I just upgraded to OmniFocus v1.1, why is everything now in Japanese rather than English?
OmniFocus v1.1 has both English and Japanese translations, and the iPhone chooses which one to use based on which language it thinks you prefer. (OmniFocus has nothing to do with this selection process.)
If your iPhone's selected language is neither English or Japanese but you would prefer English over Japanese, you can indicate your preference to the iPhone by enabling the English keyboard in your iPhone's international settings. (Several people have indicated that they were able to turn this keyboard back off afterwards and their iPhone continued to remember their preference for English.)
Where can I find OmniFocus for iPhone?
The app store has now launched. You can get OmniFocus for iPhone here:
What does it cost?
OmniFocus for iPhone is $19.99.
Will it work with iPod touch?
Certainly! OmniFocus works the same way on iPod touch as it does on iPhone, except for the things that are impossible: taking a photo, recording audio, and using EDGE or GPS to find your geographic location. OmniFocus on iPod touch can still try to find your location using Wi-Fi, though.
Does it work on both the original iPhone and iPhone 3G?
Yep, both generations of iPhone work perfectly fine. Of course, on an iPhone 3G, your synchronization over the cell network will be much faster.
If I have multiple iPhones or iPod Touches, how many copies of OmniFocus for iPhone do I need?
One; similar to music or iPod game purchases, one license covers any device you personally use and control, up to a limit of five devices. Note: we're not doing anything special here - this is determined by the App Store Terms and Conditions.
Can OmniFocus make use of GPS?
Thanks to the great location awareness tools that Apple provided to developers, GPS location finding should work just like EDGE triangulation and Wi-Fi location finding did. Well, not just like them. It'll be way better. I bet you could like, set up context for each aisle at the hardware store, and OmniFocus would be all, "hey, you're in Gardening, don't forget the plant food."
Do I need OmniFocus for Desktop?
OmniFocus can work perfectly fine on your mobile device all by itself. You can create a fully usable database, and then enter, edit, and complete items. Of course, doing really involved editing of large amounts of data is easier on the desktop, but by no means do you need it. If you only have OmniFocus for iPhone or for Mac, at any time you can get the other one and start synchronizing between the two.
Can I get OmniFocus alerts on my phone?
We cannot use alerts on the iPhone like iCal because the iPhone SDK doesn't include the code that Apple is using to do it. You can, however, set up OmniFocus for Mac to send SMS messages to your phone via Growl. To see how, go here.
Can I merge the documents on my phone and Desktop later?
If you have two separate databases that started out on different devices, they can't be automatically merged together. So if you already have an OmniFocus database on your Mac, and you start using OmniFocus for iPhone (or vice versa), we recommend that you set up synchronization right away.
(If it's too late for that, it is possible to open multiple databases on the desktop and drag or copy and paste projects between them.)
Do I have to use Apple's MobileMe service to sync OmniFocus for iPhone version with the desktop version?
You can now sync directly over Wi-Fi! See these Bonjour sync setup instructions for more details.
How often does OmniFocus for iPhone sync? Do I have to sync it manually every time?
OmniFocus for iPhone automatically syncs two minutes after you make a change, to make sure that the MobileMe (or WebDAV) server has an up-to-date copy of your database. Even if you don't change anything, it syncs every hour, in case some other device made some changes recently. Whenever you like, you can manually make a sync happen, as well.
You can turn off automatic syncing under Settings if you would prefer to only sync manually.
OmniFocus crashes when I try to launch it! What should I do?
Here's the Tech Note that Apple has on this subject: please give these steps a try.
Troubleshooting Applications Purchased from the App Store
If they don't work, instead of emailing Apple, please send email to omnifocus-iphone@omnigroup.com and we'll be happy to help.
Is there any way to take a screenshot on the iPhone?
Yep; while holding down the Home button, briefly press the Power button on the top of the device.
Your screen will flash white - this means that the screenshot was added to your photo roll. You can now use the camera application to email it to OmniFocus-iPhone@omnigroup.com and we'll see exactly what you're seeing.
When OmniFocus for iPhone tries to load my OmniFocus for Mac database, it crashes! What can I do?
For the most part, this appears to be happening to folks that have more actions in their database than the iPhone can hold in memory at once. Once memory runs out, the phone shuts the app down.
In OmniFocus 1.1, we added a new "Archive Old Data" item under the File menu. It will move older actions over to a separate database file that isn't synced with your phone. This way, you have access to your older actions when you need to refer to them back on your desktop, but your phone doesn't run out of memory.
In general, we'd recommend trying to keep the number of actions on your phone down below a thousand to avoid exhausting your iPhone's memory, though this isn't a hard limit.
OmniFocus v1.1 has both English and Japanese translations, and the iPhone chooses which one to use based on which language it thinks you prefer. (OmniFocus has nothing to do with this selection process.)
If your iPhone's selected language is neither English or Japanese but you would prefer English over Japanese, you can indicate your preference to the iPhone by enabling the English keyboard in your iPhone's international settings. (Several people have indicated that they were able to turn this keyboard back off afterwards and their iPhone continued to remember their preference for English.)
Where can I find OmniFocus for iPhone?
The app store has now launched. You can get OmniFocus for iPhone here:
What does it cost?
OmniFocus for iPhone is $19.99.
Will it work with iPod touch?
Certainly! OmniFocus works the same way on iPod touch as it does on iPhone, except for the things that are impossible: taking a photo, recording audio, and using EDGE or GPS to find your geographic location. OmniFocus on iPod touch can still try to find your location using Wi-Fi, though.
Does it work on both the original iPhone and iPhone 3G?
Yep, both generations of iPhone work perfectly fine. Of course, on an iPhone 3G, your synchronization over the cell network will be much faster.
If I have multiple iPhones or iPod Touches, how many copies of OmniFocus for iPhone do I need?
One; similar to music or iPod game purchases, one license covers any device you personally use and control, up to a limit of five devices. Note: we're not doing anything special here - this is determined by the App Store Terms and Conditions.
Can OmniFocus make use of GPS?
Thanks to the great location awareness tools that Apple provided to developers, GPS location finding should work just like EDGE triangulation and Wi-Fi location finding did. Well, not just like them. It'll be way better. I bet you could like, set up context for each aisle at the hardware store, and OmniFocus would be all, "hey, you're in Gardening, don't forget the plant food."
Do I need OmniFocus for Desktop?
OmniFocus can work perfectly fine on your mobile device all by itself. You can create a fully usable database, and then enter, edit, and complete items. Of course, doing really involved editing of large amounts of data is easier on the desktop, but by no means do you need it. If you only have OmniFocus for iPhone or for Mac, at any time you can get the other one and start synchronizing between the two.
Can I get OmniFocus alerts on my phone?
We cannot use alerts on the iPhone like iCal because the iPhone SDK doesn't include the code that Apple is using to do it. You can, however, set up OmniFocus for Mac to send SMS messages to your phone via Growl. To see how, go here.
Can I merge the documents on my phone and Desktop later?
If you have two separate databases that started out on different devices, they can't be automatically merged together. So if you already have an OmniFocus database on your Mac, and you start using OmniFocus for iPhone (or vice versa), we recommend that you set up synchronization right away.
(If it's too late for that, it is possible to open multiple databases on the desktop and drag or copy and paste projects between them.)
Do I have to use Apple's MobileMe service to sync OmniFocus for iPhone version with the desktop version?
You can now sync directly over Wi-Fi! See these Bonjour sync setup instructions for more details.
How often does OmniFocus for iPhone sync? Do I have to sync it manually every time?
OmniFocus for iPhone automatically syncs two minutes after you make a change, to make sure that the MobileMe (or WebDAV) server has an up-to-date copy of your database. Even if you don't change anything, it syncs every hour, in case some other device made some changes recently. Whenever you like, you can manually make a sync happen, as well.
You can turn off automatic syncing under Settings if you would prefer to only sync manually.
OmniFocus crashes when I try to launch it! What should I do?
Here's the Tech Note that Apple has on this subject: please give these steps a try.
Troubleshooting Applications Purchased from the App Store
If they don't work, instead of emailing Apple, please send email to omnifocus-iphone@omnigroup.com and we'll be happy to help.
Is there any way to take a screenshot on the iPhone?
Yep; while holding down the Home button, briefly press the Power button on the top of the device.
Your screen will flash white - this means that the screenshot was added to your photo roll. You can now use the camera application to email it to OmniFocus-iPhone@omnigroup.com and we'll see exactly what you're seeing.
When OmniFocus for iPhone tries to load my OmniFocus for Mac database, it crashes! What can I do?
For the most part, this appears to be happening to folks that have more actions in their database than the iPhone can hold in memory at once. Once memory runs out, the phone shuts the app down.
In OmniFocus 1.1, we added a new "Archive Old Data" item under the File menu. It will move older actions over to a separate database file that isn't synced with your phone. This way, you have access to your older actions when you need to refer to them back on your desktop, but your phone doesn't run out of memory.
In general, we'd recommend trying to keep the number of actions on your phone down below a thousand to avoid exhausting your iPhone's memory, though this isn't a hard limit.
Last edited by Brian; 2009-01-07 at 10:47 AM..