resuming .mac sync between machines after long break?

[sir42]

I used to sync my work and home computers with .mac sync. However, when I went on sabbatical four months ago I turned off the sync on my work computer. Now that I'm back to work I want to restart the .mac sync between the two machines but I'm afraid that something might go wrong now that one machine is 4 months behind. However, I'm also somewhat curious to see how well .mac sync works in this situation. What's the best way to start up the sync again without throwing my sync into a tailspin? I figured I have a couple of options.

1. Just start up the sync again and pray for the best. I should note that I turned off the sync 4 months ago by simply removing my .mac name and password from the .mac panel in Preferences.

2. Delete my calendars and contacts from my Work computer and reinstall with the latest backup from my Home computer, then start up the sync.

3. Other fun ideas?

thanks!

 

[ShellyFM]

I'm quite new to Mac, but the other day I ran the "Reset Sync Data" option on the "Advanced" tab of the .Mac System Preferences menu. I had made a bunch of updates to my Address Book on my Macbook (which synchronizes with my Exchange server account) including consolidating the duplicates. I wanted to update my iMac but was concerned that it might take some of the data on the iMac and move it to the MacBook instead. Running the Reset Sync Data option allowed me to tell it to override the iMac data with what was in the .Mac account (which had been updated from the MacBook). This seemed to do the trick.

-Shelly

 

[mad jew]

2. Delete my calendars and contacts from my Work computer and reinstall with the latest backup from my Home computer, then start up the sync.

I'd do that. Although it should in theory work straight of (without requiring any manual transfers on your part), I think this option would be safer.

A while back, .Mac was having some issues so I effectively did the same as you. I stopped syncing one machine and just kept my other machine up-to-date. When it came time to resync, it had trouble updating the iCal calendars. It claimed they were updating but they were not. Although this didn't involve any data loss, I still needed to manually reinstall the calendars to get it working again. It's all good now.