Friday, September 15, 2006
Revisiting Missing Sync
Many months ago I posted my frustration with Mark/Space's Missing Sync for MacOS X. I could get it to work all right with most of my Palm stuff, but synchronizing the Palm Calendar with iCal was genuinely impossible. I exchanged emails with the folks at Mark/Space, and they suggested that the problem was repeating events in my Calendar that didn't have an end date. (Examples: birthdays and holidays.) I didn't have time or inclination to go through my entire calendar and update every repeated event to have a fixed end date, so I set the problem aside.
Tonight I devoted a chunk of time to the problem, and resolved it successfully. I literally had to go through my calendar day by day, open each repeating event, and make sure it had an end date. I set them all to repeat until the end of 2010, so I could check my work by going through 2011 looking for repeating events; of the dozens and dozens I checked and changed, only one snuck through.
I tried to synchronize again, and again things hung up. Eventually, the Palm said it had lost communication with the computer. I tried again, and again it hung. I reset the Palm, restarted the Mac, reset the iSync history (in iSync, under Preferences), and tried again. The synchronization crashed this time, which I actually felt was progress over hanging. I reset and restarted again, opened the Missing Sync conduit preferences to make sure they were set correctly, and synched. And -- surprise of surprises -- it worked. I had to resolve some conflicts (mainly making sure that iCal accepted the events that now had end dates), but everything was on both the Palm and on the Mac.
All of this was prelude to updating Missing Sync to version 5.1.1. Mark/Space recommends completing a good sync before doing this upgrade. (Oh, BTW: when the sync crashed, Missing Sync recommended that I upgrade to 5.1.1 -- but pointed out that I needed to complete a synchronization before doing so. Thanks -- for nothing!)
Undeterred by my past experiences, I downloaded and installed the upgrade. As instructed in the Read Me file, I set the Mark/Space Contacts, Events, and Tasks conduits to override the handheld on the next sync, swallowed hard, and then started the process. Contacts went quickly and smoothly. Events took a LONG time -- causing the fan in my Mac Mini to become audible. (The only other thing that reliably does this is YouTube.) The synchronization seemed to hang forever at this point, with NO activity on either thermometer:
Finally -- after more than 15 minutes with, it seemed, no action, it broke loose! Events finished synchronizing, Tasks (which I never use) synchronized quickly, and I was done. Hallelujah.
So, the Mark/Space people were right about the product choking on events without end. I altered them, and the sync worked. But I have a suggestion: improve the Missing Sync status box! Show your users that SOMETHING is happening. In lieu of doing that, state clearly in your documentation that the process can take a long time if the user has a lot of data in his calendar. Whatever you do, Mark/Space, please don't leave us hanging.
Tonight I devoted a chunk of time to the problem, and resolved it successfully. I literally had to go through my calendar day by day, open each repeating event, and make sure it had an end date. I set them all to repeat until the end of 2010, so I could check my work by going through 2011 looking for repeating events; of the dozens and dozens I checked and changed, only one snuck through.
I tried to synchronize again, and again things hung up. Eventually, the Palm said it had lost communication with the computer. I tried again, and again it hung. I reset the Palm, restarted the Mac, reset the iSync history (in iSync, under Preferences), and tried again. The synchronization crashed this time, which I actually felt was progress over hanging. I reset and restarted again, opened the Missing Sync conduit preferences to make sure they were set correctly, and synched. And -- surprise of surprises -- it worked. I had to resolve some conflicts (mainly making sure that iCal accepted the events that now had end dates), but everything was on both the Palm and on the Mac.
All of this was prelude to updating Missing Sync to version 5.1.1. Mark/Space recommends completing a good sync before doing this upgrade. (Oh, BTW: when the sync crashed, Missing Sync recommended that I upgrade to 5.1.1 -- but pointed out that I needed to complete a synchronization before doing so. Thanks -- for nothing!)
Undeterred by my past experiences, I downloaded and installed the upgrade. As instructed in the Read Me file, I set the Mark/Space Contacts, Events, and Tasks conduits to override the handheld on the next sync, swallowed hard, and then started the process. Contacts went quickly and smoothly. Events took a LONG time -- causing the fan in my Mac Mini to become audible. (The only other thing that reliably does this is YouTube.) The synchronization seemed to hang forever at this point, with NO activity on either thermometer:
Finally -- after more than 15 minutes with, it seemed, no action, it broke loose! Events finished synchronizing, Tasks (which I never use) synchronized quickly, and I was done. Hallelujah.
So, the Mark/Space people were right about the product choking on events without end. I altered them, and the sync worked. But I have a suggestion: improve the Missing Sync status box! Show your users that SOMETHING is happening. In lieu of doing that, state clearly in your documentation that the process can take a long time if the user has a lot of data in his calendar. Whatever you do, Mark/Space, please don't leave us hanging.
