical copy of those files stored in another place. The ‘places’ that ChronoSync will synchronize are called targets and the.

The most common problem was ChronoSync failing during the sync, with a message that the target was not available (even when the target was clearly mounted), or the file just failing to sync.

And then I remembered ChronoAgent. This is an option application in the ChronoSync suite which manages the connection from source to destination. After a quick installation, the problems have all seemed to disappear. I’m still testing all the machines that are pointed to the server, but it seems to have solved the problem.

I know several people who have complained about reliability issues with ChronoSync. When asked, my new reply will be to suggest setting up ChronoAgent.

Whether you need to back up your Mac or synchronize files among multiple Macs, Econ Technologies’ ChronoSync 3.0 is a potent but friendly tool that will let you get the job done. On Jaguar, Panther, or Tiger, it duplicates and restores data with surgical precision.

ChronoSync’s drag-and-drop interface lets users easily designate source and target volumes, then match or duplicate individual files, folders, local drives, networked drives, and even files stored on iPods. ChronoSync lets you save and schedule multiple custom syncs – for example, one to back up your hard disk on the first of each month, and another to sync your Address Book and Office documents between your desktop and laptop Macs every Friday. You can simply copy files from one drive to another, or match files between two drives.

It takes just a few clicks to schedule a saved sync. The scheduler appears as an icon in your Mac’s menu bar, and runs one-time, daily or weekly syncs, even when ChronoSync is not running or the computer is asleep. The menu can list upcoming syncs and suspend or resume scheduling.

Synching files is reasonably fast and efficient; a first-time manual sync took 13 minutes and 30 seconds to compare more than 78,000 files and transfer a gigabyte of data. A subsequent scheduled sync ran on time, found no changes from the previous run, and took only seconds. ChronoSync’s help files are thorough and well written, offering clear solutions for any potential problems.

Version 3.0 offers impressive new capabilities for customizing syncs. “Blind” and “biased” syncs let you specify which duplicate files on each volume get deleted during a sync. The new data validation feature ensures that your information has transferred correctly. Version 3.0 also adds Rules, which let you easily match files by name, extension, file size, or last-modified date, among others; it’s a lot like creating a Smart Playlist in iTunes. You can even trigger a sync automatically every time a file size or modified date changes within your source or target.

The enhanced Analysis view now lets users compare the contents of their entire source and target volumes, down to last-modified dates and permissions for individual files. Want to sync an entire directory but leave out a handful of documents? The Analysis view makes it easy to include or exclude specific files with a few clicks. It was annoyingly sluggish in loading and scrolling when I first ran it on my 1GHz iBook G4, but it worked much better on subsequent runs.

Chronosync Software

ChronoSync 3.0 touts an upgraded graphical interface among its new features. While the program is logically organized and easy to use, it lacks the visual polish Mac fans have come to expect. Several icons look rough-edged and dull — a minor complaint given ChronoSync’s overall quality.

Macworld’s Buying Advice

For small offices or big households that need to keep far-flung data safe and organized, ChronoSync is an outstanding value. Its features equal or surpass more expensive programs such as Retrospect ( , June 2004 ). Users with simpler needs can safely stick with free alternatives like Bombich Software’s Carbon Copy Cloner ( ).

[ Freelance writer Nathan Alderman wishes he could analyze, filter and synchronize his brain as easily as he does his computer. ]

Chronosync Express