Mac OS X 10.4.6 Special Report: iSync Issues -- Issues with hacks for unsupported devices; Sony Ericsson K700i won't synch

CNET staff

Sept. 2, 2009 6:47 a.m. PT

4 min read

Issues with hacks for unsupported devices Users are finding that hacks used to enable support for natively unsupported phones and other devices with iSync are broken under Mac OS X 10.4.6.

MacFixIt reader Karl writes:

"I just loaded Mac OS X 10.4.6 combo updater for PowerPC. One thing that had intrigued me was the support for the Motorola Razr V3c cell phone. I had installed a work around a few months ago and was very pleased with the full integration. This included not only contacts from address book but calendar from iCal. Now, with the updated iSync, I can no longer sync the calendar with iCal but the contacts synchronization works fine. I will be trying to re-install the same "update" to iSync that I had installed before. I'll keep you posted if this fixes the updated iSync."

Sony Ericsson K700i will not synch Several readers have reported an issue where Sony Ericsson K700i phones no longer synchronize.

MacFixIt reader Barry Fishman writes:

"The Mac OS X 10.4.6 update process went smoothly for me, with one exception -- I can no longer sync with my Sony Ericsson K700i.

"I followed all of the instructions before the update, and did one last sync before running the update.

"Here's what happens when I try to sync: The initial connection to the phone is made, and then almost immediately I get the following error message on my computer: [K700i] There was an error getting data from the phone. The synchronization may have been cancelled on the phone.

"On my phone, I get this message: 'Session failed. Communication interrupted.'

"Note: I did not hack my older installation of iSync in any way.

"My K700i has firmware R2AY004.

"Here's how you check your firmware: From the main phone screen, use the multi-way controller and the "*" key to enter the following sequence: > * < < * < *

"Then select 'Service Info' and then select "Software Info" to get to the screen where the software versions are listed. The very first thing listed is your phone's firmware."

Sven Berg Ryen adds:

"After installing Mac OS X 10.4.6 today, I can no longer sync to my K700i. This must be related to the update, as I performed a successful sync yesterday evening.

"I have tried deleting various caches and preference files, yet the issue persists. The error message given says that there has been an error with communication while retrieving data from the phone."

Some users have been able to workaround this issue by synchronizing only contacts, and synchronizing only activities that are less than two weeks old

MacFixIt reader Fabrizio La Rosa offers another fix:

Quit iSync if running
Control-click on the iSync icon (located in /Applications), select "Show package contents" and navigate to the following folder: /PlugIns/ApplePhoneConduit.syncdevice/Contents/ PlugIns/PhoneModelsSync.phoneplugin/Contents/Resources/
Open the file MetaClasses.plist with Property List Editor (available if you have Xcode installed) or with a text editor like TextEdit or BBEdit.
Look for the dictionary containing the definitions of your cell phone; I have found mine under "com.sony-ericsson.K700"; once you find it, you will notice that its property "InheritsFrom" has the value "family.com.sony.ericsson.syncml-phones-2004-obexbug", but you have to set it to "family.com.sony-ericsson.irmc-old-phones" to revert its sync protocol to IRMC.

Fabrizio writes: "Doing so my K700i can sync again with my Mac. This fix also works for users with a S700 phone or any other model that doesn't support SyncML."

Note that Apple includes specific instructions for iSync when applying the Mac OS X 10.4.6 update, which are outlined in Knowledge Base article #303419.

In particular, remember to perform a sync with your devices before upgrading to Mac OS X 10.4.6 to make sure the information on your computer is up to date, and to resolve any conflicts between your devices and computer.

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