MobileMe's Push Services Detailed, No Mac to Mobile Me 'Push'

[marcj]

I'm pretty sure they'd get a lot more complaints if it worked the way you all want. Push from iPhone happens when you are using iPhone therefore using iPhone battery is appropriate.

Push from Mac to iPhone uses power on the iPhone when you are NOT using the iPhone. Therefore it should be more conservative.

I can (and often do) make hundreds of changes on my Mac in a period of 15 minutes. I sure don't want each one separately pushed to my iPhone.

Also, if I am sitting and using my Mac, I really don't care if my iPhone is up to date at that moment. I care if my iPhone is up to date after I stop using my Mac.

So if it doesn't sync before sleep or shutdown, then THAT is a problem and needs to be fixed. Other than that, this seems like the correct solution.

There may need to be an exception for pushing changes to my iCal onto someone else's iPhone.

MobileMe isn't all about the iPhone - I think that is a little narrow-minded. I don't yet have an iPhone but I know I want all my mac and PC's constantly in sync - don't forget about all the other devices that don't use batteries that would appreciate having iCal info pushed to them.

People wouldn't complain as much if they got what they expected/were promised.

If something doesn't work the way you want but it's what they promised to deliver then it's feedback. If something doesn't work the way you want yet they claimed it would, then it's a complaint.

 

[e.m.]

I am getting Push to iPhone for all services. I get push to my mac from ical and address book but not mail. Mail waits 5 minutes before it fetches new mail. None of my stuff is pushed from my mac to me. Is anyone else getting mail.app to receive pushed mail from mobileme or are you all having it fetch?

push mail to Mac not working for me as well. I don't think it's working for anyone.

and this whole Mac -> Cloud push service not even supported although they led us to believe so is horrible. no, it's not the end of the world, but they have deceived us. that's bad, especially for a paid service.

 

[Phil A.]

Wouldn't that be mentioned in the Apple Knowledgebase page?

Openness and Apple don't seem to go together though, do they? I remember when Leopard was first released and Time Machine went around trashing people's Aperture Libraries (which was a pretty serious fault!).
The knowledge base from Apple simply said it wasn't supported and to exclude Aperture Libraries from Time Machine backups. Then they quietly fixed it and only then updated the knowledge base.
Apple can be very infuriating sometimes with their secretive attitude and it's something I think they'll have to change if they are serious about the corporate market...

 

[e.m.]

After trying to get this to work, with no success, I decided that I'd restore my iPod Touch and set it up on a 'vanilla' system and see what happened. For me at the moment....it's working perfectly. Whether or not what I did had this affect....who knows...but this is what I did!

1) Synced MacBook to MobileMe
2) Checked data on both MobileMe and MacBook
3) Plugged in iPod and turned off all syncing through iTunes
4) Restored iPod
5) Installed 2.0 software
6) Set up iPod as a new unit (I did not use a backup)
7) Went into settings on the iPod and set up a new MobileMe account.
8) Turned on the 'Push' functions on the iPod and let it sync
9) Checked data to ensure it matched
10) Opened beer (this is optional)

Any changes I make on my iPod appear on both MobileMe and my MacBook within 15 seconds
Any changes I make on MobileMe appear on my iPod and MacBook within 15 seconds
Any changes I make on my MacBook appear on my iPod and MobileMe with 15 seconds

Whether I'm lucky, MobileMe has finally starting working properly or something I did has resulted in this gain of function is yet to be determined....but I thought I'd share my experience.

are you getting Mac -> Cloud push to work consistently? Could it have been that the sync timing was right on?

I really hope you're right, but unfortunately the way things are, I find it hard to believe.

 

[Cloudane]

Classic Apple - one step away from being perfect but they always refuse to fix that last step. Until the next upgrade, where they will tout "OMG, immediate updates from your Mac!" as the major feature and cripple something else...

The lack of push email to the Mac is highly annoying - I've got Google Mail which pushes immediately to the Mac but not to the iPhone and Mobile Me which pushes immediately to the iPhone but not the Mac. ARGH just give us some consistency!!

 

[e.m.]

The lack of push email to the Mac is highly annoying - I've got Google Mail which pushes immediately to the Mac but not to the iPhone and Mobile Me which pushes immediately to the iPhone but not the Mac. ARGH just give us some consistency!!

how do you get Gmail to push to the Mac? Do you mean by the web interface?

 

[atowntx512]

Woooow!!

Please correct me if I'm wrong but Push is what it is push but there is not a time limit on push!!! Push is for you phone doesnt have to use battery to check for mail or whatever every 15,30 etc minutes and waste battery. There is no time limit on push. It's doing exactly what it is supposed to do. Given the Mac isnt syncing to the cloud automatically, I think it should once theres a change in iCal or Address Book. BUT if you change something on the iphone its changing on your me.com page and vise versa pretty much instantly. Thats what Apple advertised. Are you going to die because it can take up to 15 minute for it to update on your iCal or Address Book on your MAC??? PLEASE!!!!

 

[Cloudane]

how do you get Gmail to push to the Mac? Do you mean by the web interface?

No, through Mail.app if you enable IMAP in your Gmail account settings and then follow the instructions from there.

Seemingly the different versions of Mail.app support two different standards - the desktop one uses the IDLE command (industry standard), whilst the mobile version uses P-IMAP.


E: Also, worth noting, changes from Cloud -> Mac are still taking 15 minutes here. Minimum. Just tried it with the calendar.

 

[BillyBobBongo]

are you getting Mac -> Cloud push to work consistently? Could it have been that the sync timing was right on?

I really hope you're right, but unfortunately the way things are, I find it hard to believe.

I've seen this happen on more than one occasion....so I'm sure it's not just through lucky timing.

 

[rmcjls]

Me.com login

Anybody else having trouble getting a trial account to authorize on the web interface?

 

[philoscoffee]

Does syncing with MobileMe initiate push updates?

So for people who have iPhone to Mac push updates working, what happens when you add contacts etc. to your Mac? Do the new contacts get pushed to the iPhone immediately after the Mac is next synced with MobileMe, or is there a further delay until the phone pulls the data back from the cloud?

Similarly, if you have two Macs syncing to MobileMe, are changes made on the one Mac only picked up by the other after both machines have synced, or does push kick as soon as the changes are uploaded to the cloud? If it's the former then there should never be more than a 15 min time delay between updates. If the latter then it could be up to half an hour.

Also, do you really need to set the Mac to sync with MobileMe automatically (i.e. every 15 mins) to receive push updates from the phone, or does it work with the other settings (e.g. every day) too?

 

[chrismcdowell25]

Easy

push mail to Mac not working for me as well. I don't think it's working for anyone.

and this whole Mac -> Cloud push service not even supported although they led us to believe so is horrible. no, it's not the end of the world, but they have deceived us. that's bad, especially for a paid service.

I would think the mac to cloud push would be easiest to implement also. Just have Address book tell sync to do a sync now because a new contact has been saved. Even if it just synced that one category like ical or address book. You could probably make an apple script if the two programs are scriptable for those activities. I dont see why they would leave that out when it makes the whole experience lose it's consistency.

Has anyone gotten mail pushed to their mac?

 

[Daveoc64]

Please correct me if I'm wrong but Push is what it is push but there is not a time limit on push!!! Push is for you phone doesnt have to use battery to check for mail or whatever every 15,30 etc minutes and waste battery. There is no time limit on push. It's doing exactly what it is supposed to do. Given the Mac isnt syncing to the cloud automatically, I think it should once theres a change in iCal or Address Book. BUT if you change something on the iphone its changing on your me.com page and vise versa pretty much instantly. Thats what Apple advertised. Are you going to die because it can take up to 15 minute for it to update on your iCal or Address Book on your MAC??? PLEASE!!!!

We've covered this.

Apple clearly implies instant changes.

As has been explained, 15 minutes is too long if you do stuff and then close your notebook.

I don't own an iPhone. I bought MobileMe to do what it said it would on the site. It hasn't lived up to their claim of "instantaneous".

 

[ckford]

Subscribed Calendars

Me.com does not sync subscribed to calendars. Does anyone lnow of a work around?

 

[daneoni]

Was seriously considering buying this thing earlier today but i'm now kinda glad i didn't. I'll just use Yahoo mail for my 'push' needs and sync my contacts/calender with Google.

 

[chrismcdowell25]

No, through Mail.app if you enable IMAP in your Gmail account settings and then follow the instructions from there.

Seemingly the different versions of Mail.app support two different standards - the desktop one uses the IDLE command (industry standard), whilst the mobile version uses P-IMAP.


E: Also, worth noting, changes from Cloud -> Mac are still taking 15 minutes here. Minimum. Just tried it with the calendar.

have you tried going into system preferences under mobile me. Then go to the sync tab then advanced button. Then click reset sync data. I had it reset mobileme with my desktop data. I have been getting it working consistently since then. I can make a change on my iphone or me.com and it is pushed to my mac. if I make a change on my mac after it syncs to me.com me.com then pushes it to my iphone.

 

[Cloudane]

Edit: ^ I'll try that again, done it a few times in the past few days mind.

The point isn't that 15 minutes isn't that long to wait, but that we all know that instant pushes back and forth are perfectly possible, and reduce the load for everyone including Apple. Along with the fact that they advertised the service as such, it's insane that they'd do this.

Anybody else having trouble getting a trial account to authorize on the web interface?

I did at first - change your password with the "forgotten password" link. This fixes it.

 

[slevit1]

I have tried just about everything I can think of, including resetting sync data. I have not updated my iphone yet (waiting for unlock), so I can't say if that works. However, it definitely is not pushing anything to or from my mac. It is only updating when it does it's automatic update every 15 minutes.

 

[chrismcdowell25]

me.com mail bug.

I think there is a bug in me.com's mail. if I delete mail off of my mac or iphone me.com still shows the messages until i delete one of the messages. say 5 are still showing. if I delete one of the 5 that were already deleted on one of my devices it will then delete all 5. but otherwise they are staying there. weird. Hoping they are still ironing and more updates are to come soon.

I havent checked all the iLife apps but iWeb is still listing mobile me as .mac. it shows my account as jglksjglkdjf@mac.com and when I hit publish it referes to the service as .mac. I am sure they are still going to change that so there has to be more updates to come here soon.

 

[YoGramMamma]

Thanks, but...

Thanks to those of you who chimed in to show me how to open iSync and tell it not to alert me on 5% changes. I actually tried opening iSync last night, only to have it crash every time it opened, but for some reason today it worked fine.

That still doesn't answer the question of why there is no iDisk file share - as demoed at WWDC, and as once shown on apple.com/mobileme. Thats really lame and I haven't seen anyone anywhere make reference to it, or its notable absence.

Another thing that I've run into a few times now.. is something that I dont think others are experiencing (though I may be wrong). When i have iCal open, make a change to the web interface me.com and finish making that entry, I immediately (well, within about 10 secs) get that change reflected on my iPhone and i get an alert showing me MobileMe is syncing on my computer and it shows in iCal. Moreover, if I enter an event in the web interface calendar... while iCal was closed.... it showed that change on my iPhone. However, when i open ical and have it sync with mobileme, the entry gets erased from the web calendar, and subsequently from my iPhone, I'm assuming because it was not entered into iCal (since it was closed) and when the sync happened iCal overwrote what was on the cloud, and therefore the phone. This cant be a good thing. any thoughts?

 

[e.m.]

I've seen this happen on more than one occasion....so I'm sure it's not just through lucky timing.

You are really lucky, then.

Nothing gets pushed from my Mac. It seems everyone else is having the same problem as well.

So maybe a fresh install of the Mac will get push from Mac working? When I have time, maybe I'll do a fresh install on an external drive to see if it'll work.

 

[e.m.]

No, through Mail.app if you enable IMAP in your Gmail account settings and then follow the instructions from there.

Seemingly the different versions of Mail.app support two different standards - the desktop one uses the IDLE command (industry standard), whilst the mobile version uses P-IMAP.


E: Also, worth noting, changes from Cloud -> Mac are still taking 15 minutes here. Minimum. Just tried it with the calendar.

I have IDLE checked and no push from Gmail for me.

 

[kingofcalhoun]

oh well...

yeah i've kind of determined the same thing...

me.com -->iphone = great
iphone -->me.com = great
anything from mac -->iphone or me.com ≠ great

there are far more pressing world concerns though to worry about. i'm sure apple will fix this in a timely manner. for the love of Christ people were freaking out about iPhone activations and what did it take apple, half a day to fix it?

deep breaths my fellow .mac alums! =)

 

[BillyBobBongo]

You are really lucky, then.

*Dives out door to buy lottery ticket*

 

[chancee]

And... what if I add an important contact, then five minutes later turn off my computer and go on a business trip. I guess since I didn't make the 15 minute cut my contact wasn't 'synced' and I don't have the contact on my trip. Awesome.