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The single biggest thing that folks can do to speed up their syncs is make sure that all of their devices are syncing regularly - like once a week or so.

On one of your Macs, open up OmniFocus's sync preferences and press the "Show Clients" button. OmniFocus has kept all the individual changes you've made to your database since the oldest date you see in the "Latest Sync" column.

If the oldest date is very far in the past, you've likely got hundreds of transaction files built up, which can slow things down, especially on the phone. The iPhone is an amazing device, but even the faster phones Apple released recently are about 1/1000th as fast as a low-end desktop machine.

(Note: there should be exactly 1 entry for each Mac, iPhone, or iPod you're syncing - if you see duplicate entries for any of your devices, delete the least-recently-synced entry.)

In any case, if you unregister any machines you're not actually syncing any more, then make sure the remaining devices have all synced, you should start seeing faster syncs about an hour later. (For technical reasons, we keep the transactions around for an hour, then compact during a subsequent sync.)

I hear some folks saying "But I have a machine I only use once a month, but I need that machine! I don't want to un-register it!" You're welcome to do what works best for you, of course; just understand that all the other devices are going to sync more slowly when that device is that far out of sync.

What's worked well for us is to unregister the machines that are used occasionally when they drop out of sync, but make sure that a copy of the email that the "Send Settings" button in OmniFocus for Mac's Sync preferences generates is saved there. When you switch to that machine, click the link in that email; OmniFocus will sync back up and you're good to go.

This gives you fast syncs and the smallest possible database on your phone with a minimum of disruption to your workflow.

Last edited by Brian; 2009-12-16 at 02:11 PM.. Reason: correct typo