Next Version of iTunes Restores Local Contact and Calendar Syncing

[SBlue1]

wow, this is great news for me. i have a dozen of business mail addresses and have to change the passwords every 6 months. since iCloud wouldn't let me sync the accounts automatically I had to do everything manually. on a few devices. that was no fun!

 

[slu]

I never use iTunes anymore cuz it's not web-based. Next ver needs to be web-based!

Agree 100%. I switched to Google Play Music and haven't looked back. It is a great service.

 

[Explorz]

Missed the point

What they really should add back is the ability to sync all your email accounts through iTunes like you could before Mavericks. As it stands now, if you have to set up a new phone, you have to set up your emails on the phone itself. In the old version, you could sync the email accounts from you computer to the phone. Much easier.

Contacts and Calendars can be synced using iCloud. Apple again misses the point.

 

[sualpine]

SyncServices is old, archaic, buggy and slow. They tried to do a good thing. Majority fools win this time around.

 

[H2SO4]

People who have confidential contacts or appointments that are not suitable for the cloud (where the information is potentially accessible by hackers, government agencies, and Apple). Think lawyers, investigative journalists, business people without a corporate exchange server etc.

It's amazing that people don't consider that. I don't think your average person cares at all. One may for any reason at all not want their details in the cloud but probably have lots of acquaintances that would post them there anyway.

 

[H2SO4]

SyncServices is old, archaic, buggy and slow. They tried to do a good thing. Majority fools win this time around.

Majority fools my ass. Don't like it don't use it. Simples.

 

[sualpine]

Majority fools my ass. Don't like it don't use it. Simples.

Actually I think it's Apple that didn't like it. For many good reasons. As proven by the fact that it was removed as a design decision.

 

[Rigby]

Those running earlier versions of OS X have never lost the ability to locally sync contacts thru iTunes.

Neither did those using iTunes on Windows. It was a strange omission in Mavericks.

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Also, how sure can I be that once they are out there in the world that no one unauthorized gets that information!

You can be pretty sure that some did. E.g. the NSA is collecting online address books in bulk in order to build social graphs of the population:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world...58b5be-34f9-11e3-80c6-7e6dd8d22d8f_story.html

 

[mfvisuals]

There can be valid reasons for doing it locally. Imagine for example a one-person business that wants to sync their customers' phone numbers from their computer to their phone. It's a violation of privacy law to give those details to a third-party so it therefore must happen locally.

If you're talking about syncing their customers' phone numbers from their customer's Mac to their customer's phone, then they can have the customer do that with their own credentials.

If you're talking about the business person syncing their own collection of contacts (customers and otherwise) between their own devices, that should also not be a problem.

Unless there is a specific privacy law for a specific country that forbids it, if the company providing the syncing service (i.e. Apple) has a privacy policy in place (which they do) that prevents use of that synced data by the service provider, there shouldn't be any privacy concerns.

If you review it on their website, you'll see Apple has an EXTREMELY unforgiving privacy policy that prevents them from doing anything with that data besides storing it for YOU, and syncing it between YOUR devices.

In fact, they can't do anything to your iCloud account if there is an issue without first verifying your identity and obtaining your express consent.

Fact checking is always helpful.

 

[Adamsappel]

If you're talking about syncing their customers' phone numbers from their customer's Mac to their customer's phone, then they can have the customer do that with their own credentials.

If you're talking about the business person syncing their own collection of contacts (customers and otherwise) between their own devices, that should also not be a problem.

Unless there is a specific privacy law for a specific country that forbids it, if the company providing the syncing service (i.e. Apple) has a privacy policy in place (which they do) that prevents use of that synced data by the service provider, there shouldn't be any privacy concerns.

If you review it on their website, you'll see Apple has an EXTREMELY unforgiving privacy policy that prevents them from doing anything with that data besides storing it for YOU, and syncing it between YOUR devices.

In fact, they can't do anything to your iCloud account if there is an issue without first verifying your identity and obtaining your express consent.

Fact checking is always helpful.

The "Blade Runnet" Oscar Pistorius murder case in South Africa is a case in point. Oscar "cannot recall" his 4-digit PIN and a delegation of South African detectives topl his iPhone to Apple on USA. I do not know if Apple will help not if they would be able to.

 

[cube]

So, it seems I will be able to upgrade to Sea Lion after all, and consider getting a Mac again if they are not too underpowered for my needs.

 

[TechGod]

Wow! Amazing how much innovation we've seen from Apple today. 8GB iPhone 5C, iPad 4, and now this! They are just kicking Google's butt when it comes to innovation

I kid. kind of.

Yes because they called the 5C and iPad 4 innovative right?

 

[KALLT]

Lawyer here: I'm not aware if any privacy laws that would be violated by the mere act of syncing through a third-party server.

I'm not sure in which country/jurisdiction you are qualified, but there are ample data-protection rules that apply to data controllers in the European Union. Think of restrictions on the use of foreign data processors (e.g. US-based cloud providers outside the safe harbour), rights of data subjects (e.g. to access the data when requested), data-retention limits and so forth. There is potential for liability here, that should not be too easily overlooked. You are still responsible for what happens to that data, even when you rely on iCloud.

Aside from that, there are people like myself who just don't want to put (all of) their data into the cloud. Apple can never assure me that my data is absolutely safe. We've seen plenty of reports where cloud providers were hacked and personal data was stolen. We've seen reports about American and British intelligence getting access to such data. Neither do I want that Apple can use my data for for further analysis. I just don't want it and I don't need it. Local Wi-Fi sync is more than enough and it happens automatically too.

 

[roadbloc]

Seriously who is still using iTunes to sync Contacts and Calendars in this day and age? iCloud does everything you need and is the most reliable cloud syncing service on earth.

Since I'm lucky to even get mobile phone signal in my area, never mind 3G internet or a stable WiFi connection, iCloud is useless to the mere 1,000 people that live in the area.

So Apple get my thanks for this move.

 

[iWe]

Seriously who is still using iTunes to sync Contacts and Calendars in this day and age? iCloud does everything you need and is the most reliable cloud syncing service on earth.

People that want to keep their personal information to themselves and not store it on servers located in the USNSA...

 

[Daronk]

I mean that IF they want to keep customers, they can't do SOME things. And I'm sure that Apple WANTS to have customers

Don't they still have a few customers, even without local sync?

 

[LordVic]

"Had no idea this was missing, since I use iCloud instead." -Everyone

i have never used icloud. I will never use icloud. and just cause I use OSx don't force me to use icloud.

its one of the reasons i'm migrating off Win8.1. forcing me into using an online account for stuff i'm entirely capable of using for local content is a no no for me. A big, Fat no no

if i WANT to use. let me use it. but never, Ever arbitrarily tell me i must use it

 

[jayducharme]

Not sure why anyone would go through the time and hassle of doing that anymore but I guess whatever floats your boat.

The syncing problem has been a huge annoyance for me. I have both an iPhone and iPad, and Apple won't let me sync both to iCloud (which I think is insane; we should be able to backup to iCloud for each device we buy). So the iPad is synced to my Mac. Or rather, it USED to be synced to my Mac. Now nothing syncs. If I update apps through iTunes on my Mac, they should sync to my iDevices. But now I have to update each manually. The same with media; music and movies have to be manually loaded on to each device. I can't believe Apple broke iTunes so badly. But it's truly a mess right now.

Can they fix the bug that requires me to signin every time I search in my iTunes library?

Don't get me started on that! And what the heck is going on with Match, where I have to turn it off, turn it back on and then re-authorize my computer every time I want Match to work properly?

 

[gnasher729]

They were just caught with the back door opent that necessitaded updates to OS X and the release of iOS 7.06.

I think the word "back door" doesn't mean what you think it means. There was no back door found. If there was one, it wouldn't have been found. What was found was a rather embarrassing bug. Which may have been so bad that nobody considered it could have been there, and that nobody exploited it. Like a huge bank safe that is left unlocked overnight, and no bankrobber ever had the idea that just pulling the door might open it.

 

[newfoundglory]

I first noticed this was missing in the mavericks betas. Thought it was a bug, but obviously not.

I find it so annoying not being able to sync contacts (purely for local backup purposes), that I actually have a Mountain Lion VM on my machine just for this purpose.

Welcome news for me.

 

[JuicyGoo]

Glad this is back. Great "new feature"! So stupid that Apple would force cloud-only.

 

[minisuds7]

Excellent news for a BlackBerry user!

I hope this means I'll be able to sync my contacts and calendars locally through the BlackBerry Desktop software again. It's been a pain in the arse getting everything into Gmail and then syncing from there. Call me old-school but I love my Bold's "typing on air" keyboard. Although this year's iPhone could tempt me...

 

[tywebb13]

Could this be a public release soon?

Why else would they release it to apple employees first?

 

[thespyder]

Seriously who is still using iTunes to sync Contacts and Calendars in this day and age? iCloud does everything you need and is the most reliable cloud syncing service on earth.

As well as people in low signal areas, there are those who don't see the point in paying for 3G data (In Australia there are still plans with 200mb/month caps). Unless they have wifi - and that's not guaranteed either - local sync is the only viable option.

I had to apologise profusely after upgrading my friend to 10.9!

 

[sualpine]

Could this be a public release soon?

Why else would they release it to apple employees first?

10.9.3 is going to take long. Why? Because it's going to enable retina desktops.
LOTS of testing needed to make that a nice transition.