[chris]

****This problem was posted on the Apple forums and Michael Lafferty was kind enough to let us repost in the interest of helping other Mac users. Thanks Michael****

Problem:
We did an "erase & install" of Mac OS X 10.4 on our PowerBook G4, and then updated to 10.4.2. So there is nothing at all on this hard drive except for Tiger.

Then, we installed the Palm Desktop software v4.2.1 revision B, and performed a HotSync to our Zire 72 device.

We did this, because iSync requires a synchronization using HotSync Manager first.

Then, we updated to iSync 2.1 and tried to "enable Palm OS syncing" within iSync... but we get the error message that says: "The HotSync software is not properly installed or it has never been opened. Try opening HotSync Manager (in the Palm folder in your Applications folder), then return to iSync and choose Devices > Enable Palm Syncing again."

We have done ALL of this numerous times, and we still can't get it to work!


Fix:

The problem is one of permissions assigned by the Palm Desktop during installation, conflicting with the requirements of iSync. According to my configuration settings, your permissions for the folders listed below should appear as described below the pathname to that folder:

For the Macintosh HD:Applications:Palm folder:

Ownership & Permissions

You can: Read & Write

Details

Owner: <shortusername>
Access: Read & Write

Group: admin
Access: Read & Write

Others: Read only

For the Macintosh HD: HD:Library:Application Support:Palm Desktop folder:

Ownership & Permissions

You can: Read & Write

Details

Owner: <shortusername>
Access: Read & Write

Group: admin
Access: Read & Write

Others: Read only

For the Macintosh HD: HD:Library:Application Support:Palm HotSync folder:

Ownership & Permissions

You can: Read & Write

Details

Owner: <shortusername>
Access: Read & Write

Group: admin
Access: Read & Write

Others: Read only

You can either reset those values manually, [then restart and recheck them to be sure that they are set correctly] or use the Terminal application by typing these strings listed below this example - substituting your short user name - as shown below:

sample: "sudo chown -R <shortusername>:admin /Applications/Palm"

actual: "sudo chown -R michaellafferty:admin /Applications/Palm

…where michaellafferty is the <shortusername>. Be sure to pay attention to the spaces in each string, and the direction of the / or \ [forward and back slash] characters.

Here are the appropriate Terminal entries:

# sudo chown -R <shortusername>:admin /Applications/Palm [NOTE: at this point, you'll be asked to enter your login password]
# sudo chmod -R 775 /Applications/Palm
# sudo chown -R <shortusername>:admin /Library/Application\ Support/Palm\ HotSync/
# sudo chmod -R 775 /Library/Application\ Support/Palm\ HotSync/
# sudo chown -R <shortusername>:admin /Library/Application\ Support/Palm\ Desktop/
# sudo chmod -R 775 /Library/Application\ Support/Palm\ Desktop/

Again, pay particular attention to the spaces and to the \ characters, as both are critical to the syntax of these commands. Remember to place your actual shortusername in the string where the <shortusername> placeholder is shown, as in the sample above. [Do not include the < and > characters.]