Migrating to Mac: Part 3: Tale of the two Syncs...

One of the things that I knew would be an issue with my new Mac was syncing me PDA. I have an old O2 XDA II Pocket PC (Phone Edition). Anyone who has used a PocketPC Phone knows that the only way to use it is with a PC. Keeping your contacts and appointments synchronised across the devices is important. Getting something to sync the Mac with the PDA was critical.

I decided to setup a sync program as one of my first tasks. So after installing Office 2004 and copying my e-mail across I started searching for a solution. I found that there are two main solutions PocketMac and The Missing Sync. From my initial reading PocketMac appeared to have been around longer and had a few extra features. So I paid, downloaded and installed PocketMac.


PocketMac was a little tricky to get working correctly and does not work with USB on the new Intel Macs. Their web site indicates that it is a Mac problem that they have to work around, I should have realised something was wrong when I read this... Anyway, I eventually got it working with Bluetooth. It worked ok for one day, and then... it stopped working. I'm not exactly sure what went wrong. I was in the process of installing a variety of other programs so what was conflicting with what was not something that I could work out. I followed PocketMac's troubleshooting advice and eventually, after about 5 hours of reading logs and experimenting, I eventually gave up and posted a support request. I posted their trace report, and made sure that I outlined most of what I had tried. After a day I got back a post of their "Dont use USB, use Bluetooth". So they didn't even read any of my help request. I replied, and after another day they esclated it to their next support level. I waited, and waited, and well nothing. After a week and a half I gave up on them and asked for a refund. Looking back, their product was not really well polished, and their web site is not very professional.

So yesterday I purchased The Missing Sync for Windows Mobile. After such a bad experience with PocketMac I prepared for the worst. Their web site has a section on migrating from PocketMac, which I thought was interesting. I followed their instructions and rid my Mac and PocketPC of their software. With this done I set about installing The Missing Sync. The install went smoothly. I plugged in my PocketPC and started the Sync. A connecting overlay appeared on screen and the PocketPC tried to connect to the Mac. This was a nice addition, the status shows which state the connection is in something that wasn't provided by PocketMac. Anyway the bad news at this point was that it failed to connect... I was not overly concerned as in the attempt to connect with PocketMac I had played with many settings on the PocketPC. I renamed the PocketPC for sync purposes then tried connecting again. This time everything worked. I setup the partnership which overrode the PocketMac partnership on the device. The sync was a little slower than with PocketMac. However, it works and provides feedback on where it is up to which is always good to see. The Missing Sync program is far more polished, as is their web site. I cannot comment on their support as I haven't needed it. The Missing Sync also connects via USB and Bluetooth, both of which are working fine for me.

Both PocketMac and Missing Sync are able to sync contacts with Entourage, or the Mac Address Book, and appointments with Entourage or iCal. So you dont need Entourage to make use of these.

Note: I didn't try renaming my PocketPC with PocketMac. This may have corrected the issue I was having. However, I dont know and I'm not going to reinstall it to try.