Help · Moving data

Two machines, one file

A laptop and a desktop, one timesheet. This works, as long as you follow one rule.

The rule

One writer at a time per file. It is the same discipline as sharing a spreadsheet over Dropbox, minus the subscription. owntime is not a sync service and does not merge two diverged copies, because guessing how to merge someone’s billing history is how you lose an invoice.

Getting a file to move

Two options, both yours to own:

• Sync folder. Settings → Backups & sync → point the sync folder at a folder inside iCloud Drive or Dropbox. The current database is mirrored there on every save, and your sync service carries it.
• Your own bucket. Settings → mirror to your own Cloudflare R2 or any S3 bucket, on every save. Your keys, your bucket, nobody in between.

Switching machines by hand

Quit owntime on the first Mac Let it finish writing (it saves as you work, so this is instant) Take timesheet.db from the sync folder or bucket Put it at ~/Documents/owntime/timesheet.db on the second Mac Open owntime

Doing that in the wrong order, meaning editing on the second Mac before the first has stopped, is the only way to lose work here.

If you forget

The backup history is your safety net. Each machine keeps its own twenty local copies, so whichever side was overwritten is usually still there to restore from. Reproducing an hour of work is annoying. Losing a month of it is what the backups exist to prevent.

What this is not

There is no live multi-machine editing, no conflict resolution screen and no team workspace. If two people need to edit the same timesheet at the same moment, this is the wrong tool and owntime will say so rather than let you find out the hard way.

Next: R2 / S3 backup · restoring a backup