Please Apple: Take MobileMeek offline!

[macmikey2]

works fine here too...

I have MM syncing between 3 Macs and my iPhone and although it was hard to get it started, I believe it was the first few days I was dealing with, not the complete screw-up some peeps are claiming.

I started with my MBP and setup only cals, contacts and bookmarks. Then went to my phone and made sure all was working. Yes, it took a couple of days to get this part working, but since it started, it has worked perfectly. Yes, I said perfectly.

Then I added my daughters PB G4 to the mix and sync'ed the calendar. It has been working on it now for a couple of days. I make changes and they appear on the the others. Just as advertised.

Finally I switched my GF's PowerMac G4 from Entourage to ical and synced that one. So far, all of the events she has added to iCal have been sent to the PB, MBP, and my iPhone. I did find early on that Entourage syncing with MM and having the iCal syncing to MM caused me a lot of grief. If both were set to sync, the calendar would go blank with no events. Turning Entourage's syncing off fixed this.

Now, I admit I don't spend a lot of time in the web apps due to my having access to my phone or MBP, but even they are still in sync as of this am.

I do not pretend to know what is wrong with the others who cannot get this working. I am sorry it doesn't. But, you are/will be missing some pretty good stuff here. Hope you come back later and try it again.

Mike

 

[DeaconGraves]

I don't think 'only a week' has anything to do with it. Where I come from, if you do a system upgrade and your customers notice anything except for intended changes, it means you screwed up.

Apple clearly doesn't look at .Mac/MobileMe with that attitude, and that makes me worry about how long it will be before I read something in the news like 'Apple accidentally allows public access to private MobileMe data'.

A.

Apple gave all subscribers 30 extra days free. Where I come from, that's a good sign that one acknowledges they screwed up.

 

[Alrescha]

Apple gave all subscribers 30 extra days free. Where I come from, that's a good sign that one acknowledges they screwed up.

Point taken. The cynic in me suspects that it's more an acknowledgment that the screwup is costing them money.

A.

 

[DeaconGraves]

Point taken. The cynic in me suspects that it's more an acknowledgment that the screwup is costing them money.

A.

You're probably right. But Apple is a for profit corporation, so that makes sense.

 

[tallyho]

Now, I admit I don't spend a lot of time in the web apps due to my having access to my phone or MBP, but even they are still in sync as of this am.

I do not pretend to know what is wrong with the others who cannot get this working. I am sorry it doesn't. But, you are/will be missing some pretty good stuff here. Hope you come back later and try it again.

Mike

^^ I agree. All working for me across three macs and an iphone.

 

[drjjw]

^^ I agree. All working for me across three macs and an iphone.

For those of you who think MM is working, try working with a Blackberry on an enterprise server. It's flawless. This is the same device that Jobs bashed repeatedly as a dumb Smartphone. He has an entire omelette on his face now,.

 

[voxnj]

Please Apple, do the right thing and take the service down. I have wasted countless hours trying to get this system to work. This is just simply unfair at this point. Leaving it online endorses that it works. I implore you, take the service offline!

DR, just leave if YOU don't like the service. MobileMe is an awesome service. After a few bumps in the first 36 hours, it's working great for me (and most others -- based on other comments).

David Pogue wrote a balanced review in the NYT this morning:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/technology/personaltech/17pogue.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin


If there is a particular feature you don't like, do what you would do with any software: live with it or not. The choice is yours.

If you really can't get it to work, check out the Apple support sites. Read the tips and trouble shooting directions. If that doesn't work, then consider carefully what you are doing wrong! It works for the rest of us!

 

[DeaconGraves]

DR, just leave if YOU don't like the service. MobileMe is an awesome service. After a few bumps in the first 36 hours, it's working great for me (and most others -- based on other comments).

David Pogue wrote a balanced review in the NYT this morning:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/technology/personaltech/17pogue.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin


If there is a particular feature you don't like, do what you would do with any software: live with it or not. The choice is yours.

If you really can't get it to work, check out the Apple support sites. Read the tips and trouble shooting directions. If that doesn't work, then consider carefully what you are doing wrong! It works for the rest of us!

Who let the voice of logic on the internet this morning? Someone's not doing their job.

 

[sassenach74]

I love MobileMe, it works mostly well for me......but only between my iPhone 3G and the website. For some reason it will only sync my bookmarks (safari) on my laptop, I can't get it to sync with my contacts or calendars. When syncing contacts MobileMe preferences gives this error message:

"dotmacsyncclient has stopped working

A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available"

I've tried to sync contacts to Google contacts, yahoo contacs, windows contacts and outlook contacts, they all give the same message.

When syncing calendars MobileMe preferences gives this error message:

"Calendars could not be synced due to inconsistent data.

Confirm that your computers data is valid, then reset Calendars on the MobileMe preferences on this computer."

I get this message when I am doing as it said, resetting the calendar.
I have also uninstalled/reinstalled 'Apple Mobile Device Support' and 'iTunes' and still no luck.

If anybody has any suggestions I'd be much appreciative.
It's not a life threatening problem as my iMac is due to arrive next week and I'm hoping all will be ok with that, it would just be nice if I could have the info on my laptop too, since it is supposed to work with PC's too.

*Repeated this in another thread, so I apologize if you have already read this*

 

[bilboa]

If all you're using MM for is syncing data between various devices then I agree it seems to be working fine now. The webapps though are really subpar compared to similar (FREE) offerings, like google's or yahoo's. I actually plan on using the webapps a lot since I travel around a bit without my own computer, or with computers that I wouldn't want my personal information to be stored on. So it's important that the webapps work and quickly, and not just look flashy. Some current problems with MM:

• I can't set alarms in my calendar
• can't configure which view (month,week,day) calendar defaults to,
• can't fill in To address from my address book when composing a new email,
• can't add other headers to my email message like a Reply-To header,
• can't do any sort of advanced search in my emails on certain fields, like search just the subject,
• can't setup or configure email filters

I have reasonable hopes though that Apple will improve it enough by the time my 3 month trial ends that I'll want to sign up. The main draw for me is the tight integration with all the iApps, and that's the reason I'm giving them a chance at all rather than just sticking with google's or yahoo's webapps.

 

[Phil A.]

For those of you who think MM is working, try working with a Blackberry on an enterprise server. It's flawless. This is the same device that Jobs bashed repeatedly as a dumb Smartphone. He has an entire omelette on his face now,.

Apart from the fact BB is aimed at Enterprises, and MobileMe at consumers, RIM is far from flawless - there has been more than one occasion when their entire infrastructure has collapsed leaving millions of subscribers in the lurch:

A few examples here, here, here, and here

 

[Hands0n]

Please Apple, do the right thing and take the service down. I have wasted countless hours trying to get this system to work. This is just simply unfair at this point. Leaving it online endorses that it works. I implore you, take the service offline!

How utterly ridiculous. Tell you what, you go bang a few rocks together while the rest of us get on with making the best of MobileMe which substantially works.

 

[skinnylegs]

Where's the love! LOL

I have a MM account and I'll stick with it but it is *definitely* not working for me and it's not operator error. So...if it's working for you...great. If not, show a *bit* of compassion for us less fortunate 'peeps who are frustrated beyond belief.

 

[Hands0n]

LOL - Look, call me a cantankerous old git if you like But really!

MobileMe does a lot of what it is proposed to do. That it does not do it all has caused near panic amongst the masses.

For my part, I got it working on iPhone, Web (Firefox and Safari), and Mac (Leopard). The only place I could not get it working was my Mac Pro with Tiger - it was having none of it. But some excellent advice on MM suggested a clear out of all .plist files containing the word "dotmac" solve the problem in one single sweep. Damn .plists

Yes, there is some functionality on the MobileMe web application - but I can survive another day without it. The full integration across Mac, Web and iPhone is what I wanted, and it works, substantially.

We, all of us, know that the deficiencies and defects in MobileMe will be remedied soon enough. A lot of us have 60 days to trial it and watch the improvements roll out. Already the web app is more stable than on day one, it positively whizzes along now. Apple are on it, we are early adopters and are paying the price of being such. We've seen this before, and we'll see it again.

Those who wait it out and read these forum pages in a few months time will wonder what the heck all the fuss was about.

One closing word ............. Agile.

 

[skinnylegs]

This question is 'kinda OT but.....

How can I turn MM *off*. Forget the whole MM, cloud, push thing...I can't even get my iPhone to sync with my computer anymore. Every time I plug it in MM kicks in and fubars the whole thing. I'm more than willing to wait for Apple to work out the kinks but I'd like to be, at the very least, able to sync my iPhone with my computer like I used to be able to do.

 

[skinnylegs]

See below.

 

[skinnylegs]

MobileMe does a lot of what it is proposed to do.

...for you.

If it was doing absolutely *nothing* it was advertised to do, as it is (isn't) for people like me, you would probably be singing a different iTune.

 

[Hands0n]

...for you.

If it was doing absolutely *nothing* it was advertised to do, as it is (isn't) for people like me, you would probably be singing a different iTune.

Possibly - but when it wouldn't work in Tiger I scoured the net to find out why. Like all these things RTFM applies

I run a fairly vanilla install of Mac OS X (Tiger and Leopard) and have no add-ins to the OS at all. Same with the iPhone, it is running the standard V2.0 firmware. OS X is bang up to date with all of its updates. In essence, it is all as Apple intended. Can you say the same for your installation? That is where I'd start trying to debug your problems with it.

Turning off MobileMe as far as the iPhone is concerned is nothing more than a matter of deleting the MM account on the phone. Thats it, you're done.

Have you tried re-setting your iPhone back to factory state? Also, on the Mac, remove your .Mac or MobileMe settings in the System Preferences panel.

When Leopard came out there was tons of trouble with it - a lot, perhaps most, of it caused by OS add-ins and other such stuff. Against all advice I "upgraded" from Tiger to Leopard and it just worked in the usual Apple way. My guess is that those suffering with MM not working or causing significant issues will be related....


Edit: A tip that works for me - Anything you do to change on the Mac or MobileMe website seems to need you to delete and recreate the MobileMe account on your iPhone. If you don't do this then the Push to the iPhone stops working! I can recreate this at will, so it is definitely a "feature"

 

[Hands0n]

See below.
__________________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTUruCv4Qi4

Apparently you've caused a YouTube terms of use violation

 

[HLdan]

I don't think 'only a week' has anything to do with it. Where I come from, if you do a system upgrade and your customers notice anything except for intended changes, it means you screwed up.

Apple clearly doesn't look at .Mac/MobileMe with that attitude, and that makes me worry about how long it will be before I read something in the news like 'Apple accidentally allows public access to private MobileMe data'.

A.

Really? Where I come from when I have a boss that pays me to do a project and I have trouble completing it on time due to issues or workloads I would like to think my boss would be understanding and trust the fact that I will finish it at some point and have the project completed and in working order rather than just turning around a firing me and saying I screwed up. Seems fair.

 

[Alrescha]

Really? Where I come from when I have a boss that pays me to do a project and I have trouble completing it on time due to issues or workloads I would like to think my boss would be understanding and trust the fact that I will finish it at some point and have the project completed and in working order rather than just turning around a firing me and saying I screwed up. Seems fair.

I can't see that what you said has anything to do with what I said.

The MobileMe fiasco has nothing to do with 'completing something on time'.

A.

 

[skinnylegs]

I run a fairly vanilla install of Mac OS X (Tiger and Leopard) and have no add-ins to the OS at all. Same with the iPhone, it is running the standard V2.0 firmware. OS X is bang up to date with all of its updates. In essence, it is all as Apple intended. Can you say the same for your installation?

Same here. I have never been one to Jailbreak my iPhone or mess with my OS and everything is up to date.

Turning off MobileMe as far as the iPhone is concerned is nothing more than a matter of deleting the MM account on the phone.

Didn't know there was a MM account that resides on the phone. Where is it?

Have you tried re-setting your iPhone back to factory state?

I've considered that but I am a sentimental fool and I don't want to lose a particular text message stream.

 

[skinnylegs]

Apparently you've caused a YouTube terms of use violation

Bummer. It was (still is) a funny clip.

 

[mark34]

I love it! It works great for me.

 

[HLdan]

I can't see that what you said has anything to do with what I said.

The MobileMe fiasco has nothing to do with 'completing something on time'.

A.

Uh excuse me? That's been the gist of the MM fiasco. Apple first promised to have .Mac site down starting last Wednesday from 6pm to 10pm then they changed it from 9pm -2am and said MM would be up and running and it wasn't and they've never gave an ETA after that. All through the iPhone launch day through Tuesday they've said nothing until yesterday when they sent the apology letter. To date certain things aren't working still.

What part of that had nothing to do with "completing something on time"?

Here's what you said:
I've been a .Mac subscriber for five years (and just renewed recently). I've reached the point of questioning Apple's competence and therefore the safety of my data. I've removed my sync data (as best I can) from Apple's servers, removed my .Mac login information from my systems, and am in the process of moving email accounts.

My point was you're not giving them a chance to get things up and running and you have zero trust. Apple has not jeopardized the security of your files so far have they?