Sync apps preferences between multiple Macs

data synchronizationdropboxpreferencesterminal

I tend to keep all my stuff in Dropbox. Now that I bought a second Mac, I thought that keeping also my applications preferences in Dropbox would have been a good idea.

I managed to sync some of the Application Support folders (I just want the more important apps to be in sync) by simply linking the shared folder on Dropbox to the link on the Macs:

ln -s ~/Dropbox/SharedPrefs/AnApp ~/Library/Application Support/AnApp

this way I ensure that every, say, Sublime Text 2 build I create on one Mac will be synched on the other Mac.

But I'm having troubles in synching actual .plist files. I did the exact same thing as above (the example is for iTerm 2):

mv ~/Library/Preferences/com.googlecode.iterm2.plist ~/Dropbox/SharedPrefs/
ln -s ~/Dropbox/SharedPrefs/com.googlecode.iterm2.plist ~/Library/Preferences/com.googlecode.iterm2.plist

So now I have the actual physical .plist file on Dropbox, and a placeholder link on the Mac.

But this doesn't seem to work: when I quit and re-open iTerm (or whatever application), it isn't able to use the symlink to access the preferences on Dropbox.

What should I do?

I'll appreciate every advice on how to keep application preferences synched between two Macs; I'm using the cmd-line just because I'm used to it but also a GUI utility is ok.
Also, an utility which doesn't sync only the Application Support folder, but also the .plists and other shared stuff would be great!

Best Answer

Open preferences and check the box marked "Load preferences from a customer folder or URL""

You can browse to your Dropbox folder and the click "Save Settings to Folder"

example