[jahn]

I'm on a Mac. I'm also working on doing a restore from my latest backup in the hopes that my data will be there.

[Joel]

Just chatted Ken up about this, and from what we can tell, if there's an issue here, it may in how the iPhone decides to update an application.

Whether it's a situation where the older app gets deleted first, and then updated or vice-versa.

Given that I have updated and successfully kept my database, I'm not too keen on believing the above.

The other option that popped up was the use of more than one Mac with iTunes onboard, where one version had the phone authorized and the other did not, and the update was performed on the latter.

Recommendation has been made to also contact Apple about this problem, it may be an issue with their installation tools, we're looking at it as well.

[jahn]

So what I'm hearing is that this problem likely comes from the way Apple updates apps and the data is shot unless Apple's flaky backup system worked? That has troubling implications for any iPhone application that stores mission critical data on the phone instead of in the cloud.

Thanks for investigating things on your end Joel. Also, is there any possibility of users being able to sync OmniFocus with MobileMe or a WebDAV server even if they don't have the desktop version?

[Joel]

Oh yes, you can still sync using just OmniFocus for iPhone, and treat it like a backup -- a "safety net" for all intents and purposes.

Just tap the Settings in the OmniFocus home screen, then set up synchronization there using iDisk or WebDAV.

[jen71]

i updated omnifocus via the phone on my EDGE phone, and it wiped out my existing databases. several hundred entries. needless to say, i am not a happy camper right now.

what gives?

[jen71]

Originally Posted by Joel

Oh yes, you can still sync using just OmniFocus for iPhone, and treat it like a backup -- a "safety net" for all intents and purposes.

Just tap the Settings in the OmniFocus home screen, then set up synchronization there using iDisk or WebDAV.

sorry for the semi-cross-posting, but i'm getting frantic. what does this MEAN?

i don't have an iDisk, and i have no clue what a WebDAV server is. all i want is to back up my omnifocus data to my computer (and no, i don't have omnifocus for the desktop), so it doesn't all disappear the next time i install an update.

thanks.

[Lizard]

Originally Posted by jen71

sorry for the semi-cross-posting, but i'm getting frantic. what does this MEAN?

i don't have an iDisk, and i have no clue what a WebDAV server is. all i want is to back up my omnifocus data to my computer (and no, i don't have omnifocus for the desktop), so it doesn't all disappear the next time i install an update.

thanks.

WebDAV is (approximately) a way of making files on a server accessible through Finder instead of just through a web browser. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebDAV)

Although we created the WebDAV connectivity primarily for syncing, it has the convenient side effect of putting a copy of your data somewhere other than your phone, which means you can likely get your data back from there if something eats all the data on your phone.

While the setup is simplest with a .mac/MobileMe account, you can also set up WebDAV on your own Mac, if you're comfortable using tools like Terminal. Here are some of the clearest instructions for getting that going.
http://manas.tungare.name/blog/2008/...cus-to-iphone/
After step 8, the screenshots refer to OmniFocus for the Mac, but you can use the settings pane in OmniFocus for the iPhone to do the same configurations.

[prutherford]

I'm on a PC. Standalone Omnifocus on iPhone...I love it. (When I purchase a Mac this will be the second application I purchase after TextMate). I updated through App Store (via badge notification of update). All of my data is now gone. I have a backup from yesterday that I can probably use, but I have been using heavily and will still be losing a day's worth of data if it works which is still a significant amount of data. My confidence is diminished a little, but I don't know who is responsible. Very frustrating. I do have MobileMe...is there a way to backup (sync) without a version of the Mac software?

-perry

(Update)
I just saw that you can indeed sync to MobileMe iDisk without having the Desktop Mac client...now have that level of backup protection. Thank you for that, but maybe that feature should be more thoroughly explained. Of course, maybe I'm the only one who didn't know that, but I doubt it. Anyway - lesson learned.

I still want to thank you for a wonderful iPhone app!

[Andrew]

Perry, you can sync OmniFocus for the iPhone/iPod touch to your iDisk (or a WebDAV-enabled web server, and in fact we use WebDAV for iDisk syncing) regardless of whether or not you have the desktop version of OmniFocus.

The benefit is that this gives you a backup that is off the device, in case anything happens to your data (such as apparently happened to you). It's also used here at Omni a decent bit to let us easily switch between different OmniFocus databases for testing purposes.

Since you have MobileMe, in OmniFocus go to the Settings screen, scroll down to the Synchronization section, choose iDisk, and fill in your MobileMe user name. (At some point you'll get prompted for your MobileMe password as well, but it's been a while since I did this and I don't remember exactly.) By default, it will set the path to "Documents" and it's easiest to just leave it at that. But if you have other things on your iDisk and want to stick your OmniFocus database in a subfolder, type that path here. (For instance: "Documents/iPhone".) Make sure that you have created the corresponding folder on your iDisk first - I don't think OmniFocus will create it for you, and you will receive an error when you try to sync if the folder doesn't exist.

-andrew

[prutherford]

Thank you very much Andrew. I updated my post just before you replied, but thank you for the quick response!