Any problems with iSync PB?

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Unfortunately I've had lots of problems. I'm still tracking things down but they seem to be related to having a large number of contacts. At a minimum having 1200 contacts like I do makes testing and debugging a horrendously long process.

First, I don't get consistent behavious when initializing things. I told the software to overwrite the .Mac location and still I get that it wants to modify a number of contacts on my computer during the first run. In my last attempt after removing all files related to iSync in

~/Library/Application Support
~/Library/Preferences
/Library/Application Support
/Library/Preferences
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks
/System/Library/CoreServices
/System/Library/SyncServices

And then deleting the sync files from my idisk and reinstalling everything I re-registed iSync with .Mac and re synced iSync while telling it to erase .Mac and use the computer information it came back and told me it would be modifying 583 entries on MY COMPUTER????

I'm still trying to figure this out, the main problem being that EVERY time I do anything it take 15 -30 minutes for iSYNC to complete. A very frustrating process.

[quote]Originally posted by physguy:
<strong>Unfortunately I've had lots of problems. I'm still tracking things down but they seem to be related to having a large number of contacts. At a minimum having 1200 contacts like I do makes testing and debugging a horrendously long process.

First, I don't get consistent behavious when initializing things. I told the software to overwrite the .Mac location and still I get that it wants to modify a number of contacts on my computer during the first run. In my last attempt after removing all files related to iSync in

~/Library/Application Support
~/Library/Preferences
/Library/Application Support
/Library/Preferences
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks
/System/Library/CoreServices
/System/Library/SyncServices

And then deleting the sync files from my idisk and reinstalling everything I re-registed iSync with .Mac and re synced iSync while telling it to erase .Mac and use the computer information it came back and told me it would be modifying 583 entries on MY COMPUTER????

I'm still trying to figure this out, the main problem being that EVERY time I do anything it take 15 -30 minutes for iSYNC to complete. A very frustrating process.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Just a question... You didn't by any chance install any 'older' versions of iSync on your system did you?

Dave

No. This was the first. So far I THINK I've tracked it down to where it seems the 'overwrite' function when starting the process doesn't work. I started with a refreshed contact list on my PB Pizmo and an old list on my palm. I told iSync to clear the plam and then download but I ended up with doulbe of most entries (but not all which is a puzzle).

Still fooling around but at 30 minutes per idea it take forever!!!!

Finally completed an all-day trial of getting iSync working with a 1200 contact database, .Mac and a Palm Vx.

System specs

- Pizmo G3 500 Mz, 640 MB, 12GB disk
- 10.2.1
- Keyspan USA-28x USB-serial adaptor w 1.4b9 driver
- Palm Vx OS Ver 3.5.3 ~1190 'old contacts', minimal

- Addressbook with ~1,200 contacts
- Calandar with about 130 entries
- Cable connection to Internet

As reported above by just plugging everything in and syncing the first time with overwriting simply didn't work. iSync tried to 'blend' the databases resulting in many, many duplications. Also the first time using 'reset devices' resulted in a hang after which the iSync SW was reinstalled as described above.

The final approach that worked (sort of) was as follows

- Use Palm Desktop to remove all contacts from Palm
- Save all contacts in a vCard file
- delete all contacts from Address Book
- Now Sync ONLY .Mac. The Palm conduit was turned off
- This took two passes to clear everything since it still tried to reconcile about 4 strange entries (30-40 minutes)
- Now reload the vCard into Address Book
- re-sync .Mac - this seemed to work (30-40 minutes)
- re-sync .Mac to be sure
- turn on Palm Conduit and sync (60 minutes)
- at the end of this it reported that 'sync time too long lost connection with .Mac, data on .Mac will be invalid use Reset Devices to recover :confused:
- Data was on Palm at this point
- used Reset Devices successfully (45 minutes)
- re-sync to check - all OK - 2-3 minutes

I hope this works going forward

No probs for me so far! I love iSync!!!

[quote]Originally posted by MafiaMac:
<strong>No probs for me so far! I love iSync!!!</strong><hr></blockquote>

What did you sync and how big was the database?

I haven't had any problems syncing contacts, aside from a small initial problem of iSync putting multiple copies of the same e-mail addresses in some contacts. But, I cleared that up with a little tinkering.

However, getting iCal synced up has been NOTHING but problematic. Where to begin...

• I delete an event from iCal and every single other device I'm syncing, and it will re-emerge after I sync again
• I've done hard resets of my Palm and a total restore of my iPod, yet somehow information will appear on them after syncing that isn't appearing on iCal (I have .Mac syncing turned off)
• Some recurring events are getting duplicated and then the duplicate is turned to an all-day event when the original has a specific time

I even tried deleting and re-installing both iSync and iCal, yet when I started up iCal again after re-installing, it already had items listed from the last install. Does anyone know a way that I can re-install iCal and have it start with a clean slate? I think iCal is the problem, not iSync, but I have no idea really.

After over 2hours of syncing my iPod to iCal to palm M505....i got really pissed off to find 2 of everything in my palm-agenda.

Is there a way to revert to "pre-sync" or do I have to pain-stakingly delete all the double entries manually... and is there a fix to iSync or did I do something wrong?

[quote]Originally posted by fireants22:
<strong>After over 2hours of syncing my iPod to iCal to palm M505....i got really pissed off to find 2 of everything in my palm-agenda.

Is there a way to revert to "pre-sync" or do I have to pain-stakingly delete all the double entries manually... and is there a fix to iSync or did I do something wrong?</strong><hr></blockquote>

This is similar to the problem I had above. Fortunately I had saved a backup of my database (either palm or Computer) before syncing. I found that the only way to get to a final, acceptable state was to get the Cmputer database to the right condition (iCal, AddressBook) and clear the remote database. Then reset all devices using the computer database as a source.

I spent over 8 hours this weekend getting to an acceptable, maintainable state.

Good Luck.