Mac OS X 10.4: iSync 2.0: Deleted data; Problems synchronizing phones, iPods

It appears that users will have to re-initialize any iSync-enabled devices from the data saved on their Macs after updating to Mac OS X 10.4. The new version of iSync -- 2.0 -- does not allow devices to automatically sync and retain data stored on said device. Instead, as noted by MacFixIt reader Mark B, users have two options after updating:

• reinitialize the device from the data on the computer (losing any changes made on the device since the last sync) or
• "merge" the two data sets, creating duplicates of nearly everything.

So make sure that your devices are synchronized under Mac OS X 10.3.x first (all data that is on the device is also on the computer) before updating to Mac OS X 10.4.

One reader affected by this issue writes: "Have just updated to Tiger 10.4 and tested out iSync 2.0 and MissingSync 4.0.4 with my Palm T2/SE T68i. Well, it was most annoying that iSync would reset all the past sync data. Meaning that all data will have to either re-merge or overwritten on the peripheral device."

Several readers have also reported an issue where iSync 2.0 launches when their Bluetooth or USB-enabled phone, or iPod is connected and seems to appropriately synchronize data at first, but either completes without any information actually being sent to the phone or iPod or stalls with an error message.

In some cases, this issue can be caused by a "bad" contact in Address Book. In this case, the workaround is a tedious process that requires testing batches of contacts at a time.

A poster to Apple's Discussion Boards, Drew Pauley, describes the process he used:

1. First, back up your Address Book (File > Back up Address Book...)
2. Now select all of your contacts A through M and hit delete.
3. Open (or switch over to its window if already open) iSync, and see if your groups show up in the list. If so, you know that the bad card is in the first half of the alphabet. If not, hit undo in Address Book and try deleting N through Z instead. If your groups now appear in iSync, your bad card is in the last half of the alphabet.
4. Hit undo to get all of your contacts back.
5. Add a group in Address Book to use as a flag for testing. (If the bad card is in Address Book, the group list in iSync won't refresh when you switch to iSync, but if all is well, the list will refresh.)
6. Now go through your contacts a chunk at a time, deleting, checking if the group list in iSync refreshes, and then undoing in Address Book. When the list refreshes, you'll have further narrowed down which is your bad card. Add another group to Address Book at each stage (or remove the previous one), to continue to have an indication of when the list is refreshing or not.
7. Continue this process until you know exactly which card(s) are the bad ones and remove them permanently.
8. Finally, you can re-enter the bad contact(s) by hand.

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