[missing-sync-palmos-talk] Erratic iCal & Treo 650 Sync Accuracy

[Aaron Mahler]

  Hello!

   I purchased a license for the Missing Sync a few days ago based on  
the plethora of good reviews and a suggestion from a friend who is a  
satisfied user. I wanted to ditch the Palm hotsyncing tools and use  
of Apple's Sync Services, especially since I just upgraded to a  
MacBook Pro 17" and am wanting Universal apps wherever possible.

   I use DateBk 5 from Pimlico Software on my Treo. It sits on top of  
the existing Palm calendar and task databases, so it doesn't require  
any special conduits and I've never had issues in the past.

   At first I thought everything was working perfectly, certainly far  
better than my prior Palm Desktop experiences (over the course of  
three generations of the Treos these last few years).

   Last night I created a To-Do item in iCal and set an alarm on it  
(Message with Sound, 15 minutes before on Same Day). I synced right  
afterward but noticed the To-Do on my Treo lacked the alarm, so I  
wasn't going to get an alert.

   To make a long story short, I've not yet been able to get a To-Do  
item I make in iCal with an alarm to sync and include the alarm  
parameters on the Treo. To-Do items I make on the Treo with alarms  
also do not appear in iCal with alarm parameters.

   Calendar events I make in iCal do sync with the alarms for the  
most part. But, unfortunately, as I experimented I started running  
into even more bits of strangeness. I found that some events I made  
in iCal simply did not appear on my Treo after syncing. Doing a  
second sync, however, would usually make them appear. Some events I  
made in iCal appeared on the Treo as "New Item" which is iCal's  
default text until you change it. It was fully defined in iCal with a  
title, but synced as New Item.

   Another clue I've gotten along the way is what appears to be a  
sort of time delay between use of iCal and syncing affecting with the  
accuracy. When you're making tests and immediately syncing, you tend  
to do it at such a pace that there is only a few seconds between  
quitting iCal and telling your Treo to sync. In many of those cases I  
had missing calendar items or incomplete items on my Treo after the  
sync. A second sync, however, would usually cause them to appear like  
they should have the first time.

   Similar to this, some items I made on the Treo would not appear in  
iCal after syncing and then immediately opening iCal. Closing iCal,  
however, and re-opening it again a moment later would make them  
appear (more or less complete, I think). I've always quit iCal before  
doing a sync (just in case that was a factor).

   During all this testing I've done things like delete my task and  
calendar databases on the Palm and then doing a sync to force iCal to  
provide all the data "fresh" to the Treo (hoping to eliminate  
database errors on the Treo side). That didn't fix anything. After  
that, I went through the steps in the knowledgebase to simulate the  
equivalent of a conduit's Handheld Overwrites Desktop (clearing iCal,  
backing up the cleared calendar, restoring the calendar and option- 
clicking the conduit to set an advanced option before the sync). iCal  
came up blank after the sync, but closing and re-opening it caused  
all the data to appear.

   Since that time, it appears that calendar items are a bit more  
reliable in terms of syncing... but it doesn't seem to be 100% yet.

   However, I still cannot get a To-Do item in iCal to sync WITH its  
alarm settings.

   I did notice, however, that a To-Do I just made on the Treo with  
an alarm appeared in iCal without the alarm settings - but the note  
field had this:

[---11:30 s000.... ]

   which happens to be the 11:30 AM alarm setting on the To-Do item  
on the Treo.

   Does anyone have any suggestions as to what might be happening?  
Has anyone experienced anything similar?

   I think I've summarized all of my testing which has been pretty  
consistent and methodical (problem solving is a big part of my job,  
so I tend to approach things fairly scientifically in this regard).  
If I've missed something, let me know.

   My system is a MacBook Pro with OS X 10.4.6, Missing Sync 5.1.0  
(131), and Treo 650 with DateBk 5.4a, S6.


Thanks!
  - Aaron


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