.Mac Sync Changes [Archive] - MacRumors Forums

MacRumors

Oct 19, 2007, 02:24 PM

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Multiple .Mac users report receiving emails from Apple regarding a .Mac sync update scheduled for today.

Dear .Mac member:
Due to improvements being made to .Mac Sync on October 19, 2007, please note the following changes.

Mac OS X version 10.4 Tiger users:
To ensure uninterrupted service, you must be using Mac OS X version 10.4.10. To check which version you're running, select About This Mac in the Apple menu. If you are not running version 10.4.10, click the Software Update button and install the update to 10.4.10.

Mac OS X version 10.3 Panther users:
To accommodate new enhancements, .Mac Sync will no longer support syncing of calendars between a Panther-based Mac and a Mac running Tiger or Leopard. Syncing calendars between Mac computers running Panther is unaffected.

These changes will help enable .Mac Sync to do more than ever. Thank you for your patience, and thank you for being a .Mac member.

Sincerely,
The .Mac Team

The update is further explained on this Apple Support page (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1185088). The changes would seem to be in preparation for syncing improvements introduced in Mac OS 10.5 "Leopard".

Article Link (http://www.macrumors.com/2007/10/19/mac-sync-changes/)

twoodcc

Oct 19, 2007, 02:28 PM

yeah, must be related to leopard. only 1 week away!

bigjohn

Oct 19, 2007, 03:51 PM

does that have anything to do with all my Mail accounts getting blown out (old mail, sentmail saved on server, thankfully nothing lost)...also iTunes library file corrupted...

bereillyte

Oct 19, 2007, 05:33 PM

my contacts and bookmarks synced correctly for the first time after the update. Prior to this, my contacts would sync happily between my macs, but were missing from .mac (.mac just had Apple Computer as the single contact).

Similarly, the bookmark bar always synced between my macs, but there was another bookmark bar in .mac (an old one that must have synced correctly some time ago) and that merged into my current bookmark bar

Sounds like some bugs fixed:)

aristobrat

Oct 19, 2007, 06:57 PM

Sounds like some bugs fixed:)
Yeah, had an experience today between my two Macs that leads me to believe that too. :)

CANEHDN

Oct 19, 2007, 07:28 PM

I've never had any problems with my .Mac syncing.

jpferreira

Oct 19, 2007, 07:49 PM

the only problem i've had was with my sent emails not arriving in some inboxes... :(

flopticalcube

Oct 19, 2007, 07:53 PM

flyfish29

Oct 19, 2007, 08:29 PM

yeah, I got the email also! It is a major crock that they announced it the day they are disabling the feature!!! It is disabled for me now that my wife uses Tiger and I can't on my school computer and don't on my home iMac!!! I am so ticked off- This is something that should not be disabled. They are probably doing it to "force" people to upgrade. So unless I go out tomorrow and buy an upgrade for my school owned computer I can't work with my 8 synced calendars while I am at school!!

I am a huge Apple fan, but the recent bigheaded feeling I am getting from the company is ticking me off- At the very least give me a month's notice if not more. Did they just make this decision?!?! :mad::mad::mad:

If Apple is wanting to be a serious contender in the calendar market, they should not notify customer one of the most important features is no longer supported after TODAY!!! And .Mac had just gotten syncing reliable between multiple macs using .Mac! Lets hope I get my Macbook for school very soon!

synth3tik

Oct 19, 2007, 09:01 PM

I never got one. Guess Apple doesn't love me.:(

GTiPhone

Oct 19, 2007, 09:06 PM

Apple will have to up their game if they want me and my family as customers. CDN$229 per year for a family pack. I just don't see much value there at the moment, even with the potential upgrades coming in Leopard.

I really thought the same thing until it was upped to ten gigs and the new web gallery was added, all in conjunction with iLife 08. How many potential serious users in your family? If its 3 or more I'd say the family pack is a damn good deal.

I certainly think $100 every year is a lot for a single user, but there's enough there for me to give it a 1 year go.

joseph2166

Oct 19, 2007, 09:19 PM

This is something that should not be disabled. They are probably doing it to "force" people to upgrade. So unless I go out tomorrow and buy an upgrade for my school owned computer I can't work with my 8 synced calendars while I am at school!!

I am a huge Apple fan, but the recent bigheaded feeling I am getting from the company is ticking me off- At the very least give me a month's notice if not more. Did they just make this decision?!?! :mad::mad::mad:

!

Call me an apple fan but I trust them to only disable such a feature (on a relatively old OS) if its absolutely necessary for the new services. And I can't for the life of me work out how giving you a months notice would help you at all - what would you have done differently?

As for buying an update - at least wait a week!

megfilmworks

Oct 19, 2007, 10:03 PM

When did this email go out? Jeez I get every email Apple can think to send me, but not this. Not even at my .mac address.

megfilmworks

Oct 19, 2007, 10:21 PM

I really thought the same thing until it was upped to ten gigs and the new web gallery was added, all in conjunction with iLife 08. How many potential serious users in your family? If its 3 or more I'd say the family pack is a damn good deal.

I certainly think $100 every year is a lot for a single user, but there's enough there for me to give it a 1 year go.I love the multiple computer sync and the web gallery feature. That plus the 10gigs makes it worth the $100 for me. About what it costs for my neighbor to fill up his SUV.:)

flopticalcube

Oct 19, 2007, 10:26 PM

I really thought the same thing until it was upped to ten gigs and the new web gallery was added, all in conjunction with iLife 08. How many potential serious users in your family? If its 3 or more I'd say the family pack is a damn good deal.

I certainly think $100 every year is a lot for a single user, but there's enough there for me to give it a 1 year go.

1 serious, 2 casual, 1 seldom. The single user license is CAD$139 (US$143) here. While I can still replicate 66% of .mac for free (at least the 66% that I could use), I'm not shelling out US$237/year.

samh004

Oct 19, 2007, 11:14 PM

I didn't get an e-mail, but I know my syncing was reset because notifications appeared on screen.

mudflapper

Oct 20, 2007, 01:06 AM

Not everyone has the time nor the inclination to download 5 different apps and plugins to get that 66% of the functionality of .Mac. I just want my stuff to work. I usually pay around $70 a year for .Mac. That's less than 6 bucks a month. I've been known to spend more than that on coffee, every day.

.Mac is worth every penny and then some. It has been for years.

dtruett1

Oct 20, 2007, 08:44 AM

When did this email go out? Jeez I get every email Apple can think to send me, but not this. Not even at my .mac address.

Same with me. I get everything from Apple - except this. I did get sync warnings this morning when it normally wouldn't, so I know that's whats up.

andiwm2003

Oct 20, 2007, 09:28 AM

Call me an apple fan but I trust them to only disable such a feature (on a relatively old OS) if its absolutely necessary for the new services. And I can't for the life of me work out how giving you a months notice would help you at all - what would you have done differently?

As for buying an update - at least wait a week!

i call you "apple fan"!:D

i can accept that they have to disable that feature for some technical reason.

but telling us ONE day before that we won't be able to sync our calendars anymore is ridiculous. some people are traveling and can't update their machines. so they won't get "up to date" calendars until they come back.

if they had told us earlier we could have updated to tiger. or they could have waited 4 weeks and we would have all updated to leopard.

taking away a PAID feature on such a short notice is bad. the timing is the problem here. i hope the service gets an update that's worth all this problems.

in general i have to say that .mac doesn't live up to the usual apple standard. it's a good service but the manager(s) in charge are not good.

megfilmworks

Oct 20, 2007, 09:58 AM

Everything is working fine with my syncs! No problems here.

daschor

Oct 20, 2007, 10:31 AM

I have to admit, this looks like a really dumb move on Apple's part. Would have been much better to announce this as an upcoming change, and allow some time before implementation. Although I am using 10.4, I know plenty of Mac users who are still using 10.3.

If I were using 10.3 and paying $99/year for .Mac, and I received this email, I would immediately call Apple to tell them that unless they provide a reasonable work-around, or a free Tiger family-pack for .Mac subscribers, this is completely unacceptable.

Changing terms of service is one thing, but changing terms of service for a prepaid service, with no notice and no opportunity to make other arrangements, strikes me as grossly irresponsible. With all the lawsuit-happy news items lately, I would not be surprised at all to learn of a class-action suit over this by .Mac subscribers.

If my hosting company tried to pull something like this, I would just drop their service. What's the point of paying for something on a one year plan if there is no guarantee that you can even use it tomorrow?

sauria

Oct 20, 2007, 12:20 PM

I had some trouble with calendars not syncing -- Mac Pro 10.4.10 to Mac Mini Core 2 Duo 10.4.10

flyfish29

Oct 20, 2007, 02:23 PM

Call me an apple fan but I trust them to only disable such a feature (on a relatively old OS) if its absolutely necessary for the new services. And I can't for the life of me work out how giving you a months notice would help you at all - what would you have done differently?

As for buying an update - at least wait a week!

I agree- they probably needed to, but did they just decide this week this might be a problem???? Steve said they were going to focus on .Mac...not focus on screwing with VERY faithful .Mac customers. I have owned a .Mac email through the tough times for years now...it was just getting very reliable!

A month would have allowed me to decide if I need to buy a new MacBook for my home so when my wife has her laptop I can see my calendar and make changes to the calendar...

a month would have allowed me to buy an upgrade for at least one of my computers I work on so I could sync.

A month would have allowed me to try and get a palm or something synched to my wife's iBook so I can have a calendar with me.

A month would have allowed me to find a new calendar (online perhaps) that would allow my wife and I to keep our very busy calendars synced so I know when and where she is traveling and which days I have to pick up or drop off my children, etc.

A month would have been a positive business gesture for them to do.

A month would have allowed me to decide if I need to get an iPod Touch to be able to view my wife's calendars (and hopefully they will allow for editing soon on the iPod Touch!)

Jdot

Oct 20, 2007, 10:46 PM

my opinion on the whole thing is tiger has been out for over 2 years now you have had plenty of time to upgrade

flyfish29

Oct 20, 2007, 11:09 PM

my opinion on the whole thing is tiger has been out for over 2 years now you have had plenty of time to upgrade

Sure...I have had a chance to upgrade...but I shouldn't need to since last week they sold me a .Mac membership renewal for $110 saying I can sync using any of my current macs...then a week later they say, oh wait, now you can't get all the benefits of .Mac. We have known about this recent upgrade and we are changing the way we have done this in the past...we are not making .Mac backwards compatible like we did before when an OS upgrade came out.

I still love Apple...their products are top notch...but this is bad business and they have made many bad business decisions recently which worries me. They didn't take their customers needs into consideration with this knee jerk decision...and if it was in fact not a knee jerk decision why couldn't they have given me more than a days notice!?!?!

I am now wondering if I will still be able to back-up my iMac which is not running Tiger...maybe they will remove that next week from my .Mac benefits.

I for one have not upgraded for a few reasons...cost (I stayed home for six years to raise my two kid so money is short.) Two, my iMac is faster than my wifes iBook running Tiger and more memory and faster processor.

drmacnut

Oct 20, 2007, 11:13 PM

Steve said they were going to focus on .Mac...not focus on screwing with VERY faithful .Mac customers.…

A month would have been a positive business gesture for them to do.…

A month would have allowed me to find a new calendar (online perhaps) that would allow my wife and I to keep our very busy calendars synced so I know when and where she is traveling and which days I have to pick up or drop off my children, etc.…

You're right, Johnny; I agree that the timing and management of this .Mac sync change was terrible. I don't have any problems personally with this as all four machines I sync are at 10.4.10. But I know many people who still use 10.3.9 or a mix of both .3 and .4.

Anyway, the point of my email was to recommend that you take a look at Google Calendar. (I don't work for Google or anything like that, just suggesting it as a possible workaround for the time being). I don't actually use it any more, but I did for a month or so to see what it was like. You download the little Google application from their web site (it's a little hard to find I seem to remember, and it's the same one as the "GMail Notifier"). Any calendar you make there is of course viewable on any computer either via a web browser or the mini app.

The thing I found very cool about it was that I could _subscribe_ to it in iCal. So that meant that let's say I have a calendar for my students to use at school, but I don't want them on my personal iCal or using my computer. So I set up a Google calendar for them which they all happily share, and then I merely subscribe to it and get the benefit of seeing what they are doing very easily.

The one downside is that you will not be able to make changes to the Google calendar from within iCal; that has to be done within the Google framework.

Anyway, I hope this helps. Even more so, I hope you can get up to Leopard on all your machines pronto.

Take care.
drmacnut

megfilmworks

Oct 20, 2007, 11:18 PM

Are you guys losing all the .mac features? Or just calendars?

flyfish29

Oct 20, 2007, 11:32 PM

drmacnut- thanks for the info- do you know if you can import events from iCal. Because that is a major thing for us to convert all of our calendars to a new calendar program. We have hundreds of events listed just for the next six months.

I am not losing my calendars, but my ability to sync calendars to additional computers...I assume that means I can't sync my book marks or address books either. I guess I can at the very least sync one computer to the net so I can use those bookmarks and addresses when we are out and about and traveling???

thanks again for the advice. (lets hope my principal is putting through that PO for my Macbook sometime soon- that would help the situation at least some!)

psychofreak

Oct 20, 2007, 11:39 PM

Have you phoned Apple to ask for some money back?

pavelbure

Oct 21, 2007, 12:24 AM

i wish they would change it so you can upload a 2gb or larger file. what's the point of 10 gigs if i can't use it the way i want.

flyfish29

Oct 21, 2007, 10:44 PM

drmacnut

Oct 21, 2007, 11:13 PM

drmacnut- thanks for the info- do you know if you can import events from iCal. Because that is a major thing for us to convert all of our calendars to a new calendar program. We have hundreds of events listed just for the next six months.…

Aloha Johnny - sorry it took so long to get back to you. Anyway, the answer is "yes" you can indeed move (export-import) a calendar from iCal to Google Calendars. I just did it to test it out and it works fine.

You'll need to export the calendar from iCal. Select the calendar you want from the calendar source list and then choose File->Export. Let it export and make sure the final three-letter identifier for the file is ".ics".

Then jump to your Google Calendars by using the menu extra next to your clock at the top of the screen (you will need to have Google Notifier running of course). When you have arrived at your calendars online, create a new one using the "Add" button above your calendars list. After you have created the new calendar, go once again to the "Add" button and choose the last option, to "import" a calendar. Follow the dialog boxes and choose your locally exported iCal .ics file.

Keep your fingers crossed as you "OK" and confirm the action. You may even want to have a little salt available to throw over your left shoulder too. Either way, I think you'll be pleased with the results.

BTW, you can also move calendars from Google back to iCal; just follow the Help on the Google Calendar page.

drmacnut

dukeblue91

Oct 22, 2007, 10:55 AM

So I have been spending the last hour+ trying to get one of our Palm's to sync so I can have our calendar updated at school- still very frustrated with /Apple. The only bad thing is that all I want to do is buy an iPod touch and the last thing I want to do right now is reward apple for making this crack-head change to .Mac on no notice!!!:mad:at:apple:

Why don't you just wait till friday buy Leopard and put it on all of your Mac's.
You also should call Apple since they just renewed your subscription and now are taking away a major feature.

twoodcc

Oct 22, 2007, 11:03 AM

Why don't you just wait till friday buy Leopard and put it on all of your Mac's.
You also should call Apple since they just renewed your subscription and now are taking away a major feature.

yeah that's not a bad idea. leopard iCal seems great

wordmunger

Oct 22, 2007, 11:10 AM

Hmm..

I don't use any of those .mac features, so I guess it's okay. iCal syncing between computers has never worked very well, so I use publish and subscribe.

Oddly, though, I never got the email.

hayesk

Oct 22, 2007, 11:26 AM

i call you "apple fan"!:D

i can accept that they have to disable that feature for some technical reason.

but telling us ONE day before that we won't be able to sync our calendars anymore is ridiculous. some people are traveling and can't update their machines. so they won't get "up to date" calendars until they come back.

How much time should they give? What about the people who are travelling more time than that?

And who is adding things to your calendar back home that you are synchronizing to? Why can't you contact them to tell you of new events via email until you get back and sort out the issue?

Is this really a big deal? I can see being upset if you don't see a need to upgrade to 10.3 on one of your machines. But not giving two weeks notice (or whatever you want) isn't that big of a deal.

diablorojo

Oct 22, 2007, 12:20 PM

yeah, must be related to leopard. only 1 week away!

Can anyone help me? I am new to the Forum and not exceptionally computer literate.
I originally wanted the Leopard, but it wasn't available when I needed it, so I have the OSX 10.4.10 Tiger. Now I see Leopard is available for £85 (single, which would suit me). If I get it and install it, will it be an addition to the Tiger, or will it erase Tiger and stand on its own?
Further, I was disappointed to learn that my Tiger does not burn/copy DVDs and I must buy and separate intrument for this. Can anyone recommend one?

John Chaplin
diabloxrojo@yahoo.co.uk

JWFerne

Oct 22, 2007, 12:21 PM

If you use google calendar and multiple machines, check out Spanning Sync. It could be a good alternative for people that are loosing .mac functionality. Only works with the calendar, no adressbook etc.

megfilmworks

Oct 22, 2007, 12:34 PM

VaDor

Oct 22, 2007, 08:31 PM

drmacnut- thanks for the info- do you know if you can import events from iCal. Because that is a major thing for us to convert all of our calendars to a new calendar program. We have hundreds of events listed just for the next six months.

I am not losing my calendars, but my ability to sync calendars to additional computers...I assume that means I can't sync my book marks or address books either. I guess I can at the very least sync one computer to the net so I can use those bookmarks and addresses when we are out and about and traveling???

thanks again for the advice. (lets hope my principal is putting through that PO for my Macbook sometime soon- that would help the situation at least some!)

No need to manually change just use GSync is a little app that uses google api and sync's directly (no intermediate server as spanning sync) ical with google calendar (bidirectional ), I tried and was very satisfied, http://www.macness.com/blog/.

flyfish29

Oct 22, 2007, 09:38 PM

Can anyone help me? I am new to the Forum and not exceptionally computer literate.
I originally wanted the Leopard, but it wasn't available when I needed it, so I have the OSX 10.4.10 Tiger. Now I see Leopard is available for £85 (single, which would suit me). If I get it and install it, will it be an addition to the Tiger, or will it erase Tiger and stand on its own?
Further, I was disappointed to learn that my Tiger does not burn/copy DVDs and I must buy and separate intrument for this. Can anyone recommend one?

John Chaplin
diabloxrojo@yahoo.co.uk

John- I would recommend not putting your email on the web forum- It can increase your chances of getting spam email.

I would create a new thread in the fourm here which states your questions. That way you can get answers based on a thread topic- this is really about syncing .Mac.

(But to answer some of your questions- the software on your computer will burn DVD's no problem, but your machine has to have the hardware which can burn DVD's- it may or may not have this- What machine do you own- when did you buy it, etc. That would be helpful.)_ But again, make your own thread so you get your answers. Good luck.

ingenious

Oct 22, 2007, 10:19 PM

drmacnut- thanks for the info- do you know if you can import events from iCal. Because that is a major thing for us to convert all of our calendars to a new calendar program. We have hundreds of events listed just for the next six months.

I am not losing my calendars, but my ability to sync calendars to additional computers...I assume that means I can't sync my book marks or address books either. I guess I can at the very least sync one computer to the net so I can use those bookmarks and addresses when we are out and about and traveling???

thanks again for the advice. (lets hope my principal is putting through that PO for my Macbook sometime soon- that would help the situation at least some!)

from the article I gathered you were just losing calendar synching between tiger or leopard and panther... panther to panther does still work (not that that affects you).

flyfish29

Oct 23, 2007, 10:12 PM

from the article I gathered you were just losing calendar synching between tiger or leopard and panther... panther to panther does still work (not that that affects you).

I wish now my wife had not upgraded to tiger on her iBook at school- then all would be fine.

Apple had the nerve yesterday to send me an emailing saying "hey, need to sync...buy an iPhone..buy this...buy that!!! I can't believe the nerve...right now I don't want to buy anything- I just want my three apple computers we use as a family to all do what they did last week. I could understand if I was using OSX 10.0 or 10.1 or even 10.2...I would have no problem with them saying you are way behind the technology, you need to upgrade because we can't keep supporting something that old...but come on!

I am done ranting...for now at least.

Now I am probably off to shop for at least an iPod Touch.

montecristo

Oct 24, 2007, 09:24 PM

I wish now my wife had not upgraded to tiger on her iBook at school- then all would be fine.
.

Possible temporary solutions:
Do you have any of the Tiger disks from your wife's mac? Maybe you can try installing that on your computer just to do a sync? Then you can downgrade back to Panther if you need to. (you may be able to create a separate Tiger boot disk or boot drive, if you have additional partitions or drives).

Or maybe you can create a separate user account on your wife's mac, connect your two computers using target mode, and then clone your calendar file to your wife's mac.

Or maybe you can publish your iCal on your .mac website, and your wife can subscribe to it (and vice versa).

Not sure how well any of these will work but worth a shot...

flyfish29

Oct 24, 2007, 09:27 PM

Possible temporary solutions:
Do you have any of the Tiger disks from your wife's mac? Maybe you can try installing that on your computer just to do a sync? Then you can downgrade back to Panther if you need to. (you may be able to create a separate Tiger boot disk or boot drive, if you have additional partitions or drives).

Or maybe you can create a separate user account on your wife's mac, connect your two computers using target mode, and then clone your calendar file to your wife's mac.

Or maybe you can publish your iCal on your .mac website, and your wife can subscribe to it (and vice versa).

Not sure how well any of these will work but worth a shot...

Thanks for the possible solutions- I mght try google calendar, but dont 'have time right now to mess with trying it out- that is the most frustrating thing about this- I am in my busiest time of the year with a new job and just needed a calendar to work. Still trying to get my principal to buy me that new MacBook!

vffikoncer

Nov 3, 2007, 08:48 AM

Yeah, had an experience today between my two Macs that leads me to believe that too.

flyfish29

Nov 9, 2007, 09:29 PM

I am very happy to report my school gave me a *new* comptuer today- a G4 iBook 1.33 complete with wireless (finally), blutooth (course I have nothing bluetooth), not much memory, but finally I have a machine that runs TIGER!!!! So I can finally sync (for now at least) with my wife's iBook and our life can one again be orgainzed!!!

Thanks to those who gave me options to try and sync our lives. I never got around to it, but I gues me being too busy ended up working out ok.

thanks again!