Contacts won't sync; "iphone disconnected"?; no solution on these boards

I started to get this error message yesterday on my MPB 17" running 10.5.1, iTunes 7.6 (29), and iPhone (1.1.3).

I tried turning off and on the phone, quit and restarted iTunes, and finally I restarted the computer. None of these resolved the problem.

Just now, I was considering restoring my iPhone, but decided to look through the menu options in iTunes- under the Info tab, at the bottom is an "Advanced" section which offered "Replace information on this iPhone: Contacts. I checked that option and Apply, and then Sync. The phone synced and the changes I was looking for in the contacts on the phone were now correctly changed on the phone.

Seems a bit easier than some of the solutions posted here, hope this may help, especially as a simple first step.

Joel.

Doctor_rick you rule!!! It worked for me first time with no restarts. Thanks!

Hi - I have had a gradual 'degredation' of address-iphone synching: contacts edited on the MBP not being updated on the iPhone, new contacts not being added. After a couple of resets, resetting the iSync db and generally trying everything the iPhone "retaliated" by just not synching anything. 921 contacts converted to zero/none/zip on the iphone.

It's now working because I:

* exported all contacts as a vcard
* selected all contacts and deleted (leave no contacts, but the groups were still in place)
* quit and reopened address book
* imported the vcard - 921 all present and correct
* switched to iTunes and clicked 'Sync'.

All contacts are now in place.

Hope this helps.

Cheers
ikj

Worked for me, too. Thanks, Rick!

Ouch - I'm even worse off than all of you. I just installed Leopard on macbook pro and now cannot open iphone main display at all. Iphoto does sync photos but I cannot open the iphone in that program. Itunes does not open or even see that the iphone is there much less sync anything including the calendar any more. Even if I open Itunes manually it does not see the iphone. No error message or any clue at all about what to do!

I have checked sync preferences in applications (entourage, I photo & itunes) on macbook pro but since I cannot get into the iphone main tab any more I cannot look at any settings for it.

HELP! I needed the Leopard backup option, but I also need my iphone to sync, at least the calendar.....Tech support please weigh in!!!

The reset Sync History worked for me as well.
Thanks

Thank you Dr. Rick. Your solution worked for me as well.

I just started having the problem as well. I can sync calendar but not contacts. I tried your fix (I have never even looked at iSync) and it worked. Thanks for the fix!

Doctor Rick's suggestion of Resetting sync history in iSync worked great for me. My contacts and calender synced no problem after I reset.

I have been experiencing the same problem — the same disconnected notice and I'm pretty sure it started when I did the last update (Jan 2008). And now I am sure I know +the cause is having more than 2 Groups.+

The Reset sync history in iSync worked for me as well. When I first returned to iTunes it didn't show me any of my Groups (I had many) or Calendars (I have about 7) so I stuck with the All option. Somehow going out of iTunes, into iCal or some other app, then back to iTunes, they appeared. I was able to do All in Address Book and selected calendars in iCal and my sync went well.

The details:
In my case, the only time I got the disconnected error was when I synced multiple Groups. (Apple are you listening?) If I tried All it failed (because I had a lot of Groups.) If I tried just one Group I was fine. When I tried 2 Groups I was still OK, I think. +*But doing any 3 Groups I certainly failed.*+

I am certain of this fact because I was in the process of trying to find a culprit contact by syncing just one Group, then adding another and another. (I got to the 3rd Group and though I’d found it contained a culprit but then eliminating even that entire Group and rebooting my Mac, I was still having the problem when I tried All contacts again.)

Thank you Rick, for the Reset Sync solution!

-Deb, hoping the problem doesn't return

This solved my problem..... thanks!

Although this seems to solve the problem for many, I still can't resolve the problem. I have tried all the solutions from plist deletions to iSync reset. My issue is with iCal, not contacts, and I absolutely refuse, on principal and the basis of my time, to completely blow out iCal and manually move calendar events to a new calendar.

If this was the first time this has happened, I would be more amenable. However, I have had to do this already with a corrupt iCal database. I am terribly disappointed in Mac's purported enterprise solution with Leopard and iCal. It has almost made me want to go back to Windows. This problem happened after their last software update.

Can someone please, please, please come up with a reasonable solution? Mac needs to fix this kind of stuff instead of wasting a bunch of time supporting wireless sync with Exchange when they can't even get wireless iCal and contacts sync on their own platform. ARRRRGGGHHH!!!!!

This fix worked for me - perfectly.
Thanks a million!

I had the same problem with my MacBook after upgrading to Leopard (iPhoto booted up when I plugged my phone into my Mac, and my phone never showed up as a source in iTunes), and the guys at the Genius Bar did the following (which eventually worked):
a) Go to Spotlight, type in Image Capture, start Image Capture, and go to Preferences.
b) For question "When a camera is connected, open: iTunes", make sure iTunes is selected, not iPhoto.
c) Download a new version of iTunes from apple.com and install (even if you have an up-to-date version of iTunes on your Mac).
It should work after that. If you have iPhoto '08 (I had iPhoto '06), you can update Preferences as in step b-c in iPhoto instead of going to Image Capture. It should also be noted that my version of OS/X was completely up to date, as was my version of iTunes-and for whatever reason downloading iTunes fixed the problem.