[MichaelG]

I'm a huge fan of Omni software, especially OF. I've had excellent experiences overall with their customer service. I recommend OmniGroup every chance I get to mac users. I have to say though, trying to get this iPhone OmniFocus to sync properly with OF on my Mac has been beyond frustrating.

Though I'm open to getting help that irons it all out, at present it feels to me like OmniFocus for iPhone is a fantastic stand alone application for the iPhone. Little fixes here are there are needed, but overall it is an excellent little app.

As far as being used for syncing with OF on my mac though, it feels like this program was nowhere near ready to go out. If all the techie folks on here are having trouble with this, that means that for the many of us who are mac users in the middle of the skill spectrum and below, the syncing is of no use at all yet. Beyond the $20 spent on the program, I blew $20 on BingoDisk, which got the program to sync, which was exciting at first, and then just slid into another series of problems. Not that $20 is a lot of money in itself, but it essentially put the purchase price at twice as high for no added functionality. Frustrating.

So I'll be thrilled if anyone can walk me through how to get this to work, but barring that, I guess I'll slink of with my 10G of BingoDisk space I didn't need, use OF on my iPhone, and think of syncing as a not too distant dream, but not currently a reality for folks like me.

I think this is all about expectations. If I had been told ahead of time that this was a stand alone iPhone app (not for syncing). I would have bought it anyway, I would have saved many hours of frustrating fiddling around and I would have been pleased with the product.

Since my expectations though were raised for having the data from my computer version available everywhere, and the ability to sync back and forth, it feels like a pretty big let down. I think it would have been better to be more forthright about the current state of syncing.

I look forward to when the program really does sync predictably. It is going to be a kick ass product when it does.

[ryangoldman]

I hear your frustration, but 1.1 is, after all, an Alpha. An Alpha, by definition, is not ready for prime time... that's why it's still in the Alpha phase of production.

Having said that... syncing is working flawlessly for myself and others. Maybe if you enumerate what problems your dealing with you can get some help making things work for you.

[MichaelG]

My point would be that this should be made clear on the front end (e.g. app store, OFiPhone page that the sync is only possible with alpha software and will therefore be hit and miss until the actual version is available.

I'm glad to hear it is working flawlessly for you, sincerely, AND that doesn't help me or the many others that it is still not working for. Further I haven't exactly been wading through posts that claim the results you do. There are plenty of others for whom syncing just isn't functioning right.

I have already enumerated my issues ad nauseam and am waiting on responses for the most recent ones. I've also written numerous emails to support ninjas who thus far have tried to be helpful, but have not been able to help me get this working.

[kidtreo]

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I too am utterly frustrated here. I've paid for and installed both OF and iOF and still haven't been able to grind my way through enabling web dav on my computer. I simply refuse to pay for or rely on outside services I shouldn't need and that can (will) fail when I need them.

I'm sure my frustration is compounded by waiting a freaking year for apple to sync to dos and notes and have been praying OF would finally provide my dream GTD solution on my iphone.

I'm off to go get a freaking text editor and feck around with my system via Terminal hoping I don't break anything...

sigh

[santra]

It's mostly working for me, aside from an error or two if something was done on the other platform before syncing. I do not have a 3G iPhone; I'm running 2.0 on the original.

The other big runners in the GTD world IMHO--Bonsai, LifeBalance, Shadow, Things--are nowhere near up and running, except for Things, for which the developer at least managed to get his iPhone 2.0 app onto the store (syncing and refinements to come later).

I think OmniGroup deserves some thanks here; they'll pull together robust stability and added features later on.

[kidtreo]

Originally Posted by santra

I think OmniGroup deserves some thanks here; they'll pull together robust stability and added features later on.

Agreed...I don't mean to sound ungrateful. I'm sure it's a lot of work...I just wish I could >finally< put some hours into G-ing T's D instead of struggling to get my GTD trusted system going!

I may take Omni's (excellent) suggestion to try to enable a .me account for a couple months while they (thanks Omni!) put their considerable brain trust towards a better easier solution.

[MichaelG]

Good luck Kid (isn't that a Boggie quote?)

I figured out that some of what was going on was likely due to damage done to my OF data base while installing 1.1. So some of my problems may have been only indirectly sync related...though they could have been avoided if 1.1 was an actual upgrade rather than an alpha.

At this point though I've logged so many hours without results, I feel like I'd better sit tight until the next OF desktop version is an actual release. I just can't afford any more disappointing, time consuming surprises here. The net effect of all this has been exactly the opposite effect of productivity for me.

I'm going to enjoy the iPhone version for what it is, stay on my desktop OF that is working smoothly, and keep getting things done. I do admire the support ninja's staying positive and continuing their work at helping folks. This had to be quite a past couple of days for them, just as it has been for many users.

[oiden]

Originally Posted by MichaelG

Good luck Kid (isn't that a Boggie quote?)

I figured out that some of what was going on was likely due to damage done to my OF data base while installing 1.1. So some of my problems may have been only indirectly sync related...though they could have been avoided if 1.1 was an actual upgrade rather than an alpha.

########

I figured out the same thing, and came up with a workaround:

1. I made a backup copy of my original DB, renaming it something like Omnifocus_original. This is important. Then I deleted the original DB from the Application Support Folder. I also made sure the sync copy on .Mac (I hate the new name MobileMe) was deleted.

2. Then I installed a fresh copy of OF/iPhone on the iPhone and selected New Database for the iPhone (local copy) as it starts up for the first time. I then synced that to the iDisk, and then synced the iDisk to my Laptop copy of OF. Everything synced, so far so good, because all was a fresh unused copy of OF (with default actions.).

3. Now I have a sync-able DB of OF on my laptop, created originally on the iPhone. Next I opened that database, and also opened the "original database" by double clicking on it. Both are opened in separate windows on the desktop.

4. Now delete all the "starter" actions from the empty database, making it truly empty. Now go over to the original database's sidebar, and click your project, or folder full of projects, and option-c (copy) that. Mouse over to the empty database, and paste these in that sidebar. Do this as many times as you need to to get everything there.

5. I synced a few times during that process, up to the .Mac and then down to the iPhone, and sure enough, everything ended up on the iPhone looking great.

6. Last I did need to click in the contexts sidebars, and "clean up a little" there, as several contexts showed up with no title. Click the untitled context, figure out what it is and then just title it. All this synced just fine.

It took 2 days to figure out to do this, figuring out that the 1.1 upgraded DB was the culprit. But it only took roughly an hour to finally implement it. Hope this can save somebody several hours of figuring things out.