Sync your iCal Calendar using Dropbox

In this month’s issue of Wired Magazine they give a tip on how to use Dropbox to sync your iCal across multiple macs. Sure you can do this with MobileMe and pay $99 a year which gets you other features but Dropbox is Free (up to 2GB of Storage). Here is how to do it.

NOTE: Make sure you backup your Calendar Files and everything before you do this.

• If you don’t have Dropbox already you need to Download, Install and Setup an account. You can sign up Here.

• Once you have dropbox setup on your Main Machine Open Terminal which is located in your Applications/Utilities Folder.

• First you want to move your iCal File into the Dropbox Folder. Do this by entering or copying the following text and then hit Enter:

mv ~/Library/Calendars ~/Dropbox/

• Next you need to tell iCal to look in the dropbox folder when it opens. Do this by putting in this text and hit Enter:

ln -s ~/Dropbox/Calendars/ ~/Library/Calendars

You have now setup your Main Machine. Next thing to do is setup your 2nd computer. Since you already have moved your iCal folder to Drop box you can skip the first step… So on the 2nd Mac:

• Open Terminal and Enter or Copy the following text and hit Enter:

ln -s ~/Dropbox/Calendars/ ~/Library/Calendars

This tells your 2nd Mac to look for the iCal File that should already be in your Dropbox Folder.

• And Finally you need to Delete the Calendar Folder from your 2nd Mac. It is located in your User Library (User/Library/Calendars)

Now your two macs will sync with the same calendar File. Just make sure you are not changing both of them at the same time.

You can sync other Databases as well like Address Book. www.tipsfor.us shows a similar tutorial for the Address Book.app.

Dropbox has even setup an Automator workflow to help create these types of links (called Symlinks or Symbolic Links). Check out the Dropbox Tutorial (pdf). The Automator Action & Workflow can be downloaded here.

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