iPhone won't sync address book/email/safari

[firehire]

I am by no stretch of the imagination a Mac expert, but I think I have found the solution to the sync problem.

I was having problems syncing only my contacts (all 2500 of them). It would either hang up syncing or tell me that the sync server failed to sync the iPhone.

I contacted Apple Tech Support this am and the tech I was talking to acted like this was the first time that he had heard of this problem. We tried trashing preference (plist) files and cache files, but no luck. I had completed a complete restore and restart of my computer and still no luck. We basically ran out of options and he stated he would open a trouble case on it.

Well, my curiosity got the best of me and I started farting around with iSync. In the preferences of iSync is a checkbox which either allows or disallows applications to sync with each other. I unchecked it, closed iSync and opened iTunes.

I put my iPhone in the Dock and when it came up on iTunes, under the "Info" tab, all of the checkboxes were checked, but there was NO information to be synced.

I then unmounted my iPhone and closed iTunes. I opened iSync again and rechecked the checkbox to allow syncing between applications. I also pressed the "Reset Sync History".

I then closed iSync, reopened iTunes and re-docked my iPhone. I then checked under "Info" and the information was back. I then tried to sync my contacts and it worked perfectly.

I hope that this helps everyone with this problem.

 

[atlantadave]

boxes become unchecked when you hit apply

I'm having the same issue as bluecluee & spongeweed - in iTunes the checked boxes become unchecked when I hit apply.

Anyone able to figure this out?

 

[jchinique]

My itunes isn't even recognizing my activated iphone, so I can't sync anything.

I've scraped around for two days looking for an answer to why my itunes wont recognize my iphone.
Plugged it in at home (10.3.9), itunes opened and asked to be upgraded to latest version. Check. Second time, plug in, and I need to upgrade to tiger. OK. Order from apple (disks in the mail, can't get it via download) so I activated the phone at work with my itunes on my pc and chose to sync later. (because all my info is on my home mac - ical contacts and schedules, etc). Phone works great, cool features, very happy. Received the 10.4.x upgrade in the mail, installed, yadda yadda and now MY MAC AND ITUNES DO NOT RECOGNIZE THE PHONE.
Ridiculous and dissapointing that there is not an easy remedy. I have to go back to the office and fiddle with it there, when all I want is to sync the info in front of me right now.

 

[jchinique]

Woo Hoo, I am insanely happy! (bi-polar lot we mac junkies are, ni?) I erased all data from my iphone, and reinstalled the new itunes over the 10.4.10 upgrade. Sync'd great, thanks!

I suspect this might work if you activated from another mac (non-home) as well.

 

[clayk]

I had this happen on a friends computer. I finally repaired disk permissions and it started working. Might give it a try.

Clay

 

[rbogin]

Isync may be the problem

I was unable to sync my bookmarks, and occasionally had problems with hanging at contacts, etc. I had previously been using a Treo and had a sync previously set up. I opened iSync and deleted my old Treo from iSync. Now everything syncs without a problem.

 

[Envykev]

Not only am I having the same problems as everyone else with the iphone not synching, I attempted to restore it and it's not even restoring! It keeps giving me an error when I try to restore it. If you ask me I think it may be a fault with leopard and/or itunes.

 

[Alyssa]

For safari bookmarks not syncing with iPhone try:

-Quitting safari
-Open the Terminal (Application/Utilities)
-Type or paste this:
defaults delete com.apple.safari RegisteredSafariSyncClient
-Restart safari and sync to Iphone

For Address Book not syncing. It might be that one of your contacts is corrupt. Narrow down which contacts you sync using Address Book groups until you find the corrupt one.

 

[olehenriksen]

It works!

...Well, my curiosity got the best of me and I started farting around with iSync. In the preferences of iSync is a checkbox which either allows or disallows applications to sync with each other. I unchecked it, closed iSync and opened iTunes.

I put my iPhone in the Dock and when it came up on iTunes, under the "Info" tab, all of the checkboxes were checked, but there was NO information to be synced.

I then unmounted my iPhone and closed iTunes. I opened iSync again and rechecked the checkbox to allow syncing between applications. I also pressed the "Reset Sync History".

I then closed iSync, reopened iTunes and re-docked my iPhone. I then checked under "Info" and the information was back. I then tried to sync my contacts and it worked perfectly.

I hope that this helps everyone with this problem...

It certainly helped me - or rather, a friend of mine I was trying to help. Nothing his Apple dealer or Apple tech support told him could make his Address Book and iPhone Contacts sync. But this did - big round of applause! Someone should tell Apple, because they don't seem to know. Or maybe they just don't care?