Palm TX sync trouble

Question

Level 1

65 points

Palm TX sync trouble

Having more trouble with the TX sync. I'm trying to sync my new Palm with my Mac, have been doing it for years with my old Palm with no problems. I added the new device to iSync and hit the hotsync button on the TX, but nothing syncs and this is the message I get:

A conflict in the installed conduits has been detected. This is caused when more than one conduit is using the same PIM data type (e.g., Address Book vs. Contacts). To allow synchronization to proceed, use the Conduit Settings dialog to turn off the extra conduits for this user, or drag the extra conduits to the Disabled Conduits folder.
The following conduits are in conflict:
iSync Conduit
Contacts
The following conduits are in conflict:
iSync Conduit
Calendar
The following conduits are in conflict:
iSync Conduit
Tasks
Conduit Conflict Notifier halted the HotSync operation during the <Sync OK> notification.
HotSync Canceled 9/30/06 12:23:36 AM

Does anyone know what's going on?

Makki

Posted on Sep 29, 2006 10:29 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 30, 2006 9:10 AM in response to Makki

You've got the Palm Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks conduits enabled, and you've also got the Apple iSync conduit enabled. Contacts synchronizes the address book / contacts database, while Calendar synchronizes the calendar, and Tasks the to-do list; all directly with the Palm Desktop software database. The iSync conduit synchronizes all 3 databases with Mac OS X SyncServices, which will be synchronized to iCal and Address Book, to .Mac, and any other SyncServices clients you might have enabled. You can't enable two conduits that want to sync the same database, so the HotSync complains.

So the question is: where do you want the data to go? If you're using the Palm Desktop to view/change contacts, calendar, and to-dos on the Mac, then you should just disable the iSync conduit. (Move it out of /Library/Application Support/Palm HotSync/Conduits) But if you're using iCal and Address Book, or the Chronos SOHO Office PIMs (which are also SyncServices clients), then you should disable the Palm conduits instead.

Even better, since a Palm TX has the new Palm databases, consider buying The Missing Sync to replace the Palm HotSync mechanism entirely. It's more reliable and has far better support. It also comes with SyncServices conduits that are far superior to Apple's iSync conduit.

The iSync conduit was written back when the default Palm calendar didn't have category support, for example (even though many people were using datebk or Handspring's licensed datebk variant, which did have category support). The new Palm calendar application does support categories, and if you use them you'll be extremely unhappy with iSync because it hasn't been updated in years. The Missing Sync's conduits support categories, as well as contact photos and other features of the newer Palms.

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Answer 2

Makki Author

Level 1

65 points

Sep 30, 2006 11:47 AM in response to David Butenhof

Thanks David,

So this is what I have been doing in the past. I would sync my Palm to iCal and the mac Address Book etc., and I even had my nano in there too. So there were basically three things that were syncing together, .mac, nano and the Palm. This has worked fine but now that I have a new Palm I can't figure out what I am missing. I basically am not going to be using the Palm Desktop at all, instead I use iCal etc. So it seems that my new Palm is not connecting to my other devices and thus can't sync.

I want all my old Palm data to go into the new Palm, so I left the old Palm in iSync and added the new Palm as a new device in iSync. So now I have four things in there, .mac, nano, old Palm and new Palm. Do you think the problem has to do with the fact that there are two Palms in there? I tried to sync with the old Palm conduit setting off but it didn't work either. Most of the other conduit settings are set to Synchronize but since the new Palm TX doesn't have any of my data on it I have it so that the data will merge on the first sync since I want all my iCal etc. data to go into my new Palm.

Any ideas?

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Answer 3

Sep 30, 2006 12:17 PM in response to Makki

Did you install the new Palm software from the CD you got with the new Palm? That would have restored the calendar and contacts conduits, which you may have had disabled before if you were using iSync instead. (Or possibly even the older address book, date book, and to do conduits if your old Palm predates the new database names.)

If you don't have data in the Palm Desktop, then you don't need them.

I don't know for sure that the iSync conduit will handle multiple Palms right; but the new one will provoke a "desktop overwrites palm" anyway and it shouldn't really matter. Then again, unless you're going to continue to use the old Palm you don't really need it to be registered anymore... so long as the data from the old Palm has already been synced with your computer.

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Answer 4

Makki Author

Level 1

65 points

Sep 30, 2006 12:57 PM in response to David Butenhof

I'm getting more confused by the minute. I called .mac support and he said to make sure I sync my Palm TX with the Palm Desktop first, without iSync. I had done that but it created a new user on Desktop, and now I can't put the old Desktop data into the new user Desktop data. I have all my data on the Palm Desktop in the old user, but how in the world do I get that data to go into the new user/new Palm. So now when I sync Palm TX it doesn't sync with the old user, obviously, but there must be a setting so that I can put my old data from the old user into new Desktop and new user.

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Answer 5

Sep 30, 2006 2:52 PM in response to Makki

You said that previously you'd been syncing your old Palm only with iCal and Address Book through iSync. If that's how you want to continue, which seems likely, there's no point in worrying about the Palm Desktop Calendar or Contacts conduits at all, and you should just disable them. iSync doesn't do memos, so if you want to sync memos between desktop and Palm you'll need to use Palm Desktop's Memo (or is it Memo Pad... I can never remember which is the new one) for that. (Or buy The Missing Sync, which has better SyncServices support than the iSync conduit for iCal and Address Book, and also comes with a Mac memo application and a conduit for that.)

I don't see why the support people suggested using Palm Desktop, and I can see why it's confusing.

I asked before whether you were REPLACING your old Palm with the TX, or planning to continue to use both. If you're replacing the old one, you'd be best off (whether using Palm Desktop, iSync, or Missing Sync) doing a final sync on the old Palm to make sure all the data is backed up, doing a hard reset on the TX and re-initializing it (with a HotSync) as the same identity you were using for the old Palm.

(Note that if you DO use the same identity, start out by renaming the Backups folder in your ~/Documents/Palm/Users/<name>/ folder, so that all of the applications and setup files from the old Palm don't go onto the TX: some might not be compatible. You can move applications and their data one by one onto the TX by coping from the renamed Backups folder into the Install list.)

But if you really do want a second identity... I wasn't really aware that the Palm Desktop kept the calendar and contacts separately for multiple identities. That actually seems odd to me; but I never tried it. I suspect you could clone one identity to the other by copying the ~/Documents/Palm/Users/<old user> to <new user> and doing a sync. (Again, you should rename or delete the copied Backups folder so you don't flood your TX with old files that might not be compatible.)

Good luck. 😉

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Answer 6

Makki Author

Level 1

65 points

Sep 30, 2006 11:20 PM in response to David Butenhof

Thanks David,

I finally figured this out, at least part of it. Like you said I should have selected my old user name when I initially Hot Synced, but I frankly don't quite remember what I did on that first Hot Sync. So I did reset the TX but it still came up as a new user on the desktop. So anyways, after much frustration I realized that I would just have to merge the old and new user name data, and that way all the old data went into the new user name desktop. Once I had it in the Palm TX (the new user name) desktop I was able to sync with the new TX and all the files from the desktop went onto the new Palm.

However, my PocketMoney transactions did not sync, so that was another headachce to figure out, mostly because I didn't know where those files were stored on my Mac hard disk. But I finally found them, added them into the Palm TX window for files to be added on the next Hot Sync, and bingo, at 1am I have all my data in my new Palm TX.

NOT EASY, I have to say. You would think they would make this both more clear and easier to do. I couldn't even find any useful support about this on the Palm support site.

My next headache is to figure out how to sync with iCal, and the mac address book. The instructions are easy enough, but this didn't work before. According to the mac support guy I spoke to earlier I should be able to just enable iSync in the Conduit Manager and that way my TX should sync. Well let's see what happens.

Thanks so much for helping me through this. And by the way I am throwing my old palm out since the screen isn't working anymore which is why I really needed all the data out of there.

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Answer 7

Makki Author

Level 1

65 points

Oct 1, 2006 12:10 AM in response to David Butenhof

As I suspected I can not sync with iSync. The log says I have to turn Address Book off in order to sync Contacts since they are in conflict, but I have tried every option and it is not syncing. I think I will buy the Missing Sync software and hope that it will work.

Have you heard of anyone who was able to sync their Palm TX without Missing Sync. I read on the Apple product review for Palm TX that people were able to sync with no problem, some seemed to be able to do it without Missing Sync. I'll post a new message here to ask for people who have done this successfully.

Thanks again.

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Answer 8

Oct 1, 2006 4:57 AM in response to Makki

When the TX came up as "a new user", the HotSync software should have given you the choice of selecting an EXISTING user as well as of creating a NEW user. If you'd selected the username you'd been using before it would have essentially "restored the backup" from the old Palm to the new TX. (That's why you need to be careful about what gets restored from the backup.)

You should have no trouble switching to iSync as long as you DISABLE the Palm PIM conduits first. If you switch to The Missing Sync, that's easy as there's an "enable" checkbox on each conduit in the listing that you can just un-check. With the old Palm HotSync you need to find the conduit and move it out of the conduits folder. It might have been neater to have the first load of the TX come from the iCal/Address Book databases rather than first syncing with the Palm Desktop databases. If the latter aren't empty, you might end up with duplicates or ancient appointments you don't really want, in both places. (But if the Palm Desktop is empty then it shouldn't really matter much.)

The Missing Sync has a much more reliable HotSync, and far better support. The SyncServices clients are far more powerful than iSync and will support the newer features of your TX databases -- like calendar categories, contact photos and birthdays -- that the iSync conduit will ignore. Now, it's quite possible that simply installing The Missing Sync will solve your problems; for example it will automatically disable both the iSync and the old Palm Calendar/Contact conduits for you, and the HotSync (which completely replaces the Palm Desktop HotSync) is not subject to many of the Palm software's problems. On the other hand... you ARE getting a successful HotSync, and aside from the inherent limitations of the iSync conduit in combination with your new TX, it should be possible to resolve your immediate roadblocks and get you going.

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