Completely reset to fix MobileMe sync issues

While Apple's iSync and MobileMe syncing services work fine for many users, others have experienced a plethora of problems ranging from data not syncing to inability to access services such as the Calendar on the MobileMe website. Apple has been working to correct many of these issues, and has sent out account extensions and other incentives for users to maintain their accounts through the troubles. Many of the problems users are experiencing have various fixes, including resetting the sync history, sync services, deleting accounts and clearing specific sync data in order to retry and hope everything works properly.

For many users the various fixes have worked, but sometimes these problems are temporary and other times nothing seems to fix the problems for some users. For users in this situation, or for users who are only getting intermittent relief from sync problems, they may wish to fully and completely reset their calendar and contacts synchronization data. This will wipe clean any contacts and calendar data on all devices except for one, and then re-propagate the data back from the one source, and hopefully bypass data inconsistencies and other glitches with the current synchronization setup that are giving the user troubles.

The first thing to do is back up all data to a safe location. In iCal users can export their calendars to a safe location either by exporting individual calendars or backing up all of iCal in the File menu, and in Address Book users can export their contacts as a vCard or as an Address Book Archive. For ease, users can select the "All" group and export that, which should include every contact.

When the computer's data has all been backed up, users should pick one main computer to be the initial source for the synchronization (all other computers and devices will be wiped clean of sync data). The following steps will guide users through how to fully reset the sync data:

On all computers:

Open the iSync application and reset sync history in the program's preferences.

1. Remove the following folders from the computer:
   • .../username/Library/Calendars/
   • .../username/Library/Application Support/Address Book/
   • .../username/Library/Application Support/iCal/
   • .../username/Library/Application Support/iSync/
   • .../username/Library/Application Support/SyncServices/
2. Open iCal and there should be the default calendars listed. Likewise, Address Book should be empty.
3. In the MobileMe preferences on one computer only, select only the "Calendar" and "Contacts" options, and again in the "Advanced" option select "Reset Sync Data", clicking the right arrow to replace all sync info on MobileMe with that on the computer.
4. Upon syncing, all data on MobileMe should be erased. Check online at www.me.com to ensure the addresses and calendar are cleared.
5. Open MobileMe system preferences on all computers and deselect all items.
6. Unregister all computers from MobileMe in the "Advanced" section.
7. Uncheck "Synchronize with MobileMe" and in the "Account" tab, sign out of MobileMe.
8. Clear the contacts and calendar from mobile devices, such as iPhones.

On the source computer:

1. Open iCal and from the File menu select the option to reimport the calendar data. If users exported individual calendars, then the "import" option should be used, and if users backed up their whole iCal calendar then "Restore iCal" should be used.
2. Do the same with Address Book so all contacts are now available there.
3. Open the MobileMe system preferences and sign in with the MobileMe account username and password. Then select the items to synchronize in the Sync tab and click the "Advanced" button.
4. Click the "Reset Sync Data" option (again) and again replace all data on MobileMe with that from the computer by selecting the RIGHT arrow.
5. Check online at www.me.com to ensure the calendar and contacts data has been synchronized with MobileMe.

At this point users may wish to check the synchronization to ensure it is working by creating a small change such as a calendar event and see if it propagates to MobileMe properly. If everything checks out then users can continue and propagate the data to other systems. On all other computers go to the MobileMe system preferences and sign in with the account username and password, and in the Sync tab select the appropriate items to synchronize. Then click the "Advanced" button and "Reset Sync Data" and this time select the LEFT arrow to replace data on the computer with that from MobileMe. Ensure the data appears in iCal and Address Book, and then set up mobile devices in the iSync program and propagate the data to them as well, replacing all data.

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