Introduction

Available on the Mac and iOS, OmniPresence is an essential tool for sharing documents between your Mac and iOS devices—and with members of your team.

OmniPresence is a free utility that you install on your Mac for synchronizing files. OmniPresence runs in the background, watching a synced folder. It makes sure the files inside are in sync with files in the cloud (a WebDAV server of your choice), and with your OmniPresence-enabled iOS apps.

On iOS, OmniPresence is built into OmniOutliner, OmniGraffle, and OmniPlan. You’ll access OmniPresence folders and files from within the app’s respective Resource Browsers. The result is that all of your OmniPresence-enabled devices detect changes wherever you make them, and constantly sync up to keep your files up to date.

What OmniPresence Isn’t

OmniPresence isn’t a replacement for your current sync solution for OmniFocus or for team collaboration in OmniPlan:

  • OmniFocus uses its own built-in sync code (rather than OmniPresence) to push database changes to a WebDAV server and retrieve them from it; OmniFocus for Mac doesn’t require OmniPresence to be installed for its sync to function to work.
  • OmniPlan uses a publish-and-subscribe feature for sharing project files. For example, you can create a project plan in OmniPlan and share it (publish) with people on the team who are responsible for certain tasks. In turn, they subscribe to the project so they can see and report on the tasks they’re assigned.

Specifically, OmniPresence was designed for documents such as OmniGraffle diagrams, stencils, and templates, for OmniOutliner outlines and templates, or for OmniPlan project files that aren’t being used collaboratively.

OmniPresence and Omni Sync Server also aren’t designed to be a backup solution. Sure, the files you sync are stored in the cloud, but you should still maintain regular backups of those files.

How Synchronization Works

Before diving into the nuts and bolts of getting everything set up on your Mac, it’s worth taking a moment to discuss how syncing with OmniPresence works.

OmniPresence relies on connecting to Omni Sync Server or to a WebDAV server. Omni Sync Server—a free service—is our own custom WebDAV server and it functions as a central hub for all your syncing needs; it’s what OmniPresence connects to by default when shuttling files between your Mac and iOS devices.

A graphic of a Cloud with Omni Sync Server and a WebDAV server inside, with bidirectional arrows pointing to a Mac laptop, an iPhone, and an iPad

With OmniPresence turned on, the WebDAV server you designate (either Omni Sync Server or your own or a third-party WebDAV server) manages synchronization so that your files are always up to date. With each subsequent sync, OmniPresence looks for changes to your local files and then copies those files to the server. This ensures that your files are not just up to date, they’re available wherever—and whenever—you need them.

We’ve also built in an automatic sync mechanism. When you save an OmniPlan, OmniGraffle, or OmniOutliner file to an OmniPresence-enabled folder (or when an Auto Save occurs), OmniPresence updates the file on the sync server. At a bare minimum, OmniPresence checks in with Omni Sync Server every hour and compares files in your sync folder. If nothing has changed, OmniPresence quietly goes back to watching over your files. This helps ensure that your files are always up to date.

File Information That Isn’t Synced by OmniPresence

On OS X, if you select a file in the Finder and choose File ▸ Get Info (Command-I), you’ll notice that the system An OmniOutliner files Get Info windowassociates a bunch of information—metadata—with the file.

However, when OmniPresence syncs files with Omni Sync Server, some of that metadata isn’t carried along; this includes the following:

  • Custom file icons
  • Tags
  • The Stationery Pad, Locked, Invisible, and Busy flags
  • Extension visibility
  • Label color
  • The app specified in the Open with popup menu

It’s also worth noting that file and folder Aliases are transferred in the sync process, but they won’t work on another Mac.

Connecting OmniPresence to Omni Sync Server is fairly simple, and can be broken up into three major steps:

  1. First, create an account for access to Omni Sync Server. This process is covered in Creating an Omni Sync Server Account.

  2. With your Omni Sync Server credentials in-hand, the next step is to install OmniPresence on your Mac. This process is covered in Installing and Configuring OmniPresence.

    You are guided through the installing OmniPresence on your Mac, connecting to Omni Sync Server, and creating a connected folder for storing files you’ll sync with OmniPresence.

  3. Once everything is set up on your Mac, and you’re ready to start syncing files, we offer some tips for Using OmniPresence on Your Mac.

With your new folder connected to OmniPresence, any files you add to it on your Mac are added to the server and automatically updated everywhere. OmniPresence monitors your synced folders for activity, and triggers a sync to the cloud whenever something is added or changed.

Privacy and Omni Sync Server

We understand that sometimes you want to keep your data on your own server. This could be due to company policy, for legal reasons, or just your desire to be in charge of backing up everything that’s important to you. We get it!

That said, we never—ever—look at your data unless you explicitly give us permission; for example, if you have contacted our Support Humans for assistance with a file you are working on.

If you don’t want to use Omni Sync Server, OmniPresence is capable of connecting to most WebDAV servers. This could be a WebDAV server that you run on your own hardware, or a third-party service that you rely on.

For compatibility purposes, OmniPresence recognizes WebDAV servers that are based on Apache. Be sure to check with your system administrator, web-host, or a third-party provider to see what their version of WebDAV is based on before trying to connect with OmniPresence.

If you choose to run your own WebDAV server, be sure to read this handy support article on our website.