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My take: Syncing was not ready for prime time Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
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.

Last edited by MichaelG; 2008-07-12 at 07:17 PM.. Reason: grammar spelling
 
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.
 
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.
 
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
 
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.
 
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.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by santra View Post

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.
 
I don't agree with you. It is working fine for me and I have several machines and one iPhone and my iPhoneTouch working with it fine. I am a .Mac/MobileMe customer. This seems to be a hang up with a lot of people for some reason but I have used .Mac for 3+ years now anyway and it is much less than my BB monthly charge for enterprise server.

We have to remember 1.1 is alpha. I am not trying to take up for anyone but my brother and I have had no problems getting it to work correctly on our phones and iMac's with our .Mac accounts.

In fact, until 1.1, we had decided not to use it because we could not sync so it was no good to use at our office. Now that we can sync, we both seem happy and can now start using a program worthy of GTD.
 
If I had a nickel for everyone that said, "But we have to keep in mind it's alpha" I did sign up to buy alpha software.

I'm not a mobile me customer. I bought BingoDisk as a recommendation from Omni staff, and it didn't work right. I don't care to shell out $99 buck more for something I wouldn't need without this product. I'll wait for the real version. If it were working well, it wouldn't be in alpha status now would it?

Nothing wrong with me having had my fill of messing with this thing, and waiting for the real version to come out. In fact I bet David Allen would counsel me to do that given the circumstance I've encountered.

If your experience were what most people were experiencing, I would see it differently.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MichaelG View Post
If I had a nickel for everyone that said, "But we have to keep in mind it's alpha" I did sign up to buy alpha software.

I'm not a mobile me customer. I bought BingoDisk as a recommendation from Omni staff, and it didn't work right. I don't care to shell out $99 buck more for something I wouldn't need without this product. I'll wait for the real version. If it were working well, it wouldn't be in alpha status now would it?

Nothing wrong with me having had my fill of messing with this thing, and waiting for the real version to come out. In fact I bet David Allen would counsel me to do that given the circumstance I've encountered.

If your experience were what most people were experiencing, I would see it differently.
I don't know how you could determine what "most" people were experiencing.

Reread my post before going nuts on me. I said 1.1 was alpha, not OF for iPhone.
 
 


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