HELP !!!! SYNC MACBOOK PRO AND BLACKBERRY BOLD IMPOSSIBLE

Dear all,
I have a macbook pro and a blackberry bold... I try to sync them but impossible... I have tried everything, pocket mac, missing sync etc etc but nothing working.
Does anyone has an idea?? I need my blackberry to work and don't want to get back to PC
Please help me !
Thx

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Mar 13, 2009 6:50 AM

Reply
14 replies

Mar 13, 2009 9:51 AM in response to Templeton Peck

You have to know up front that Blackberry has had MBP syncing problems before you even invest in a lot of money to try to get a sync program for your Bold. Right now there IS NO SYNC that works 100% reliably for a Bold and macbook portables. Some report it works better with desktops.

Blackberry's own sync software doesn't work with a Mac.
They recommend PocketSync for Mac -- it does not work with Macbook's, Macbook Pro's or Macbook Airs for the Bold.
The pay option is Missing Sync for Blackberry. It also does not work correctly with macbook's, Macbook Pro's, or macbook Airs.

The most recent version supposedly "fixed" the sync problems for the Bold -- IT DID NOT -- you can go to Blackberry's own forums and you will find hundreds of posts about how the sync does not work --

Be careful - Missing Sync might work once in an initial sync, and then it will start to delete addresses and contacts, and then it will start to duplicate calendars, and ultimately you will have no clean backup if you resync a third time. If you have more than 50 contacts, you are out of luck. It randomly deletes contacts over 50 and they are gone....gone....gone....

You have come across the fatal flaw in using Blackberry's Bold with Macbook's -- there currently is NO sync option that correctly and reliably syncs your Blackberry Bold to the Macbook. It's a known problem, and they kept promising a solution this first quarter when Blackberry was supposedly going to release their own proprietary sync for mac option. So far this has not occured.

I had to return all of my employee's new Bolds for other options -- most chose to stick with the older Curve's, some switched to iPhones.

Mar 17, 2009 3:46 PM in response to Kaliptus

I also went through all the pain described, with pocketmac, missing sync, etc. I quit when I had a contact in florida, with the phone numbers of friend in India, mixed up with my FAE in Taiwan, all courtesy of Missing Sync. With PocketMac, I got random triplicate contacts. (I have a new 15 Mac Pro.)

There are only 2 solutions I am aware of, neither include the BB Bold:
1) Move to a Nokia E61i (if you can still get one) and install BB Connect.
This syncs well to MacBook Pro - plus you can tether it as well. (I tried this out; but a coffee incident stopped this being an ongoing option for me.) The newer Nokia's do not have BB Connect, so they are pretty useless unless you want more MS issues. I did not consider them for this reason.

The E61i IT security is formidable with built in IP Sec, et.. Should be OK for most IT security folks. Also has a QWERTY k/bd.

2) Change to iPhone. (This is what I did)
This makes life much easier, though not as nice as BB Bold that could actually sync ...

Mar 29, 2009 11:43 AM in response to startupgeek

RonAnnArbor and Startupgeek, you are right. I have spent hours and hours with Pocket Mac (at least it's free) and Missing Sync, and my BB Bold trying to sync it with a MBP. Nothing doing. A huge frustrating waste of effort. PocketMac just doesn't work - Missing Sync is more expensive and more dangerous...

My current solution is that I use the base of an initial sync with PocketMac (it worked just once) on my BB, and keep an iPhone in the other pocket with updated iCal etc. Far from ideal.

Mar 29, 2009 11:55 AM in response to Kaliptus

Kalliptus,

I struggled with the very same problem earlier this year and here is a previous post that I put on this forum.

+I have spent the last week struggling with a blackberry bold and pocket mac and the missing sync and windows in the vain attempt to get my BB to work on the mac platform. Needless to say that I failed dismally. The BB is just not mac native and any amount of time to make it so, is, well, just a waste of time.+

+However I can offer a solution to the address book and ical sync problem that has plagued me for so many hours/days. It's called google! Yes that's right google. Now the good old mac address book already has an option to sync to google mail so easy there. The google calendar will also sync to a good old fashioned 'ics' file. Voila! Contacts and calendars on the web without paying for the cloud! Now google also do a fantastic piece of software called google sync that lets you wirelessly sync your BB with your google account.+

+Absolutley fantastic and the free answer to many peoples prayers.+

+All you have to do is sign up for a google account and then sync away to your hearts content, for free. ical and address book sync superbly. No need for outlook or pc or windoze or bootcamp or none of the non functioning pain in the arse blackberry sync options that so many have failed to understand or even to get working.+

I hope this helps you. I've got an iPhone now, but agree that typing is not as easy as it is on a Bold. Rememeber to back everything up as I did have some overwriting due to the mass of syncing going on!

Mar 30, 2009 1:28 AM in response to RonAnnArbor

It's a workaround, and thanks for reposting that here -- but it really isn't practical to make the BB Bold useful for most users.


I disagree. Most people here are only looking to have their address book and calendar on the BB and this, while being far from ideal, is achievable with Google. It's free and it works, which is more than you can say for the other options. Music and programs can be loaded by other means. I sent ringtones to my handset by bluetooth for example. Programs are straight from the web anyway. Music, well you will probably have to boot into Windoze for that and use the BB desktop manager. All these things are within the realms of most mac users though.

Now if only there was a little clip in hard keybaord for the iPhone, like I used to have on one of my Ericssons many years ago!

Mar 30, 2009 11:33 AM in response to dpx

Hmm... I don't know how they are marketing the Bold in England, but here in the states, if all you need is the address book and calendar, you go for the Curve -- the Bold is specifically being marketed toward people who want the entertainment features of the internet and music downloads in 3G -- all of their marketing and advertising through ATT (the only company here that carries it) are geared toward multimedia.

Mar 30, 2009 12:35 PM in response to RonAnnArbor

A lot of the Apps for the BB are very USA specific. The UK useable ones boil down to a few games and a spreadsheet or two. I wasn't looking for a multimedia player (I use my touch for that) I just wanted a push email device with said contacts and calendar. That's when I gave up trying to make the thing sync, as none of the aforementioned ways are ideal and not consistently reliable enough for the mac platform.

If there is ever a trusted version of the BB OS then I may well look at the handsets again, but until that time...

Message was edited by: dpx

Jun 25, 2009 3:59 PM in response to Kaliptus

i see everyone who has a problem talks about trying both packetmac and missing sync. check out the first answer offered in the forum question posed below:

http://www.blackberryforums.com.au/forums/blackberry-general-discussion/2955-syn chronising-blackberry-bold-mac-os.html

if you have both pocketmac and missing sync loaded, they seem to conflict with each other rendering the end result negative. pocketmac must be removed altogether for missing sync to work.

Sep 5, 2009 1:36 PM in response to Kaliptus

RIM BlackBerry released a Mac version of their sync software on September 3.

I've begun using it to replace Missing Sync version 1. I never got Missing Sync version 2 to sync, so I downgraded to version 1.

So far, BlackBerry's Desktop Manager is working well. It will even update your BlackBerry's OS, which PocketMac and Missing Sync cannot do and was previously impossible without using Windows. It is compatible with Leopard and Snow Leopard.

This article describes the application and provides a link to BlackBerry's Desktop Manager at the bottom:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/09/03/urnidgns002570F30059 78D885257626006594E9.DTL

By the way, the OS update took a long time. I've heard that that's typical. During the process, Desktop Manager saved my BlackBerry's data and applications. It reinstalled all the apps, including the 3rd party stuff.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

HELP !!!! SYNC MACBOOK PRO AND BLACKBERRY BOLD IMPOSSIBLE

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