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[cunardferguson]

Hi All (not sure if this should be in the hardware section)
I have an M2 MacMini 16/256 with a 1tb external drive on which resides all my Finale files using Symlink to access the files. I also have a back up external dive and also use iCloud Drive to store the same files which I can access with a MBA if I'm away. What I was wondering is there an auto feature or software so at the end of the day any changes I make to my finale charts can be automatically saved to iCloud and the other external drive. I mostly drag and drop then merge the folders but sometimes I end up with duplicates so I have to go back and delete the extra files. On the backup drive I have charts going back a lot of years which I would like to keep, you never know, (they are not on my working drive), hence the reason I don't want to "replace" folders.

Thanks Kev

[BuonTempi]

I have an M2 MacMini 16/256 with a 1tb external drive on which resides all my Finale files using Symlink to access the files.

Where do the symlinks link to? And why?

What I was wondering is there an auto feature or software so at the end of the day any changes I make to my finale charts can be automatically saved to iCloud and the other external drive.

There are plenty of syncing apps: Chronosync, GoodSync, Resilio Sync, and others, that can sync between Macs, or between folders.

On the backup drive I have charts going back a lot of years which I would like to keep, you never know, (they are not on my working drive), hence the reason I don't want to "replace" folders.

What happens to those files if your backup drive fails?

[gogreen]

I back up to iCloud and to an external hard drive. I also use FreeFileSync to back up my work from my iMac to a Macbook Air. I'm unaware of a Mac app that automatically saves files.

[bakkumd]

I store my files in iCloud Drive and use Time Machine. I have had external spinner drives go bad every now and then - restoring from TM or iCloud is easy and I've never lost a file. SSD drives are smaller, faster, and more durable - consider those as well.

Finale accesses files in iCloud just fine - never had any issues.

There are some copy/clone/backup apps that can sync folders to multiple locations. Carbon Copy Cloner works well and has a 30 day free trial.

Depending on your file size needs, DropBox has a free account option - with remote access - also works well.

If you need more than that, buy a thumb drive and add it to a syncing routine in CCC - this will give you an additional copy you can attach to your key chain. It can auto-update every time you plug it into your Mac.

One more option is to use Google Drive. If you have a g-mail account, you already have a 15 GB Google Drive option. There are syncing options here as well. I use Google for long term storage of files and other items - and it's FREE up to 15 GB. Additional space options are available for a fee - similar to iCloud Drive.

[motet]

When I spend several months doing a piece I save the .musx files in Finale literally hundreds of times (I don't ever leave it running overnight). I don't know about Time Machine, but Dropbox will automatically save some number of versions back but not hundreds. I copy the .musx file to Dropbox once a day as a backup, but at significant points I also manually (using a script) make what I call a snapshot. I also copy these snapshots to Dropbox in case my disk drive crashes. I also do a general backup of everything (not just Finale files) regularly.

[dtoub]

I have Autosave on but it's not been useful to me (plus I save every time I enter stuff into Finale or make an edit). The problem with Autosave is that it creates a file that may have edits you don't want; a better approach would be to have a system to save the original state of the file when first opened, and also automatically save every keystroke along the way. There used to be something like that for text on the Mac many many years ago, but I've not seen anything like that ever since.

That said, saving at frequent intervals is pretty useful for Finale. I do have Dropbox automatically save things every time I save a Finale file (Dropbox, while I use it as a "backup" system, is not technically a true backup system, which is why I also have Backblaze). This is one use case where Time Machine is particularly helpful, since it does incremental backups that can be rolled back to the last, or earlier, backup.

[motet]

Finale's Autosave and what's being requested here are not the same, of course. In the absence of saving every keystroke, as you describle, I find Autosave very useful in case Finale crashes. I have it save every 10 minutes, so if Finale crashes (seldom) I lose at most 10 minutes work (but an average of 5 minutes work). After the file is saved or Finale is closed, the .asvx file is not useful.

If I saved manually often that would really slow me down, and for me, anyway, Finale crashes are rare on Windows; when they do happen, it's usually during playback or running a plug-in.

[BuonTempi]

It's worth saying that "iCloud is not a backup". It doesn't do versioning; and you can only recover deleted files for 30 days. You can't recover overwritten files, for example.

[dtoub]

Exactly. Hence my similar admonition about Dropbox.

[ebiggs1]

I don't do extremely long charts. A 100 to 150 measures of concert band just about gets it but I still save often and I do Save As with an extension like underscore A or _B, _C. I have three 2 terabyte external HD's for my backups. I don't like the "cloud" or Dropbox, personally.
If I ever would use one of those it would be Google Drive.

I can't remember the last time 27.4.1 has crashed if it ever has. On my previous Dell computer, I never shut it off and Finale among other programs were running for days some times. My new desktop goes to sleep every night so Finale is shut down every day. It doesn't seem to make any difference I can tell.