Yojimbo FAQs

Can I use Yojimbo with iCloud?

All existing versions of Yojimbo require MobileMe to perform Mac-to-Mac syncing; they will not work with iCloud.

Thus, if you wish to continue syncing Yojimbo, you should not convert your account to use iCloud at this time. (Apple will continue to offer MobileMe service through June 30, 2012.)

We do intend to support iCloud in a future version of Yojimbo (well before the MobileMe sunset date). However, since we are still investigating related technical issues, we don’t yet have a concrete answer; as soon as we do, we’ll post info on our website.

(Anyone who wishes to use Dropbox to copy their Yojimbo data between machines may find instructions and caveats here.)

Note: Yojimbo for iPad syncs directly with a paired Mac via WiFi and thus is not affected by this change.

Where does Yojimbo store my items? And what do I need to back up to protect my stored data?

Yojimbo stores your data in the folder /Users/USERNAME/Library/Application Support/Yojimbo/ (that is, the “Yojimbo” folder inside the “Application Support” folder inside the “Library” folder in your Home directory). If you back up this folder, your Yojimbo data will be protected.

Note: We recommend that you quit Yojimbo before backing up your data.

To restore from backup, first make sure Yojimbo isn’t running, then copy the “Yojimbo” folder from the backup set into your local “Application Support” folder. Finally, re-launch Yojimbo.

Note: Although Lion hides your account’s “Library” folder by default, you can still access this folder by holding down the Option key and choosing Go → Library in the Finder.

When I add a file to Yojimbo, do I need to keep the file?

Yojimbo always copies your data into its database, leaving the original unaffected. So, after you’ve added a file (or multiple files) to Yojimbo, modifying or deleting the originals will not affect the data stored in Yojimbo.

Likewise, any changes you make to an item stored in Yojimbo will not affect the original file.

I have a MobileMe account, but Yojimbo isn’t synchronizing my items. How can I make syncing work?

Please start by taking the following steps.

  1. Update all your Macs to the most current system version.
  2. Make sure the latest version of Yojimbo is installed on all your Macs.
  3. Bring up the Sync panel of the MobileMe system prefs, and set the sync interval to “Every Hour”.
  4. Perform a manual sync from each of your Macs, waiting until the first machine finishes before starting the next.
  5. Once you’ve finished the step above, please let the scheduled syncs take place with no further intervention.

If you continue to encounter syncing problems after taking all these steps, please contact tech support for further assistance.

Is Yojimbo available for Windows or Linux?

No. All of our products are available for the Macintosh only, and we have no plans to develop products for any other platform.

What system version does Yojimbo require?

Yojimbo 3.0 and later requires Mac OS X 10.5 (10.5.8, 10.6.8, 10.7.2 or later recommended). It will not run on Mac OS 9 or any earlier version of Mac OS X.

Why doesn’t typing F8 bring up the Quick Input panel?

The behavior of your Mac’s function keys is controlled by a system prefs option. Additionally, system functions may overlap with Yojimbo’s hot key assignments.

How Function Keys Behave

The behavior of your Mac’s Function keys is controlled by the “Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys” option in the Keyboard tab of the Keyboard system prefs panel. (To get there, choose “System Preferences” from the Apple menu, then select the Keyboard panel, and click on the Keyboard tab.)

When this option is OFF, the function keys will perform preset system actions, for example: brightening or dimming the screen, or launching iTunes. To instead use these keys as ordinary function keys, you must type both the “Fn” key and the desired F# key simultaneously. For example, pressing Fn + F8 will invoke Yojimbo’s Quick Input Panel (or possibly Spaces; if so, see the section below on Keyboard Shortcuts).

(The printed symbol on each function key corresponds to its system action.)

If this option is ON, the function keys will behave as standard function keys, which act according to the Keyboard Shortcuts preferences, or to applications’ own settings. In this case, pressing F8 alone will either invoke Spaces (if that shortcut is active), or bring up Yojimbo’s Quick Input Panel, whereas pressing Fn + F8 would launch iTunes.

Keyboard Shortcuts

The Keyboard Shortcuts panel of the Keyboard system prefs displays all keyboard shortcuts defined by the system, and any shortcuts you’ve manually added.

Applications may also make their own keyboard shortcuts, though a system shortcut can override these.

So, in some cases, you may need to either deactivate or change a system shortcut if it overlaps with an application shortcut. Alternatively, you may want to change the application shortcut; in Yojimbo, you can do this via its own “Hot Keys” prefs panel.

Why is a MobileMe account necessary to synchronize my data across multiple machines? Can’t you just push the files around with FTP or WebDAV?

Yojimbo’s synchronization is much more sophisticated than the simple “push a file around” method that others may consider “MobileMe sync support”.

Yojimbo uses the record-level synchronization features of MobileMe to perform item- and record-level synchronization, so that if you add items to Yojimbo on two different computers, or edit different parts of the same item on two different computers, the differences are reconciled when synchronization occurs, and you’ll end up with the same data on all of your computers. This isn’t possible when synchronization simply pushes a single file around.

To accomplish this feat, Yojimbo uses Mac OS X’s Sync Services capabilities, and Sync Services requires a MobileMe account.

Will there be an iPhone version of Yojimbo?

We do not currently have any concrete plans to produce an iPhone companion for Yojimbo. However, we are keeping an eye on further developments to the iPhone and the iOS platform.

Yojimbo also now includes Sidekick, a feature for exporting data in a web page format which you can use on your iPhone (or any other device with a modern web browser).

For a basic overview of Sidekick, please see the tour.

Does Yojimbo support hierarchical (nested) collections?

Yojimbo does not support hierarchical (nested) collections, and we have no current plans to do so since we think it would add clutter and make Yojimbo less approachable and efficient.

Instead, we believe the combination of Yojimbo’s tag collections and Tag Explorer are a cleaner (and more powerful) solution for most purposes.

I’ve uninstalled Yojimbo. How do I remove the leftover “com.barebones.yojimbo.yojimbodata” entry from the MobileMe Sync preferences?

When you run Yojimbo for the first time, the system will automatically recognize that it supports MobileMe synchronization and list it in the MobileMe Sync preferences. However, unless you perform a full sync reset, the system will not remove entries from this list even after you’ve removed the corresponding applications.(*)

You can directly remove the residual “Yojimbo” entry from the MobileMe Sync preferences, by downloading and running the “Uninstall Yojimbo” utility.