Dropbox is a great service, I’m using it happily to keep my files in sync across multiple computers - I’m even using it to keep all of my passwords in sync, but I’ve thought of another great use… How about syncing my Things database between my macs (as this is my to-do list manager of choice)?
This is not fully tested yet, (just thought of it this morning) so i’ll update a bit later and report on as to wether things goes completely mental, but the way I’ve done this is as follows…
Make sure Things is completely shut down, then open up a terminal and type in the following commands:
cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/Cultured\ Code/
This moves us into the correct directory. First, to be on the safe side - we’ll take a backup of our files…
cp -R Things Things.bak
Now just move the Things directory into your dropbox and create a symbolic link in its place.
mv Things ~/Dropbox/ ln -s ~/Dropbox/Things Things
Fingers crossed this should have the desired results! 
Update: It works!!! 
On the second computer all you need to do to get the ball rolling is to close down Things, open up a terminal and type the following commands:
cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/Cultured\ Code/ rm -rf Things ln -s ~/Dropbox/Things Things
Note - my 2nd mac only had a fresh install of Things - no data. I installed it, opened it up (so the initial database was created), then did the above.
This is wonderful.
A lot of people on the Things web forum have been wondering about this and as far as I know havent been able to get it working.
Im sure the, very approachable, Cultured Code guys would be extremely interested in this and Ill be trying it out with my iMac and my hacked Acer Aspire running OSX.
Absolutely brilliant. Dropbox is seriously handy, I’m using it to sync my iMac & my MacBook (1 Password & now Things).
Thanks heaps.
J
Instead of messing with symlinks: Press and hold ALT button while starting Things and you can choose where to keep your database file. But thanks for the article.
this is outstanding- im so happy this worked
does it also work by the method Viddo suggested?
my vostro a90 mini hackintosh has never been so happy
Hi Patrick, thanks for your comments. Yep the method Viddo suggests wil also work quite nicely (and much easier than mine), this was a neat little feature added to Things after I wrote this work around. You’ll find the full details here.
This works great, thanks! My only problem is, as known, that if I don’t quit Things in one computer when I open it in the other, there is a conflict.
Do you know if there is a way to quit Things if the computer is put to sleep and/or it has not been used for certain time? That would be very helpful, thanks!
Hi Julius,
The short answer is that I have no idea to be honest. I guess you would be able to do this with a nifty piece of AppleScript, but i’ve not really touched much of that…
Sorry, I couldn’t be much use!
You don’t need to use soft-linking at all, you can tell Things to just choose another library.
View how to: http://www.devilx.net/2009/10/02/put-some-things-into-your-dropbox/
Greets!