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Will a 2nd computer in iCloud cause a sync issue?

Thanks in advance for any help that you can give me.


My friend is in town from another state. She brought all of her devices and 1 of her 2 computers with her. Her computer files and devices were completely disorganized and not synchronized properly for iCloud and iTunes. I helped clean up her address book, calendar, etc and I also helped get her Macbook Air, iPad mini, 2 iphones, and an iPod Touch in perfect sync with each other via iCloud and iTunes. Everything now matches on each of those devices and her Macbook Air. Her iCloud and her iTunes account on each "just work" together as they say and are now in perfect sync. Her Apple "ecosystem" now works like a charm!


Our concern is when she gets back home and opens her 2nd computer (a Macbook Pro), which is the only computer/device she didn't bring with her on her trip to see me. Her Macbook Pro back home is still a mess with a disorganized calendar, address book, mail, etc. and she is also signed into her iCloud account and her iTunes account on this Macbook Pro. The worry is that when she opens her Macbook Pro back home it is going to undo all of the work we did and update/sync its messy address book, calendar, mail, etc to all of her devices and the Macbook Air that we so carefully cleaned up. First, is that what will happen when she opens her 2nd computer back home? Second, if so, what can I tell her to do when she gets home to the Macbook Pro to prevent the mess on that computer infecting her now perfect Apple ecosystem?

Posted on Oct 2, 2013 5:08 AM

Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Oct 2, 2013 5:52 AM

The 2nd machine should change to the current state of the iCloud dataset, I say should because nothing is perfect so why not backup the now pristine machine in case of a need to restore.

10 replies

Oct 2, 2013 9:38 AM in response to Csound1

No, I make plenty of backups of my own system...I'm telling you that my friend is on vacation here and did not bring her time capsule or an external hard drive to make a backup of her own system, it is back home in another state with her Macbook Pro. But I should also mention, which I didn't mention before, that her husband back home may have to use the Macbook Pro before she gets back home to make a backup. If he opens the computer before she gets back home to make a backup, the concern is again that the "pristine" system will be polluted by the Macbook Pro. With that said, are you saying that the only precaution she can take is to go out and buy an external hard drive while she is here just to make a backup? Any other ideas?


Thanks for your time and suggestions.

Oct 2, 2013 6:19 PM in response to Csound1

Csound1,


Hope you get this. I have never done a "clone" backup before....or maybe I have...is a "clone" backup just a time machine backup? If not, could you point me in the right direction to make a clone backup on an external hard drive? Would I do that in Disk Utility?


Thanks again.

Oct 2, 2013 7:02 PM in response to Community User

I would suggest that you download Carbon Copy Cloner, there is a 30 day free trial which will be more than enough for this.


Install it, run it, choose the internal drive as the source and the external drive as the destination, you will end up with an exact copy of the internal hard drive. Exact enough to boot from if needed.


CCC is very simple and very good.

Will a 2nd computer in iCloud cause a sync issue?

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