fix for very slow/no sync of iphone to mobile me.
symptoms:
sync of omnifocus on the iphone (omni iphone) seemed to continue endlessly (spinning gears until phone slept or until switched apps)
Fix summary. (see below for more detail)
set iphone not to sync automatically (temp setting)
set iphone not to autolock (temp setting)
prepare omnifocus mac database
archived omni mac data completed items
rebuilt omni mac database
backed up then deleted idisk data
performed sync from omni mac
reset omni iphone database
re-configured omni iphone app for sync
synced omni iphone app
jumped up and down, chanted, and patted forehead three times...
Notes/assumptions:
sync of omnifocus on the mac (omni mac) seemed to work ok and generally took about a minute or so.
differences in iphone and mac data were slight and I could afford to lose latest iphone changes.
original OmniFocus.ofocus file size was 3.5mb on idisk
both mac and iphone on wifi with high speed internet connection.
set iphone not to sync automatically
iphone omnifocus app:settings:auto sync: off
(prevents undesired syncs)
set iphone not to autolock (temp setting)
settings:general:auto-lock: never
(gives time for sync to occur before iphone sleeps and locks)
prepare omnifocus mac database
viewed all completed items. unchecked those that I did not want to archive. to expedite, you can select multiple items in a project (cmd and/or shift click), control click on one of them, and uncheck "complete" from the contextual menu. (note: you may also want to flag these items to find them easily again in case you want to restore them to completed status later.)
archived omni mac data completed items
file:move old data to archive...
set date to yesterday. selected "Move to Archive"
(reduces data file size)
rebuilt omni mac database
file: rebuild database. "Rebuild"
(i suppose it might have been more appropriate to do this prior to archiving?)
backed up then deleted idisk data
quit omni mac (verify omni iphone not syncing)
mounted idisk
navigate to idisk:Documents:
selected all omni docs and did a finder copy to a folder on my mac. note: my idisk data seemed to have extra files besides the main data file which might have been remnants of earlier uncompleted syncs.
these were the items in my docs folder:
OmniFocus.ofocus
OmniFocus.ofocus-copy-in-progress-dKOHBli-8wB
OmniFocus.ofocus-copy-in-progress-fLgmnUCxDWe
OmniFocus.ofocus-copy-in-progress-lgHTJVJTC7-
OmniFocus.ofocus-copy-in-progress-oippbxpLfzl
after copying, attempted to finder delete these items from idisk. this process hung. (probably just an unrelated glitch)
rebooted mac, used safari to visit mobile me:idisk:documents and deleted all of the above omni docs via the web interface. it took two attempts to do this. the main data file remained after the first attempt, but was successfully deleted on the second.
performed sync from omni mac
launched omni mac and synced.
(verified that a new "OmniFocus.ofocus" file was created in idisk:documents)
reset omni iphone database
omni iphone: reset database
(this will delete your data on your iphone and require you to set up omnifocus syncing again)
re-configured omni iphone app for sync
(this is the same procedure originally used to set up iphone syncing)
omni iphone: settings: username
enter
username@me.com and dot me password
omni mac:preferences:sync:mobile me: share settings.
omni iphone: get settings from mac. complete dialog to set up omni iphone sync.
synced omni iphone app
omni iphone: click the sync icon (duh)
this worked for me. OmniFocus.ofocus file size decreased slightly to 2.7mb. omni mac sync time decreased slightly. omni phone sync time went from infinite to less than 30 seconds. at this point, after several syncs, none of the OmniFocus.ofocus-copy-in-progress-xxxxxxxx files have re-appeared.
you might want to reset the temporary settings changes in the first two steps above.
you might want to re-complete those items unchecked in step 3 above.
i'm sure that all of the previous steps and precautions were not necessary to fix the problem. if you discover an abbreviated procedure, please post.
jim