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MobileMe Settings

Hi Gary
I have just started with a MobileMe trial as I was tired of keeping my iPhone, iPad and MacBook synced manually. However I am wondering whether I have all settings correct as for example recently I added a contact on my iPad and it never synced to the Mac or phone. Also at one point all entries were duplicated on the Ipad (I think this was because I had both MobileMe sync and Computer Sync on).
What settings do you recommend on the Mac as well as Pad/Phone side? And do I need to have Push sync activated on the mobile devices or will it also work with hourly sync? I’d prefer the latter to preserve battery and I don’t need really instant syncing. Also, any advice on backup – I have heard of cases where all of a sudden the phone address book was empty due to a sync error and then that got synced to all other devices so that all data was lost – not sure this is a rumor, but how to protect oneself from such event best? (I am using Timemachine already)
Have you done a tutorial on MobileMe (I could not find one), maybe this would be a good idea to do one.

— Annie

Comments: 12 Responses to “MobileMe Settings”

    14 years ago

    I would just set it up with MobileMe turned to push. I don't think it uses up any extra battery. Maybe a tiny, unnoticeable bit. But that might be your problem with the events not showing up.
    I've never heard of a MobileMe sync error erasing all data. Wow, that would be a disaster! I doubt it could happen, though. That's exactly the sort of thing that MobileMe would be built to prevent. I've been using it for years now to sync devices. I've never heard of anyone losing all their data like that. I wonder if those "sync errors" were non-MobileMe syncs. Probably. And maybe some human error in there too.
    Having a Time Machine backup should help, but I wouldn't worry about it.
    Just set it to push, turn off iTunes sync for iCal like you have already done, and you should be set.

    Annie
    14 years ago

    Tried that, but nothing seems to be syncing. I have mobile me set to Automatic sync on the Mac and Push on the Mobile devices. I even deleted the MM account and set it up from scratch on my IPad. The calendar and address book are identical on Mac and IPad, but when I add an entry on the Ipad it neither shows up in MM nor on the Mac. When I add an entry in the Mac Contacts it syncs to MM but not to the Ipad, when I make a new calendar entry it does not seem to sync even to MM, even if I start sync manually. What might be wrong here?

      14 years ago

      Not sure what could be wrong. How long have you tried waiting for it to show up? Do you have good connectivity on your iPad? It is hard to figure it out without seeing it in person. Maybe have an Apple Store Genius Bar employee take a look?

    Annie
    14 years ago

    Its been more than an hour and I have good signal. Maybe Genius Bar is the solution, unfortunately I do not have one close.

      14 years ago

      Wish I could help more. Are you sure the event you are creating is using the same calendar as the one on MobileMe? Try creating a new MobileMe calendar on your Mac. See if that appears on the iPad.

    Annie
    14 years ago

    The calendars sync between Mac and MM (I created a new one in each and they both showed on the other side after few seconds). Also the cal events that previously had not synced sow now, so Mac - MM seems ok.
    Nothing though on the Ipad. When I open calendar even the little wheel starts turning next to the wifi signal icon, but nothing syncs in either direction :-(

    Annie
    14 years ago

    Finally I seem to have made it work. Two things that I think did the trick in the end:
    1) I deleted the SyncServices folder from my Library/Application Support, emptied the trash and restarted the Mac. Apparently the Sync between MobileMe and Mac got stuck somewhere without an error message, so it appeared to go through but really did not.
    I only noticed that when I saw that "last sync" under MobileMe showed a different time than what I thought was the last time I synced. Apparently the wrong sync history made my Mac overwrite MobileMe each time for some strange reason, so changes I made on the IPad never made it through to the Mac. MobileMe sync now is also much faster.
    2) While I had switched syncing with MobileMe off and on again on the mobile devices and even deleted and reinstalled the MobileMe account entirely, both with and without keeping the data, I finally figured out that I should restart my device after such change, ie delete MobileMe, restart, reinstall account.
    Not sure whether it was 1) or 2) or the combination that did the trick, but it seems to work now.
    Just mentioning it in case someone else is having problems.

    Nash
    14 years ago

    I am getting the following message:

    Failed to retrieve the list of registered computers....

    Do you know what I can do to fix this?

      14 years ago

      Not much info on this. I'd assume it is a temporary problem on the Apple side of thing. Try again later. If it persists, then call Apple support.

    Calvinator
    13 years ago

    My MM syncing (iMac & MBPro) is beyond a nightmare here. Keychain errors explode all over the place, mostly relating to (unchanged) passwords for mail. Also, MM changes the ports (from 587 to 25) for one email account; a day later another account. iCal differences popped up a week after I began syncing, i.e., nothing had been changed with regards to old iCal entries. One would think ALL of these differences would have been dealt with on the first sync. How and where these changes happen are beyond explanation (how's THAT for a challenge, Gary?)
    Thanks for ALL you do for us!

      13 years ago

      Well, as you know, I'm more of a how-to guy than a fix-it guy. Just got to keep working with it until you get everything in sync.

Comments Closed.