Using dropbox to sync addons between mac/win clients?

Ulkesh · 04/21/14, 12:50 PM

Hello, all!

I'm curious if anyone's set this up yet, and how it's working for them.

I've got a Mac client and Windows client, and occasionally will move between them (Mac is for on-the-road gaming). What I'd like to do is set up symbolic links (or directory shortcuts) for each system's "eso/live" directory, so that when I update the files in one place, they're synced in the other. This way I can keep my addons up to date while ensuring that the saved variables is also kept current (Sous Chef for tracking Provisioning recipes/materials, etc)...

I'm not sure how the OSX and Windows clients would handle this, though. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

DOGMA · 04/21/14, 01:15 PM

This is an interesting concept and exactly the thing that dropbox is designed for (amongst other things of course) although I use it mainly for my business needs.

I have Mac (MB Pro) and Win (Mini Twr) systems as well and utilize them in the same way as you do in regards to TESO but have yet to think of a way to synch the updates of my concurrent addons. I will have to check this out.

Thanks for the great idea.

Ulkesh · 04/21/14, 01:58 PM

hehe. Sure.

I've moved the directory from /Documents/ into /Dropbox/ and have made the symbolic link on my Mac (which is also my work system

). esoui.com's "Minion" software found the addons, and didn't complain at all. Even updated Sous Chef, too.

[edit] Just ran TESO and it worked well. Loaded everything it seemed.

[/edit]

Now I'll give it a try on the Windows system when I get home tonight. I'll report back my findings.

Ulkesh · 04/21/14, 02:08 PM

Hrmmm... just realized. The Usersettings file will be synced, so then a lot of my video settings will be changed, too. Since the Macbook Air can't run TESO on anywhere NEAR the settings that my main gaming system can, this could be an issue. I may need to fine-tune which directories are linked to dropbox. The addons and savedvariables, most likely.

Ulkesh · 04/21/14, 02:33 PM

Just changed my set up. This allows me to keep the hardware settings separate, while allowing me to shared saved variable and addons. Here's the steps, used within OS X Mavericks.

From the terminal in OSX, presuming that all items were installed in their default place, presuming that you have the correct user permissions to run the commands, presuming that you have backed up all data, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah....

Create Directory:

Code:

mkdir -p ~\Dropbox\Elder\ Scrolls\ Online/live

Move AddOns and SavedVariables into the new directory:

Code:

mv ~/Documents/Elder\ Scrolls\ Online/live/AddOns ~\Dropbox\Elder\ Scrolls\ Online/live
mv ~/Documents/Elder\ Scrolls\ Online/live/SavedVariables ~\Dropbox\Elder\ Scrolls\ Online/live

create symbolic links in the old locations to point to the new locations:

Code:

ln -s ~/Dropbox/Elder\ Scrolls\ Online/live/AddOns ~/Documents/Elder\ Scrolls\ Online/live/AddOns
ln -s ~/Dropbox/Elder\ Scrolls\ Online/live/SavedVariables ~/Documents/Elder\ Scrolls\ Online/live/SavedVariables

Ulkesh · 04/22/14, 07:23 AM

Okay, this worked well on the Mac. I then set up links on my Windows box at the house last night. I use the Link Shell Extension for Windows 7, so it was an easy matter of archiving the current AddOns and SavedVariables directories and then right-click-drag from the Dropbox'd directories into the eso/live/ directory. When I dropped them, I chose "Symbolic Link" and that was that.

Played for a couple hours last night on the Windows system, and everything was fine. This morning, on the Mac, Dropbox updated the various SavedVariables files like magic. Haven't had a chance to try it out yet because of Server Maintenance and, well, you know: the whole "I'm at work now" thing.

Will report back after I get a chance to try it out, but I suspect all will be working just fine.

Doubledoh · 04/29/14, 11:04 PM

This is what I use:

Bittorrent Sync: http://www.bittorrent.com/sync

This allows you to sync ANY folder on your computer. And since it's not stored in the cloud, you have unlimited data transfer and storage (well, as much as your harddrive will allow).

I set up two sync folders (as detailed in posts above):
Addons
SavedVariables

I didn't want to sync my machine settings etc because my two computers have different video cards and display resolutions.

This works well, but if you use Minion, it won't know that you installed or uninstalled a module on the other computer (though I'm trying to figure out where it stores it's data so I can just sync that folder too).

EDIT:
Actually, I found the minion folder if you want to sync that too. On windows 8.1 it's at:
C:\Users\<username>\.minion (yes, that's a period in front of it)

This might be a hidden folder depending on your folder view settings. I haven't verified where this is stored on a mac yet (or if the files are identical in windows and mac versions).