[Macworld]

Post your comments for Dealing with iPhone duplicates here

[SFrawley]

Thanks, Chris,

Apple's 'Cloud strategy" (MobileMe) has been especially weak, and if their iCloud does not address the cumulative problems, their long term success is at risk, I feel.

I sync 5 Macs and two IOS devices, with one of the Macs being an old workhorse G5 that is not supported by the newer calendar strategy. The elegance of DropBox and availability of API tools for third party developers makes Apple look especially lame. All apps and applications will need access to share info between devices and sync if Apple does it right.

This cloud thing is not only the future, but the present, and time's a wastin'. I feel a better option is the lynchpin for continued success of all of Apple's lines. Anxiously we wait . . . .

[cinemachine]

I have a similar issue but instead of Calendar events being duplicated, I have contacts being duplicated. I definitely do NOT have the "Sync Address Book Contacts" checked, as I let MobileMe do the syncing. I do have Google contacts syncing with my phone though which might be part of the problem. I wish iOS would recognize duplicates in list view and only list it once. For some contacts I've counted 6 duplicate entries which is ridiculous. That's when I have it set to look through "All Contacts"

[archtoday]

Whenever I synch with "replace information on iPhone" (with info on the computer), I end up with two sets of my AT&T (POP) e-mail accounts. Any way to fix that? It also doesn't transfer the passwords, like it does with my other e-mail accounts.

[doglesby]

I rarely have a problem with calendar syncing (although when I change time/time zone on MobileMe, I often end up with the original event with the bad info in addition to the good one). But notes syncing is horrible. I turned it off because I was losing notes. I could handle the duplicates, but it was deleting notes on me. What drives me nuts is that every time I sync (with iTunes), I get a message saying there was a conflict in notes even though I create and edit notes only on my phone, they can't conflict!

[rmossman]

I've got a family license for MobileMe. I set up my two laptops, one mini and one iPhone to sync to MobileMe. Then I sync my calendar from my MBP to our two iPads.

It seemed like a way to sync more devices than my MobileMe license allows with little problems. Unfortunately, this still causes a problem where the "real time" syncing with MobileMe gets hosed when my iPad changes something on my MBP which then syncs with MobileMe, which then syncs with my MBP and a updates start stepping on each other.

Too bad there isn't a User Manual for MobileMe, ITunes, Calendar or Contacts that address this all too common problem.

[rmossman]

I consider the information that I have in my calendar on my MBP to be correct. So, I'd like to just start fresh.

Is there a way to delete all the information in MobileMe, iPads, iPhones, and my various Macs so I can then have MobileMe get a fresh copy from my MBP and everything else sync from that fresh copy on MobileMe?

Thanks

[Todd]

Personally, I think the best thing to do for the time being is to do nothing at all. Everyone knows there are some big changes coming very soon from Apple. Why muss with things now on your own? Be patient.

[pdmarsh]

rmossman, on 04 May 2011 - 12:34 PM, said:

I consider the information that I have in my calendar on my MBP to be correct. So, I'd like to just start fresh.

Is there a way to delete all the information in MobileMe, iPads, iPhones, and my various Macs so I can then have MobileMe get a fresh copy from my MBP and everything else sync from that fresh copy on MobileMe?

Thanks

Yes.

1. Go to the iCal/File menu on your Mac and save a consolidated backup to the Desktop (or, select each calendar individually and save a backup of each to the Desktop).

2. Then, delete all the calendars you just selected to backup in iCal on your MBP (NOT the backup copies on the Desktop). Login to MobileMe and wait for the syncing calendars to be deleted in MobileMe.

3. If the copies of the calendars on your secondary devices aren't deleted automatically, turn off calendar syncing in System Preferences/MobileMe and delete them manually on your other Macs. On your iOS devices, go to Settings and turn off/on MobileMe calendar syncing.

4. Once all the calendars and their contents are gone, import the saved backup calendars on your Desktop back into the now empty MBP iCal application. Let them sync back to MobileMe, then turn syncing back on on your other devices, ONE AT A TIME.

NOTE: The process here is to create a backup of the calendars you consider to be your masters on your MBP, then delete everything in the calendar application on each device. Once MobileMe shows everything is gone and the calendar on each other device is empty, you're ready to start over by importing your saved calendars back into iCal on your MacBook Pro. Once they've re-synced with MobileMe, you can then have MobileMe push their contents to each of your devices. Do each individually, waiting for each device to be fully updated with the new calendars before turning on syncing on the next device, to avoid conflicts/corruption.

You can temporarily turn off MobileMe syncing on your secondary Macs in System Preferences/MobileMe.

[jeffm23]

I found this a very helpful piece. I've been baffled by the relationship between "on my mac" (or "on my iPod Touch") and Mobile Me for some time. This cleared up a lot. Thanks.

[GregoriusM]

It's ridiculous that you have to make a choice between syncing with MobileMe or syncing with your computer only.

That's 95% of why I got MobileMe in the first place!

Sheeeeeeeeeeesh!

[sandman619]

Sync issues have stemmed from editing the same item on more than 1 device, in my experience. I have seen this affect calendars, contacts, as well as apps & their position on the Home Screen on my iPhone. Simply put, the sync engine can handle 1 updated version of an item. When the same item is updated on other devices, that's when duplicate copies, even dupe entries within record appear. Same is true when apps are moved around on the iPhone & then further changes are made to the same apps through iTunes, that's when everything goes awry. Seems as though Apple needs better control of sync granularity so that a changed tel on the same records coming from different devices won't cause the data to be duped

Cheers !

[AMCarter3]

I've got a problem syncing only my contacts between my new iPhone 4S and my MacBook Pro with OS 10.6.8. Email and Calendars are syncing fine. When trying to sync Address Book, I only get 4 contacts out of 1450. I suspect that because I do not have my own MobileMe account and use my wife's MM account to sync my calendar that this is causing some kind of conflict in syncing my contacts. Any suggestions? If it requires my own MobileMe account, how do I get one?

This is not a duplicates issue, but it's related. I've got a problem syncing only my contacts between my new iPhone 4S and my MacBook Pro with OS 10.6.8. Email and Calendars are syncing fine. When trying to sync Address Book, I only get 4 contacts out of 1450. I suspect that because I do not have my own MobileMe account and use my wife's MM account to sync my calendar that this is causing some kind of conflict in syncing my contacts. Any suggestions? If it requires my own MobileMe account, how do I get one?

[JonnyStrutt]

Thanks. This resolved my problem.
I followed your advice and switched off the calendar sync on the phone, then switched back on. instant healing for my phone :-)