How to trash you entire address book in OS X

[chris]

For the longest time, I've wanted to use Apple's Mail, iCal and Address Book. In the past year, I converted from Entourage to Mail and it's finally paying off with the improvements in Tiger. My palm life hasn't been so rewarding. I've tried to go back to iCal/Address Book time and time again. Despite being "long in the tooth", Palm Desktop (or as I like to call it..Claris Organizer:D) has been a mainstay. With Tiger, I thought it might be time to go back again. Rid myself of any third party applications. Hell, I've moved from Word to Pages/iWorks...so why not make the jump back to iCal/Address Book. Last night, I decided to make the transition. Things didn't start out too well.

With the new iSync 2.0 in Tiger (which comes included in Tiger -- located in your Applications folder), you have to enable the iSync conduit. Easy enough as you go to Devices > Enable Palm OS Syncing.

[chris]

iSync informed me that it would have to disable a few conduits. No sweat. I wasn't going to need those -- and iSync was going to move them to the iSync Disabled Conduits folder if I needed them again.



I fired up Mark/Space and selected my iSync conduit.




So far, so good. Hit the sync button on my cradle and it began the process. If everything works out ok, my contacts and calendars will now be updated in iCal and Address Book. I'm counting on Missing Sync along with iSync to use the data in my Treo to fill those desktop applications. The sync process concluded without any problems.

[chris]

I launch Address Book and everything is there. For the most part, it looks like this was a very smooth transition. What better time for a little housecleaning. I started editing my contacts in my beloved Address Book, deleting old contacts. Nothing like a little spring cleaning after a HotSync. Suddenly, with about 8 applications open, I get the dreaded spinning rainbow beach ball. Normally, nothing to fear. Perhaps, I am pushing the limits of my mac..so I quit a few applications and hope that Address Book comes back. Being the impatient type, I immediately Force Quit Address Book and restart. Here's where it gets a bit blurry. I open Address Book and there are zero contacts.
:eek: By Force Quitting Address Book, I've trashed my Address Book and all it's contacts.

[chris]

So, I quickly initiate the Sync process from the Treo cradle. I check my Address Book and zero contacts. :eek: How can this be? So, I check my Treo and all my contacts are gone. Not a good feeling.

Time to do some heavy lifting to get this back. I check my Palm folder which is sitting in my Documents folder. All of my User Data is still there. Now, I need to find a way to get back to square one -- which is having my data on my Treo. I decide to go the clean install method.

First things first, I made a copy of my Users folder. I option-click dragged to the desktop. I used the uninstaller for Mark/Space Missing Sync to remove it from the process. I downloaded the latest version of Palm Desktop for palmOne. Now, I did a search for HotSync and put everything related in the trash. I proceeded to install PalmDesktop and restarted my Mac. I originally intended to remove my User folder -- and create a new identitiy with the same name --- and then replace the folder with the old data. However, I messed up and forgot to do this. No worries..

I attempted to do a HotSync and was receving an error message:
error = #1852402768

Funny thing, this error is associated with OS 9. :confused:

Mark/Space to the rescue. I installed the latest version of Mark/Space Missing Sync (version 4.04) and started the process yet again. This time, all of my contacts and calendar information was back on my Treo.

Okay, so I've got the Sync working -- data is back on both my Mac and my Treo. However, this didn't solve my initial wish of getting iCal and Address book as my default contact managers of choice.

I selected iSync 2.0. Enabled palm OS sync. Once again, it reminded me that it would be disabling the old conduits. I pressed the cradle HotSync and it started the process. I received a Sync Alert that iSync would be adding 200 or so contacts to my computer. This was great news. This meant everything from my Treo was on it's way back to Address Book. The sync process completed and all of my data was back on Address Book. I closed a few applications PRIOR to cleaning up a few of my contacts. After this, I proceeded to Sync to my .mac account.

I guess the lesson learned is to back up your data. If you have your data backed up on dot mac or elsewhere, you can go through a laborious process like the one above to achieve the desired result. I am in no way suggesting this is the full proof method to Sync your Treo with your mac. Your mileage may vary. This procedure, with all it's warts, seemed to work for me. It took a few hours, but I'm a happy camper.:D

[lobo870]

I actually resent for how long the Palm desktop apps have remained unimproved. On the other hand, iCal and Address Book are beautiful. I had so much trouble with synching on my G4 Tower, however, that I rescynched from scratch from my PowerBook - where I'm using iSync 2.0, but not Missing Synch.

How do you back up iCal and Address book?

[epskionline]

I'm one of those desperately wishing that either Apple or Microsoft would steal the best features from the other and upgrade their PIM app(s). Entourage (stupidly) does not let you copy/paste appointments or edit them in the calendar (you have to open them first), and is terribly buggy on every computer I've ever used it on. Apple's iCal and Address Book are great for Mom and Granny, but too limited for power users who like features like Project Center.

SO, to sum up: I'm in a helluva place, too, but I'm sticking with Entourage for now, since it seems to suit my business needs better, and works well with my Treo whether or not I use Missing Sync (though I may well purchase that for the extra features).

Now if I could only find a way to sync my SENT ITEMS from my Treo to Entourage, I'd be set!!!

[tonydrone]

Open either app, then go to file , then click backup to database, or backup database. You need to have either a .mac account, or an external harddrive.
I back up all my AddressBook to my external HD... and don't really use iCal that much.

How do you back up iCal and Address book?

[tonydrone]

Chris, have you ever experienced syncing your address book and seeing duplacate entry's?

I synced my AB 1 time, saw duplacate entry's on my mac, and treo, and have since disabled that conduit. I would love to sync my AB, but not at the price of having to delete multiple entry's every time. Any suggestions?

[chris]

I actually just got around to syncing my Treo 650 to my Powerbook (I'm a longtime 600 user). All I did was rename the backup folder to backup_old (to prevent installation of applications that might cause any conflicts). Not a single problem and was ultra fast using my new Powerbook. Damn it's great when technology works. Hopefully, this will limit the amount of reminders I get from my Treo to save a number to my address book. (which I do think is a great new feature on the 650).

[Mr Myth]

The thing that is bugging me way beyond a reasonable limit is that when I sync my Treo 650 the contacts that I enter on the Treo don't show up in the address book. Isn't this defeating the purpose?

When I erase my treo info with a hard reset and resync, those contacts show up on my treo, but not in my address book. Whaaaaa? I don't get it.

Anyone know the answer?