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

Re Eltima's SyncMate 5 beta <http://www.sync-mac.com/subscribe_syncmate5.html>

fogr4 wrote:

 

I also was not able to sync my entire contact list. . . . I had to resort to creating groups of about 400 each.

I've done some more tests — I've now been able to sync four groups for a total of about 1,150 contacts. One group of 1,500 failed. Does anybody else have any results?

P J M wrote:

 

There was no notification that they were going to reduce functionality so people like me could have refrained completely from the supposed "upgrade"

If Apple had explained to everyone in an upfront, honest fashion that USB local sync was no longer supported in Mavericks, it would've negatively impacted the adoption rate.

Matt Schultz wrote:

 

P J M wrote:

 

There was no notification that they were going to reduce functionality so people like me could have refrained completely from the supposed "upgrade"

If Apple had explained to everyone in an upfront, honest fashion that USB local sync was no longer supported in Mavericks, it would've negatively impacted the adoption rate.

Just like the removal of the floppy drive, and then the optical drive had a negative affect on sales.

Oh, no they didn't

Speculating on what 'might' have happened is also known as guessing.

you Pro-iCloud radicals: PJM is absolutely right, Apple did not inform about the change, not in a clear way. Maybe it was mentioned in the small print, who knows. When Apple stoped MobileMe, I got several notices 1 year ahead of time, which gave me time to get reorganized. What local syncing is concerned, they clearly did not!!!!

What does that have to do with my post, take a chill pill

I'll say it again, try to read what I say, rather than what you think.

Speculating on what 'might' have happened is also known as guessing.

Or do you not agree with that?

Just like the removal of the floppy drive, and then the optical drive had a negative affect on sales.

More of this nonsense, I see. Not only did Apple market the benefits of these developments, but more importantly, they maintained support for these disks within the software.

Apple still sells external SuperDrives today in their very own store.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD564ZM/A/apple-usb-superdrive?fnode=5b3abcc45 4654c56a0e1d775d3d6376db8041083c9ce7e2898d21e1eb184a3ad6e0cfc3bf2491a37e86048c22 a77079570707acc4e2677e2a7d412cfb3146608

So?

Doesn't change the fact that speculating about what might happen is still guesswork.

And previous feature removals did not negatively affect sales.

Buy something else if this is more than you can handle.

lol

Apple made existing hardware stop working. That has nothing to do with changing the hardware specs of new equipment.

Thank you for your opinion.

Have you looked at any alternatives yet?

I see this thread has now whittled down to the same old handful of whingers with nothing to offer in regards to technical input. The others must have found their alternative or just got on with life.

Pete

Can't understand why these few won't use any of the alternatives that have been offered. Maybe it's not as important as it first appeared to be.

Apple made existing hardware stop working.

Really? That's strange, because my Mac and iOS hardware is still working after the Mavericks upgrade. Maybe yours is faulty...?

They only removed the software that allowed syncing contacts & calendars over USB. The hardware still works. I know, because I can still sync photos, movies, apps etc. using exactly the same hardware and USB cable. Just the software that allowed contacts & calendars to be synced the same way is gone.

Or too complicated for that handful of posters. Seems that most that have been here must have figured out an alternative to suit them. Or realised that the security level and encryption of iCloud is far superior to some of the other alternatives.

Pete

That's precisely why the floppy drive and optical drive comparisons make the local sync changes look inconsistent. The contrast is what is notable - this change in Mavericks is radically different than how Apple has transitioned other technologies.

When Apple released the iMac, it didn't cripple support for floppy disks in the software. When Apple released the MacBook Air, it didn't cripple support for optical discs in the software.

Yet with Mavericks, Apple crippled support for local sync. The floppy drive transition doesn't explain Apple's move - it mystifies the situation.

Csound, sorry, I realized I didn't answer your question.

Yeah, I am using alternatives. I'm not interested in the more technical options for my personal use case, so for contacts, I went back to my pre-iPhone days of manually managing separate contact lists on my phone and computer. For calendars, I sync with my work's Exchange Server and don't bother putting them on my computer at all. The irony of course being that a piece of Microsoft software now supports a feature for my iPhone that Apple's own OS X does not(!).

But more to the point, there keep being comments on this thread justifying iCloud-only that have nothing to do with technical alternatives to iCloud. Doesn't it pique your curiosity even slightly about what Apple is doing?