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

Apparently, you can't figure out how to actually reply to the person you are trying to speak to... Which either says a lot about the likelyhood that you are, actually, a troll, or should serve as a warning to anyone considering either taking your advice, or doing business with you.

In the hopes that this suggestion might actually help someone, rather than continue the degeneration into name calling, here is the solution I have found that works for me. It involves syncing with Google calendar and contacts — so if this is something you wouldn’t want to do, don’t read any further. For me, this is an excellent substitute for iCloud.

My issue with the forced iCloud sync is not so much about data privacy (I really don’t think anyone can expect privacy in today’s world) but that iCloud has never worked properly for me. Here is a quote from an article that pretty much describes my feelings:

For a company that prides itself on craftsmanship and a beautiful user experience, Apple's cloud services continue to be more than a blemish on the company's reputation. They are a serious black hole.

Google, meanwhile, was born in the cloud, and it shows: things like document and calendar synchronisation just work, and across a dizzying breadth of devices.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/20/apple_fails_at_cloud_leaving_market_open _to_android/

For well over a year I have been happily using an alternative to iCal — Readdle’s Calendars app, which syncs with Google Calendar (and with iCal if you want, but I've stopped using that).

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/calendars-by-readdle-sync/id608834326

Now I have just begun using Contacts Sync for Gmail to do the same for my contacts.

http://contactssyncforgmail.com

I was amazed at how quickly and easily this app merged my Apple and Google contacts, with almost no duplication.

Both have free trial versions, and the full apps are quite reasonably priced.

My apologies. Upon reflection I should not have started a business discussion on a user board devoted to solving a technical problem. I was simply frustrated that a function upon which I depend every day had been eliminated. I should not have upgraded to Mavericks without checking first the user boards for problems. It was a rookie mistake.

From what I can tell having read all the boards and searched extensively on the Web. the only potential solution to this problem without going through the hassle of reinstalling the operating system is use Microsoft Exchange. I will try to implement that solution and will get back to you all with my experience.

KiltedTim wrote:

I have to say I believe your assessment of the situation is, frankly, moronic.

The feature was deprecated in 10.7. Apple published that. They didnt' try to hide anything. It seems the only people complaining are those who are both ultraparanoid and stupid enough to install a .0 release of an operating system without bothering to investigate compatiblility or even read a review first. Honestly, I don't see how both can be true at the same time without creating a giant matter sucking black hole of a paradox, but it seems it can actually happen.

Deprecated - To mark (a component of a software standard) as obsolete to warn against its use in the future so that it may be phased out.

Could you please tell which learned journal Apple warned Mac users against using local Sync-Services because they were planning to phase it out?

The main question remains: why is local synchronising so unwanted by Apple (or Google for that matter)? In what way does it hurt Apple?

Nice that developers were given the information that it was eventually being phased out 2 years ago, why not ask customers first if this is a good idea? Or please had us informed as well, so I would have been able to adjust my purchases accordingly. Now my Apple products will be phased out in my household. Sad to say.

It's sad to see a wonderful world go.

Back to the old days I'm afraid. It could have been so good. :-(

Gerrit7 wrote:

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?

No. Completely wrong.

Cheers

Pete

brollyjohn wrote:

You're late to the party genius.

This discussion has gone over the TOU in detail with more than a few irate commenters.

Apparently you are still confused:

Yeah they've been trying to silence the petition for a while now...

We NEED local sync of iPhone to from Mac.

This is the main reason I switched to Apple products time ago.

Mavericks has been offered (for free), but without any previous adequate warning to customers that we would loose a functionality of hardware we have paid.

Unfortunately downgrading back to 10.8 does not work (wasted hours trying that).

Geniuses are not helpful at all (most of them totally unaware of abolition of local sync option).

And iCloud is not safe anyway. Beside the fact that terms of use are draconian and unacceptable.

Apple itself is struggling to maintain the privacy of data it holds on customers behalf.

This is latest news from press:

<<(Reuters) - Apple Inc on Tuesday disclosed the number of information requests it received from governments around the world, making it one of the last big tech companies to do so in the wake of the controversy over data collection by U.S. national security agencies.

In its report, which follows similar disclosures from Microsoft Corp, Google Inc, Facebook Inc and others, Apple signaled its opposition to U.S. government strictures on the type of data it is allowed to report, and called for more transparency in the process.

From January 1 to June 30 this year, Apple said it received between 1,000 and 2,000 account information requests from U.S. law enforcement bodies, affecting between 2,000 and 3,000 Apple accounts. It said it disclosed data on zero to 1,000 accounts.>>

If anybody see signs of an application that would allow local sync please post info here.

It will be mostly appreciated. In the meanwhile, awaiting the full amortisation of my investment in Apple products, I am already looking around to switch back to other products for my future purchases and welcome suggestions starting with new software to help the transition.

DiederikStaay wrote:

The main question remains: why is local synchronising so unwanted by Apple (or Google for that matter)? In what way does it hurt Apple?

I think it is because syncing is a hard problem to solve.

It's not only the data but also the client capabilities that needs to be versioned & compared. Developers constantly complain about the difficulty of sync.

iClouds sync issues are compounded by the current developer restrictions - either use a property list (with limited data storage) or use CoreData (a black hole that can be opaque to users & developers).

Developers can forego sync & use documents in iCloud (users get to manage their own versions with the ridiculous 'email to yourself' workflow). When a sync issue appears all developers can tell you is how to reset your device (you may lose data somewhere in the process).

Apple has moved the large part of the sync burden onto their own servers. It simply means that 'the truth' e.g. the definitive version of your data is on their servers.

As people acquired more devices it became difficult to discern which device should be considered definitive, some devices could go offline for months, then sync & the client would have to resolve conflicts (normally that meant you got to pick which record should be used. Now it's simple - iCloud is 'the truth'. Apple only has to reformat the output for that device so there is less possibility of confilcts in iTunes (or the sync services backend).

Apple has no more worries about what version of the sync services are on the client, what features the client supports, is that client syncing to another device etc. The problems multiply when a client can sync on to more devices (i.e. a Mac to an iPod, iPad etc).

Now iCloud simply manages all the merges, changes, updates & version differences. If you don't like the result you have to reset your devices, pull down the data & fix any issues. Then you get to push it back & get the data correct in the cloud.

Google didn't have devices to contend with for a long time so 'the truth' was always in the cloud for them. Apple is merely following their example, after years of iSync & iTunes Apple hasn't made them the best service yet, we'll have to see how this works out.

This *****. Apple forces us to use the Cloud when we purchased the original hardware based on the features it had, such as wired sync'ing. Since I refuse to use the Cloud I now have to start converting all my iTunes music to mp3 so I can change platforms. And what's worse, I'm part of the only 1% of customers who feel this way, so Apple will never care what folks like me think because we're such a small part of the customer (or lost-customer) base.

Well, after reading through a fair number of these posts, I did my (minor) part and sent a reasoned plea to Apple via the OS X feedback link. As some have already pointed out, not saying anything to Apple is a guarantee they won't address this concern. I'm doubtful anything will come of it but at least I tried, I suppose.

I have done the following:

1. Signed up for an Onmicrosoft Exchange Account.

2. Enabled that Onmicrosoft Exchange Account in Microsoft Outlook 2011.

3. Enabled Sync Services in Outlook 2011 to sync Contact, Contacts, Tasks and Notes with the Onmicrosoft Exchange Account.

4. After I set up the Onmicrosoft Exchange Account, the following folders appeared at the left bottom of my Outlook 2011 screen : inbox, drafts, sent items, deleted items and junk email folders under an OnMicrosoft heading.

5. I tested the syncing of email by sending a test email from Office 365 online to my regular email address. It showed up in my Outlook 2011 email AND in the sent folder under the OnMicrosoft heading in Outlook 2011 on my Mac. Consequently, Microsoft Outlook 2011 and Outlook 365 do appear to be communicating at least in part.

6. Under Calender, Contacts, Tasks and Notes in Outlook 2011, there appeared an OnMicrosoft heading in addition to the On My Computer heading. All Calender, Contacts, Tasks and Notes under the On My Computer Heading were duplicated under the OnMicrosoft heading.

7. Nevertheless, my Outlook 2011 Calender, Contacts, Tasks are Notes are NOT showing up in Outline 365 online. What am I missing? Is sync services required to actually sync with Microsoft Exchange? Is the fact that it is disabled in Mavericks possibly causing this lack of response?

8. I have set up Microsoft Exchange account on my iPhone. Nevertheless, given that Outlook 2011 Calender, Contacts, Tasks are Notes have not showed up in my Office 365 online account, I have not been able to sync them with my iPhone.

I would greatly appreciate any advice that any of you might have. I am sincerely trying to find a solution. I am not concerned about the government snooping on my email. I simply want to get my iPhone to sync with my Outlook 2011 Contacts and Calendar. I am perfectly willing to do this sync through iCloud or through any other online service if required to get it done.

Why all of those steps? Can't you just enable iCloud, then select to have those specific items sync'd via the Cloud?

Unfortunately, Apple discontinued Sync Services in OSX Mavericks. Therefore, there is no automatic way to sync Outlook 2011 Contacts and Calendar with Apple Contacts and Calendar. iCloud sync only works with Apple Contacts and Calendar.

Actually, it was depracated as of OS X 10.7. It was finally removed in 10.9.