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Mac alternative for ManicTime - Please help on finding mac alternative
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Arie  
#1 Posted : Monday, July 14, 2014 11:58:50 AM(UTC)
Arie

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Posts: 2
Netherlands
I just moved from Windows to OS X. I really love ManicTime and I think nothing beats it. That's why I'm very sorry to hear that ManicTime for Mac will not become available any time soon.
As a project manager I would love to know an alternative (surely not topping ManicTime) for Mac. I hope someone knows. I'm browsing the web for a week now and find nothing that suits my needs.

Must have features:
- fully automatic (starts with OS X and no manual input needed)
- tracks applications and documents/e-mails in one overview (e.g. easy readable timeline)
- ability to EASY tie time (based on applications and documents) to a tag/project etcetera
- popup after x minutes of inactivity asking to tie the time to a tag/project etcetera
- EASY day/week/month overview of worked hours per tag/project etcetera
- paid solution rather than adware or freeware

Should have features:
- paid application rather than a online one with a subsciption
- automatic tags/labels based on applications/documents etcetera
- password protect database

Edited by user Monday, July 14, 2014 12:45:46 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified
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75th  
#2 Posted : Monday, July 28, 2014 6:35:08 PM(UTC)
75th

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Location: Jonesboro, Arkansas USA
Quote:
I'm browsing the web for a week now and find nothing that suits my needs.


I've been looking at every Mac time tracking app for years and nothing comes remotely close to ManicTime.

Quote:
That's why I'm very sorry to hear that ManicTime for Mac will not become available any time soon.


Is there a recent post that indicates that they're still nowhere close? As of seven months ago they were working on it and hoped to have an alpha version of the tracker for Mac at some point in the future. Of course, that was seven months ago, and there's nothing saying that it wouldn't be another seven months or longer before they had anything. But unless I've missed something, we don't KNOW that they have RECENTLY said "nope, not going to happen".
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admin  
#3 Posted : Monday, July 28, 2014 7:17:35 PM(UTC)
admin

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When we started working on Mac version we also started working on a new Windows tracker. And that turned out to be more complicated than we anticipated. Originally we wanted to use this new tracker for both Windows and Mac. I'd say we are still not very close to finishing the new tracker, so we will try to fix the Mac tracker we have and release it. Then we will upgrade it when we get to the new tracker.

We get a lot of requests for MT for Mac, but mostly this is for the full MT version. Since this is just the tracker we did not make it a priority.
We just finished v3, so we do have some more time. We will try to release the Mac tracker, once it is stable we can see if we can port more functionality.
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Arie  
#4 Posted : Monday, July 28, 2014 8:36:44 PM(UTC)
Arie

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That's very good news! Can you tell when this might happen? Is it a matter of weeks or rather months?
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admin  
#5 Posted : Monday, July 28, 2014 10:04:01 PM(UTC)
admin

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I have one running on my machine, but it is crashing a lot. I'll see if we can fix it in the coming weeks.
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manicmacuser  
#6 Posted : Thursday, August 14, 2014 4:29:13 AM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: admin Go to Quoted Post
I have one running on my machine, but it is crashing a lot. I'll see if we can fix it in the coming weeks.


This would be incredible. If the beta functions well and integrates with the Windows version, I would buy the full MT windows version immediately.
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admin  
#7 Posted : Thursday, August 14, 2014 10:29:33 AM(UTC)
admin

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It does, but you would need to run a server as well on the windows machine.
So you would run:
-MT tracker on mac
-MT server on win
-and MT on win, with loaded timelines from the mac. Then you could tag on the windows machine...
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manicmacuser  
#8 Posted : Thursday, August 14, 2014 3:59:13 PM(UTC)
manicmacuser

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Thanks. Sounds promising, but any idea what the aggregate processor load would be from running all three on the same time?

Originally Posted by: admin Go to Quoted Post
It does, but you would need to run a server as well on the windows machine.
So you would run:
-MT tracker on mac
-MT server on win
-and MT on win, with loaded timelines from the mac. Then you could tag on the windows machine...
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admin  
#9 Posted : Thursday, August 14, 2014 4:05:09 PM(UTC)
admin

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Actually you could run Windows at the end of the day. Mac tracker has a db of its own, it would send the data when server comes online....
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manicmacuser  
#10 Posted : Thursday, August 14, 2014 4:37:51 PM(UTC)
manicmacuser

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Interesting. So how would this work, exactly?

1. Run MT mac all day / week?
2. When you are ready to actually pull the MT database into MT Win, you run (1) MT Win and (2) MT Win Server.
3. You can then shut off MT Win Server and view the timelines in MT Win to the extent you want to view / tag / export?

Can't wait to try it.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by: admin Go to Quoted Post
Actually you could run Windows at the end of the day. Mac tracker has a db of its own, it would send the data when server comes online....
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admin  
#11 Posted : Thursday, August 14, 2014 7:19:50 PM(UTC)
admin

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3. MT server would have to run when you tag, because those timelines will be served from the server, not stored locally.

For example currently you can have two machines, both sending data to the server. To view data from machine 1 on machine 2, you load timelines for machine 1 on MT in machine 2. That data is sent from the server to machine 2 on demand, MT just shows it. When you change day for example client requests data from the server and displays it.

So you could do the same thing here. Send data from Mac, then load the timelines in Win Mt and tag there.
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manicmacuser  
#12 Posted : Thursday, August 14, 2014 8:00:16 PM(UTC)
manicmacuser

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Interesting. A few points:

1. Obviously the ideal way to do this would be to have the MT application ported to Mac. I recognize that would require a lot of work, but that is the best solution.

2. In the absence of porting the MT application for Mac, the next best option would be for the MT tracker to run on the Mac without MT Server or MT Windows running at the same time. The resulting data could then be accessed by MT Windows when MT Windows is next launched.

3. If that is not possible, then the MT tracker would run on the Mac without MT Server or MT Windows running at the same time. When MT Server and MT Windows are next launched, the data becomes accessible to MT Windows.

I think the bottom line is that less a user is required to run the MT Windows app / server at all times (and the more limited the need for MT server), the more successful the MT tracker for Mac would be.

In any event, your work is very appreciated, and we look forward to seeing (and helping to test) your venture into the Mac world of time tracking.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by: admin Go to Quoted Post
3. MT server would have to run when you tag, because those timelines will be served from the server, not stored locally.

For example currently you can have two machines, both sending data to the server. To view data from machine 1 on machine 2, you load timelines for machine 1 on MT in machine 2. That data is sent from the server to machine 2 on demand, MT just shows it. When you change day for example client requests data from the server and displays it.

So you could do the same thing here. Send data from Mac, then load the timelines in Win Mt and tag there.
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admin  
#13 Posted : Thursday, August 14, 2014 8:39:02 PM(UTC)
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1. Agreed
2. You mean without MT Server? This could be done, it wont work soon, but once we get to the same db on windows as on mac, which will happen, then it should work.
3. This will work.

We will see how it goes. Lets wait until we get to a stable tracker on mac, then we can talk about next steps...
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manicmacuser  
#14 Posted : Thursday, August 14, 2014 10:10:29 PM(UTC)
manicmacuser

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2. Yes, without MT server. In other words, it seems like the CPU load issue would be significantly mitigated if MT Mac and MT Windows could share the same database file without Server. Or if MT Mac could just track everything going on in Mac OS and Windows (via Parallels) and MT Windows could use the Mac's database. Putting MT Server into the mix makes this more challenging for most servers.

3. Ok, definitely worth a try. Is your ETA still a few weeks?

Originally Posted by: admin Go to Quoted Post
1. Agreed
2. You mean without MT Server? This could be done, it wont work soon, but once we get to the same db on windows as on mac, which will happen, then it should work.
3. This will work.

We will see how it goes. Lets wait until we get to a stable tracker on mac, then we can talk about next steps...
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admin  
#15 Posted : Thursday, August 14, 2014 11:37:38 PM(UTC)
admin

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Posts: 872
Still finishing v3, new bugs creep up every day. Will work on it as soon as this is finished.
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Diquito  
#16 Posted : Thursday, October 16, 2014 1:17:20 PM(UTC)
Diquito

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Joined: 9/15/2011(UTC)
Posts: 3
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
This is excellent news.
I've been using MT for several years now on windows.. But as many others I have moved from Windows to OSX and a software that I really miss is MT.

So if you need beta testers or whatever help please let me know.. I really would help out with whatever you need to get this up and running as soon as possible.

///David
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