Background: last month I bought a new MacBook Pro (Mavericks installed). I used Time Machine (TM) to back up my old (Mountain Lion) Mac. I then used TM to install all my files on the new computer — without any apparent conflicts. I subsequently tried to install Bailkal Server, OS X Server and SyncMate 5 and encountered a series of problems, culminating in the loss of admin privileges in my user accounts, and being locked out of System Preferences/Users and Groups.
Apple Store: Last week I spent four hours at my local Apple Store trying to sort out the problems. (Interestingly, the staff there were not aware that local sync had been disabled for Calendar and Contacts.)
Apple trainer’s opinion: the problems probably were caused by using TM to migrate all my files. It’s likely that system conflicts were caused by software I was using with Mountain Lion.
Solution: we did a complete reinstall of Mavericks, and moved my files by hand, item by item, from TM to the computer.
Sync: I am now concentrating on trying to get Syncmate 5 to work. Calendars work fine, but not Contacts. In total, I have about 4,250, but I can only sync one group of about 350. I can’t sync any second group. Are my results in line with other peoples? Or have some people been able to sync whole, substantial Contacts files? (Of course, I’ve tried discussing this with Eltima, reporting logs etc. but there is more discussion here than on their forum.)