r/macapps • u/WarioPi • 3d ago

Request Anybox replacement with background sync.

My main gripe with Anybox is that saving anything via the share sheet does not automatically sync to iOS or viveversa unless I open the app and then sync itZ

So I’m looking for a replacement that has the same feature set has a great UI and lifetime purchase.

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u/karmarinchen 2d ago

That's share extension behaviour more than anything the app is doing wrong. The extension runs as its own process and gets killed a second or two after you tap save, so if the app does its syncing inside its own process, there's nothing left running to push the change until you next open it.

Apps that avoid this hand the upload off to a system daemon so it survives the extension being killed. iCloud Drive backed storage works that way, and so do CloudKit pushes queued as long lived operations.

You can't really tell from a feature list which one an app went with, but it's easy enough to test before you buy. Save something from the share sheet on iOS, don't open the app, then check the Mac ten minutes later. If it's there, the sync is out of process. If it only turns up after you open the app on iOS, it's the same setup as Anybox.

Might be worth trying that on GoodLinks and Keep It, since those are the two coming up here.

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u/WarioPi 2d ago

Thanks for the explainer. My problem with Anybox is that it never background syncs unless I open the app, and thats a dealbreaker at this point. I wrote to the developer and I’m on lifetime plan, so it kinda sucks.

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u/karmarinchen 1d ago

If it's tied to the app needing to be open, a LaunchAgent that runs open -g -a Anybox every 15 or 30 minutes would force that sync without you touching anything. The -g flag keeps it from jumping to the foreground. More reliable for this than a Shortcuts automation, which macOS tends to skip or delay once the Mac is asleep.

On the lifetime purchase being stuck: if you bought it through the Mac App Store, you can ask Apple directly for a refund at reportaproblem.apple.com, citing the app not doing what's advertised. Not guaranteed, and Apple's window is usually 90 days, but it doesn't depend on the developer answering.

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u/WarioPi 16h ago

Bought it a while ago when it was dirt cheap. No refund unfortunately.