"Synchronize your files with ease and confidence."
Cleared by Norton AntiVirus 7.0 (defs: 1st February 2002).
The version requires MacOS 9.1 or later, and is designed for MacOS X.
What is SwitchBack?
SwitchBack is a file synchronization and backup utility. SwitchBack makes it easy and safe to synchronize two disks, so that both contain your most recently updated documents. Simply choose two folders to compare, and SwitchBack does the rest, quickly and painlessly.
The two folders can be on the same or different disks, or on two computers connected by a network, or the Internet. You can ask SwitchBack to tell you in detail what it is doing, or let it go to work, only advising you when there's a problem.
It has been designed principally for those people with two computers (especially desktop and laptop) who need to ensure that they have the most recent version of their documents available to them.
Using SwitchBack with MacOS X
The following points should be noted when running SwitchBack under MacOS X.
Long unicode filenames are only supported under OS X. This means that when backing up to an OS9 server, long file and folder names will be truncated in the standard manner, eg "This is a long filename#1A29". Similar results will be obtained when backing up an OS X disk when booted in OS 9.
You can only synchronize folders and files for which you have read and write permission. In practice this means only synchronizing folders in your user (home) folder under OS X. If you try to back up the system, library or application folders, for example, you can expect a list of errors of the form "you do not have sufficient privileges to open file x". Logging in as root may prevent some of these types of errors.
In mixed environments (OS X and OS 9) networked volumes indicate slightly different date and time stamps for their files to the Finder and other applications, such as SwitchBack. This is a system-related issue. You may notice more files than expected being updated during the first such synchronization, but this is unlikely to have a significant effect on any backup strategy.
Help balloons are not available under MacOS X, but help tags are planned for a subsequent revision.
Moving deleted files to trash is not available on OS9 server volumes.
Both SwitchBack and OS X are works in progress, and we are pleased to receive user feedback for feature requests and bug fixes. All Macintosh developers expect significant fine tuning to their programs as this exciting new operating system matures, and we hope to add positively to the OS X experience.
New Features since version 3.5 (10 Oct 2001)
Many performence improvements under OS X
Fixed errors with locked files and bundles under OS X
Moving obsolete files to the trash works correctly under OS X
Copy Folder Attributes once again optional in OS X
New icons courtesy of Mike Berg
Remains in the background during scheduled synchronizations
Commencing a backup will wake a desktop computer from 'light' sleep
A newly scheduled document is automatically enabled when first set up
Added Show Activity Log to the File menu
No longer flashes a notification after a successful synchronization
A 'reopen' appleevent opens a new window regardless of user start up preference
Registering SwitchBack
To pay for and register SwitchBack, point your web browser to <https://order.kagi.com/?UMK>. The instructions will show you how to pay via the simple Kagi payment system. A single user lifetime license is US$30.
