Q: Maverick won't permit syncing Address Book or Calendar by USB to iPhone or iPad and permits only syncing by iCloud, which I don't want to use.  Any ideas on how to sync without using iCloud?

Well, 10.9.2 has come and gone and, despite all the requests to Apple via their feedback channels, it would appear they have no intention of restoring this functionality. So, the next thing that will go is my iPhone. I never wanted the thing in the first place. I bought it because I could sync my contacts and calenders via USB cable thereby avoiding the murky and sinister "cloud". Now that I can no longer do that there's no pont in keeping a cell I don't like.

I've never understood why software developers remove useful functionality from their operating systems. I've requested Apple, again via their feedback channels, that in future when announcing a new operating system they not only list the new features but also warn users about functionality that's being removed. If they do that, users can make a better informed decision about whether to "upgrade" or not.

Cheers,

Peter

Well Peter, I feel the same as you do. I am very sad about this as i have been using Mac for some fourteen yesrs, Apple has broken the covenant.

I drive a Ford Fusion SL which contains the placard Powered By Microsoft on the center console. I shudder everytime I enter the vehicel

You're the only person I know that still has the Microsoft label in their car.  Everyone else I know has removed it.

Thats such a vacuous comment.

The problem with being forced to use iCloud is that it’s poorly designed and buggy.

I used the iCloud willingly for almost 2 years.  During that time I had the cloud give me “Server Error, revert to server”  repeatedly (this will cause your MBP/iPhone to revert to old stale data from the cloud).  I was told by Apple support that this is because the cloud is the master and it has data that it considers newer or more correct than my MBP.  Now that I’ve been forced into the cloud again, these errors have now resumed.

It is a childish engineering decision to have the iCloud be the master as it’s inputs are actually my MBP and iPhone.  Declaring its stale and isolated view of the world correct over the incoming fresh and authoritative data is simply wrong.

As people are forced to use the technology they will change their tune from security….security…security to broken…broken…broken.

The cloud is neither a master or slave. It is the repository, and the server. If you push data from somewhere, the last data in wins. It doesn't care where or how, it replaces what was there with what was sent.

Been using iCloud since it came out and I have never seen the error you have posted. I update my contacts and calendars from a Mac, an iPad, an iPhone, and the iCloud website.

Where do you see that error?

What are you doing when it occurs?

I see this error when I'm accepting invites on my MBP.  If the invite is new to the MBP, but has been accepted on the iPhone I get this error.  Also if an admin who maintains multiple calendars for mulitple people sends me an invite for person A for 10:00, then updates it to 11:00 for person B because the calendar was wrong this will also cause the server to refuse to update the invite.  This is not a one time occurance. 

The only time I ever saw that message was when using Mobile Me, and it was quite common.

It took less than a week for it to begin happening again.

chwmilcon wrote:

 

It took less than a week for it to begin happening again.

Did you have MobileMe?

I have seen from some people's system dumps here that some old components of MobileMe were hanging around their systems. I wonder if something can still be around that might be causing interference.

Do you see the error if you process the invite in the opposite order, MBP then iPhone?

No I never used mobile me, came a little later to the party.

It doesn't seem to happen if the accept is done first on MBP. For the most part that's the order I do them in. Just sometimes when on the road it's a necessity to accept them from the iPhone.

It's not necessary to accept them twice (but I don't think that this is the reason for the error, I think), after accepting them on one client there status should be accepted on all of them.

I would agree it's not necessary to accept them twice, but in the event that they do get processed multiple times this shouldn't cause an error.  It's the same email that is being processed on each device.

chwmilcon wrote:

 

I would agree it's not necessary to accept them twice, but in the event that they do get processed multiple times this shouldn't cause an error.  It's the same email that is being processed on each device.

No it shouldn't, but it also shouldn't show up on the other devices as needing accepting if it was already accepted on another device. My thinking is that there is something corrupt in the iPhone. However, I'm not sure how helpful that is as I don't know what to do about it. Maybe resetting the phone, but that may cause more short-term headaches.

There was a work around for contacts which suggested that you send your self all your contacts in a message.

For Calendar the work around is as follows.

1. Go to Calendar and export your calendar or calendars say to the desktop.

2. Send the calendar file to your email address.

3. Open the email on your phone and when all the calendar entries appear, hit Add calendar entries.

Exporting your calendar is a good idea, as I have flirted with using the cloud several times and it always seemed to eat my calendar entries.