[scotty321]

Hi there,

I've discovered a fairly big bug with OmniFocus syncing, which could lead people to believe that they have lost data.

To reproduce this bug, you first need to turn on OmniFocus syncing via MobileMe between your Mac and your iPhone. Then, you can take these steps to reproduce the bug:

1. Go into OmniFocus>Preferences, select the "Data" tab, and make the following options:
a) Clean up inbox items which have: "Either a Project or a Context"
b) UNCHECK the checkbox for "Clean up complete Inbox items"

2. Add an item into your inbox that has a context, has NO project, and has a due date. Do NOT mark it as complete.

3. Click on the "Sync" button in OmniFocus for Mac.

4. Go into OmniFocus on your iPhone, and click on the synchronize button.

5. Here's where the bug appears: After syncing to your iPhone, OmniFocus will -- for some reason -- move that item OUT of the inbox and into a single-action list that it creates on-the-fly called "Miscelleanous". There's actually no reason for OmniFocus to do this.

6. The way to prevent this bug from happening is to go into OmniFocus on the Mac's Preferences, and change the preference to:
a) Clean up inbox items which have: "A Project"

Can anybody confirm that they are seeing this on their end as well?

Thanks,
Scott

[jasong]

This isn't a bug, it's how the system and preferences work.

If you look in the Data preferences, you'll also see "Default List for Single Actions", which on your system is probably set to "Create When Needed".

Below that you'll also see "Inbox items processed without a project assigned will be placed at the end of this list."

You can reproduce this without syncing by following your Steps 1 and 2, and then choosing Edit > Clean up.

Since you have an item with a context but without a project, and your preferences are set to clean up items with either a context or a project, and items without a project will appear in a single action list, your item is moved into that single action list.

[scotty321]

Ah, thanks so much for this explanation.

Then this seems to be a user-interface problem on OmniFocus' end, because in the preferences, once you uncheck the box for "clean up completed inbox items", the pop-up menu for "default list for single action items" is no longer available and becomes completely blank and un-selectable. The text "inbox items processed without a project assigned will be placed at the end of this list" is now applying to a selection that doesn't even exist anymore, and indicates to the user that this text doesn't apply since the item above it is un-selectable.

Thanks,
Scott

[jasong]

Yep, that's the bug right there. The popup menu goes grey and unselectable, but the previously selected choice remains active.

You've filed this as a bug with OF already?

[scotty321]

Thanks again! :) Yes, I just sent them an email that was sort of a copy-and-paste of our entire message thread here. If this OmniFocus behavior bothers you as well, you may want to also send them an email... with a more concise email than what I just sent them. :)