[Jay Levitt]

Originally Posted by Ken Case

If all your systems do sync regularly it doesn't really matter how many are involved, which is why I've been syncing four systems for months without noticing this problem.

I realize that this is the theory, but in practice, that doesn't seem to be true. In fact, before I run the coalesce script, I often try to do a "round-robin sync" - I'll sync the desktop, laptop, phone, and then do all three again. They still won't coalesce. I'm usually running that day's Sneaky Peek on both Macs, and 1.0.3 on the phone.

If Omni doesn't have a fail case, and I can submit logs that would help, please let me know.

[Lizard]

You need to sync them all, wait an hour, and sync them all again. I know it sounds nuts, but that's because we hang on to an older client file for an hour, just to make sure there isn't a client out there in the middle of a super slow sync.

[Jay Levitt]

Ah HAH! I will try that.

That could explain everything; unlike others who sync their work, home and phone (and use all three frequently), I work from home. Which means I only use OF on the laptop when I'm traveling or working from Starbucks, and I only use OF on the phone when I'm out doing errands (no commute). So it's a rare situation where I'll do two "full round robin" syncs an hour apart.

Would you be able to eliminate that wait by storing a lock-like file, named for the client, at the START of the sync? Then you'd know if a client was in the middle of a slow sync. I dunno what the race conditions would be, though.

---

Update: Yes, that works. I synced all three clients, waited an hour, and synced all three again. That, alone, didn't coalesce the Omnifocus file, but it set the stage for it, since there was no longer any pending file less than an hour old.

I synced the desktop once more, and it now coalesced its local file. Ditto for the laptop, and, I presume the phone.

That's interesting behavior; it's intuitive as a programmer, and I can't particularly come up with a way to avoid the need for multiple rounds of syncing, but man - it seems kinda unlikely to happen on its own.

I wonder if there's a way to do the sync equivalent of "optimistic locking", where you'd set aside the files that were PROBABLY safe to eliminate, and leave them out of the iDisk copy. Then, if you discover that a client missed them, you'd reinstate them on a future sync. Depending on the semantics of your sync, that might risk having an infrequently-synced client getting belated updates. But if not, it oughta work. Feel free to contact me privately if you want a set of eyes on the problem.

What if you're syncing two machines and an iPhone with MobileMe? I've had multiple hangs (everything, not just OF) requiring a hard reboot and I've noticed that this only happens when OF is running on one machine. Things work OK for a while, then just kinda get stuck -- no response.
I'm updating the SneekyPeak daily on both desktop machines, but at different times (@ work then @ home). Is this causing OF to freak out?

OF (sneekypeak rev: 105354)
OS X v 10.5.4 (MacBook 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB SDRAM)
MobileMe sync
OF for iPhone (latest version from AppStore)

Thanks!

Jeff

[whpalmer4]

Mishuma, that should work just fine. I've got a slightly older Macbook, no iPhone, but 3 clients, and have had no hangs that could be traced to anything related to OmniFocus. Have you looked through the console log for any messages at the time of the hangs? Do you use MobileMe for anything but OmniFocus syncing? Not being able to communicate with the MobileMe server when you have the iDisk mounted and active can cause a temporary hang until the blessed "Server disconnect" error finally appears...