[missing-sync-palmos-talk] Second sync problems with Contacts and
MS 5.0.2
Brian M. Criscuolo
bcriscuolo at markspace.com
Thu Dec 1 05:55:53 PST 2005
That is definitely indicating a problem with the sync engine, as we
ask it for the list of current groups. I will send further
instructions later as to the best way to reset the sync engine.
b
On Nov 29, 2005, at 5:55 PM, Michael Wenyon wrote:
> Brian,
>
> 30 minutes after I did the test you suggested, my MS conduit
> settings were still showing the set of groups from my 'old' or
> previous Address Book file (complete with a single check box on the
> one group I was syncing or trying to sync the last time I ran a
> sync) and not from a 'new' Address Book file which I double-clicked
> on, and reverted to, at the appropriate stage in your instructions.
> The reverted-to Address Book has a different number of groups with
> different names than the previous one.
>
> For good measure I just restarted my computer, but no change. So, I
> can open my currently-loaded Address Book and see one set of
> groups, or I can open MissingSync Contacts conduits settings and I
> see another set of groups from my previous Address Book file.
>
> Michael
>
>
> On Nov 29, 2005, at 4:24 PM, Brian M. Criscuolo wrote:
>
>> The groups are not there immediately after the reset and AB revert
>> because AB hasn't finished synchronizing (we get the groups from
>> the sync engine).
>>
>> My suggestions still stand.
>>
>> b
>>
>> On Nov 29, 2005, at 2:57 PM, Michael Wenyon wrote:
>>
>>> Brian,
>>>
>>> Sorry, I omitted a detail that might be important: when I
>>> eventually went ahead anyway and did my first sync, all the
>>> groups were successfully transferred to my Palm (as categories),
>>> and if I then opened the Contacts conduit settings window in
>>> MissingSync, my five groups (plus 'All') were now properly listed
>>> -- and, of course, selectable, which is why I was able to do a
>>> second sync on one group only. I should perhaps have said that
>>> the groups are simply not visible immediately after the iSync
>>> reset and Address Book revert, and until the first sync is
>>> completed. Does this alter your suggestion for my next step?
>>>
>>> Michael
>>>
>>>
>>> On Nov 29, 2005, at 2:10 PM, Brian M. Criscuolo wrote:
>>>
>>>> Michael,
>>>>
>>>> On Nov 29, 2005, at 1:56 PM, Michael Wenyon wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Brian,
>>>>>
>>>>> I followed your suggestions (eventually, see below) and so far
>>>>> my own testing showed some initial success but then a return of
>>>>> my previous problem: I got an OK first 'overwrite' of all
>>>>> contacts (2000 contacts, 26 minutes) followed by an OK two-way
>>>>> sync of only one selected Address Book group (400 contacts, 36
>>>>> minutes). I then added one new contact in that same group/
>>>>> category to each of the desktop (AB) and handheld databases, I
>>>>> waited several minutes and initiated a third sync of that group
>>>>> (ie. same settings as sync 2). This ran for 8 minutes, was 'OK'
>>>>> on the desktop (according to log and by safe receipt by Address
>>>>> Book of the new handheld contact); but the handheld quit the
>>>>> sync ('connection lost') and it had not received the new
>>>>> desktop contact. Some other details:
>>>>>
>>>>> Only the Contacts conduit was enabled. I did the preliminaries
>>>>> twice, partly because the first 'reset sync history' never
>>>>> finished before my computer went to sleep. I clicked again, and
>>>>> it finished quickly. But then, when I had reloaded my Address
>>>>> Book and I peeked at the Contacts conduit settings in
>>>>> MissingSync, I found there were none of my (five) groups shown
>>>>> in the list. I expected to see them there but they did not
>>>>> appear even when I restarted and waited an hour (at this stage,
>>>>> I still had not tried a first sync). I wasn't sure what to do,
>>>>> but suspected a bad 'reset sync history'.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I have a feeling that the reset sync history failure is causing
>>>> this as well.
>>>>
>>>>> Also I received a message from an earlier support query
>>>>> suggesting I remove Palm Desktop. So I trashed Palm Desktop and
>>>>> associated prefs (but not data) files; I then uninstalled and
>>>>> re-installed MissingSync and started over with your instructions.
>>>>>
>>>>> Now the 'reset sync history' completed OK, but again individual
>>>>> groups were not displayed in the Contacts conduit settings
>>>>> window in MissingSync. I went ahead and synced anyway and got
>>>>> the results described above.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Try this:
>>>> - Back up your Address Book data (File menu).
>>>> - Restart, then reset the sync history (make sure AB and iCal
>>>> are not open) and then restart immediately.
>>>> - Double-click on your AB backup file to restore it. Quit AB and
>>>> wait a while.
>>>> - Check the conduit settings; you should see the groups present.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> By the way, I saw in Activity Monitor that after the second
>>>>> sync had 'finished', a process called AddressBookSync started
>>>>> and ran for four and a half minutes at up to 90% CPU capacity.
>>>>> I presume this is the process that delayed appearance of
>>>>> records in Address Book that I noted in a previous message.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Yes, that it is. Address Book has a faceless application doing
>>>> its sync.
>>>>
>>>>> I am not sure what to try next. Any suggestions?
>>>>>
>>>>> --Michael
>>>>>
>>>>> On Nov 28, 2005, at 8:31 AM, Brian M. Criscuolo wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Michael,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Nov 27, 2005, at 11:03 PM, Michael Wenyon wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> This is indicating that the sync engine is trying to manage
>>>>>>>> a lot of records; it is consistent with what I've seen in
>>>>>>>> the past. This usually happens in the latter stage of the
>>>>>>>> sync. How much RAM do you have?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> 1 Gigabyte RAM, 733 MHz G4, and over 2000 contact records
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> That should be sufficient.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> - Have you considered filtering by Group? It is possible
>>>>>>>> that there is a record in the sync database that we can't
>>>>>>>> handle - a rouge entry - and if you can remove it from the
>>>>>>>> sync process you can have a successful sync. It happens,
>>>>>>>> especially with data that has been around a while, through
>>>>>>>> OS upgrades and device synchronizations.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> A few days ago I made a tiny subset of my contacts (50
>>>>>>> entries), and loaded those 50 as my entire Address book. That
>>>>>>> worked OK on subsequent syncs, as I recall. [Suspecting a
>>>>>>> rogue entry, I also once 'reverted' to an entire Address Book
>>>>>>> backup dated September 2005, so before I even installed
>>>>>>> MissingSync -- but that also failed on the handheld on
>>>>>>> subsequent syncs as above.]
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I tried filtering by a single group of 500 entries after the
>>>>>>> 50-entry Address Book synced OK, but the Palm quit as before
>>>>>>> and I did not try any more filtering by group. [Incidentally,
>>>>>>> after I made new groups in Address Book, they weren't visible/
>>>>>>> available immediately in the MissingSync 'settings' panel for
>>>>>>> Contacts; I had to restart my computer to be sure to see them
>>>>>>> all there and so be able to choose just one to sync]. I have
>>>>>>> re-set and re-installed Palm Desktop, iSync and MissingSync
>>>>>>> since then, so I may try syncing by filtered group again over
>>>>>>> the next day or two. That would not be practical if I had to
>>>>>>> do it every time, of course.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> No, filtering each time *is* impractical and is not necessary
>>>>>> if the sync works. The timeout is the issue and we need to get
>>>>>> to the bottom of why that is happening.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Incidentally, I was surprised to discover how long it takes
>>>>>>> for iSync to reset the sync history -- some warning to that
>>>>>>> effect in your instructions might be helpful. Maybe it is the
>>>>>>> speed (733 Mhz G4) of my computer. To be honest, the first
>>>>>>> few times I tried to reset I think I closed iSync
>>>>>>> prematurely, not realizing the reset was still in progress.
>>>>>>> On my computer, for example, it takes quite a while for iCal
>>>>>>> to launch (and if already launched, even that visual cue that
>>>>>>> something is actually happening is not available). I had not
>>>>>>> actually noticed that little line of text at the bottom of
>>>>>>> the iSync window telling you that reseting is in progress. On
>>>>>>> the other hand, maybe the reset completes even if you close
>>>>>>> iSync before it is finished?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I can tell you that if you're resetting the sync history, it
>>>>>> may take a long time - there is a LOT of stuff that happens in
>>>>>> that case, for every client that is synchronizing with Tiger's
>>>>>> Sync Services. If it's taking a while for iCal to launch then
>>>>>> it is definitely tied up synchronizing changes. Having a lot
>>>>>> of data in iCal will lead to slowdowns with that application,
>>>>>> as it doesn't handle it too efficiently.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> In regard to my 'slow' CPU speed, could some part of the sync
>>>>>>> be taking so long on my desktop that the Palm assumes a
>>>>>>> connection loss? Does anyone on this list notice a
>>>>>>> correlation between the existence of this problem and CPU speed?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I don't think that would be the problem. Something in the sync
>>>>>> is taking too long. We try very hard in the conduit to make
>>>>>> sure the connection is kept alive, but there are timeouts
>>>>>> built into Sync Services that may get triggered.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> My guess in this case is:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> After our conduit processes the handheld records, it goes into
>>>>>> a sync phase called "mingling" in which the sync engine merges
>>>>>> records, identifies conflicts, etc. I have a feeling that is
>>>>>> taking too long, and since we can't keep the connection alive
>>>>>> for all of that time it drops. Your Address Book issue of
>>>>>> taking 4 minutes for changes to appear seems to back that up
>>>>>> (it really shouldn't take that long - they're supposed to be
>>>>>> instantaneous, especially for an Apple application which
>>>>>> doesn't have to massage the data like we do).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Suggestion:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Since you have a backup, delete all your contacts from Address
>>>>>> Book. Then reset the sync history via iSync. Restart. Launch
>>>>>> AB, quit AB, then launch it again. Import your backup. Wait a
>>>>>> few minutes for AB to sync, and restart again.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Now, set the contacts conduit to desktop overwrites handheld
>>>>>> and perform a sync.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I think this will get you the cleanest configuration, and we
>>>>>> can go from there.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> b
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>> missing-sync-palmos-talk mailing list
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>>>>>>> archives can be found at:
>>>>>>> http://lists.markspace.com/mailman/listinfo/missing-sync-
>>>>>>> palmos-talk
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ********************
>>>>>> Brian M. Criscuolo
>>>>>> Senior Software Engineer
>>>>>> Mark/Space, Inc.
>>>>>> bcriscuolo at markspace.com
>>>>>> <http://www.markspace.com>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>> palmos-talk
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>> talk
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ********************
>>>> Brian M. Criscuolo
>>>> Senior Software Engineer
>>>> Mark/Space, Inc.
>>>> bcriscuolo at markspace.com
>>>> <http://www.markspace.com>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>> talk
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>> ********************
>> Brian M. Criscuolo
>> Senior Software Engineer
>> Mark/Space, Inc.
>> bcriscuolo at markspace.com
>> <http://www.markspace.com>
>>
>>
>>
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>
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********************
Brian M. Criscuolo
Senior Software Engineer
Mark/Space, Inc.
bcriscuolo at markspace.com
<http://www.markspace.com>
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