Technical Notes

Can SwitchBack use Navigation Services?

Yes.  If Navigation Services is installed on a PowerMac, all standard file and folder selection dialogs will use Apple’s new Navigation Services.

Can SwitchBack use Macintosh Drag and Drop? (Oct 1994)

Yes.  If you are running System 7.5 or later, or have the “Macintosh Drag and Drop” extension installed with System 7.1, you can avoid the “Choose Folder” dialog.  Simply drag a folder or a disk onto the choose folder button of the SwitchBack window.  A hilite rectangle will appear if the item you are dragging can be dropped on the SwitchBack document.  Release the mouse to drop the item, and the path will appear as if you had used the “Choose Folder” dialog.  Note that if you drag and drop an alias, the alias will be resolved, and the path to the target will appear.  Note also that you can not drag and drop an alias to an unmounted disk, and you can only drag one item at a time.  You can also drag and drop files into the “Exclude Items” dialog as a shortcut to using the Add… button.

When synchronizing with our server, a strange dialog box appears telling me that the two machines’ clocks are wrong.  What does this mean? (May 1994)

When synchronizing machines over a network, you may notice that SwitchBack treats two identical files as having different modification dates.  This can occur when the clock setting of the two machines differs by more than 10 minutes.  Usually the clock of either the server or the local machine has drifted.  Simply set the clock using the “Date & Time” control panel.  Sometimes, a machine has been set up so that the time is correct, but the machine location is wrong.  Check the “Map” control panel if this is a problem, and set the machines to the correct time zone.  If you do not fix this discrepancy, unpredictable results can occur.  It is possible to lose data should an older version of a file be viewed incorrectly by the system as more recent.  SwitchBack performs an internal check every time it accesses a remote volume, and brings up a warning dialog if this problem is encountered.

When synchronizing with our UNIX box SwitchBack tells me the clocks are incorrect, but I know they are right.  What is happening? (May 1994)

Some external file systems use a different date from which to start counting.  AppleShare uses Jan. 1st 2000, but some UNIX machines use Jan. 1st 1970.  If this is the case simply uncheck the Check Server Time box in the preferences dialog.

Gatekeeper gives an error when performing a synchronization, saying that “the program "SwitchBack 2.7" violated the File(Other) privilege by calling the procedure PBHRename”.  Am I infected with a virus? (March 1994)

Probably not.  Like the Finder, SwitchBack is performing some file manipulation functions, one of which is to write a temporary file, which is renamed when successfully copied.  Gatekeeper expects (reasonably) that any program other than the Finder that is renaming files might be acting maliciously, and therefore brings up the above dialog box.  Simply give SwitchBack the appropriate privileges in Gatekeeper’s preferences to avoid this.

The 255 character pathname limit is awkward.  Are you planning to fix this? (March 1994, June 1999)

Yes, with version 3.0.  Pathnames are currently limited to 255 characters.  If you need to specify a longer pathname, you can use the alias resolving feature to access folders that are many levels deep.

Are any files automatically ignored by SwitchBack?

Yes.  System files, such as “VM Storage” and “Desktop DB” are ignored by SwitchBack automatically.

Can I use SwitchBack under System 6? (April 1997)

Not any more.  The last version of SwitchBack that was System 6 compatible was 2.5.1.  More recent versions require at least System 7.1