Quote:
Originally Posted by chrisblair
Me too - thanks.
Seems that the synchronisation to from Desktop to MobileMe takes place with the MobileMe sync process, and hitting the Synco ico on the OF desktop does not affect the MobileMe sync process.
It seems to me that this Sync button is not involved in syncing with iPhone - is this correct?
Can anyone explain what that sync button on the desktop OF actually does?
Chris
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No, OmniFocus (desktop) synchronization doesn't involve MobileMe at all, unless MobileMe provides the WebDAV service used. The MobileMe synchronization functions that sync your Address Book, iCal, Mail, etc. have nothing to do with OmniFocus (uh, except for iCal sync from OmniFocus, but let's leave that out of the picture for now).
The Sync button in either iPhone OmniFocus or desktop OmniFocus causes OmniFocus to read the synchronized database from wherever you have configured it, be it a local disk drive (the Disk option) or a WebDAV volume (either Advanced or MobileMe options). The sync code carefully goes through the chain of transactions in that set of files, checking each one against the transactions in your local database to see if there are any changes to be incorporated. For each item, the most recent change is kept and any others discarded, and the final result is stored both in your local database and where the synchronized database lives. This process happens automatically when OmniFocus is running either 1 minute after you make a change, or after 1 hour of inactivity, or immediately when you press the Sync Now button on the iPhone or the desktop (or use File->Syncronize with Server on the desktop). All of the OmniFocus instances (phone, desktop) you have set up to sync in the same place will periodically examine and update that file, and thus the changes will percolate to all of them.
As mentioned earlier, OmniFocus can also be set up to sync actions with iCal, where they are entered as To Do items, not calendar events (so they have a date, but not a time or a duration, and only appear if you show the To Do list). This happens when you do the File->Synchronize with iCal. This will cause MobileMe to send the new/changed data from iCal to all registered devices in the fullness of time.
Just to muddy the waters a bit further, when you cable your iPhone up to your desktop and use iTunes to "sync" your iPhone, yet another synchronization process takes place, but OmniFocus is not an active party in this. If this all sounds a bit like an Abbott and Costello routine called
Who's on first? to you, well, I can't blame you for thinking that :-)