Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with sync

iPhone challenged

madred — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:27:24 -0800

My home computer bit the dust and I want to transfer everything on my iphone onto my laptop. Can I do this? More specifically, how can I transfer everything, not just purchases?

My iPod Classic won't synch properly

Stonewall Jackson — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:53:20 -0800

iPod syncing weirdness. After I updated to iTunes 9 the other day, my iPod (Classic, 120 GB) stopped syncing properly (my laptop is running OS 10.4.11, the iPod software is also up to date). Every time I plug it into the computer it goes through the entire (half-hour) process of syncing, but when it finishes the iPod says there is no music there. I've done this twice, and now there is 75-odd GB's worth of music somewhere on there, but none of it is accessible (i.e. the iPod claims it's empty but when I plug it into iTunes the bar at the bottom of screen indicates there is 75 BG taken up). I suspect I've somehow borked the library, but have no idea how to rectify the problem.

How to get my iPod to sync in the order I want.

tonylord — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:10:04 -0800

I can't figure out how to get my ipod to sync an audiobook playlist, a podcast playlist and then fill up with music from another playlist. Can you help? Hi there,
I'm running a MBP with Snow Leopard and the latest version of iTunes.
My questions is about syncing itunes with my 2G iPod nano. I have the iPod to sync automatically with a podcast smart playlist, an audiobook non-smart playlists, and a non-smart music playlist.

Each time I sync, the size of the podcasts/audiobook playlists changes (either because I have made changes, or because new podcasts have been downloaded). This sometimes goes over the free space on the iPod and sometimes Itunes tells me this and says "Itunes will sync as many songs as possible", sometimes it just tells me there isn't enough free space and cancels the sync and sometimes it volunteers to turn off podcast syncing, which is what I specifically don't want. I haven't been able to figure out why I get different messages at different times.

What I'd really love is to get iTunes to be able to sync first the audiobook playlist, then the podcasts smart playlist and then fill the rest of the iPod from my music playlist. Is there a way of doing this?

iPhone not syncing calendars, photos, and triplicated my notes. Help?

scazza — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:02:40 -0800

iPhone not syncing calendars, photos, and triplicated my notes. Help? I am looking for help with this issue AND/OR great resources to help. There are tons of forums, its difficult to find my answer.

It started with my photos. First iTunes would not sync my selected album. I would sync over and over, and it would say it synced but on my phone it would say "no photos or videos." Then it stopped showing any options or albums under "Selected albums."

Then I noticed that it triplicated my notes.

Most importantly, since I really only got this phone years ago for the calendar and never had problems until now, it has stopped syning my calendar. Like iPhoto it has stopped showing any options under "Selected calendars." I am afraid to restore because I don't want to lose the information on my phone. It says it's backed it up, but obviously it's lied to me in the past.

It looks like there's a communication breakdown between iTunes & these other programs; like iTunes can't see my calendars, photo albums, & notes. Do I downgrade my software? I never had problems before. I upgraded to the latest Mac OS as well and that has made a lot of programs crash that never crashed before, my computer crashed 3x yesterday. My calendar is the most important, vital part of having this phone at all. I am starting to panic. My phone is 3G and I'm wondering if Apple is just dropping the ball on supporting not the latest model of their products.

Why no iPhone -> Outlook task sync?

Izzy — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:14:27 -0800

Why no iPhone -> Outlook task sync? After two plus years there's still no elegant solution for users who want to sync Outlook tasks with their iPhone. There was some talk at one point of Apple releasing a native task app for the iPhone, but to date, this is vaporware. Task sync is a feature that is not deemed optional or a luxury on competing smartphone platforms--it's something that Blackberry users just take for granted. When I ask folks about this they either have no idea what I'm talking about or I get smug, unknowing responses like "just use the calendar!"

I've tried all of the various kludges that are available and they're so annoying (and also expose your personal data to uncertain security risks) that I just end up not using them. You mean to say I have to use the cloud to sync my local data? I do like my iPhone, but I've noticed that I'm just not as organized and as effective without having my tasks on my phone. I know that there are solutions for Exchange, but that's overkill for a single user who just wants to sync their tasks with their desktop.

Would someone please provide an explanation as to why Apple or a 3rd party developer cannot provide this seemingly modest bit of functionality? A functional spec would have to include at the very least a rudimentary iPhone task app that supports the core feature set of Outlook tasks, and also supports roundtrip task sync (desktop tasks sync to phone, phone tasks sync to desktop). Extra points for alerts on the phone (though Apple's prohibition on background tasks makes this a challenge).

I've got a syncing feeling this may not be possible.

dan g. — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:19:33 -0800

Are there any verizon non-smart phones out there that could syc via bluetooth (or some other non-internet way) with a google calendar? Wife and I are looking at replacing our very old school verizon phones with new non-smart phones. we don't want any data plan or internet function on the phone but would like to be able to sync up the calendars on the phone with a google calendar we share.
Has anyone else tried to do something like this?
I'm not opposed to a hack of some sort to get it working, but the day to day syncing would need to be pretty straightforward or I think it would become an annoying burden.

Any and all advice welcomed and appreciated.
Thanks!

Why won't my Rock Band guitar sync for the Wii?

tumbleweedjack — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:34:48 -0800

On Rock Band: Beatles Edition for the Wii, my guitar keeps losing its sync to the USB dongle. It'll sync, and then a short while later, it'll lose the connection and the USB dongle will start flashing its light. It doesn't seem to make a difference how close I stand, it keeps losing the connection! Is this a manufacturing issue or something else?

How to sync Twitter and Facebook Fan Page

Fluffy654 — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:16:10 -0800

How do I sync a twitter account with a Facebook Fan Page? Please note that I am not asking about Facebook Personal Profiles but the Facebook Pages that organizations have. I want to be able to update twitter by updating the Facebook Page Wall. I also want to be able to update the Facebook Page Wall by updating Twitter. I have tried both the Twitter and Selective Twitter Applications for Facebook but neither of them work.

Sync 2 IMAP Servers?

4chrisd — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 07:21:40 -0800

How do I sync two IMAP folders? I currently use Gmail for all my e-mail (personal & work). I currently have about 4,000+ messages archived in Gmail and I'll continue to add 300-500 per month. I also have a IMAP account with my webhost and I was wondering if there was any type of application or script that would connect to the Gmail IMAP servers and backup/sync all of my mail so I know that in addition to being in Gmail's cloud....it is also on my IMAP server in case something happens. Thoughts?

Sync Outlook calendar and Google - with only generic blocks of busy/free time?

VeniceGlass — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:34:02 -0800

Sync Outlook calendar and Google - with only generic blocks of busy/free time? I've seen the utils out there, but can't see which, if any, would offer a way to publish an Outlook calendar without the actual appointment details. Just want to be able to list busy/free times from Outlook into a Google Cal.

Movie in which thieves sync their heist with songs?

oxit — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 09:13:06 -0800

What's that movie in which two male thieves synchronise the timing of their heist by whistling jazz songs? I've seen it probably in the eighties, the jazz songs most probably where swing standards and the whistling might have been singing or even humming. Still I think the respectives parts of the movie where accompanied with the real music, played by a band.

Unfortunately search engines and movie database's similarity features didn't help. Thanks for letting me tap your memorisation.

How to delay Mac sound output?

i_cola — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 06:53:45 -0800

I want to delay the sound output from my Mac Mini so I can get it to sync with video from a different source. I've got a radio commentary (available via Safari or iTunes on the MacMini) that is up to a minute ahead of the TV feed I'm watching on my laptop. I want to watch the TV feed with the radio commentary roughly in sync.

Is there a software solution out there that will allow me to adjustably delay the entire audio out from the MacMini?

Even better would be the ability to delay the audio from a particular application & I'd like the option to be able to sync both feeds on a single Mac.

Losing a contact (and not in the "fall out of your eye onto the carpet" way)

rileyray3000 — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 12:56:46 -0800

On a mac, in the address book program, is there any way to sort contacts or have a group, that shows the contacts that have been most recently created? I recently switched to mac after years on a PC. I tried Entourage for a week and realized it was slow and clunky. So now I'm just using mail, address book and ical. So far ical and mail are great. It's address book that's a pain. It doesn't seem to have a lot of ways to search in it.

I'll meet some person, take down their info in the field on my iphone with the intention of putting them in some group, then, once it syncs, I forget who they are and I've gotta scroll through 500 contacts to look.

So IS there a way to create some sort of smart group or some such that you can create or something that shows recently added contacts?

How do I properly sync Outlook with Google?

mr_silver — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 06:58:51 -0800

I'm trying to find a way to synchronize Outlook Calendar (on Windows) with Google Calendar that actually works - as my current solution doesn't. Bonus points if I can sync contacts as well. I want to synchronize Outlook with Google and then use Google's Exchange support so that I can get this information on whatever phone I'm using at the time.

At present I use Google Calendar Sync and a periodic export and import of a CSV containing my contacts.

This sucks for several reasons but the main one is that the Google application is buggy and has a habit of randomly deleting appointments. This is a well known bug and no fix seems to be coming any time soon. It's happened enough times for me to want to get away from the application.

The second major one is that exporting a CSV from Outlook and then importing it into Google isn't really syncing, a pain in the backside and prevents me from making any changes on the go because they'll just get lost.

I've done a search on the internet and there seems to be quite a few options - none of which appear to be free and several of which that want you to pay a monthly fee.

So, my question is - can you recommend any Windows applications which are free and sync calendar and contacts with Google?

iPhone app syncing woes

MysticMCJ — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:46:43 -0800

I just sold out and got an iPhone 3gs. After some amount of pain and a few virtual images and iTunes installs, I finally got all of my contacts synced over, and I have discovered that I can't sync from multiple PVs like I used to. Not a problem- except for apps. The problem I have is that I installed all of my apps OTA, and the first time I synced after that, it was to my work PC. Most of my media is on my home PC, so I would like to make that "master" for syncing. But when I check "sync apps" it warns me that all apps on my iPhone will be replaced with those on my iTunes library- which is blank. I know that I have all of my apps and data backed up on my work PC- how can I switch this to my home PC? My big fear is losing all of my app data. Both are running winXP.

How do I check that my phone's contacts are safely backed up?

Marquis — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:38:27 -0800

How do I locate the contacts I've just sync'ed from my smartphone (Windows Mobile 6.1) on my PC? For a friend:

I've just installed ActiveSync 4.5 and have apparently successfully sync'ed my Samsung Jack to my PC.

I'm going to need to do a hard reset on the phone to solve some other issues (corrupted ringtones) and want to make sure that the sync'ed contacts are complete and intact. It's important that when I reset the phone, everything is there to import from backups. I'm terrified of losing the 500+ contacts in my Mobile Outlook.

Where are the contact files transferred to? They aren't in the file I've designated to receive all photos, sounds and other files.

Thanks!

Pimp My Sync

rmd1023 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:18:06 -0800

How can I synchronize calendar/contact data among an iPhone, 1 Mac, and (1 or 2) Windows boxes? I got an iPhone a while back. I'm pleased with it, for the most part. However, I'm not happy with the way it handles information syncing. I'm more used to the way my palm did syncronizing of information -- I could have palm desktop (or, on the mac, some kind of isync software) and all the address and calendar information would be shared between all my computers and my PDA. And a change made on one would be propagated through the rest as the PDA synced with them.

I would like to be able to do the same with my iPhone. In particular, I want to be able to have the iPhone sync with my work calendar and with ical at home.

Here's my setup:
at home, I have a windows box and a mac. the mac has ical and address book and such. the windows box has previously stored address/calendar info in palm desktop. I'm fine with migrating to whatever, there, and might be okay without calendar/address info on it if needed.
at work, I've got a windows box that uses outlook to talk to the local exchange server. itunes can't get to that data, so i assume I need something else to talk to both the iphone and the exchange server. I can't link the iphone directly with an exchange account as my employer doesn't support that.

I don't care if notes get synced among all the devices, and I don't care about to-do stuff or tasks in outlook. I do want my local outlook address book on my work PC to be synced with the address book on my mac, and my exchange work calendar to be synced with ical. And both of those to be synced with my iphone.

The missing sync web page talks about syncing to-do items and notes, not address and calendar data.

Will mobileme do this? Although even at Amazon prices, mobileme is above my price point for annual fees. (And I particularly dislike the fact that mobileme nukes all data it got from the cloud if you drop mobileme, which would add a future de-synchronization of doom).

Is there something else that won't demand an annual fee that will do this? I mean, besides keeping an old palm device around as a sync conduit. (this is actually my current workaround hack for the problem.) It looks like there are several ways to keep the iphone and my mac in sync, but not so much for the iphone/windows-exchange side of things.

I don't care about having a mac.com email address, or sharing and storing pictures/files/websites.

How do I keep iTunes from deleting old podcasts?

canine epigram — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:47:11 -0800

How do I keep iTunes from deleting old podcasts? So I'm subscribed to a podcast that's updated weekly with previous week's podcast no longer stored on the server (from where it is downloaded to my machine.)

For some reason, I find when I sync, it tends to also remove the previous weeks podcast from my iTunes.

This only happens with this particular podcast, so I know it's not something in my settings.

Help?

Microsoft is holding my friends, my family and my life hostage!

DetonatedManiac — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:53:47 -0800

How do I get contacts/calendar off my Win Mobile 5 device, onto my computer and then on to my new iPhone without Outlook? I'd like to migrate to Google Calendar in the process if possible. I have a windows mobile 5 phone with all my contacts and calendar events. For various reasons I don't own Outlook, so I kept all calendar and contact information on the old phone without backups.

Now I own an iPhone (3G S), the win mobile device is obsolete (thank god) but it still is holding my contacts and calendar hostage. How do I make the switch?

I independently have heard good things about Google Calendar so I'd like to move to that if possible. It seems like it would be a good intermediary between my data and the iPhone once it is on my computer, but how do I get the data to my computer without Outlook? Or, barring that, how can I get a temporary (free) version of outlook so I can ferry stuff on to my computer and then get it to the iphone and be done with outlook?

Generally, I have never had to sync stuff before, this is all new territory for me. It is scary because all the docs I read online seem to want to "push" stuff to my phone, or say I must backup my data first... I'm afraid it will erase everything on my win mobile phone before I make the switch.

So in this whole process how do I not lose all my contact/calendar date?

Thanks for the help

PS - I sorta know the lingo but don't assume I know what I am doing... at all.

How to make the Mac play nice with my Sansa?

reenum — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:44:49 -0800

How to sync Macbook with a non-iPod MP3 player? I have a Sansa e250, and I love it. I also love my new Mac. However, I've been having a small issue with syncing music onto the Sansa.

On my old Windows machine, I used to have a Sansa folder on my hard drive and then would just sync both folders each week using a program called Allway Sync, which removed listened to MP3's and added on the new stuff I'd downloaded that week.

With the Mac, I can't find a similar program, possibly due to the dominance of iTunes.

So, Hive Mind, is there a program or method I can use to get this functionality on my Mac?

Help me back up my iTunes to my external hard drive

gwenlister — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:49:11 -0800

Help me back up my iTunes to my external hard drive. But only the new ones.... I feel like a tool for asking this because this is something I SHOULD know how to do but am drawing a blank and my google-fu has failed me.

Basically I keep my iTunes library on my laptop and occasionally (every month or so) do a backup of my entire iTunes library to my external harddrive in case my laptop dies (again). But the problem is I have a huge (~65 gigs) library and doing a full copy is about the stupidest idea I have ever had. All I want to do is have the files that aren't already there or that have changed somehow be pushed over.

and before you say "Just sort by 'date modified' and just copy those over", my library is organized by iTunes into folders so that doesn't work.

anyone know of a free app that will look at two folders and sync them?

2 iphones + 1 itunes = ?

I could but I won't — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:16:10 -0800

How do you sync two iphones to one, shared itunes? Also, is it possible to keep each phone's calendar and address book separate from the other? I'm getting an iphone tomorrow (yay!) and my husband already has one. Because I use my phone primarily for work, he does not want to have my several hundred contacts in his address book. Same for the calendar function. How can we sync our phones to our shared computer and maintain this separation? Of course, we would want to be able to share apps, music and movies.

Can the iPhone be productive without a Web connection?

costas — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 04:53:50 -0800

I am thinking of switching to the iPhone cult (long-time Nokia user) but I am very concerned about whether the iPhones/iTunes combo can support my day-to-day workflow, which is mostly Outlook-based. My company uses GMail/GApps, but I prefer to use them via Outlook 2007 on Windows. From Googling, I see that contacts and calendar can be sync'ed via iTunes, but all the solutions I've found around Tasks (which I use heavily) leave me puzzled: is there a solution that will let me sync Outlook tasks to the iPhone without the need for both the PC and the phone to be online (quite often in my case, esp. when I am travelling abroad)? Is there an iTunes plugin/hack that will let iTunes do that syncing? (commercial apps are not a problem).

And a related question: is there any hack/app that will let iTunes and the iPhone sync w/o USB and w/o a Web connection (i.e. Bluetooth or local WiFi)? Basically, I'd like a version of Nokia's PC Suite for the iPhone (which is very buggy, but works very well 80% of the time)

Keeping iTunes rating info in sync

your mildly obsessive average geek — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:11:27 -0800

Is there a way to keep ratings and playcounts in iTunes synced across different computers that works in Windows? I've found a Mac-only solution (echodio) but there doesn't seem to be an equivalent option for Windows.

Syncing passwords between Windows, Mac and iPhone

snarfois — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 15:15:49 -0800

Help me synchronise my passwords across Windows, Mac and iPhone. Preferably without having to re-enter all my existing passwords. I use Passwordsafe on Windows, and I sync my password.dat file to my Macs using Dropbox, where I use Password Gorilla to open it, as described by Joel Spolsky.

Two problems with this:
(1) Password Gorilla is terribly shoddy, and is probably responsible for some data scrambling (fortunately non-destructive)
(2) I'd also like to sync my passwords to my iPhone

I'm prepared to spend money on software that'll do the trick. What I cannot see myself doing, however, is manually transferring the 100s of passwords in Passwordsafe to the new package. So it'll have to use or import Passwordsafe .dat files.

There are some other threads on AskMeFi related to this, but they don't have an answer.