SyncTogether employs the Apple Sync Services technology to synchronize various types of information between computers. You may also be using various
3rd party applications that also use Sync Services to share data (e.g. Microsoft Office, SOHO Organizer, Yojimbo, etc.), and each of these may have their
own set of known issues and limitations. Synchronizing between multiple Apple Sync Service clients is very complex. The lists below explain some of the
known issues and limitations.
Known Issues & Limitations
General
With Mac OS X 10.4.8, each time you synchronize a new data type an Apple Sync Alert will ask the user to "Allow"
that data type to sync. You must select "Allow" to sync. Also, do NOT check the checkbox to "Delete" items from other
nodes before synchronizing. Doing so may result in data loss.
Address Book
Multiple contacts with empty name fields may not synchronize correctly. For example if you have contacts with email addresses
only, they will likely get merged into a single contact. The work around is to enter a name or company for that contact.
When moving an item from an unsynchronized category to a synced category where the categories and item exists on both sides already,
the Item should not be deleted from the unsynchronized group, but should get added to the new one. Actual Results: Item gets added to
synced group, and removed from unsynchronized one.
If you see duplicate Address Book groups in the Contacts plugin settings, sync again and that will resolve the problem.
Calendar Events and Tasks
When moving an item from a synced category to an unsynchronized category where the categories and item exists on both sides already,
the Item should be deleted from the old category, but should not be added to the new one. Actual results: No change occurs.
Calendar groups will not synchronize. However, the calendars contained within a calendar group will synchronize, and will initially
appear as top-level calendars with other computers you synchronize with. If you wish to preserve your calendar groups structure, you will
need to recreate this on the other side. Once you have allocated calendars to calendar groups, syncing will leave this structure intact.
If you were synchronizing a calendar between the server and a client and then disabled the calendar on the server only, the client will
continue to sync that calendar to the server, but the server will not sync to the client.
Mail Rules, Signatures and Smart Mailboxes
Mail Rules may be synced with some errors if the rules are attached to an account that exists on one machine, but not the other.
Rules attached to subfolders do not get synced, or do not function correctly.
Mail account passwords do not synchronize and must manually be entered. This is because the password is kept in the
Apple keychain and not with the mail account.
Safari
When moving an item from an unsynchronized category to a synced one where the categories and item exists on both sides already, the
item should not be deleted from the unsynced group, but should get added to the new one. Actual results: no change occurs. If you copy
the bookmark in, rather than moving it, you will get the desired behavior.
When moving an item from an synced category to an unsynchronized one where the categories and item exists on both sides already, the
item should be deleted from old category, but should not be added to new one. Actual results: No change occurs.
Mark/Space Notepad
When moving an item from an synced category to an unsynchronized one where the categories and item exists on both sides already, the
item should be deleted from old category, but should not be added to new one. Actual results: No change occurs.
Other
SOHO Notes syncing is not supported
Apple's Keychain syncing is not supported
Polling is defined as a process when the server asks the client for some information, such as a list of categories. Polling is always
server initiated, so if the client is behind a firewall, no polling will occur outside of syncing.
Scheduled synchronization is always server initiated, so if the client is behind a firewall, no scheduled syncs will occur.
Only one (randomly selected) client is polled on each (five minute) cycle, so polling information may take a while to propagate (nodes
that are disabled for syncing will not be polled, so you can force a node to be polled by disabling the others on the server temporarily).
Two syncs are required to guarantee propagation of data from client to client. For example if you synchronize with three (3) computers and
make a change on one client, that change will synchronize to the server, but may not synchronize to the third client until the next sync.
Imagine we have a server and two clients, A and B. These will be synced in the order A, B. Assume we have a new piece of data on B. On the
first sync, the server syncs with A and no updates are received. The server syncs with B and server receives new data. Client A does *not*
have the new data yet. On the second sync the server syncs with A and A receives the new data, then the server syncs with B where there are
no updates.
Deleted calendars, Address Book Groups, or Bookmark groups may not get deleted properly if both the Server and Client accounts are set
to "selectively synchronize" just certain groups. If you see this problem you may need to manually delete the unwanted group or calendar.
If when trying to cancel a sync you see the text "Syncing with" in the sync status display area (without the name of a client after the
words "Syncing with"), try clicking the Sync button to initiate a new sync. If the Sync button is not enabled, try moving the mouse over the
toolbar area. Contact Customer Support if these steps do not resolve the problem.
After a remote sync that includes an new ical calendar being synced, that new calendar will not appear in the plugin setting until the next sync.
Registration
The standard SyncTogether End User License Agreement allows you to install SyncTogether on up to three (3) computers (e.g., 1 work and 2 home). If you
have a multi-user license you may install SyncTogether on as many computers as provided by the license. Each time
your register SyncTogether on a computer, our registration system takes note of how many computers you have registered. If you no longer plan to use
one of your registered computers with SyncTogether (for example if you sell one of your computers), you should "deauthorize" that computer by
selecting the Deauthorize Computer command from SyncTogether menu BEFORE disposing of the computer. Then you can register another computer and stay
within the allowable number of computers as per the End User License Agreement.