How to sync an older PDA with a Mac

November 30, 2005 2:21 PM

How can I synchronize my old PDA with my new Mac without paying?

I have an old PDA that I still rely on, an Sony Clie SJ-30. A few months ago, I bought a new 12" iBook, but haven't been able to find a free application to import my contacts and appointments into Address Book and iCal from my Clie. I know about The Missing Sync, but I don't want to shell out the $40 for it. Any suggestions on getting this done without paying for it (and without entering it all by manually)?

posted by LouMac to technology (8 answers total)

do you have the USB cable? Palm devices are supported natively by iSync on Mac OS X 10.4.
posted by mrg at 2:26 PM on November 30, 2005

You're in trouble because it's a Sony Clié, which never had native Mac support; you always needed the Missing Sync to use it with a Mac. I'm not aware of any other options, free or otherwise, though I wouldn't rule out some Linuxy thing.
posted by mcwetboy at 2:27 PM on November 30, 2005

er, more info: you'd need to have Palm Desktop installed, and then you just go in iSync and do "Enable Palm OS Syncing" under the File menu. it'll do some checking and that should get you set up (it'll appear in iSync after that). Palm Desktop can be downloaded here (just lie and say you have an M125 or something, always worked for me; I did have a Clie, and I think it was the SJ30 but I don't remember now). so not really native like I said but then I thought it was so oh well.. works pretty well though.
posted by mrg at 2:31 PM on November 30, 2005

Good luck with this, I spent many hours trying to sync a Clie with my Macs with no luck at all. For $40 Missing Sync really does work beautifully.

The simplest and cheapest solution would be to borrow access to someone with a PC, import your data and sync it that way. And then make sure you back up your Clie.
posted by fenriq at 3:19 PM on November 30, 2005

A great many thanks, mrg!
posted by LouMac at 4:06 PM on November 30, 2005

Even if you get Palm Desktop I think you still need The Missing Sync to work with a Clie. (See here). It exists for this very reason.
posted by cillit bang at 4:22 PM on November 30, 2005

cool, glad to see it still works.. FWIW, I've always lied to Palm about what kinda machine I had (my install CD got stolen and such, and I dare you to try to find Palm Desktop for Clie on their website) and it's always worked fine, but I stopped using the device a year or two ago.
posted by mrg at 9:07 PM on November 30, 2005

I got it to work, cillit bang. After downloading Palm Desktop, and enabling PalmOS synchronization in iSync, I got my Clie to send its contacts and calendar to Address Book and iCal, respectively.

Of course, none of this will be an issue when I upgrade to a Treo 650 soon.
posted by LouMac at 7:39 AM on December 1, 2005