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I've bought the iPod app and I'm a trial version of OmniFocus for the Mac. My broadband connection for the Mac is marginal and syncing across the Web is not reliable. I want to connect my two devices and sync them directly, the way I could sync a Palm and a desktop many years ago.

If I've understood what's going on, OF wants to use a sync database which is separate from the databases I can see on either machine. I set that up yesterday, and synced the iPod several times, so I thought everything was fine.

This morning the Mac tells me that my existing OF database is offline. I have no idea what that means - it's offline from itself?? - except that it probably explains why the iPod can't connect to it. That would make sense if the Mac couldn't connect to it either, but the Mac also tells me that it synced 10 minutes ago.

I hope someone can help. I've waited years for what I thought I was getting with this setup, and I'll be very disappointed if I can't get it to work.

TIA

Ghoti

Last edited by ghoti; 2010-03-21 at 09:17 PM.. Reason: Amend meaningless title
 
Ghoti- I'm very sorry for the trouble here. Bonjour makes an admirable effort to simplify the process of connecting two devices, but it's not yet bulletproof.

Since you were able to sync yesterday, the most likely culprit here is that something about your wi-fi network has changed since the last time it worked.

If you give our support ninjas a call (1 800-315-6664) and/or send them email, they'll be happy to investigate what's going on with you. The most important thing to tell them would be the exact text of any error messages you're seeing on either device when you try to sync.

Since it's after hours at the moment, I'll include some steps in the next post which may also help, but feel free to skip them for the time being if you want help from us directly.

Last edited by Brian; 2010-03-22 at 07:49 PM.. Reason: forgot to include what info to tell the ninjas
 
To narrow down what's going on here, can you open up the "creating a computer-to-computer network" page of Mac Help? We want to use the steps on that help page to connect the two versions of OmniFocus directly. You can use that help page to set up a network on your Mac; once that's been created, you can have OmniFocus on your phone connect to that instead of your "normal" wireless network.

Once they're connected directly, is OmniFocus on your phone able to find your Mac and sync? If so, let us know and we can start investigating why OmniFocus is having trouble doing so on your 'normal' WiFi network.

If the ad-hoc network also doesn't work, can you please try the following?

1. Make sure OmniFocus is running on your Mac, Bonjour is enabled, and the computer-to-computer network is available.

2. Tap "Settings" on the iPhone, then set Airplane Mode to "On". (This will temporarily turn off all networking, including Edge, 3G, and WiFi.)

3. Next, please set WiFi to "On", then ensure that you're connected to the network you created on your Mac.


4. Press the Home button on the iPhone, exiting the Settings app.

5. If it's not visible, wait for the WiFi "fan" graphic to appear at the top of the Home screen. It should appear near an airplane icon, which indicates the phone is in Airplane mode.


6. When the WiFi "fan" is visible on the home screen, please launch OmniFocus. Ensure that the WiFi fan remains visible at the top of the screen in OmniFocus.

7. Hit the "synch" button at bottom of OF screen - it should sync fine now, but if it doesn't, make a note of any error messages that appear and let me know what you see.


8. Once the sync completes, exit OmniFocus by pushing the button on front/bottom of the iPhone, returning to the Home screen.


9. Return to Settings and turn Airplane Mode "Off". The iPhone will re-establish a connection to the cell phone network. If you want WiFi "Off," you can disable it again.


10. You can disable the Bonjour network on your Mac, if desired.
 
Thanks Brian.

I realised after I posted this that I should have contacted the Ninjas, and I've come back now to say that they're being very helpful. We're not quite there yet, but that's because time zones are causing long pauses in the conversation. I'm very impressed with the response.

I'll post again when it's all sorted out. Meanwhile, is there any support for a campaign to get Apple to open up iTunes so we can sync by wire??

Thanks again,

Ghoti
 
Did you ever get this problem solved about saying your database is offline? I've followed all the directions and no success. I open OF, go to preferences, choose #2 Connect to an existing sync database and in the drop down box it has my local computer address but next to it in parenthesis is says "offline." I've spent all day trying to find out what this means and how to fix it. If I click "sync" I get a message that says "unable to find sync server."

I sent the settings to my iPhone and the same local address shows up but of course it doesn't sync. I hope you've figured this out, it could be me :confused:, but though I've used OF since it's beginning, it's only half as good if I can't take it with me. Thanks!


Quote:
Originally Posted by ghoti View Post
I've bought the iPod app and I'm a trial version of OmniFocus for the Mac. My broadband connection for the Mac is marginal and syncing across the Web is not reliable. I want to connect my two devices and sync them directly, the way I could sync a Palm and a desktop many years ago.

If I've understood what's going on, OF wants to use a sync database which is separate from the databases I can see on either machine. I set that up yesterday, and synced the iPod several times, so I thought everything was fine.

This morning the Mac tells me that my existing OF database is offline. I have no idea what that means - it's offline from itself?? - except that it probably explains why the iPod can't connect to it. That would make sense if the Mac couldn't connect to it either, but the Mac also tells me that it synced 10 minutes ago.

I hope someone can help. I've waited years for what I thought I was getting with this setup, and I'll be very disappointed if I can't get it to work.

TIA

Ghoti
 
theblackhen, the best thing to do here is probably to contact our support ninjas so we can determine exactly what's going on. There are a couple different factors that could be at play here - a firewall on the Mac and/or wifi network, for example.

We'll be happy to help - we sometimes have to go poking around in system logs to determine what's going on, and that information isn't particularly forum-friendly.
 
 


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