Problem: When you start TrailRunner on Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, it may happen that the system is asking you if you would like to Duplicate the current document or Unlock it.

Background: This is a new system wide behavior in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion to prevent users from accidentally overwriting a documents content if not used for a longer time. In TrailRunner however it does not (always) make sense, because you generally work with only one document, which is TrailRunner.trail, stored in your Application Support folder. But the new versioning mechanism itself does makes sense, as it is a fast backup restoration method while working in your network of tracks and accidentally breaking up things.
Solution: Whenever this dialog comes up, klick on the Unlock button, because that is what you would expect.

Expert Note: The three choices have the following meaning: Unlock lets you edit the file as you would have in earlier versions of Mac OS X (and it keeps versions behind the scenes), Cancel is your panic button, and Duplicate creates a new file you can start with. In the end it doesn't really matter which option you choose. TrailRunner will always re-open the last saved document on the next application start, which is either the unlocked original or the duplicated new document branch. To be sure where the system has actually stored your unlocked or duplicated document, you can check the place by command-clicking the document title and inspect the location.

Sidenote: Interestingly even Apple itself has some problems with the new system feature.

Tags: MacOS X 10.7 Lion, backup

Problem: You have a Mac at home and one at work. You would like to synchronize your TrailRunner diary with these two computers.
Solution: TrailRunner supports Dropbox. You can put the TrailRunner documents into your Dropbox and the data gets synchronized between all linked computers.

> www.dropbox.com
> Technote on how to install and use DropBox

Tags: synchronize, diary, backup, dropbox

Problem: It's not really obvious to me where TrailRunner stores the main document containing routes and the database containing my diary activities. How can I backup these files?

Solution: TrailRunner stores files in the following folders. Backup these folders/files and your personal data is safe.
__yourhome__/Library/Application Support/TrailRunner
__yourhome__/Library/Preferences
__yourhome__/Library/Caches/com.berbie.trailrunner

> Read More about what files TrailRunner writes to your harddrive…

Hint: Another alternative to backing up your files is to place them in Dropbox. This also enables you to synchronize with other computers you own:
> Read More about how to synchronize your diary with other computers…

Hint: on Mac OS X Lion the __yourhome__/Library folder is invisible. You can make it permanently visible using the following terminal command:
chflags nohidden ~/Library/
or you can open it by typing the following into the Finder menu item Go > Go to Folder box:
~/Library

Tags: backup, diary, synchronize, dropbox, preferences