[X-SW] Syncing Address Book

[W Lane]

On May 6, 2005, at 19:08, John Erdman wrote:

> How do I go about syncing the address book data base for the two  
> computers?


I would wait a bit before trying this. Here's a post I made to  
another list when someone was asking a similar question.



I've posted about some issues with the new Sync function but haven't  
gotten any answers or feedback on the list, so to summarize:

PB Address Book has approx. 1200 contacts
After using the new Sync function....
PB still has approx. 1200 contacts
.Mac Address component has approx. 2200, almost half are seemingly  
needless duplicates, some are triplicates and quadruplicates (I'll  
stop there, but suffice to say some appear MANY times)
iPod shows approx. 1100 Contacts, I have NO idea what is missing from it
And now, for an added twist, I've switched on the Sharing function  
for my Address Book. When my wife accesses it from her PB it shows  
approx. 700 contacts!

This scenario I am NOT pleased about!

Second issue:

iSync is not really gone. In fact, if you wish to add a device (iPod,  
PDA or whatever) you still have to fire up iSync. In fact, after  
searching through the Apple forums and the KB documents I discovered  
that in order for certain items to sync it is necessary for iSync to  
be running. You don't 'do' the sync from there, but it has to be  
running!

How about this? I have the Sync icon in my Menu bar, I click on it  
and I get two options, 'Sync now' and 'Open .Mac preferences', NO  
mention of iSync.
OK, so, I click on 'Sync now'.
I also have iSync open.
The Sync menu bar item swirls around indicating that something is  
happening, but iSync does nothing. What the heck?
Is my iPod getting synced, or not?
What is?
Being adventurous, and Sync having already made a mess of my data as  
mentioned above, I click on 'Sync Devices' in iSync.
KEWL!!!
Now I have the Menu bar swirly thing spinning AND I have iSync  
indicating that it too is syncing.

Has anyone one ANY idea what items are being sync'ed by what to where?


Personally, I think they've made a kludge of the whole idea of being  
able to sync. This is one of the only items that I would NOT  
demonstrate to would be Switchers, it's an embarrassment.