[frankmcma]

I read in the FAQ that the iPhone sync is two minutes after you input something and then on the hour.

What about Omnifocus on the Mac? Does it sync only when mobile me syncs? On the hour (and manually)?

What if I inputted a bunch of things on the desktop...left to go on the road..but then remembered I did not do a sync to mobile me before I left. Would I just have to wait until the next hourly mac to idisk sync? Or does omni focus on the mac also do a sync two minutes after you input something? Or can it be setup to do that?

Thanks

Frank

[whpalmer4]

Same behavior on the desktop. A minute after you make a change, it will do a sync, and then every hour after that if you don't make any further changes. I thought the iPhone also did it after 1 minute, not 2, but I could be wrong about that.

OmniFocus syncing (via MobileMe's WebDAV feature) and MobileMe's sync mechanisms are independent of each other. It just happens that MobileMe is a convenient way for users to get a WebDAV volume for OmniFocus syncing to use. The terminology is very confusing if you don't have a good understanding of what all is happening! Just to make matters even more confusing, MobileMe optionally does file synchronization on the MobileMe disk volume, where OmniFocus stores the shared data file, and thus can actually sync your data file, and in the process, quite possibly screw it up. If you have that feature turned on (in .Mac/MobileMe preferences in System Preferences), my recommendation is to turn it off if you don't absolutely need it, and failing that, if you ever get a synchronization error popup from MobileMe where it asks which version of the OmniFocus.ofocus file you want to keep, the MobileMe copy is the one, even if the last written date or size appears incorrect. OmniFocus always reads/writes directly to the MobileMe server.

[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by frankmcma

What if I inputted a bunch of things on the desktop...left to go on the road..but then remembered I did not do a sync to mobile me before I left. Would I just have to wait until the next hourly mac to idisk sync? Or does omni focus on the mac also do a sync two minutes after you input something? Or can it be setup to do that?

Yes, the Mac copy would do a sync a minute or two after your last change. Forcing the iPhone to do a sync at that point would pull in those changes without having to wait until the next hourly sync.

[frankmcma]

So the desktop does not sync until a change? That seems to be the case.

I add an item to the iphone..in a minute it syncs..and is on mobile me

On my desktop I have omni focus up most of the time but it never syncs unless I change something. So if for some reason I don't make any changes the iphone item never gets pulled down.

I thought at least when mobile me syncs hourly, it would sync omnifocus but that does not seem to be the case

Is there a way to have the desktop client sync say hourly or every 10 minutes or so?

Or..how often does the desktop sync if there are no changes?

Frank

[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by frankmcma

So the desktop does not sync until a change? That seems to be the case.

I add an item to the iphone..in a minute it syncs..and is on mobile me

On my desktop I have omni focus up most of the time but it never syncs unless I change something. So if for some reason I don't make any changes the iphone item never gets pulled down.

I thought at least when mobile me syncs hourly, it would sync omnifocus but that does not seem to be the case

Is there a way to have the desktop client sync say hourly or every 10 minutes or so?

Or..how often does the desktop sync if there are no changes?

Frank

MobileMe sync has nothing to do with OmniFocus. OmniFocus has its own sync mechanism, which just happens to support using MobileMe as a provider of WebDAV services.

The desktop client syncs every hour, as you will see if you go to the Sync preferences and look at the "last synced" times. If you make a change to the database, it will sync a minute later, then resume the hourly cycle. If it isn't syncing, it is because you haven't had it open for an hour, you don't have it configured to sync, or it is encountering a problem (in which case you should be able to see the error it reports by clicking on the button in the Sync preferences).

[Andrew]

Both the desktop client and the iPhone client sync once an hour if there are no changes. (As whpalmer notes, OmniFocus sync is unrelated to general MobileMe sync.)

[Jon C]

Q: Is OFi able to sync when you've eg returned to the home screen and launched safari?

In other words, if we want syncing to occur after using OFi should we take care to leave OFi as the 'front' app on the iphone when locking the screen and putting it in our pockets?

[Andrew]

Once you exit OmniFocus on the iPhone, the app has been completely quit - we have no ability to do anything after that point.

I'm not sure, but I think that we also won't initiate a sync after the screen has been locked. If the sync is started and _then_ the screen is locked, my understanding is that the sync will complete.