Contacts: why does it show everything twice?

Resetting your sync data will resolve problems with data not syncing from MobileMe to your iPhone. Did you re-enable MobileMe contact syncing? Or did you just disable it?

I re-enabled it after the initial disable steps that you described earlier in this thread.

I haven't tried resetting syncing data yet. I'll probably have to wait a few days for that since I'm not at home. I'll want to make sure I'm back to my Time Capsule and any backups that I may need.

But I thought resetting sync data--as described in the article mentioned ( http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1497) would reset data sent to MobileMe. But MobileMe is fine. It's the next step that's not working correctly. Going from the online MobileMe TO the iPhone.

Maybe I'm confused about how it all fits together.

While I could describe the entire sync eco-system, it wouldn't help. Just know that resetting should help. It is possible for your iPhone and the MobileMe website to fall out of sync. It's also possible for your iPhone and Mobile me to fall out of sync with your computer.

Bizarre possible fix with a new question.

After silently sitting here for hours, the iPhone just now informed me that it couldn't check my MobileMe mail because it didn't have a password. I went into the settings for that account and gave it my password. (Not sure how it could have all the information before if it didn't have my password) This immediately caused the correct information to sync down to the iPhone calendar and contacts.

Now I'll probably give it another go and go back to uncheck those set to sync when tethered.

My question is, that simultaneous to that "fix", a message popped up on my computer from the Sync application that "Syncing with MobileMe will change more than 5% of your Calendars on this computer." It says that it will add 3, Modify 120, and delete 0.

Not sure where these come from, but the computer calendar is in perfect order.

Addition: on closer inspection of the details, it appears that the "modification" are in the "Entourage" calendar of iCal. I use Entourage as my main calendar and just let it sync to the "Entourage" calendar it created in iCal so that it would work with sync services and MobileMe. It looks like all of the modifications are
"Modified display alarm:
description: Event reminder" (it seems that there was no event reminder on these events before)

That sounds relatively harmless, unless it messes up something when that then syncs back to the Entourage program.

Any advice or suggestions? Should I just allow the Sync program to go ahead and sync on the computer?

Glad to hear it was just a missing password! The data would have come over from your backup, but Apple doesn't transfer your password for security reasons.

As far as the Entourage modifications, you should allow the sync to complete. Otherwise you'll just be in limbo until you do. This is a typical of Entourage as it changes all sorts of things to be as Entouragy as possible.

Thanks it worked a treat. Viv

ibaj wrote:
It sounds like you're syncing your contacts from both your MobileMe Account and your desktop. With iPhone 3.0, Apple supports syncing from multiple sources. Since you're already in this situation, you're going to have to do some circus act to get back into good shape.

I had this problem exactly when setting up my iPhone to do over-the-air syncing after installing version 3.0 of the iPhoneOS, and I figured this out by myself. It's very confusing to be allowed to have both over-the-air and iTunes sycing at the same time.

This also works for iCal dups too.

Disappointed...

I have iPhone (not 3G nor 3GS) and have been very frustrated by the fact that calendars I subscribe to on my Mac would never sync with my phone via MobileMe. (Although I never did find this shortcoming mentioned in any documentation!) So I had to sync the calendars while tethered, something I would rather not do and don't do very often.

I was extremely happy to learn that with software 3.0 the phone would be able to sync subscribed calendars. So after upgrading the software, I set about to sync (tethered) and noticed the NEW option of syncing both ways, tethered and Push. Without any warnings that this would duplicate anything -- one of the things syncing is supposed to prevent -- I thought it would be the best of both worlds and set it that way for Mail, Calendars, and Contacts.

Now I have duplicates of all my contacts and calendars. My mail came out just fine; don't know why but counting my blessings. I tried the option of replacing all my contacts on the phone with the synced contacts, but without turning off the push option. Still duplicates. I guess I'll have to join the circus.

Apple really should have thought this through a little more. If this is the way they WANT it to work, then there should be plenty of documentation as to the effect and warnings before you sync as to what the result will be.

Jim

Hi ibaj

Tanks for your advice!
Turning off the contacts & calendars in my mobile me account on the iphone worked perfectly!

My question now ist about your "do not merge" advice when turning the contacts & calendars back on in MobileMe syncing...
won't the sync logig be able to detect that these are duplicate entries?
The address book logic is smart enough to do that, so my assumption was that also the iPhone's address book logic should be smart enough to do so.

Have you tried it with a merge and failed?
(I havent but would like to save me the hassle if you know for sure that it won't work) 😉

thanks
alex

Let's just say that in my experience, it's best if you don't. And unless you've made modifications to the contacts "On my iPhone" or added a contact there, there isn't any reason to test it.

Good News:

I just tested the "Merge" Option and it worked flawlessly!
So you could actually modify your suggestion to the following:

1): Turn off MobileMe syncing.
* Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Accounts > Your MobileMe Account > Contacts > "OFF"
* The iPhone will display a dialog asking "What would you like to do with the previously synced MobileMe contacts on your iPhone?" to which you will choose "Delete from My iPhone"
* Once this is complete, you'll only have your contacts that synced over from your computer.


2): Disable tethered syncing in iTunes

* In iTunes, select your device and go to the "Info" tab and disable sync contacts option


3): Re-enable MobileMe syncing
* - Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Accounts > Your MobileMe Account > Contacts > "ON"
* The iPhone will display a dialog asking "There are existing contacts synced with your Mac. Would you like to merge them with your MobileMe account?" to which you can choose "merge"
* This will merge your existing contacts with the MobileMe contacts. Tests with Contacts (and calendars) worked successfully without doubling the info again.

Cheers
alex

One more question, then all is set.

On Calendars, if you DO want to sync only the Birthday's calendar from the Mac (via iTunes), do you choose "Merge" at the end of step 3 instead of "Delete"? I selected "delete" and now the Birthday's calendar is no longer on the iPhone