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07.13.2008 // 10 CommentsMobileMe doesn’t push from Mac to Me.com and handheld devices

MobileMe doesn't push from Mac to Me.com and handheld devices

Turns out, MobileMe doesn’t “push” changes to calendars and contacts made on your Mac to the Me.com web apps and your handheld devices. From an Apple Knowledgebase article:

Changes made on your computer will be synced to the MobileMe “cloud” once every 15 minutes (or every hour in Mac OS X 10.4.11).

Changes to calendars and contacts made on Me.com or on your iPhone will be pushed to your Mac immediately, but the reverse is not true. Strange. From Apple’s MobileMe features page:

MobileMe stores all your email, contacts, and calendars in the cloud and pushes them down to your iPhone, iPod touch, Mac, and PC. When you make a change on one device, the cloud updates the others. Push happens automatically, instantly, and continuously. You don’t have to wait for it or remember to do anything — such as docking your iPhone and syncing manually — to stay up to date

Emphasis mine. For many people, including me, a 15 minute sync time is probably just fine in real-world usage. But, it definitely seems contrary to how the service was promoted and demoed at the WWDC keynote, and I can definitely understand why so many people are complaining about it on the MacRumors forums and across the Internet. This sort of reeks of deception.

A couple things worth pointing out about this, for those wondering why it’s a big deal:

  1. It’s an especially big deal for laptop users, who are prone to opening their laptop, adding a calendar event or contact, and then closing it again. If MobileMe really “pushed” from Mac to the cloud, then this behavior would be fine — the update has already made it to the cloud by the time the laptop is closed. If a user has to sit there, laptop open, for at least 15 minutes, to ensure the sync takes place, that sucks.
  2. MobileMe isn’t all about the iPhone. It’s supposed to keep all your devices instantly in sync, including multiple Macs. Someone who doesn’t have an iPhone but has two Macs might want to keep their laptop in sync with their desktop. The old .Mac did this at a 15 minute interval, and MobileMe was promoted as an improvement that made the sync near-instantaneous. In reality, for this user, MobileMac is not an improvement at all — and that also sucks.

Visit site:

http://www.macrumors.com/2008/07/13/mobilemes-push-services-detailed-no-mac-to-mobile-me-push/

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  1. 001 // Bret // 07.13.2008 // 3:28 PM

    I am one of the complainers.

    The marketing materials clearly imply that all devices function with the same two-way push mechanism used by Exchange.

    It’s disappointing to be on the receiving end of an upgrade that’s supposed to be revolutionary only to find that it’s barely an upgrade at all, especially for someone who doesn’t even own an iPhone.

    I really hope they find this an issue worth addressing. If not, they need to update their marketing materials and keep “Exchange” out of their mouths.

  2. 002 // John Barker // 07.13.2008 // 6:53 PM

    Add your contacts and/or events, and thereafter just “sync mobileme.” I keep the sync icon in my menu bar so I do it immediately after any changes I make.

    There’s also an automatic setting under the preferences, I don’t know how this effects the frequency, you would assume it’d change it so that it syncs after any update.

  3. 003 // Bret // 07.13.2008 // 8:40 PM

    just “sync mobileme.” Yes, that is a workaround. Have fun explaining why some changes are pushed while others require a manual process to novices.

    There’s also an automatic setting under the preferences As per the KB article, the automatic setting means changes will be synced up every 15 minutes.

  4. 004 // Jeff Croft // 07.13.2008 // 8:40 PM

    Add your contacts and/or events, and thereafter just “sync mobileme.” I keep the sync icon in my menu bar so I do it immediately after any changes I make.

    John, I think maybe you misunderstood. Apple’s MobileMe service is touted as “automatic, instant, and continuous”. If I have to “sync MobileMe” manually by clicking a menu bar icon, then it’s not automatic. If I have to wait 15 minutes, then it’s not instant.

    There are a lot of Apple apologists saying, “this is no big deal — all you have to do is sync manually.” That’s true. But the entire point of this service is that it’s supposed to be automatic and instant. It’s false advertising, plain and simple. People have a right to feel ripped off.

    There’s also an automatic setting under the preferences, I don’t know how this effects the frequency, you would assume it’d change it so that it syncs after any update.

    Right, you would assume so. But if you read the Apple Knowledgebase article I linked to above, you’ll see that it doesn’t work that way at all. If you set it to “automatically,” it will push from you Mac to the cloud every 15 minutes under Leopard, or ever hour under Tiger.

    That’s not instant. Period.

  5. 005 // Bret // 07.14.2008 // 11:53 AM

    An update to the features page.

    Choose a sync interval for your Mac or PC. On your iPhone and the web, sync happens continuously.

  6. 006 // Sterling // 07.15.2008 // 5:06 AM

    For old buys like me (I bought my first Apple product an $8,000 LISA in 1983) this MobileMe came up and bit me on the behind unexpectedly.

    For me, this is like when the Coca Cola Company came out with “New Coke.”

    I’ve had a .Mac account for 5 years and I’m going to drop it Muy Pronto because Apple is doing a great disservice forcing MobileMe onto customers without giving any warning what the hell it is, how to use it (or at least an easy explanation for old farts like me on how to use it…)

    I love my Macs (I have three and have had a total of 9 since the LISA, but Apple has dropped the ball, aiming this technology at a very specific target audience while turning their backs on people who don’t follow this technology and whatever “PUSH” is.

    Sorry to be such a grumpy old cuss, but this is my two cents worth.

  7. 007 // Ed // 07.16.2008 // 8:04 PM

    So how in the world do I check my .Mac e-mail from my Sony Vaio laptop I use in my business when I travel? I just clicked on my .Mac bookmark and BOOMSHAKALAKA, I no longer have the ability to read my mail?

    So do I dump MobileMe and get a G-Mail account that will work on both my Sony VAIO and my Mac?

  8. 008 // Jeff Croft // 07.16.2008 // 10:06 PM

    Ed-

    You should be able to check your .Mac e-mail at www.me.com, the new home of what used to be .Mac.

  9. 009 // Sterling // 07.22.2008 // 3:30 PM

    Regardless of using .Mac or the new .me.com address, each time I access my e-mail account on the VAIO using Mozillia Firefox, it crashes… You would think Apple would have fixed this by now.

  10. 010 // Andy // 07.31.2008 // 10:04 AM

    I deleted 200 contacts from me.com this morning, and over eight hours later I am still getting messages that the cloud wants to sync 200 contacts to my MacBook Pro and iMac from the server. Stupid! I look at the website, and my contacts are as I left them this morning… So where these 200 deleted contacts went, and why the system wants to send them to my machines, god only knows!

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