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I'm using Omnifocus Mac syncing with Omnifocus iPhone over Bonjour. I'm trying to sort out some strange behavior when I try to adjust project order in Planning view on either platform. I'd like to understand some issues to help me figure this out.

1) Am I supposed to be able to rely on drag& drop project reordering? Dragging someday/maybes around seems like a good way to plan how soon I'll get to various ones.

2) If I drag projects in a folder around in Omnifocus iPhone, is that order supposed to sync over to Omnifocus Mac? I would think that's the idea, but right now I'm looking at a folder on the two versions that are ordered differently and hitting sync makes no difference. (Mac: Project filter = remaining, all the rest "un" or "any"; iPhone: show "Remaining")

3) When I drag projects around on the Mac, am I only allowed to do that in the sidebar? When I look over in the right panel, the projects have handles and I can drag them up & down, but when I release the handle, the project usually (not always) pops back into the original position.

I'd sure appreciate some feedback on these issues.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flatirons Charlie View Post
1) Am I supposed to be able to rely on drag& drop project reordering? Dragging someday/maybes around seems like a good way to plan how soon I'll get to various ones.
Yes.
Quote:
2) If I drag projects in a folder around in Omnifocus iPhone, is that order supposed to sync over to Omnifocus Mac? I would think that's the idea, but right now I'm looking at a folder on the two versions that are ordered differently and hitting sync makes no difference. (Mac: Project filter = remaining, all the rest "un" or "any"; iPhone: show "Remaining")
Yes, it will sync. It's important to understand that both the iPhone and the Mac need to sync (in that order) for the change made on the iPhone to appear on the Mac. So, sync the iPhone, wait for the dial to stop spinning, sync the Mac, and the change should appear. Normally, the app syncs 1 minute after you make a change, and hourly thereafter. The sync pushes any local changes to the central repository, and pulls any changes at the central repository to the local copy. Each copy of OmniFocus is syncing independently with the central repository. It's good practice to sync a device when you are done using it, and when you start using it.

Now, I see you are using the Bonjour syncing, which in my experience gives OmniFocus on the Mac a little nudge when a change comes in from elsewhere. It can do that because it is hosting the 'central' repository itself. Perhaps that mechanism isn't working for you (I haven't experienced that myself, but that isn't the sync method I normally use). I would try tapping the sync button on the Mac to see if anything changes. I would also call up the Omni support group tomorrow and ask them why it might not be working: 800-315-6664 or +1-206-523-4152 depending on your location. 10-5 PST/PDT.

Quote:
3) When I drag projects around on the Mac, am I only allowed to do that in the sidebar? When I look over in the right panel, the projects have handles and I can drag them up & down, but when I release the handle, the project usually (not always) pops back into the original position.
Yes, to rearrange projects in a different order, you drag the sidebar contents, not the outline contents. To rearrange the contents of projects, you drag the outline contents. The order in which projects appear in the outline is dependent on your view bar settings, and with many of those settings (the ones that order by date, for example) it would not make sense to allow manual rearrangement of the projects.
 
whpalmer4,

Thanks for replying. I'm very glad to hear that I'm supposed to be able to rely on project ordering. That seems like such a powerful tool for managing a lot of someday/maybes. As something becomes more likely to happens soon, I can move it up the lists.

Over the weekend I kicked back with my iphone (actually ipod touch 4g) and spent a lot of time rearranging projects. I've done GTD for almost 7 years now, but just got a Mac (in order to use OmniFocus, actually) and I had added lots of someday/maybes. When all the syncing got done and the order got hosed, I lost a lot of trust in OmniFocus.

I much better now that I know that the ordering stuff normally works. I left a voicemail with the support ninjas and I'll post back here with the results.
 
One useful trick when there's some question as to whether or not you've gotten all the changes synced is to add an action to the Inbox and see if it gets synced over to the other device. Because OmniFocus adds new transactions in a chain, if the last thing added makes it, everything else must have done so also. If it still seems like changes to the order, etc. have not been synced, that's a clue that perhaps the issue has to do with display configuration or the like rather than a failure to sync.
 
Thank you whpalmer4, that is a good trick to know.

I got a call back from a helpful support ninja who resolved my issue. She confirmed that the order of projects within a folder should sync in both directions. My guess of what happened is that I added maybe 50 or 100 projects this weekend (someday/maybes from my old system) and somehow the sync stuff got in a funky state.

Anyway, here's the successful fix:
1) On Omnifocus Mac, do File->Rebuild Database. When done, on Omnifocus Mac, click the sync button.
2) Then on Safari on the iPhone (iPod Touch 4g), click on this link: http://people.omnigroup.com/kc/Debug...dDatabase.html and then click on the "Rebuild OmniFocus Database" link. After another sync, the ordering on iPhone & Mac were consistent and reordering on one device synced to the other.
 
Firstly Flatirons I have been experiencing a similar problem to you and your fix worked in making list ordering consistent between Mac and iPhone....well making the iPhone list correct to the Mac.

I am trying Omnifocus for iphone and Mac and at first thought that strange list ordering on the iPhone was my user error so didn't ask for help here fearing that I didn't understanding something correctly. Is this a known bug? Is it avoidable? It has happened to me 2 or 3 times this week.

Any help much appreciated.

Glen
 
I haven't had any more ordering problems since I did the fix I described.

I'd give the support ninjas a call. I have been very pleasantly surprised at how good their support is.
 
Sounds hopeful. Thanks for responding so promptly.
 
 


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