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Why is OmniFocus for iPhone's startup/sync time variable? Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Sorry, but that is not an excellent solution.

1. It voids your warranty.
2. Apple will not support your phone any more and you will have problems updating to the latest version of the OS when it is released (which really is NOT a good idea given the SMS hack that was demo'ed at the Black Hat meeting yesterday that is going to need to be patched asap).
3. OmniGroup and other developers have no idea what other hacks you are using on your phone and what other processes are running at the same time, so it makes it exceptionally difficult for them to support you when things start going wrong.
4. Apple are not lying when they say that gaolbreaking is a source of many issues (apps crashing, notifications not working properly, etc) for people who do it.
5. It will make your battery drain faster.

Etc.

It would be an excellent solution if Apple officially permitted (some) background processes for third party apps, shorter battery life notwithstanding, but hacking your OS is not it.
 
Start with:

Sync your device with your WebDAV or MobileMe services (so your backup is up to date - this step takes some time if you have a large database and/or a lot of zip files).

When the sync is completed change the settings under Sync Settings to Nothing.

Go back from the Sync Setting and go down in the Settings screen and select Compact database. That would result in 2 zip files.

Then go back to Sync Settings and select your WebDAV or MobileMe services. Sync and you will get the question Keep local or server data select Local data.

After that you are in sync with a minimum of zip files.

I normally do this one time per day.

Good luck.
 
The technique above does work, but make sure you're fully up-to-date on your iPhone and on all your Macs; previous versions of OmniFocus had a bug that had the potential to break syncing when this was done.

It's also far less necessary in OmniFocus for Mac 1.7 (or iPhone 1.5) and later; we made a change to syncing that gives the database a lot more opportunities to compact on its own. My database used to have a couple hundred files in it; it rarely gets above a hundred now unless I forget to sync my home machine for several days in a row.
 
It really is quite disappointing how long it takes OmniFocus for iPhone to sync via MobileMe, even with less than 75 items entered into the app!

I'm a very light OmniFocus user -- I've only got 35 projects, each one has only 1 or 2 actions within them. I don't even use the "contexts" feature! (I know, I'm a heretic... burn me at the stake.)

But syncing the iPhone app can take 45 or 60 seconds! Although I love the app, it is sooo annoying to have to wait through this lengthy delay every time I want to make a very quick change.

I would urge the folks at The Omni Group to take a look at the iPhone app "Grocery Gadget" -- I don't know how those Grocery Gadget guys do it, but as soon as you make a change to any of your grocery lists in their program, it INSTANTLY syncs to their website and to any other iPhones that are using their product. Their syncs happen so incredibly fast that you don't even realize that it has happened. And that product is fairly complex, too -- it allows for embedded photos, multiple lists, a product database, and a bunch of other data.

The difference in sync times between OmniFocus and Grocery Gadget is almost unreal. Perhaps there is something for The Omni Group to learn from analyzing that product?

Thanks,
Scott
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by scotty321 View Post
And did you check out the last line of Brian's posting above, and do as he requested?
 
Thanx to Zappa (see Post 22) for his sage advice.

As I was compacting my database (having 46 projects, 292 actions, and 53 zip files -- roughly the same both before and after) I saw the option to Rebuild Database. After running this my sync times decreased from the usual 2~5+ minutes to around 17 seconds. Opening times both before and after were in the few second range.
 
 


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