Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Sync Error; says its disabled

In trying to sync the iphone; I can't get contacts or calendar or mail to sync, it says it cant do it because syncing has been disabled. ??
I click yes to enable, then it says syncing cannnot be enabled on this computer..

what gives. what must I modify?

thanks

imac, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Sep 8, 2007 5:11 PM

Reply
41 replies

Sep 13, 2007 12:23 AM in response to raspberryaddiction

I'm also having the same problem. It's been a week or so since the last sync, no settings have been changed since then, running iTunes 7.4 on 10.4.10.

It says "iTunes cannot sync information with the iPhone "My iPhone Name" because syncing has been disabled on this computer. Do you want to enable syncing?" (y/n)

Clicking yes gives a dialog with "Syncing cannot be enabled on this computer".

What's this? I worked great the last time I synced.

Sep 19, 2007 2:49 PM in response to raspberryaddiction

Hello all,

I had the same problem and I poked around a bit to get it to work again.

Here is what I was able to observe, so my experience may be a bit different than yours. I was able to sync all the songs and movies that I would like but could not sync contacts, calendars, email accounts or bookmarks (basically anything on the "Info" tab in iTunes). Any time I tried to sync those items I was blocked by the "Cannot enable sync..." message. If I tried to only sync the music and videos it would sync fine.

It has only been fixed for about 15 minutes so I don't know if the fix will persist or if if will revert to its' stubborn ways. But here goes.

I quit iTunes, Mail, iCal and Address Book and moved the following directory
~/Library/Application Support/SyncServices
to a temporary location (Desktop for instance). The '~' means in your home directory.

I then restarted iTunes, Mail, iCal and Address Book and connected my iPhone.

I went back to the Info tab in iTunes and reset all of my sync prefs for contacts, calendars, email accounts and bookmarks. If all the iApps listed above are running then you should get the selection list populated in the Info tab of iTunes. It may take a moment or two to read that data from the disk but it should show up. If, for instance, your groups in Address Book don't show up just sync all, and it will pull in the groups and then you can go back and select only the groups you are interested in syncing and re-sync.

If all this works, as it did for me, you can delete the old SyncServices directory you set aside because it will have been recreated by iTunes.

I hope this works for everyone. Good luck.

Oct 18, 2007 9:04 AM in response to Stephen Dunn2

I have an iPod touch that just did exactly the same thing. It synced fine the first two days I had it, then a week later whenever I plugged it in I immediately got these "syncing cannot be enabled" errors. iSync would be frozen if I tried to open it. Since I was only trying to sync my calendar I did not realize (until I read this thread) that it was only the iApps in the Info tab that would not sync.

I spent 2.5 hours on the phone with Apple tech support. I got passed from the iPhone/iPod touch support to iApps support to "Tier 2 Product Specialist" iPhone/iPod touch support. Along the way they mentioned something might be wrong with my Sync Services folder, but they never told me to do anything to it. They left me saying I needed to use my install disk to run Disk Utility repairs and that they had submitted a report to "Engineering". In other words, they were out of ideas.

When I later realized I didn't have my install disk anymore, I went Googling for my own answer. This thread was the only answer I found, THANK YOU!

I called back my tech support guys's direct number and left him a message that other people have the same problem and the answer is here on the Apple forums. Hopefully other people will not have to waste the time I did.

*I have one additional tip on the saving instructions:* the "Home" directory I thought meant my user account folder with the house icon, but removing the Sync Services folder there did not help. I also found a Sync Service folder at my hard drive>Library>Application Support>Sync Service. I put this one in the trash too. Then it was fixed!

Sync Error; says its disabled

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.