Dropbox Synchronization

Vitamin-R is able to synchronize logs between several Macs using the Dropbox file synchronization service. Please note that Vitamin-R for iPhone is now discontinued and syncing with the Mac version is likely to stop working as the Dropbox APIs evolve.

If you don’t have a Dropbox account already, you can, at the time of this writing, sign up for a free 2 Gb account at:

http://www.getdropbox.com

You will need to have a Dropbox account and the Dropbox application installed on your Mac before you can activate the syncing feature. We strongly recommend installing your Dropbox folder to the standard location suggested by the installer.

To activate syncing:

Vitamin-R 3 ⇒ Preferences ⇒ Cloud Sync ⇒ Activate Dropbox Synching

Vitamin-R will then try to create a new Vitamin-R folder within your existing Dropbox folder and move all your log files into this folder. All new log files will be written to this location.

You need to repeat this procedure on every Mac on which you want Vitamin-R logs to sync.

Your logs, as well as the statistics based on them, will now be available across all your machines. The log files have unique names, so there should be no potential for losing any information due to conflicts between files.

If your log files are important to you, you might want to create a backup of them before activating the feature, just in case something unexpected and unpleasant happens. To create a quick backup, proceed as follows:

In the Finder, navigate to <YOUR HOME FOLDER> ⇒ Library ⇒ Application Support. Right-click (or Control-click) on the Vitamin-R folder and select Compress Vitamin-R. Move the new .zip archive to a location of your choosing for safe keeping.

We only support the standard Dropbox folder location inside of your Home folder. If you have already installed Dropbox in another application, the Dropbox client application will let you move the folder in the Accounts tab of its Preferences.

If that is not an option for you, and you have some basic Unix skills, you can create a symbolic link named Dropbox in your home folder that points to your custom location.

You can find out more about symbolic links at: https://gigaom.com/2011/04/27/how-to-create-and-use-symlinks-on-a-mac/

Below is the an example of the command line that you would need to use in order for Vitamin-R to find your Dropbox folder inside the your Document folder:

ln -s ~/Documents/Dropbox ~/Dropbox

In general, we recommend not using Dropbox with custom locations, as we feel that any slight advantage that this may have are likely outweighed by the potential problems that non-standard locations can create.

Please let us know if you run into any problems. We can only fix problems that we know about, and we want to do everything we can to ensure your experience with Vitamin-R is a pleasant one. If you have a technical problem, a suggestion, or simply want to say hello, Just drop us a line at support@publicspace.net.

Syncing with Vitamin-R for iOS

Please note that Vitamin-R for iOS has been discontinued due to lack of interest. The instructions below are for existing users, but the Dropbox sync is likely to stop working without notice soon as the Dropbox APIs evolve.

If you own Vitamin-R for iOS, Dropbox sync is usually set up during the initial on-boarding screens, but a shocking number of people (ha!) swipe through these screens without reading them. If you are amongst the people who need to activate the Dropbox sync after the initial setup, proceed as follows:

You do not need to have the Dropbox app installed on your device, but it is much easier to grant Vitamin-R access to your dropbox with the app installed.

Contents