AASyc

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© Copyright Robert Vasvari, 2005-2008.

RELEASE NOTES for AASync version 2.1.3

AASync 2.1.3 was built on MacosX 10.4 (Tiger) and it will not run on earlier OSX versions. This version is compatible with Leopard (10.5). AASync is distributed in a Universal Binary version, so it will run on both Intel or PPC macs. AASync 2 is a free upgrade for existing customers.

What is new in AASync version 2.1.3:

  • Interface changes, removed buttons from the front panel, added context menus instead.
  • Added progress bar for the entire sync.
  • Small bugfixes.

What is new in AASync version 2

This a major version upgrade, with lots of powerful new features:
  • A new interface that is easier to manage.
  • New "Sync Definition Name" feature allows you to name sync definitions to something meaningful to you.
  • Powerful new Logging facilities. Each sync definition now has a "home directory" under HOME/Library/Application Support/AASync2/SYNC_DEF_NAME, within which all logs are stored in chronological order.
  • Scheduled sync has lot of new features: scheduled sync will get done even if AASync is not running. Even more powerful, the machine can be set or wake or power on before a scheduled sync and go to sleep after! AAsync is now capable to run completely unattended.
  • AAsync will prevent idle sleep if a sync goes on, making sure a sync is not interrupted.
  • New "Exclude full path" feature allows you to define fully qualified paths to exclude certain files.
  • AASync will no longer stores any databases under the source folder of the syncs, allowing syncs that have a read-only source folder.

AASync version 2 Conversion Notes

AASync will read your version 1 sync definitions, convert them to version 2 and store them under com.objectwarehouse.aasync2. Version 1 sync definitions and sync databases will stay intact, they will not be removed. First, the v2 sync defs will be given a name (which can later be changed), then a new sync def home will be created under HOME/Library/Application Support/AASync2/SYNC_DEF_NAME. This sync home will contain all logs, sync databases and a pid file (while this sync is running). Current sync databases will be copied into this new home, so (in theory) your next sync will commence as if nothing has happened. The existing v1 databases in the source folders will not be removed. Once you are sure the conversion has executed correctly, and the sync works as expected, you can remove the old databases manually using your Terminal: >cd /full/pathh/to/source/folder >rm -rf .rbtp_sync_db

What to do if things do not work...

The most common problems when running AASync:

  • Destination machine cannot be reached: - This is a common problem when trying to browse the remote system or run a sync and it just hangs saying the host is unreachable. This is caused by either the remote host really being down (you can ping that host from the Terminal to verify), or your own firewall or other network protection scheme preventing you to from reaching it. In whatever case, AASync has nothing to do with this problem, contact the remote host's admins, or check your own confoguration.
  • Cannot log in: - This is the most common problem: you get an error message saying "bad username/password, access denied". It is ALWAYS caused by a bad password or username. If your login has been stored already on the keychain, open the KeyChain Access app, find this particular password under Internet Passwords, either check that it is correct, or remove it. If you remove it, AASync will ask for it next time a sync is run, so you can enter it correctly.
  • Sync errors: - once a sync starts there can be many errors caused by unreadable files, unwritable destination folders, etc... AASync will try its best display an informative error message. This is not always possible, due to the sheer number of possibilities for error combinations. If the cause of the error is not obvious, the best thing to is READ THE LOG. AASync has excellent logging facilities now, so make use of it! Set logging to "Sync Events + Commands" and run a sync. The log saved will be a verbose one, probably containing the answer to your problem. Click "open Last Log" and try to find the cause in your log, if unable to do so, send us the log with the problem description.

Slow Startup or Licensing Problems:

If AASync is very slow to start up, that can have some common reasons. If you experience that problem, please read the following carefully and try to determine which one applies in your case by process of elimination.

  • The license daemon: If you are a licensed user of AAsync, every time you start the app, AAsync will connect to a license daemon to check if you are authorized to run the app with all features. If necessary, AAsync will start an AADaemon process in the background. Due to a system bug that is under investigation by Apple, on some systems this license daemon is unable to startup, and spawns multiple processes of itself. In this case AAsync takes several minutes to start up, and then it will not recognize the license even though it was entered properly previously. If this happens the workaround we can do is to convert your license to hostbound one, in which case the license daemon will not be started. Please click "local only" so the app will run, then click the Help/Licenses menu. On the license panel the hostid is shown , something similar to 0x001d4f487614. Please copy this hostid, then send us along with your original license. We will convert your license and send it back to you.
  • The preferences file: It does happen sometimes that the Preferences (which tend to hold a lot of information about window positions and such...) become corrupted. As a result, AAsync can have an slow Startup and very erratic behaviour, even crash, due to bad data being read from the preference file. The thing to try is to simply remove this file and restart the program. The system Preferences file for AAsync is: YOURHOME/Library/Preferences/com.objectwarehouse.aasync2.plist. Remove or just rename it and restart the program to see if that improves things...

    • Please send requests, suggestions and bug reports to:
    (@)

    Uninstalling AAsync: If AAsync maintains: AAsync.app, HOME/Library/Application Support/AAsync2, HOME/Library/Preferences/com.objectwarehouse.aasync*. You may have passwords stored in the Key Chain (fire up Key Chain Access app), and the remote UNIX/SSH hosts you have connected to may have a ~/.rbtp directory.