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How to locally sync an iPhone with OS X Mavericks? iCloud is NOT an option.

I read that OS X Mavericks will no longer allow me to use iTunes to sync my iPhone to a local system but makes iCloud mandatory? Is that correct?


iCloud is not a valid option for me since I have no control about my data there, I need to keep all my data (contacts, calendar...) on a system under my control and so far iTunes allowed me to do that which was one of the reasons I didn't even consider Android or Windows Phone.

OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Oct 20, 2013 8:54 AM

Reply
3,162 replies

Mar 8, 2014 9:05 PM in response to dU2mDUifydkRa0E9ic5A

snozdop wrote:

I used it with 40+ Sony Ericsson phones over a 6 year period, and it did work well for me (over Bluetooth at least - USB was a bit dodgy due to bugs in earlier OS X USB drivers). However, during that period I was technical support for a company providing iSync Plugins, and it certainly didn't work well for a lot of people.

Very true, early on it was hit and miss... once Apple focused their Sync app (or iSync or whatever) resources exclusively on their own handset products, the app got solid. Rock solid, I thought.

Mar 8, 2014 11:51 PM in response to Matt Schultz

Matt Schultz wrote:


The only time we ever lost any data getting our iPhones & our Macs supporting each other was the time we test drove iCloud. Sync operated flawlessly for both home and business use (plus mixed use) for years. I cannot recall a single lost bit.


I know they won't but still, I wish Apple would bring this hallowed app back, even via WiFi if they didn't want to muck with USB cables any further. While this wouldn't help us a lot since we rarely get internet access during the work week - for personal use, a return of virtually any form of local Sync would aid workflow a lot.

With you there bro. That's why I don't use it. Online services and DST are two things they don't seem to have a brilliant grasp on yet.

Mar 9, 2014 3:55 AM in response to petermac87

As has been mentioned, there are over 320 million iCloud accounts. I think that most of those customers are happy.


Pete


Hallo Pete,

let me you recall that 320.000.000 of icloud subscribers doesn't mean that all of them syncronize their iPhone with iCloud.


Like me, i.e. , I've got an iCloud client that I use only to search my iPhone.

That's all...

Fabio.


P.S. Thanks to Ultima Software who gave us the chance to sync Mac locally again. (After Beta testing I'll pay 39€ with pleasure ! )

Mar 9, 2014 4:07 AM in response to imac_user_since_AppleII_in1982

imac_user_since_AppleII_in1982 wrote:


As has been mentioned, there are over 320 million iCloud accounts. I think that most of those customers are happy.


Pete


Hallo Pete,

let me you recall that 320.000.000 of icloud subscribers doesn't mean that all of them syncronize their iPhone with iCloud.

Then how many of them do?


Continually disagreeing with others data without offering any of your own achieves nothing.



P.S. Thanks to Ultima Software who gave us the chance to sync Mac locally again. (After Beta testing I'll pay 39€ with pleasure ! )

That would be Eltima Software actually, let's not encourage others to search for the wrong company now.

Mar 9, 2014 6:48 AM in response to Barney-15E

Barney-15E, isn't MAMP self contained? e.g. all the server configs are managed in isolation from Apples Apache, PHP & Mysql. Deleting the MAMP folder from Applications should remove all the server config, only external files will remain in place (possibly parts of the SSL cert etc).


wiredancer,

OS X server will leave some settings behind if you remove it & then hope to reinstall to start afresh. I read it can be reset…

http://krypted.com/mac-os-x-server/unresponsive-server-after-mavericks-upgrade-r eset-server-app/

…but I haven't verified that works and reseting server will not address any other errors elsewhere in the system.



wiredancer, do you really want to start over again on 10.9?


It looks like it has been 3 months (to the day) since this all started for you, you said you have tried Biakal, OS X server, OwnCloud… (did you try Eltima' beta too?). None have worked for you yet.


I'm sympathetic to your situation and will try to offer help, but at this stage I think step one is backup, erase the HD & reinstall 10.9. Installing 10.9 was the mistake you made in December - do you see a pattern yet?


Isn't installing 10.8 or lower an option for you? Let Eltima and others finish the software and use 10.9 when it's possible to sync again.

Can one of your 2 personal Macs run pre-Mavericks with your iTunes, contact and calendar data?

Could you reserve one of the other family Mac's for USB syncing?


Please accept my apologies if you have been over this already, I can't see you stating why any OS before 10.9 isn't an option (after a re-read of the history in this thread).

Your earlier fears about syncing iOS 7 on older OS's are unfounded as far as I can see and others explained that too. iOS 7 should still sync with 10.8 & iTunes 11.


Pre-Mavericks really is a good choice if you desperately want one button to sync contact & calendars over USB right now.

Mar 9, 2014 7:36 AM in response to Drew Reece

Drew Reece


Thanks.

As a matter of fact, I'm not sure if I should give it an other try at the Server idea, you're right.


I downloaded SyncMate and started installing it, but then I got the message that it is not Maverick compatible. So I realized that I was on the wrong Eltima Download page. Then I sent the request for the Beta version, but still no confirmation email from them. I sent the request with two different email addresses, but no response. So I'm waiting. Maybe they close the auto response generating system at night or off business hours.


If SyncMate really works, then all my problems are solved and I can finally go on with normal work at the office and at home. (-:

Mar 9, 2014 8:19 AM in response to wiredancer

Hello Wiredancer !


I installed the beta of sync-mate 5 (which is actually working fine with Maverick).

I used this link :

http://www.sync-mac.com/subscribe_syncmate5.html

and got immediately a response with my activation code.


For me syncmate 5 (beta) t works fine : calendar and adressbook is synced in the 2 directions, between one iphone and one mac. No problem appeared.

USB-plug, very easy to define the sync-parameters - syncing is as easy as it was before Maverick. (And, still better : spring arrived here in the south of France. Living is easy…)


I understood earlier in this thread one of the principal technical issuses of syncing :Snozdop wrote, page 209 : "Most problems were caused by users attempting to sync their phone with more than one Mac, using the phone as a conduit to keep their contacts and calendars in sync across multiple Macs. iSync was not designed for this purpose, and didn't like it at all. It just couldn't keep track of the changes, and would very quickly end up corrupting people's contact data.".

I d!dn't yet try (and I'm not sure that I will…) syncing more than 2 devices with syncmate. This might be the stress-test of this app and every non-server-solution.

Even if it is not possible to sync more than 2 devices, my principal problem is solved.

I'm just wondering, why and how a little company like Eltima could offer this app and this service to us Mac-users* which Apple is not able or willing to provide. Mystery of marketing - or simply a company which is understanding less and less an important part of its customers

* = those of the Mac-users, who can non or don't wont to use the icloud-dervice.


Nobody but Apple knows, how many of the 320 million icloud-accounts use or do not use the icloud-syncing. Makes no sense that Petermac and CSound1 ask the question "how many ? how many ?". Nor they nor anybody else has exact figures. And, finally, it's not a question of quantity, but of quality. Windows is still used by more people than MacOs, which doesn't prove anything.

Mar 9, 2014 8:59 AM in response to Ju from France

... I remember when I bought my first Macintosh back in 1983. It was a 512k. The pioneer spirit was there. I remember the TecServ in New York City, places that looked like one of these remote airplane maintenance shops, where we used to bring our Marc's and were we watched how they took them apart in order to find the problem. And the the syncing came. Apple was ahead of everyone on the synchronizing of devices. I used to sync the Newton with the Mac. Do you remember the Newton MessagePad? I still own 3.

...But now, most of this is history. It's the Cloud era. No more Newton syncing (-:

Mar 10, 2014 3:07 PM in response to Skakagrall

My iphone 4g is under ios 7.0.6 and everything worked fine - perhaps is that the key ?

I synced 1200 contacts without any problem and tested changes in both directions. Works and syncs fine.

It seems unlikely to me that your problem is a quantity-issue.

Perhaps the Eltima-contact sheet may help you : http://www.eltima.com/company/contacts/

Good luck

How to locally sync an iPhone with OS X Mavericks? iCloud is NOT an option.

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