How To Sync MobileMe, Address Book & iCal
Finally got MobileMe to work like it’s supposed to (after it erased my contacts on iPhone). It wasn’t easy an hour ago when MobileMe did everything in it’s power to crush my will to live… But you can’t keep a good AppleSlut (or Apple Blog) down for long…
The good news for you and me… well, everybody really… is there’s a way to get it all working in just a few short steps.
Of course it took me a thousand do find it and make it work the first time.
With some fancy computer hacking (not really) I was able to crack the Mobile DaVinciMe code – and get everything to sync (horay) and start working smoothly – with instant updates to new data. Here’s how it’s done:
UPDATE: MobileMe will be replaced by iCloud in fall 2011. iCloud is supposed to be easier to sync than MobileMe… However, the iTunes sync wasn’t as easy as advertised. In fact, it sucked. Fingers crossed iCloud will be headache free.
UPDATE: iCloud is live and free for anyone to signup. Horay! But there’s some bad news. iCloud doesn’t sync docs to your Mac – and the Apple fanboys & girls are not happy 
UPDATE: Here’s how to remove duplicate iCal entries from iCloud.
System Preferences
Open up System Preferences and click on the .Mac icon. (If you don’t have the .Mac icon, you might see the MobileMe icon – click it)
Select Your Items to Sync
1. Click the Sync button in the center menu bar
2. Check the box next to Synchronize with .Mac
3. Select Manually from the dropdown
4. Check all of the boxes next to the items you’d like to Sync.
Move on to the next step…
Click the Advanced Button
Click the Advanced button to open up more options.
Reset Sync Data
This isn’t as bad as it sounds…FYI
1. Click on your computer
2. Click on Reset Sync Data
Switch the Sync Direction
1. Select All Sync Info from the Replace dropdown menu
2. Click the Right Arrow to set the transfer – from your computer TO .Mac / MobileMe (you should see the orange arrow moving from the computer to the .Mac / MobileMe logo)
3. Click Replace to start the transfer
Confirm the Sync
Click the OK button to confirm the transfer and get this party started!
Sync in Progress
Now that the transfer has started…
1. The dropdown menu has been greyed-out.
2. The progress meter will be shown to the left of each item as they sync
3. You can click the Cancel Sync to stop the process
.Mac & MobileMe Sync Completed
The sync is complete when the date and time are displayed at the bottom.
** NOTE ** When the sync is completed, go back to the 2nd step (Select Your Items to Sync) and change the dropdown to “Automatically.” Now your Mac, iPhone and MobileMe will always be in sync!
That’s it – Enjoy MobileMe!
thank you Ms Apple.
Sure Love yoUr Tutorial
THANKS! Your easy to follow guide really helped me. Nice blog, I think I’ll bookmark ya!
^^
You’re very welcome! Come back anytime… Thanks for the bookmark.
Holy crap finally. Thanks for doing this tut. I was ready to punch my Mac before I found this.
If the technical support people at Apple aren’t smart enough to solve the widespread syncing problem with mobileme, even with native applications, then they should at least be smart enough to read your simple and straight forward advice and then share it with the rest of the world. In the future, I will look for solutions here first!
Hi Jason… It’s strange that Apple would go through all the trouble to build in these settings/options for MobileMe sync and NOT tell people about it – especially with all the connection problems. And what about the old .Mac users? They didn’t get any info from what I’ve read online.
I was lucky because my account was a free trial of MobileMe, so I was a little more open to problems and I didn’t care if I screwed something up trying to get it all working like Apple said it would.
Never thought this tutorial would become the instruction manual for MobileMe Sync, but if you want to share this page with Apple, please do!
If you’ve got any other ideas for tutorials, send me an email. Thanks for stopping by!
Tony, you ROCK!!! Thank you a million times over, I spent the better part of a weekend surfing apple support & various forums, to no avail. I was ready to throw my Macs out the window (i did that once, to a coffee-maker that kept clogging and spilling grounds all over my kitchen — aahhhh, it felt so good!). Seriously, thank you for the amazing tutorial. When does Jobs plan to hire you? You’re amazing.
Tom, you’re too kind… Glad you found the tutorial useful. If you’ve got other questions, let me know and I’ll make those into tutorials as well – maybe we can help other people with their Mac problems!
Thanks for visiting!
Thanks very much for your tutorial. I followed all the instructions to the letter but my lost contacts, calendars, and bookmarks did not appear on my iPhone. Any idea what else I could do?
Hi Elizabeth. Where do you have all of your information saved? On your Mac or MobileMe?
it’s Aug 8th – Well you have my gratitude, thank you. i have been in a truly pointless dialogue with Apple – they do not have a clue how to guide people thru the simple process you’ve articulated here. I will forward it to them, as i am sure others have done.
mattybee x
Thanks Mattybee!
This was a tremendous sigh of relief. Thank you so much. Be well. Ian
Thanks a bunch! So glad Google found you because Apple did not make this info easy to figure out.
You’re welcome Neal & Ian. Thanks for visiting and commenting!
Thank you so very much! I was about to pull my hair out, but your guide (with pictures, gee I love pictures lol) helped tremendously! I finally have my contacts list properly updated. Apple needs to hire you :p
I have literally been going bonkers over this whole MobileMe fiasco. The so-helpful (not) chat says to call Apple. Apple says to use chat. SO, with that being said, and after literally days trying to get the sync to work, is this info still relevant since they quietly made some (hopefully positive) changes around the end of October? I’m trying to sync between my iMac & MacBook. I finally got my email from the dreaded Time Warner to work in Apple Mail, but it won’t sync. Everything has to be done twice!
I also need to sync other items on the list, not just the email and contacts. The dock went fine, but not my (not-so-smart) mailbox and the folders I’ve created underneath it, where I store stuff from emails from certain people to passwords.
Sorry to be wordy, I’m literally going insane over this. So – will this work for all my items (other folders, bookmarks, etc). Thanks SO much. Plus I’m glad I discovered your site – the name alone brought me my first smile of this wasted day!
Thank you so much for this! Syncing is quite annoying but when you get it working it’s amazing. I had to disable my iPhone connectivity so it all well to hell, but using your instructions I was able to put it back into place.
This tutorial should be posted on the front page of Apple’s MobileMe. I wasted a couple of hours trying to make MobileMe work before I found this page – and then all problems were solved.! Thanks again!
I cannot even get into Sync in Mobileme System preferences. I get the spinning beachball.
The simple answer I was looking for, that oddly enough was hard to find on the apple website… go figure.
You, sir, are a miracle worker.
Hi, Tony!
In your instructions, the user switches the sync direction to “from computer to MobileMe.” Does this setting automatically change to a merge type sync, on the next sync? …or does the user need to be careful to explicitly request merging syncs? Why make your change in the first place?
I ask for another reason. Will your recommended setting erase all data in my iPhone? I got an iPhone first, and entered quite a bit of data into it, without backup. I just purchased a MacBook and MobileMe. I can’t figure out from that inscrutable MobileMe “advanced” button, what direction I should sync, to move data from the iPhone, to backups in MobileMe and my MacBook. Right now, my MobileMe and MacBook are a blank slate. That inscrutable MobileMe “advanced” button does not appear to have an option to move data from the iPhone to MobileMe.
What exactly does “replace” do? Does it erase all data at the destination device, and then transfer data from the source?
I can find no clear explanation of the terms replace or merge. Some general discussion of sync terms is at the following Apple developer page, but nothing on exactly how MobileMe was programmed to work.
http://developer.apple.com/macosx/syncservices.html
Could this confusion be the ultimate cause of what happened to Elizabeth, who posted Jul 23, 2008 12:27 “Thanks very much for your tutorial. I followed all the instructions to the letter but my lost contacts, calendars, and bookmarks did not appear on my iPhone. Any idea what else I could do?”
I don’t want to lose the data already on my iPhone!
Hi Casey,
You ask an excellent question – However, I can’t give you a clear answer. This tutorial was written almost a year ago and with the number of updates to iPhone OS and Mac OS in that time, it’s impossible for me to answer. Plus, I had everything saved on my Mac to start with – then pushed to MobileMe & the iPhone. MobileMe and my iPhone were blank when I started this, so there was no risk of deleting info on the iPhone.
My suggestion is to plug your iPhone into your Mac first and use iTunes to create a backup of all the data on your iPhone.
I know that’s a crappy answer, but I can’t honestly guarantee it will work like it did for me.
Hello Tony,
I can’t update or sync my address book on my mac mini or any other macbook pro or macbook (I have 2 MBP and 2 MB). I need from MobileMe to computer (address book). One MBP and Mac mini are new, therefore address book empty on each one of them. MobileMe is up to date and work very good with iphones (I have 4). Is MobileMe down, maybe, or any other idea will be appreciated.
Thanks.
You should change your name to AppleSaint…… thank you
Now the second time you have solved a problem for me!!!
Hmmm. Still a bit confused about syncing email…. can I do this with MobileMe?? Appreciate some more help! Cheers Jayne
I wonder if anyone can help me. I’m running a Macbook and syncing nicely my address book, calendar and emails to Mobileme. I’ve just bought my husband a Macbook and would like us both to use the same address book. He doesn’t need to see my emails, or calendar, just the address book. I’ve got a mobileme email address for him. Can anyone tell me how I can get him sharing the address book? Can’t seem to find any instructions from Apple.
OH. MY. GOD. You are a goddess. I tried for weeks to get (ok, I’m going to try to watch my language here..) the darn thing to work. Despite 1:1′s at the store and endless Applecare calls (and my contacts were lost, too, with no one quite sure how that happened). I had a Macbook, (my phone numbers were on my iphone (which somehow was an appleworld error, why would you keep your phone numbers on your phone?) and then I got a new IMAC. Yikes. I finally finally got everything working. I am grateful to your comments about how to do it, since I guess I did that, but I wasn’t sure what it was I actually did. That whole, ahem, darn “manually” and “automatically” choice is tricky.
I will always look at your site first. You are an angel of the dark night of battles between woman and machine.
When I open MobileMe in System Prefs, I can’t get the Sync tab to open. Help!!!
norie
Good tutorial on syncing contacts, etc between iPhone and a single Mac (or PC).
Here’s my problem: 2 macs (both Intel boxes running 10.5) and 1 iPhone. I can’t get mobile me to sync (i.e. update) the contacts on one of the Macs (actually a 2008 Macbook). I keep getting an “inconsistent data” error for Contacts only… seemingly Widgets, Calendar, and Bookmarks are ok.
My “source” data for the MobileMe cloud is an Intel MacMini (10.5). I’m able to update and/or reset the “cloud” at will. The problem occurs when I try to sync (over-write) the info on my MacBook from the MobileMe cloud. I get the “inconsistent data” error message.
Can you help?? Already did the Google thing… and as common as this problem seems to be, Apple has not addressed it.
Billed in Apple Store as the answer to ICal failing to sync properly this b******* thing has reduced a 62 y o former rugby playing toughie to tears! I shall start again tomorrow after a good night’s sleep.
I’m also wondering if I can import my contacts from Entourage into MobileMe or Mail? And how?
Hi Joy… I’ve never used Entourage so I can’t help ya. Sorry!
Thank goodness! Someone who knew what my problem was! Thank you thank you thank you for your helpful, easy to follow information!!!
Thank you so much! This problem has been bugging me for weeks and nothing on the apple support site helped, but this worked right away. Thank you thank you thank you!
You f-ing rock! This site saved my life! I had the same problem and couldn’t figure out how to reset my sync options, but you got me through! Thank you sooooo much!
thanks Miss Apple !
you just saved me a billion hours of stress trying to find this out! You’re great!
Was lucky to find your site after searching for about 20 minutes on the Apple site. Thank you so much for your easy to understand tutoring! Now everything is working beautifully! Thanks a million.
Alleluia!!! Thank you!
thanks for this I’ll have a crack. I guess if I want to sync all my address book, iCal etc data between 2 computers (home and office) I’ll have to get all data onto one machine first (hopelessly disorganized of course and diff data on diff machines – how else would anyone store their data?
). I was hoping I could use mobileme to merge data, any thoughts on that?
Also have you attempted to back up files on mobileme?Again I want to sync files at home and work, so that when I update a folder at work the home one is updated also. But it seems to have tried to copy the entire hard disk to mobileme, apps and all, and used up all storage memory. So each sync takes days and slows my internet connection down to a trickle. AAAAGGGHHH!
Damian – I don’t use MobileMe for backup. Sorry!
Thank you so much for this tutorial you made my day. I have question: How do i sync my mail-folders? Why can’t i see the folders i have in my mail on my macbook pro in mobileme? Thank you again. Have a nice day / night. .christian
Christian, I don’t know if MobileMe will sync the folders in your email application – I’ve never tried it. However, if MobileMe does sync folders, I’m sure you’d need to be using Mail as your email app (instead of Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.). It could be you need to PUSH your info from the MacBook to MobileMe. Be careful, don’t want you to lose any info. Make sure you have backups of everything.
tony, i tried it and there are still some items on my ical which have not transferred over to the mobileme calendar. i can’t seem to figure it out… i took the steps you recommended and performed them twice and still no complete sync… I can send you screen shots…?
thanks for your help
peter
Hi Peter. This tutorial is old. The process may not work like it used to. However, I’ll take a look at your screen shots. I’ve sent you an email.
I followed your instructions but I can not get any of my ical data to show up on my Mobile me ical?
Any thoughts?
Thanks
Drew
Hi Drew – First, I’d check the System Preferences on your Mac. Go into the MobileMe settings, click the Sync tab and make sure the box is checked next to Calendars. Then make sure the box is checked next to “Synchronize with MobileMe.” Also, select “Automatically” from the drop down. And finally, click “Sync Now.” That should do it – unless you’ve got some other issue. Try it and let me know what happens.
Hi, thanks for the great tutorial!
I have a similar problem to that of Bill Henry. My husband has an Imac, i have a macbook, and one iphone. We want to sync our calendars on all three, but it is wigging out on us! now a number of our weekly dates have duplicated, and no matter how often I’ve tried to erase them, they keep coming back double or triple. Anyone have any ideas what we can do to regularly update all of our devices and not loose or duplicate information? Will be soooo thankful for an answer!!
Hi Lee – You’re welcome! I don’t have the perfect solution to your calendar sync problem… Just a suggestion: You could try only adding new events to the calendar from MobileMe (www.Me.com). That MIGHT work. My guess is the problem happens when you’re adding events from several machines & iPhone. Using 1 device (or Me.com) for all your new calendar items may work – obviously, there are drawbacks to that situation. Maybe try it for a couple days and see what happens.
Your tutorial is wonderful. I am still having trouble though, it says contacts cannot be synced because of inconsistent data. Would you happen to know what this means?
Thanks so much.
Linda
Hi Linda – I’ve been getting the “inconsistent data” error when syncing my iPhone too. No idea what it means, but everything still seems to be working. My guess is it’s due to a recent iTunes or iPhone software update. Hopefully, there will be a patch or update soon.
great tut! when I check the box next to “synchronize” I still can’t click the drop down box. any idea why?
Hi Chris – Sorry, I don’t know why it doesn’t work for you. I’d start with the basics: Make sure you’ve got the latest version of OSX and double check any updates you may have missed. If that doesn’t work, try Apple support site on Syncing Preferences: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2085
Cool, but how do I get mobileme to work with something like Entourage, which manages my calendar, email and contacts?
Thanks for your Tut Tony. I spent some time getting it to work before I found it. It would have been very helpful earlier. I am now looking for the next step which is syncing multiple calendars from different users. We have a family pack and wanted to sync the calendars of the all the users. Firstly is this possible and if so how do you do it? Thanks for you help in advance.
Hi Tony – great tutorial, very clear and it all worked perfectly. Thank you!
Thanks!!!! have been frustrated with the double entries, deleted address book entries. This solved it! Thanks for taking the time to show this.
Thx, thx thx
3 days I’ve been searching till I found your tutorial
My problem is that the up to date info is on mobile me and not on my mac, so I don’t want to replace all data on mobile me w/ info on my mac or else that will delete all the info on mobile me.
So in the switch sync direction, it should be replace all sync info on this computer w/ sync info from mobile me
but I get the contacts could not be synced due to inconsistent data, over and over again…after trouble shooting everything I can find.
any insight would be huge.
Hi Dawn – I found an article on the Apple Support website here: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1998 (you have to scroll down a bit). Unfortunately, it’s written in “geek.” However, it does give information(#4) on how to “reset the SyncServices” in iTunes. You could try that, but make sure all of your data is backed up first!
Thank you THANK YOU! I have spent days on this and was getting ready to chuck my trial account. It’s incomprehensible why Apple would not explain the direction switching option up front. I’m a new convert to mac from pc and had already stumped two apple geniouses (genii?) on other issues. This was making me angry, but I’m calmer now.
What I still can’t figure out is why contact groups won’t sync but that’s not a biggee for me yet.
Help!!! I just synced my itunes account, and somehow after 8 months of it working correctly, my iphone numbers all disappeared. I had used this tutorial on 2/15/10 to get all my calendar entries from my iphone onto my computer and just used mobile me to put all of that data from the 2/15 sync back onto my laptop. Now, I’m terrified to use itunes again to sync because I’m worried my phone numbers (or lack thereof) will go from my iphone to my computer. I haven’t used time machine yet to back up everything. Is there a way to get the data I just pushed from mobileme onto my macbook onto my iphone? (I know there is, just frozen with rookie mac indecision, worried that I will delete all my phone numbers.) Help me Tony, you are my only hope.
Hi Leslie… I’ll try using The Force for this reply… First, I have to cover my butt: Don’t do anything. Take your iPhone and Mac to the Apple Store and have them look at it. There’s my disclaimer. Now, if you want to RISK LOSING YOUR DATA FOREVER, I can suggest a couple options. First, check out this Apple help page: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414 and click on “Backing up your iPhone or iPod touch.” It shows how to restore your iPhone from the last time you plugged it into iTunes… (the last time BEFORE it went FUBAR.) That might work. Another option: If your data is correct on your Mac and/or MobileMe, you should be ok. It’s possible iTunes isn’t syncing your contacts – and you might be able to fix that, but you’d have to connect the iPhone to your Mac & open iTunes. If you decide to try it, click on your iPhone in the left column. Then click on the “Info” tab. Is the box is checked next to “Sync Address Book Contacts?”. If not, that could fix the problem. That’s all I can think of. Call the Apple Store. And use TimeMachine – it’s a life saver!
Thank you! I couldn’t find this info on Apple’s website. I tried to ask about this after picking my laptop up from its $750 repair job and the people at the store were too busy to want to help.
Thanks!
Oh my word! I cannot tell you how glad I am that I found this. Thank you for posting this information!
Here’s another tip (excuse me if someone posted this already — I read comments, just not aaalllll the comments): If you unregister the computer and then register it again, it will allow you to merge your data when you sync. If there’s another way to merge the data on an established computer I haven’t found it, but I used the un-/re-register method three times tonight. Definitely bookmarking your blog. Thanks again!
Hi Lanai – Thanks for sharing your tip!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Just saved me hours… thank you.
Hi Tony
Thanks for the tut!
My problem is that I can’t get the sync button in system prefs to work. So I can’t change any sync settings. My wife’s ID on the same computer works just fine.
The computer is a mid 2008 MacBook pro running the latest updated OSX5 (Leopard).
Your expertise would be greatly appreciated.
John
Hi John – I’m trying to get your situation straight. Sounds like you’ve got 1 MacBook with 2 different user accounts and each account has its own MobileMe account. Is that right?
hi, I am not able to sync the iCal in my iPhone with the Macbook through Mobileme. The iCal comes with an error – could not connect to the server on Mobileme. Please tell me some solution u have for it…
Hi Abhishek – If you are using Windows, it could be a proxy issue. I found this on the apple support website:
hi, thx for the tut, but i still have problem, got my iphone 4 and cannot sync ical with the iphone. It works backwards, that is i can add an event in my iphone and sync it with my mac, but the other way it just does not work…..one more thing
i have an ical beta on my mobileme, can it be the problem?
Hi macieq – If you have a MobileMe account, and it’s setup properly on your iPhone, it *should* work… And you should be able to add calendar events on the iPhone or at the MobileMe website. However, you can check the settings on your iPhone: Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data… Now make sure Push is switched ON, and tap “Every 15 Minutes” at the bottom…. Now scroll back up this tutorial to “Click the Advanced Button.” Make sure you checked the boxes next to “Synchronize with MobileMe” and “Calendars.”
This is very cool, is there a quick way to remedy having 3 of the same contact in the contact book? So, so irritating!
Thanks
Thanks very much for this clear help.
Successfully using MobileMe behind a proxy server at work for mac or pc
I have had problems with this as well and the only way I was able to solve this issue successfully was to use a program that allows network applications that do not support working through proxy servers to operate through a HTTP HTTPS or SOCKS proxy server or a chain of proxy servers.
Proxifier
http://www.proxifier.com/mac/
Now I had some issues getting it going but with the help from the people at Proxifier I was able to solve these and get it going.
Essentially you MUST completely disable the proxy settings in
System Preferences > Network > Advanced > Proxies.
Then you set up Proxifier to forward all communication from your applications.
http://www.proxifier.com/mac/documentation/pgs/quick.html
http://www.proxifier.com/mac/documentation/pgs2/addprx.html
then you set up rules on what and how you want proxifier to handle either everything or only the applications you specify.
http://www.proxifier.com/mac/documentation/pgs2/rules.html
Now I suggested the people at Proxifier update their online documentation to include an article on how to get MobileMe going from behind a proxy with Proxifier which they have decided to do.
It just works easily once you have it set up I recomend you have a go at it and I think you will be happy with the solution.
Rodney
Hi Rodney - Thanks for sharing. Hopefully someone will try this and let us know what happens.
Thanks so much. I just deleted my whole iCal trying to sync to my iPad. That prompted me to get MobileMe and if I hadn’t looked this up I would have done it again! You’re Awesome!
Jamie – You’re welcome. I didn’t even think this tutorial would work for syncing MobileMe & iPad. Glad it helped.
You Sir, are an Apple God…
New to Mac after starting with Apple II eons ago, PC user/builder for decades. Addicted to Apple design, bought Mac seeking ‘seemless’ integration with other Apple products. As another wrote, was almost ready to throw Mac out the window over this mobileme synching. Your tutorial (extremely well put together) fixed all in minutes. Kudos… you should be working for Apple if you aren’t…… Many thanks……
Hi Michael - No, I don’t work for Apple (Wouldn’t mind though). Glad MobileMe is working for you! Thanks for the comment.
Have iPhone 4, an iMac, and Macbook Air. Until a week or so ago all seemed to be syncing as I had set them up to, (iCal, notes etc, but not contacts – lost them once before and was a bit afraid of a repeat). Recently I received a prompt from mobileme to “upgrade” to mobileme calendar. Since then nothing syncs at all! I know very little about settings & stuff, I just use the things, and the apple help systems seem fairly UNhelpful unless you are an expert. What do I need to do to get my three devices to simply share details such as calendars and contacts? – My principal device is the iphone 4, with occasional visits to Macbook Air or iMac when I need to sit down! Hope you can help.
Thanks,
Ken
Hi Ken - Here’s what I would do. First, backup your iPhone, iMac and Macbook Air with TimeMachine or Time Capsule. Always, always backup before making any changes to your settings. We don’t want to lose your contacts again… Start with the computer you uses to sync your iPhone. Sit down and follow the tutorial above (if you haven’t already). Next, sync your iPhone to your mac and make sure the settings in iTunes are setup to sync calendars, notes, etc. Hopefully, that will fix it. If not, you should visit your local Apple store.
Tony,
I agree with absolutely everything Michael Russel wrote in his comment on November 7th, what a fantastic tutorial, I have being trying to figure out how to synch my contacts to Mobile Me on and off for about 2 years now, maybe I should check out the ‘Advanced’ button more often….well done.
Kind regards…..Noel
Thank you Noel!
When I put an appointment in either the iCal in my MacPro desk top or If I put an entry in the iPhone they do not appear on iPhone or Calendar or iCal on desktop. The following error message comes.
The Server responded with an Error:
Access to account”jrf42@me.com” is not permitted.
The server responded
HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden”
to operation
CalDAVAccountRefreshQuueableOperation.
(Go Offline) (Ignore)
(Ignore) Cannot be Used. It comes back again and again after clicking.
Roy
Hi Roy – This is a problem I’ve never seen or heard of before. It might be a username/password problem. The first thing I’d check is your username and password in iTunes. Sign into iTunes with your MobileMe email address & password. Then on your Mac, go to Preferences > MobileMe and Sign Out. Then sign back in your MobileMe email address & password. Restart your Mac. If that doesn’t work, you should talk to Apple or bring your Mac to a local Apple Store.
THANKS THANKS THANS!
Mil mil mil gracias!!!
Thank you. Tried everything, spent hours with MobileMe Chat support. No one told me to try this! And thanks for writing clear, concise directions, too.
Whew….THANK YOU….you made it much easier for me too!
This was a great help. My iCal now sync with my iPad. However if I create an appointment on my iPad it does sync with MobileMe, but not onto my Mac. Like you I spent an hour with Apple support and they were of little help. Your solution was great. I have just switched to Mac from a windows PC. All other Apple products have worked extremely well. MobileMe is a severe pain. Thanks.
Hi Stephen – Glad you switched to Mac! … It sounds like you need to change settings on your Mac so your appointments will show up. On your Mac, open System Preferences. Click MobileMe. Click the “Sync” tab. Make sure you check the box next to Synchronize with MobileMe. And set the dropdown to “automatically”. Finally, check the box next to Calendars. That should do it. Thanks for your comment!
Glad I found your tutorial. I have been getting multiple copies of single events on my iPhone. This is causing me to rethink resigning with MobileMe after ten years! I’ve followed your instructions and am going to give it a bash! Thanks for sharing your brain.
Hi Frank – The tutorial isn’t meant to fix duplicate iCal events. Good news – I just finished a new tutorial on fixing duplicate iCal events! Check it out here: http://appleslut.com/blog/mobileme/ical-duplicates
Walked all the way through this — still doesn’t sync. As I understand, I should be able to enter an event on my calendar from my iPhone, iCal, or MobileMe and have is sync automatically. If this isn’t the case, MobileMe seems pointless as far as iCal is concerned.
Hi Paul – Yes, you should be able to enter an event in iCal from any device or http://www.Me.com – and they should all sync automatically. Test it by creating an event from Me.com. Wait a minute or two and see if it updates on your Mac and iPhone/iPad. That way you can find out where the problem is. If it doesn’t show up on your Mac, then you’re settings are mixed up – same if the event doesn’t pop up on your iPhone. That should give you a place to start troubleshooting.
Thanks so much – I’ve been trying to figure out how to do this for almost a year! The step by step approach is much appreciated.
Thanks for this, was having difficulty and duplicate
entries – you made it simples !
Great website. Thanks!! However, I still have a serious problem. I have like hundreds of “Home” entries under the “On My Mac” in the iCal. Every time I sync, I get more “Home” entries. Any ideas?
Hi Tamara – Sounds like your calendars are screwed up (obviously). It could be you have software that automatically updates your iCal calendar — This is common with to-do lists & project management software like Omnifocus, Basecamp, etc. OR… You’re syncing your calendar to MobileMe AND iTunes, which is a no-no. If you use MobileMe, here’s how to stop duplicate iCal entries.
as a first time apple and mobileme user , thanks from the bottom of by almost broken heart, why couldnt I find you a day and a half ago. just followed your instructions and worked like a dream, was a bit nervy when asked to replace all data, eeeeeeekkk,
thanks
pete
Thanks for a very helpful tutorial. I had my iPad set to PUSH to MobileMe and my MacBook syncing with MobileMe in the wrong direction. Every appointment I added to iCal via my iPad, would appear in duplicate on my MacBook after a sync… to the point that I was getting the same appointment appearing a dozen times!!! Your tutorial corrected the problem perfectly! Lovely.
Keep up the good work : ) !!!
I followed your steps, but my iCal calendars do not appear on my Mobile Me account, so I don’t see them on my iPhone.
Hi Cheryl – Sounds like your settings are wrong. If MobileMe isn’t communicating with your Mac or iPhone, then you should double check all of your passwords & MobileMe login info.
Tony…Thank you a million times over!!!! Yes, lets get this party started now that i found someone who is so easy to follow, thank you so much for the pictures…i mean it!!!!!!!!
If you have a website with tutorials for all mac info, i would love to get that information from you? Please let me know how to reach you if needed.
Thank you,
Eva
Hi Eva – you’re welcome! What kind of tutorials are you looking for?
Now how do i sync my iphone 4g for the first time and merge the contact infomation with mobile me as well?
If you replaced an older iPhone, just plug your new iPhone 4 into your Mac and sync as usual.
This is a phone that i’ve had for awhile but just purchased mobile me and want to MERGE the information from my iphone4g with the information that i have on my computer and mobile me, what is the best way to set that up?
i want to sync ical with mobileme and mobileme won’t open using the ical preferences. i keep getting an invalid password/username response although it will open on another computer.
Hi Tony I just followed all of these steps but my iCal still isnt syncing properly my whole calendar has been erased from my iPhone (which is where it was all stored initially) and is only on my computer. When I go to calendars on the mobileme site its blank but my iCal on my dock still has all my apppointments on it. Are these two different calendars? And how do I sync them as flawlessly as my contacts did?
Hi JT – Here’s a tutorial on stopping duplicate iCal & Contacts. It should help get everything syncing. Remember to BACKUP your iPhone & Mac before making changes.
Hi Eva – Unfortunately, I don’t have the answer. I lost all my iPhone contacts when I got my iPhone. When you start syncing your iPhone with iTunes & MobileMe you could lose some of your contacts – so beware. Hopefully, you’ll just end up with some duplicate info, which would be easy to clean up. If you can, try contacting the Genius Bar at the Apple Store.
Hi Rich – Are you sure you’re using the correct login and password? Sounds like that might be the problem.
THANK YOU!! I about had a heart attack from frustration. Love the step by step instructions. Srsly – I’m coming here first from now on. Cheers!
thank you!!
Thank you SO MUCH! Great instructions and I’m pretty sure you saved me from being institutionalized.
I worked through these steps (many times) to sync Contacts and iCal to MM. Both Contacts and iCal spin to show they’re syncing, and I get no error messages. Everything stops and all looks well on the Mac end.
MM, on the other hand, shows the Contacts have been synced, but the Calendar isn’t touched – same old MM calendar with the test event on it.
Any thoughts appreciated. FWIW, this Mac’s iCal was set up for, and working well with, a Caldev acct, since deleted. Not sure if that affects anything. Also, I checked/unchecked, re/de-registered, checked uniformity of passwords, etc., etc. to get iCal to show up in MM, but no dice. If I can’t get iCal to sync with MM, what horrors await my efforts to sync my iphone!
Thanks
Hi Chris – Sorry, but I don’t know what the problem is with your MobileMe calendar. And I’ve never used Caldev. Typically if you get your Mac to push the calendar info to MobileMe, everything works. This sounds like a question for your local Apple Store / Genius Bar… You might have better luck trying to sync your iPhone & MobileMe first. That would be a good test to see if your MobileMe calendar is screwed up – or if the problem is isolated to your Mac & iCal. (Make sure to backup your iPhone first!)
Thanks for the response. I synced Contacts to my iphone from MM without difficulty, so the infrastructure’s in place. However, MM’s displayed calendar with my test event did NOT sync to the iphone. Not sure what to make of that, but the info hunt continues. Thanks for your work in putting up this how-to.
Chat w/support confirms I should have tried to sync as if to “new” calendars. Completely different process: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4330
Not sure why mac side shows it’s syncing when it’s not. Also, when I established my MM acct, I believe I was given the option to use new or old calendars and chose old because new might require snow leopard for full features.
The only thing not working now is the calendar push of changes from the iphone and Chat says I have use the latest iphone OS, so doing that now.
Tony your tutorial’s are extraordinary! and the written steps as well.
STILL I don’t get this to work. It all started when upgrading to the new mobileme calendar, duplicates galore! So I followed all steps in you posting on: http://appleslut.com/blog/mobileme/ical-duplicates, this issue was the itunes synch. But now starts the dilemma…. synch was removed but duplicates were not gone. So I manually removed all the appointments in the cloud. Then again manually synching. All steps you describe happens, but iCal info is not synched to the cloud. And yes the direction of data is from my computer to the cloud.
I looked at the link in previous posting but since my software on mac and iphone is up to date all is fine.
When doing a test contact all is synching perfect, from cloud to phone and mac, and back. It is only iCal that is empty in the cloud and on my iphone.
Appreciate any advice… in the meantime I’ll revert to synching calendar through iphone….
Hi Karesita – Make sure iCal has been selected to sync in your MobileMe preferences on your Mac. Go to Preferences, click MobileMe. Then click the “sync” tab. Make sure to check the box next to iCal. If you’ve done this already, then I don’t know what the problem is. You might have to bring your Mac to the local Apple Store. Sorry!
Legend, cheers pal, bookmarked!! Very easy to follow
ditto to all the above! This site rocks! Well explained, and easy to understand! Keep up the good work. Tony!
(*bookmarking right now*)
YOU ARE AMAZING!!!!
My ical ( in the dock) was having some problems, it was showing(superimposing) appointments from different month on the month I am checking, this morning I went to Mobile me( for the first time, to get an phone number from my husbands address book, a msg popped up saying if I do not update soon , I will lose all info, so I did..I should have read more carefully before clicking, I am not sure what I authorised, all my information is now on Mobile me but my ical is blank, I tried this instructions and nothing happened…pl help!
Hi Laj – If your data is saved in MobileMe, you should be ok. All you have to do is PULL the info from MobileMe to your Mac. In the blog post, there’s a step called “Switch The Sync Direction”. Go to that step and REVERSE the orange arrow (make the arrow point from MobileMe to your Mac.) That will pull everything from MobileMe to your Mac. That should work, but if you want to make sure, then take your Mac to the Apple Store and have a Genius look at it.
thank you thank you thank you!!!
THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!!
I about had a heart attack from frustration. Love the step by step instructions. YOU ARE AMAZING!!!!
Just got a new iPhone and only one of my 5 calendars is syncing with mobileme. Never had a problem with my blackberry. Please help.
Hi wvmom – I’m not sure what the problem is. I looked through my iPhone, Mac and MobileMe preferences and couldn’t find any options to only sync specific calendars. You might have to talk with an Apple Genius
hi tony –
i want to sync the address book on my macbook air with my contact list on mobileme. however, i want to merge the two lists, not replace one with the other. is this possible? i’m afraid that if i follow your instructions, i will lose contacts that only exist on mobileme? i have been updating the address book on my macbook air and the mobileme contact list got updated from my iphone. i’m trying to make all the contact lists/address books the same. also, the groups i have set up on my macbook air address book will not update on mobile me…. !
thanks for your help.
kim
Hi Kim –
The list of registered computers should only show Macs – not the iPhone or iPad.
I *thought* when you sync a Mac with MobileMe, the contacts & calendar would merge (or you’d get an option to merge or replace.) But, I haven’t done that in a while so it’s possible the process has changed. The safest solution is to talk to an Apple Genius.
hi again
in the list of registered computers – do only computers show up? or are ipads & iphones supposed to show up too?
thanks,
kim
Hi Tony
I’m trying to sync this computer with my iphone, but it’s not letting me select past step 2.
i tick synchronize with .mac (manually is already selected in the drop down menu, but greyed out) and then it won’t let me select any of the items to sync
Why do you think that is and how can i get around this?
thanks,
j
Hi J – I don’t know what the problem is. Could be your MobileMe user name & password are incorrect. Your best bet is to contact an Apple Genius. Sorry, I can’t help.
Tony, your website is the BEST computer help I have ever had, read, etc.
thanks so much.
Thanks Margaret!
HI,
I followed your instructions to a ‘T’ yet I still don’t get my calendar (ical) when I open up mobile me. I get my mail however. Yikes
Hi Margaret – What do you mean by “when I open up MobileMe?” Do you mean when you login at Me.com?
Thanks, this was really useful
This helped immensely! Thank you!
thanks, solved all my sync problems, you’re a star.
When I make a change to a contact-i.e. add new phone number or address it won’t synch to my other computers.
Steve
Hi Steve – Take a look at this tutorial on synching 2 macs to mobileme.
Hi Tony, Is it possible to sync POP email addresses with MobileMe if you don’t have SSL authentication? I also need to sync both incoming and sent emails across 3 devices – MacBook Pro, MacPro and iPhone. Please help me
Hi Rell12 – This sounds like 2 questions…
First, MobileMe email accounts are (I think) IMAP by default, which may not sync the way you want them too. If you have a way to switch to POP, please let me know!
Second, you can sync multiple Macs, iPhones, iPads, etc with a single MobileMe account
Thank you very much. It worked exactly as you wrote it.
It was a great help
Thanks!!!!!!
Thank you SO much…have been going crazy! Love the clearly written explanation and instructions. You are officially on my bookmarks bar.
This did not work for me man… address book does not sync, I have a diferent address book in my computer versus mobileme or cloud, and these steps does not seem to fix that…despite i have a mac account.
Hi Carlos – You should try contacting your local Apple Store. The smart people at the Genius Bar should be able to help.
well done!! you have finally solved headache for me – being trying to figure it out for ages!!!!!!
I have to choose mobileme (there is no .mac) and they let me check synchronize, but the manual option stay unhighlighted and I am not allowed to check any boxes?????
Hi Hillary – You might have to talk with someone at your local Apple Store. I don’t know what the problem is. Sorry!
Hi Tony,
Great tuturorial. I have followed your instructions. All seems to work with the exception of one thing. Anything I enter on my ipad calender or me.com does not appear on my ical. it does work the other way.
Any ideas?
Hi Paul – There’s a small step at the end of the tutorial: When the sync is completed, go back to the 2nd step (Select Your Items to Sync) and change the dropdown to “Automatically.” … Try that.
my problems started with the new iCal on mobile me… once apple upgraded that my iCal on my computer stopped syncing – I am using iCal 3.0.8 I can’t get your tutorial to work for me and there is no option of taking the system to an apple store. all the options seem to be there as listed in your tutorial and the process seems to function but the data doesn’t sync.
Hi Tony – Try opening iCal. Go to menu iCal > Preferences. Click on Accounts. Make sure your email & password are correct. Change the refresh calendar option to: Push. See if that works.
Just got the new MacBook Air. Love it, but when I go to the list of Apple items that I can or want to sync with, the Calendar is not listed on my Air. Any reason why not? Thanks.
Hi Terry – OS X Lion changed the System Preferences a bit. Open up System Preferences and click on “Mail, Contacts & Calendars.” Then check the box next to “Calendars & Reminders.”
Oh my gosh!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!
i don’t have mac icon in system preferences, instead of it I have mobileme icon. what should I do? Plsss. help
Hi – click the MobileMe icon!
Thank you so much your advice stands today! I like your clear information with numbers on the photos. Going to join your blog as you obviously have a talent to get across geek ideas to non-techies like me
Once upon a time, when I added a contact to iPhone it would go into my iMac contacts, and if I added a contact in the iMac address book it would go into the iPhone. Then, this stopped working. Now I sometimes enter contacts in iMac. Sometimes I am out and enter contacts in iPhone. Is there any way to merge them and have them all in MobileMe and then on both the iMac and iPhone? Is there any way I can have it the way it was? Enter a contact in either place and have it go to the other?
Hi Leslie – Yes, you should be able to enter a contact in either your iMac or iPhone – and MobileMe will add the new person, phone number, etc, to all your Apple devices… That’s the way MobileMe was supposed to work! It sounds like your sync directions are screwed up. Try using the tip in the very last paragraph of this blog post :
Thanks. I save my contacts thanks to this manual… It was gone om my iPhone and my workcomputer and on mobile.me. Only on my laptop it’s was right. After two sync it works again…
Hi Tony, I have a problem with keeping my addresses in all my sync’ed devices – iphone, Macbook Pro and iPad. Thankfully I have an export version of the data but twice now in a month all my addresses have disappeared, very frustrating. I am using MobileMe to keep the three devices sync’d and for awhile it works just great! Then all of a sudden, usually when I need the information the most, I have an empty address book and of course when I check the other two, iPhone/ipad – address book empty ahhhh! The only recourse I have is to import into Address Book and setup as per you’re instructions above. Do you have any idea why this might be happening!!
Hi Hank – I don’t know why your contacts have disappeared. However, I do know of an issue a friend had with Microsoft Exchange server a while back – all of her calendars & contacts would disappear / reappear without warning. We never did figure out why it happened, but I’m guessing it was some sort of software conflict – either on the iPhone or with Exchange. Eventually, she got a new iPhone and it all worked as expected. Whether you’re using Exchange or not, I’d try taking it to the Apple Store because I haven’t heard of an actual “fix” for this problem.
Does it matter that the sync setting (orange arrow) is still set to send all info from the computer to MobileMe? Will it still actually synchronize anything entered on other devices to MobileMe and then on to the computer?
Thanks for your excellent tutorial.
Hi Sally – You can leave the arrow pointing to MobileMe. However, in the same screen you should change the dropdown to “Automatically.” That should do it.
Thank you for the tutorial, however I have another problem. I have my iphone, and mobileme in sync as far as calenders, and contacts go, but my pc (IMAC G5) won’t sync contacts in the address book with the iphone, or mobileme. The calender (ICAL) syncs just fine, but I have my most up to date contacts list on my iphone, and mobileme, but they cant seem to sync with my pc. Even when I try to replace the data from mobileme to my pc (contacts), it wont make any changes.
Please help me out.
Thanks,
Alan
Hi Alan – If you’re running Lion on your iMac, open System Preferences and click on “Mail, Contacts & Calendars.” Then check the box next to “Contacts”. That should sync your address book. If it doesn’t work, you should talk to a genius at the Apple Store.
All that being said, and completed, what settings do I use on my iPhone 3GS when I get on calendars, and it says: Show All Calendars “From My Mac”, or from “…..2002@yahoo.com”, or from “…..much@me.com”?
Also, do “Push Notifications” have to be enabled for MobileMe to sync automatically?
I’m kind of going crazy wishing I never got MoblieMe. Can you still sync your laptop and iPhone without MobileMe?
Thanks.
Hi Melissa – As of today, you can switch to http://iCloud.com. This is the free service that is replacing MobileMe. I recommend starting the process and forgetting about MobileMe.
Hi Tony, Thank you for your tutorial on MOBILE ME, I am sure lot of people find that very help full, Although I had problem with sync on MOBILE ME back in 2010, because the user NAME in my MAC was my partners NAME, of course I establish that after bit research, after changing the user name to my won APPLE ID name, and tis all working find so far,
anyhow thanks again I am sure lot of people find your tutorial with clear explanation will thank you as well.
best
george
Hi Tony,
Do you know how to synchronize the “On My Mac” calendars in Ical with iCloud. It works for any other calendars but not for the “On My Mac” calendars.
Thanks
Pierre
Tony have Apple address book on the iMac has “all contacts” tab then just below “all on my mac” tab then towards the bottom “all on iCloud” tab. when I hit the all contacts tab I get duplicates. When I hit on my mac and on iCloud they have single entries but differ they are not an Identical list of contacts as I would like them to be they are missing contacts on both. How do I merge the on my mac and iCloud so they are the same, as well as having only one single entry of each contact on the “all my contacts” tab in my address book so they are all the same across the families, 3 iPads, 4 iPhone 4′s, 3 mac book pros, 2 iMacs Just want to keep us all on the same page.
Thanks
Kindest Regards
Sam
Hi Sam – Great question. Sorry, I don’t have an answer yet. My Mac still has a ton of duplicate entries after switching from MobileMe to iCloud. I’m currently searching for the fix. If I discover a way to sort out this mess, I’ll definitely write a post about it.
When I go into system preferences and then click on Mobile Me, calendars is not in my list. Help please!
Hi Nancy – If you have the most recent version of OS X, you need to click “Mail, Contacts & Calendars”. Apple moved this setting outside of the MobileMe settings due to the launch of iCloud.
Wow! Thank you!!!!
My mobileme has been merging contacts… as in combining multiple contacts. My cousin ceases to exist, and her info is now merged with the information from the kids’ pediatrician, for example (and it shows as 2 copies of the medical practice, lol).
At this point, imac addressbook, and mobileme addressbook are all different, and in fact, it doesn’t seem to be syncing my imac addressbook at all. II’d follow this, but I’m afraid I’ll end up with either my imac contacts OR my mobileme/phone contacts, when what I want is both combined.