Problem syncing after 1st sync

[dryver8]

Omni Response:

This has been filed internally at Omni as:
<bug://bugs/48529> (Problem syncing after 1st sync)

If you are also experiencing this issue please
Email OmniFocus Support (mailto:omnifocus@omnigroup.com?subject=<bug://bugs/48529> (Problem syncing after 1st sync))


Re-stated User Question:

About 2 weeks ago I had everything syncing perfectly. However, syncing recently stopped working, and I have spent the better part of a week trying to get this to work, and I am losing hope. I've sent multiple emails to Omni, and even included my database at their request, this was over 4 days ago. I've yet to recieve a response. I've changed everything listed in various forums countless times. I've been a loyal OF user since beta and I'm about to give up.

I always get a good first sync after reseting everything and sending up the database. After the initial sync, it stops working. This includes the desktop, and my iPhone. I get to the database "fetched" point, and that's the last time it works.

The sync button continues to spin for hours, and the progress bar doesn't move.

I just tried to switch from MobileMe to iDisk because I had no problems until the update that added MobileMe. I got the database up to my iDisk, and once again I'm watching a spinning sync button with nothing happening. I'm running the latest builds of the desktop and the iphone software, and still syncing is not working.

I've tried to rebuild the data base, yet it stays at 4.7mb. I've archived old data all the way up to yesterday, which changes nothing. I've removed all the databases from MobileMe, resynced the database back up again, and never get a sync.......either way (desktop or iphone).

Believe me guys I've done everything. I spent the better part of 6 hours yesterday messing with all this, nothing, nothing, nothing......

Original User Question:

About 2 weeks ago I had everything syncing perfectly. I have spent the better part of a week trying to get this to work, and I'm losing hope. I've sent multiple emails to omni even included my database @ their request that was 4 days ago, no response I've changed everything listed in various forums by the omni guys countless times. I've been a loyal OF user since beta and I'm about to give up. I always get a good first sync after reseting everything and sending up the database, but NEVER again not on the desktop side and not on the iphone, I get my database "fetched" and that's the last time it ever works. I'm growing so very tired of seeing the spinning sync button, for HOURS with no error message and no sync, progess bar never moves an inch on the desktop, just spins away. I just tried to switch from mobileme to idisk because I had no problems until the update that added mobileme, I got the database up to my idisk, and once again I'm watching a spinning sync button with nothing happening. I'm running the latest builds of the desktop and the iphone software, and NOTHING I mean NOTHING is happening. someone PLEASE help me here, PLEASE!!!!! I've tried to rebuild the data base, never does stays @ 4.7mb, I've archived old data all the way up to yesterday, never changes anything. I've removed all the databases from mobileme COUNTLESS times, get the database back up again, and never, never get a sync.......either way (desktop or iphone) Believe me guys I've done everything. I spent the better part of 6 hours yesterday messing with all this, nothing, nothing, nothing......

[SpiralOcean]

In case you haven't tried this...

First turn off your syncing in OF.
Turn off iDisk in SystemPrefs.
Turn on syncing in OF using MobileMe.

My experience when using iDisk through the finder has been... dodgy. I leave it turned off. To access iDisk, I would try going through mobileme using Safari.

You may want to try deleting OF document on iDisk (using Safari or other web browser) before doing the test mentioned above.

Good Luck.

[dryver8]

@sprial when you say turn off idisk in sys prefs do you mean signing out of mobile me? I don't see an option to turn off idisk anywhere? Thanx for the input!!

[SpiralOcean]

I misspoke... turn off iDisk sync in the system prefs.

Stay signed into MobileMe.
Click on iDisk tab
Make sure iDisk Sync is off.

[dryver8]

had that turned off for a while your term "dodgy" would be nice, ha ha thanx man

[SpiralOcean]

The only other thing that comes to mind is if you have a firewall turned on... try syncing with the firewall off.

[dryver8]

no firewall on

[Lizard]

The iDisk sync in System Preferences has seemed to cause problems for a number of users. Meanwhile, I think I just emailed you to let you know I'm looking at your tickets and waiting until one of the engineers is available to answer a few questions so I can give you the right help.

[dryver8]

@Lizard,

great to hear back from you Lizard, I've been following a number of your posts, I actually sent the link to my database with you in the email. anyway, I don't have idisk sync turned on I thought of that one too, but it's not on.....

[soccerplayer]

You can add me to the list with the same problem. Seems to be a problem with the latest couple of builds???
I'm using webdav no idisk BTW.

[Lizard]

soccerplayer: I don't know what list to add you to until I know some more details about your situation:

1) What WebDAV service are you using?
2) When OmniFocus on the Mac syncs, what debug output do you see in Console?*

*To turn on debug output, copy the following text and paste it into Terminal, and then press return.
defaults write com.omnigroup.OmniFocus XMLFileManagerDebug -bool true

[kidtreo]

I've been successfully syncing using .me with idisk sync OFF.

[dryver8]

kidtreo - me too when it worked, but it won't do anything right now

[dryver8]

Lizard,

I sent this to you in a separate email a few minutes ago, but wanted to post here as well just in case anyone else has had the same problem.

I travel overseas A LOT 4-6x a year to Asia. I always reset my system clock on my MBP for whatever time zone I'm in (there's really 2 for the countries I visit in Asia) I also turn on time zone support as well.

When I was there I noticed some of my actions were in my due today perspective, but they were orange, not read as they should be, I went to all the orange and re typed the current date in and they changed to red as they should be even though the original date was the same. There was obviously something going on there.

I wonder if that's what led to the corruption of data on OF and might be why I'm currently unable to sync?

This is just a thought to share with the team, might not have ever come up before......

Thanx for all the help you guys have been giving me over the last couple of days, i'm at least hopeful now, even though I still can't get a sync.....

Regards,

[dryver8]

I updated to the latest build for OF mac this morning, got a good first sync (upload), waited about 15mns tried again, the sync failed. I deleted an reinstalled OF on my iPhone. Shut down OF on my Mac and waited about 30mns.

Restarted about 705am and got a sync!!!

I added a couple of items let OF sync them and it synced, then I synched the iphone app and the changes came over.

after a while i check the release notes in the iphone and when I reinstalled it this morning it's been updated to 1.02, the release notes say it was released 7.29 but it did not update my phone until this morning.

I also update OF on my mac to the latest build first thing this morning.

Maybe the combination of these two got everything worked out

I just added something to the iphone and bingo it showed up on my desktop.....

So it appears everything is fixed with the combo of the 2 new updates......

Many, many thanx to you guys for trying to work with me on this!!!!!

now i can finally enjoy it!!!!

Warm Regards

[Syl]

I tried updating to the latest builds after reading this post. It is still not working for me. I'm using 1.02 on the iPhone and 1.1 (v77.9.0.103571) on the desktop. I can still only sync once for each device. After that it just hangs and the processors spin up.

[dryver8]

@syl

The team @ omni REALLY helped me a lot on this one, but you need to contact them directly via email to get the best response, they even admit that themselves, I think it's much easier for them to track everything that way.

They mad one suggestion to me that may have helped as well, and it could have been the combo of the 3 things together, they had me move my .plist file and let OF rebuild a new one. Everything is still working for me and VERY VERY fast as well, my database was huge and magically has been resized through the latest update, I think this may have helped a lot, not sure... Anyway, good luck to you, and again I would suggest contacting these guys directly, they were very responsive given everything they are dealing with @ this time......

[Syl]

Thankss Dryver8.

I was also communicating with them via email for support. They found a fix for me yesterday evening. They sent me an Apple Script which resized my database. Everything is now syncing very well and is quite responsive. I'm not sure why my database became so large so fast. I've only been using OmniFocus for a few weeks. But, I'm happy. They said they were going to make this a fix in future updates.

[Lizard]

For anyone who's curious about the technical details...

Every time you make a change in OmniFocus, it writes a new file. Normally, when you sync with the server from a Mac, it smooshes* down all the old files into one file. (Lots of little files take up more space than 1 big file on most systems.) However, it can't smoosh any files that other clients haven't seen yet. Each machine writes a .client file to the server to tell the other machines what data it has seen so far. Because of the interaction of a few bugs, every time you change your sync settings, that machine starts writing its client files with a different ID. So all the clients start thinking there's one client that hasn't checked in for a while. So they stop smooshing files. So OmniFocus.ofocus just keeps growing and growing and...

*OK, so that's not a very technical term.

[sfkeydel]

Omni folks

It's great that you were able to get sync working for dryver8, but should this fundamental function really be this complicated? I've also had sync stop working for me with the latest update to the iPhone app, and as I look through the myriad steps required to get this working again, the only thing missing seems to be grinding up eye of newt and strewing it on the front yard during a full moon.

Why did it work with 1.01 and stop working with 1.02? Is it required to have an ongoing email relationship with Omni support in order to get this working again?

Thanks

[Lizard]

sfkeydel: I'm not entirely sure why some people's syncing died in 1.0.2. It may be because that's when we switched from using .Mac to MobileMe for the default sync option. Emailing our support ninjas is the best way to get the help you need to get things straightened out again.
Syncing is still being actively developed (note the beta status of OmniFocus 1.1 for Mac), so it does require more active support. When OmniFocus 1.1 is final, most new users will probably just be able to set it up once and be on their merry way. (Existing users may need to do one more round of forcing their databases to coalesce to clean out any cruft introduced during the beta process.)