[mattp52]

This is a new installation of OmniFocus on the iTouch. The local firewall is off and Bonjour is obviously working as the iTouch detects the host database.

This issue is reported elsewhere but those users had restrictive Firewall settings on their Mac and fixed it by opening up the firewall. My Mac firewall is not denying this traffic. A colleague in the same office on the same WiFi network can sync without troubles (using OmniFocus Desktop v1.5) so I also doubt its firewall settings on an upstream router.

Any ideas what's up?

[whpalmer4]

How big is your database? The first sync can be lengthy if you've got a big database, and as I recall, it didn't give a whole lot of indication of progress. I'm not saying this is necessarily your problem, but it does appear to be a plausible candidate from what I know so far.

[macdaddy]

I've reported Bonjour sync issues elsewhere and continue to have problems. What now appears to be a consistent fix is to allow all incoming connections (disabling the firewall), even though OF identified in the list of acceptable connections when the firewall is up.

Question - the OF in my firewall's selection list was chosen from the OF app on the mac. I wonder if that OF reference allows communication between the mac and the OF mothership (company), rather than allowing communications between the mac and iphone.

What's the correct firewall exception list component that allows the OF/iphone to communicate with the mac?

EDIT:

I ran a test with my firewall log - allow all incoming versus excepted incoming. Here's a redacted log section showing "deny" (when OF did not sync) despite the fact that OF mac app is in the exception list of allowed connections (there's no way to get the mobile OF app into the list, since it's greyed out when you try to add it from iTunes folder):

Wednesday, April 28, 2010 12:17:30 PM US/Pacific
Apr 28 12:18:09 Xs-MacBook Firewall[51]: Deny ^H�R.��� connecting from 167.251.170.177:49215 uid = 0 proto=6
Apr 28 12:18:10 Xs-MacBook Firewall[51]: Deny 8�R.��W^D8�R.^F^B connecting from 169.254.170.177:49215 uid = 0 proto=6
Apr 28 12:18:40: --- last message repeated 7 times ---
Apr 28 12:18:44 Xs-MacBook Firewall[51]: Deny 8�R.��W^D8�R.^F^B connecting from 167.251.170.177:49215 uid = 0 proto=6

As soon as I reset the firewall to "allow all incoming connections," OF synched fine.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Edit: 4/30 - Now syncing fine, even w/o allowing "all access" at firewall, and without having to put iphone into Airplane Mode.

[Brian]

Originally Posted by macdaddy

I wonder if that OF reference allows communication between the mac and the OF mothership (company), rather than allowing communications between the mac and iphone.

Macdaddy, OmniFocus doesn't phone home to us during sync unless you're using the sync server that we're testing. Otherwise, we try to stay out of your data. :-)

Hmmm... have you had any work done on your Mac recently? If so, you may be experiencing the problem discussed in this thread on Apple's support forums...

I had symptoms like yours after the logic board was swapped on my MacBook a couple years back. Unfortunately, I can't remember how I fixed it, except that it took a couple of hours of google searching and terminal hackery to get things back up and running.

If you did have some work done on your Mac recently, you may want to print out that forum thread and take it by the Genius Bar at your local Apple store. Maybe they can un-futz whatever it was that has the firewall blocking stuff it shouldn't.

[macdaddy]

Originally Posted by Brian

Macdaddy, OmniFocus doesn't phone home to us during sync unless you're using the sync server that we're testing. Otherwise, we try to stay out of your data. :-)

Hmmm... have you had any work done on your Mac recently? If so, you may be experiencing the problem discussed in this thread on Apple's support forums...

I had symptoms like yours after the logic board was swapped on my MacBook a couple years back. Unfortunately, I can't remember how I fixed it, except that it took a couple of hours of google searching and terminal hackery to get things back up and running.

Edit - the mac has none of the issues mentioned in the thread - it works perfectly in every respect.

If you did have some work done on your Mac recently, you may want to print out that forum thread and take it by the Genius Bar at your local Apple store. Maybe they can un-futz whatever it was that has the firewall blocking stuff it shouldn't.

I wasn't suggesting data mining, but rather updating exchanges w/OF.

As for recent work, it's a work mac that I inherited from a woman with kids and it did have work done, but I couldn't begin to determine what it was. I'll check the thread, but as long as I can get it to synch by allowing all access, I can live with that. I just restore the firewall after I synch and all's well. Thx

EDIT - I checked that thread, but my macbook doesn't have a single one of those problems (thankfully). Internet and other connectivity is rock solid, otherwise.