Since your last post, are there any new solutions to the syncing problem between a Palm device and the Mac applications in Leopard?
I have MissingSync but am still unhappy...because of limitations in the number of categories, calendars, duplicates...
There have been no significant changes made to any of the synchronization components, except for an issue involving recurring events in iCal in release 10.5.2, and there are not likely to be any substantial changes in the next few weeks.
Any limitations as to groups or categories in the Missing Sync for Palm OS would pale in comparison to the historic ones in the iSync Palm Conduit, which are never—and I repeat, never—going to be corrected.
If you followed the installation and initial configuration instructions from Mark/Space explicitly, you should have no issue with duplicate contacts, events or tasks. There are procedures you can follow to eliminate the duplicate records, but you should start by looking for such guidance on their forums, rather than here.
I've been following this thread and another related to this since October of last year (see my earlier post above at the start of November 2007 and the other thread I reference, where I posted back on October 31, 2006).
At the time, my Palm Tungsten T3 had been syncing against Leopard without a problem. This continued through my upgrades to 10.5.1 and 10.5.2 last week. But a few days ago, I started to have some issues. I keep hoping there will be a resolution, but I'm now starting to get very upset.
See, a few times now, I notice that you've posted statements that boil down to this: iSync 3.0 (the one that comes with Leopard) is broken with respect to Palm synchronization. It's a known issue; the functionality has apparently been broken for some time, and will continue to be broken. Then comes the kicker: earlier today, you stated that this functionality will
never be fixed.
So I then went over to Apple's Web site, and found the page detailing Leopard and its associated iSync device compatibility. (That page is at <http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/isync/>.) Right there, the very first section appears like this:
iSync Supported Devices
PDAs
Palm OS PDAs(1)
* Palm Tungsten family
* Palm Zire family
Excellent! As expected, I see that my Palm Tungsten T3 is officially supported by Apple when it comes to iSync. So the question is this: how am I supposed to reconcile Apple's clear statement that Leopard's iSync will work with my Tungsten T3 with your statement that Leopard's Palm synchronization will never be fixed?
Apple says my device is supported by iSync, and I'd like a better answer than "go buy a third-party product." I deserve better than that.
I know of NO ONE who can reasonably claim that they could synchronize under "…Leopard without a problem." It has been broken since the initial release, at least as contrasted with the user experience under prior releases of Mac OS X.
You believe that I stated that "this functionality"—referring to synchronization with Palm devices—will "…never be fixed." That is
not what I said. Referring to the shortcomings of the iSync Palm Conduit, I inferred that the problems identified with it will never be addressed by Apple. And, quite frankly, it is painfully obvious that they never will be.
iSync and the iSync Palm Conduit have existed in release form for more than five years now. Yet, users of this software can still not synchronize an address labeled other than <home> in the Address Book, and there is no support for the advanced Palm applications which recognize and categorize events and tasks across equivalent calendars in both iCal and a Palm device. Why do you believe that these serious shortcoming will be addressed at any point in the future when they have not been in the last five years?
Should you reasonably expect that synchronization such as it was will be available in Mac OS X 10.5? Certainly. But, you cannot reasonably expect any measurable improvement to the processes involved: only restoration of basic functionality, so that iSync and the iSync Palm Conduit operate under some future release of Mac OS X 10.5 as they did under the many releases of Mac OS X 10.4 through 10.4.11.
I cannot tell you when issues involving a unified contact, event and task synchronization process will be restored. I do not know when the issues involving a specific problem with the iSync Palm Conduit not installing properly or being configurable with Mac OS X 10.4.10 or later in certain hardware and software environments will be addressed, or those under Mac OS X 10.5 which exhibit a similar set of symptoms to users.
All I can tell you is that you cannot reasonably expect the historic limitations of the iSync Palm Conduit to be addressed by Apple. They won't be.
Well, there are a couple of issues with what you propose. First, providing an ftp or similar download is a direct violation of the licensing agreements which cover OS X and its components. So, that's not going to happen. Or, at least I am not going to be involved in providing the iSync Palm Conduit that way.
Second, I have not created and validated an iSync Conduit for Mac OS X 10.5 or later, and the 10.4.10 and later version will not work properly, so I have nothing to send that will work for you.
I will try to get to this effort this week, and let you know when a tested and validated replacement conduit is available.
OK, I finally broke down and purchased "Missing Sync," after waiting for Apple to fix this problem. I'm sorry to say that "Missing Sync" does NOT solve this issue completely. It will sync the Address book, but will NOT work with iCal.
Apparently, "Mark/Space" (the makers of "Missing Sync") are aware of the problems, have identified the problem as Apple's, and reported it to Apple. Here are some of the issues noted on the "Mark/Space" web-page...
"This article describes situations under which The Missing Sync may report errors or perfomance issues. One error message is specific to iCal (part of Apple's Mac OS X operating system) and describes errors from iCal that are affecting the ability of The Missing Sync from performing sync functions properly."
"In certain situations, The Missing Sync reports an error message titled 'iCal Sync Errors'. This error is often caused when iCal is attempting to share data with Sync Services. Although this error has little to do with handheld devices, it affects the ability to sync data to or from those devices as Sync Services functions are compromised."
"THIS ISSUE HAS BEEN REPORTED TO APPLE, INC. BY MARK/SPACE."
"Errors that are not reported in The Missing Sync log may be found in the Console.log file."
"Here are some of the error messages you may see in the Console:
These error are generated by Sync Services and reported to The Missing Sync."
So, for those of you hoping that "Missing Sync" will solve the problems we are having with various hand-helds, and/or cell phones, it doesn't completely. I am a huge fan of Mark/Space's "The Missing Sync" and have used it many times throughout the years. It's a great piece of software that does a whole lot more than iSync ever has, but it does NOT solve all of the problems that are being reported all over this forum in regards to iSync issues and hand-helds/cell phones.
I already posted a response to the issue you raise in another forum, but for the benefit of others here who might not have been following that thread, there is this:
You are right: it does not solve ALL of the issues with synchronization under Mac OS X 10.5 or later, but it does solve most. Mac OS X Update 10.5.2 correct two issues, and introduced another. The issues are, in fact, reported by the synchronization framework to the Missing Sync and other registered clients, BUT they do not originate their. They originate in iCal 3, and therefore ONLY adversely impact users of Mac OS X 10.5 or later.
The root of the problem lies in the fact that the synchronization component of iCal itself was rewritten from the ground up, and the iCal team obviously didn't get it quite right.
Most errors involve recurring events, though some do not. One way to avoid the issues, which pop up less often than you might be led to suspect, is to avoid using recurring events.
Developers are aware of these issues, but everyone agrees—as does Apple's Sync Services team—that this is clearly something that must be addressed in a fix (or, in a number of fixes) to iCal. And so, until it is, everyone who synchronizes potentially will be affected by the errors thrown up during an event.
I still can not synchronise my palm with my apple, and I still wait for the something to be send that it works as you promised in your responss.
For summary: have a leopard upgraded MacBook pro since 10/07,
OS X, version 10.5, Build 9A581, last 4 digits of my serial number are LX92.
As the other disscutants I cannot synchronise my Palm TX with my Mac.
There is no isync Conduit in my Hotsync conduit manager.
Nor can I integrate any device in isync.
