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MobileMe sync not working for various reasons, fixes

The synchronization features for MobileMe and the calendar do not appear to function properly for some people. In many cases these problems stem from errors associated with Apple’s servers, but for converted .Mac accounts there may be inconsistency problems reported by the service.

For server errors there is no effective fix on the user-end, and affected users must wait for Apple to iron out the bugs (see Apple’s acknowledgement). However, users can attempt to reset their synchronization information to deal with consistency errors, and ensure synchronization is set up properly for automatic send and receive of updated information.

NOTE: Subscribed data (RSS feeds, calendars) will not be synced with the MobileMe service. For any subscriptions to be synchronized users must first convert them to local data.

Fixes

Reset the synchronization data On your Mac open the MobileMe iSync preferences (from the iSync menu or in the system preferences) and under the “Sync” tab select “Advanced”. Then click the “Reset Sync Data” button and you will be presented with the option to replace all sync info or just one type of information (calendars, bookmarks, etc). Select the desired data type and click one of the arrows to ensure you reset in the proper direction. If the data on your Mac is current and up to date, then click the right arrow to replace the data on MobileMe. iSync will then re-sync itself, but it is also recommended to manually invoke sync again by clicking the “Sync Now” button.

Enable automatic synchronization This is required for the MobileMe “push” synchronization to work properly for some services. Many .Mac users have had their synchronization preferences set to either Manual or to sync at a specific interval, and changing it to automatic will allow the sync to occur when changes are made, resulting in the desired “push” behavior. Go to the iSync system preferences and in the “sync” tab ensure “Synchronize with MobileMe” is checked and set to “Automatically” in the drop-down menu.

Remove relevant preferences files After resetting the synchronization data and ensuring all contact and calendar data are available on the servers (albeit not syncing automatically), go to the ~/Library/Preferences folder and remove the synchronization preferences files. These are:

  * ~/Library/Preferences/iCalExternalSync.plist
  * ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.plist
  * ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.DotMacSync.****.plist (**** is unique identifier information)

Workarounds

Manually synchronize If Automatic sync is not behaving properly after resetting all data on either the local machine or on MobileMe, use the iSync menu to manually synchronize the data. Go to the MobileMe “sync” system preferences and select “Manually” from the drop-down menu next to “Synchronize with MobileMe”. Next, ensure “Show status in menubar” (at the bottom of the preferences window) is checked so the sync options will be available from the Mac OS X menubar, and use the menubar to manually sync all information.

Willrob, great methodology, sounds like it should do the trick, doesn’t work as advertised unfortunately though - I’ve done the whole manual re-resetting of syncing more times than I can count.

I just hope that by the weekend, when the 2nd wave of iPhone buyers surge into the shops to buy an iPhone, they have this TOTALLY nailed.

Unfortunately that doesn’t detract from the fact that the web apps on MobileMe are generally grossly deficient and lacking key (and easy to add) features which have been inexcusably omitted.

(BTW, can anyone tell I’ve got a real bee in my bonnet over this .. I even wrote to SJ about it at Apple).

[quote author=“Tommo_UK”]

(BTW, can anyone tell I’ve got a real bee in my bonnet over this .. I even wrote to SJ about it at Apple).

T- I think I can tell, especially when the thread mysteriously got a “Or does it just Suck ? added to the title by some higher power!  Unfortunately suck is the truth at the moment!

Early adopter pain is often quite acute!  I’m feeling it too.  :x

[quote author=“Bryanyc”]Early adopter pain is often quite acute!  I’m feeling it too.  :x

The ridiculous thing is that many of us are not early adopters - those of us who have been .Mac subscribers from the beginning have just had a service foisted upon us that we did not ask for. That would be OK if the new service actually worked.

I have been particularly frustrated by iDisk, which used to work well, but suddenly has serious trouble syncing. I usually have to sync manually at least twice before files are updated. Finder windows also commonly quit when the update fails. I rely on iDisk as much as any other part of .Mac.

This is definitely a botched intro on Apple’s part. The software to support the iPhone 3G intro is nowhere near ready. I am not surprised that there were bandwidth problems with iPhone activations, but there is no excuse for the iTunes store being brought to its knees.

I would not be surprised if a few heads are rolling at One Infinite Loop right now.

[quote author=“Tommo_UK”]David, as pointed out above, this email is a complete lie and totally misleading. Apple are lying through their teeth about the true state of affairs WRT MobileMe as far as I’m concerned.

Primarily I don’t understand the accusations of Apple lying with regard to the quoted email. They are giving us 30 days extra service. They have stopped using the “push” term on the MobileMe website. And after the first day or so of growing pains, the service has been working wonderfully for me. Honestly I was impressed that Apple admitted their mistakes so openly, considering that they often try to bury problems.

Consequently I was really caught off-guard by the scathing comments I am seeing here, including mention of “criminal negligence.” It’s completely opposite of my experience with the service so far. I’m curious, are most of the people here new to MobileMe/.Mac? Having been a .Mac subscriber for several years, I’d say it has become more reliable than ever, following the initial transition period.

[quote author=“David Nelson”][quote author=“Tommo_UK”]David, as pointed out above, this email is a complete lie and totally misleading. Apple are lying through their teeth about the true state of affairs WRT MobileMe as far as I’m concerned.

Primarily I don’t understand the accusations of Apple lying with regard to the quoted email. They are giving us 30 days extra service. They have stopped using the “push” term on the MobileMe website. And after the first day or so of growing pains, the service has been working wonderfully for me. Honestly I was impressed that Apple admitted their mistakes so openly, considering that they often try to bury problems.

Not true. Apple say this: “While all email, contact or calendar changes on the iPhone and the web apps are immediately synced to and from the MobileMe “cloud.” This does not yet take place reliably. Sometimes the cloud push is instant sometimes not, as I pointed out in my post.

[quote author=“David Nelson”]
Consequently I was really caught off-guard by the scathing comments I am seeing here, including mention of “criminal negligence.” It’s completely opposite of my experience with the service so far. I’m curious, are most of the people here new to MobileMe/.Mac? Having been a .Mac subscriber for several years, I’d say it has become more reliable than ever, following the initial transition period.

I have been a .mac user since it was launched, and am an old hand at experiencing syncing problems. Apple went on to say this is their email:

“Fortunately we have worked through those problems and the web apps are now up and running. “

This was a blatant lie at the time - they were up and running, but only in as much as they would appear. They did not sync properly with the iPhone over the web, data was often missing, or be incomplete, and sometimes would just not appear at all.

Then there are all the other complaints listed by the previous posters.

My point was that Apple completely misrepresented the state of MM when they issued their apology, and it remained buggy, unreliable, and inconsistent. They would have done better to have acknowledged it was still buggy and recommended users not rely on it if they are concerned about it working as advertised until notified otherwise.

For example, there are changes I made to my Addressbook which are STILL not showing on MobileMe 24 hours later! And there are entries I made on my iPhone (some, not all - hence the inconsistency) which are still not appearing in my MobileMe calendar but are appearing on my desktop iCal!

Do you still wonder why I am so aggressive in my condemnation of MM?

And another thing. Apple has for a long time just dazzled with features and performance enhancements. The expectations bar is not the same for lesser companies. Apple leads in bringing complex technology to the public. So when your stuff doesn’t work it’s more of a shock and surprise. Cognitive dissonance!!!

I am not a MobileMe user.

This is bad for Apple.  Some engineers, QA people, and managers are responsible for this shoddy launch.  They should be called to task.

Could any of you tell me
(a)  Is it 98% working now?
(b)  Is the User Interface still clumsy?

For me Apple is about ease-of use compared to PC’s.  A weak UI is plainly bad and a bad signal for the future.

hledgard,

most of it works, most of the time, but that’s not good enough when you need access to critical data like a phone number, or an appointment, or your to know that the change to your calendar on whatever device you did so really will be reflected at best immediately, but at worst within 15 minutes if the change was made from a desktop.

In other words, the dependability of the syncing needs to be consistent and reliable, and it is still neither. 

“most of it works, most of the time” is the way I’d describe Windows on a PC. Its not the way I want to have to describe anything I run on my Mac, or in fact anything associated with any Apple product.

MM will be great when they get around to sorting it out properly and providing more very basic features the absence of which is almost abhorrent to me given the hype Apple have generated about the product. Having sold it, and the accompanying Web Apps so strongly, and having raised expectations so high, the feature-lacking, unreliable nature of them is a huge let-down.

Its really Microsoftian. Ugh. I never thought I’d say that. My Apple Aluminium Keyboard is sending electric shocks to my finger tips in anger even as I write these very words ..ouch.. OUCH…  I can feel the Eye of Sauron (otherwise known as Steve) staring at me through my iMac’s iSight camera right now… Ayyyyyyyyyyyy! 

My number 1 “basic feature”, would be the ability to have junk mail filtering properly implemented, so that what ends up on your iPhone is not all the crap that is filtered in .mac.  Combine that with the ability to delete multiple mails on the iPhone, and you would be getting half way there.

deleting multiple e-mails is now supported under 2.0.

The number one feature: email delivered to phone in real time, is working solidly for me, so far as can be determined. Emails arrive in a few seconds wherever I send them from. And with one Mac and one iPhone, the other stuff is also syncing, and force syncing seems to work, although I usually do it twice to make sure!

I will start using my retired Powerbook 12 again when I trust MobileMe.

its gets worse

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1593095&tstart=0

You’re not kidding!  Someone scrape Tommo off the ceiling.

In Sync to Pierce the Cloud

Not everyone agrees that .me is a bust.  It works great on my system. A few bugs starting it up and having to make an apology isn’t the end of the world. For a couple of days of grief I got an extra month of service…not bad.