I want to sync some--but not all--of my iCal calendars across my Macs.

Don’t use MobileMe to sync, which always synchronizes all of your calendars. Instead, use "BusySync" or "BusyCal", which both give you an incredible amount of syncing options.

BusyMac's products are true champions when it comes to publishing and subscribing selected calendars without any dedicated servers.

 

 I want to synchronize my iCal calendars and Address Book on my Mac to Outlook on a PC.

Sign up for "MobileMe", which will keep all of your Macs and PCs (and iPhones!) in sync with each other.

Spanning Sync effortlessly syncs your calendars and contacts to Google.

Or, you can use Google Calendar and Google Contacts as a conduit. On the Mac side, you’ll need "Spanning Sync". On the PC side, you’ll need "Google Apps Sync".

 

 I keep getting duplicate entries on my iCal calendar.

Sounds like you’re trying to sync your Entourage calendar with iCal. There’s a known bug with Entourage that causes repeating events to multiply out of control in iCal. We don’t know of any long-term solution at this time except to ditch Entourage’s calendar and stick to iCal for your calendaring needs. To do this, uncheck the box for syncing events in Entourage’s Preferences (on the Sync Services pane). To erase iCal dupes, try "iCal Cleaner.

 

 I’m getting two of each calendar entry on my iPhone.

You may be trying to sync your calendars through both iTunes and MobileMe. You’ll need to choose one method or the other, not both. If you’re syncing wirelessly through MobileMe, then go into your iPhone settings within iTunes and uncheck all of your calendars there.

The exception to this rule is iCal’s Birthdays calendar (enabled in iCal’s preferences, this calendar pulls birthdays from your Address Book), which can only be synced through iTunes, so it must remain checked in iTunes.

 

 My U.S. Holidays and other Internet-subscribed iCal calendars are not syncing between my Mac and my iPhone.

Any Internet-subscribed calendars must be resubscribed to directly from your iPhone. You can manually set up the server on your iPhone by going to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add Account > Other > Calendars.

You must resubscribe to your iCal holiday calendars on your iPhone all over again.

Or, you can automatically subscribe to a calendar by using Safari on your iPhone to choose from Apple’s extensive selection of calendars at www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/calendars.

 

 iTunes no longer launches automatically when I attach my iPod or iPhone to my computer.

If your iPhone or iPod is very low on power or if the battery is fully depleted, it can take up to 10 minutes to appear under Devices in iTunes.

Otherwise, you may have unchecked the box in iTunes for your device that says “Automatically sync when this iPhone/iPod is connected” or “Open iTunes when this iPod is attached.”

You may have also removed the iTunesHelper application from your Login Items in your Account System Preferences, which is required to automatically launch iTunes. You can get this back by reinstalling iTunes or by manually dragging iTunesHelper into the Login Items. iTunesHelper can be found by right-clicking on iTunes in the Finder and choosing Show Package Contents, then going to Contents > Resources.

 

 I want to synchronize files between two computers.

There are many different programs available to help you with this task, but our favorite is "ChronoSync". ChronoSync can automatically mount remote servers, wake your local Mac from sleep, schedule your synchronizations, archive backup copies of your files before syncing, and even give you a list of proposed changes before it makes any of them.

Synchronizing files between two different computers is as simple as drag-and-drop with ChronoSync.

While you can use ChronoSync to synchronize to any type of volume or folder, if you specifically want to sync to another computer, you may want to additionally purchase ChronoAgent for an extra id="mce_marker"0. ChronoAgent lets you communicate directly with a remote Mac faster than using AFP or SMB, and you gain full root access, so you can copy anything without any restrictions.

 

 I turned on MobileMe syncing on my iPhone, but nothing is syncing to my Mac or Me.com.

It’s possible that the MobileMe servers aren’t communicating properly with your iPhone. An Apple support rep recently admitted to us that this is an extremely common problem that MobileMe users may experience every few months until Apple increases the reliability of its MobileMe syncing servers. So you may want to keep these instructions handy for future reference.

your iPhone), go to your MobileMe account. Click on Find My iPhone to see if the MobileMe website sees your phone. If not, try turning off your iPhone and turning it back on again. If the MobileMe site still doesn’t see your phone, try deleting your MobileMe account on your iPhone and re-creating it again.

We feel like Big Brother is watching us with Find My iPhone's crosshairs centered directly on our house!

Once Me.com sees your iPhone, try adding an event or a contact to your phone and see if the change shows up on your MobileMe calendar or address book within a few minutes.

If not, you will probably have to reset all of your sync data on Me.com with information from your Mac’s iCal and Address Book. Make a mental note of any recent unsynced changes you’ve made on your iPhone, because you’re going to lose them in this process. Also, sign out of Me.com. Go into the MobileMe System Preference on your Mac, select the Sync tab, click on Advanced, and then click Reset Sync Data. Click on the right arrow so that you are replacing all sync info on MobileMe with “info from this computer.”

Log back into Me.com and verify that it now has your current information for contacts and calendars. If not, you will have to reset the SyncServices database on your Mac. Apple has instructions on this process.

But before following those instructions, be sure to do two things on your Mac: first, repair your permissions using Disk Utility (Applications/Utilities), and, second, repair your keychain using Keychain Access (in Disk Utility, pull down from the Keychain Access menu and select Keychain First Aid). After that, try syncing again from the MobileMe System Preference pane.

This is how it should look when you're about to overwrite information on the MobileMe website with information from your Mac.

Once Me.com has your current information, you are ready to go back to your iPhone. On your iPhone, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data. Turn Push off, then completely turn off your phone for 30 seconds. Turn your phone back on and re-enable push. Then, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > your Me.com account and turn off and on each one of the sliders for the information that you’re trying to sync (Contacts, Calendars, Bookmarks, etc).

Wait several minutes, and hopefully all your current information will reappear in your calendar and contacts on your iPhone.

If not, you will probably need to have a live chat with a MobileMe support agent. Choose any of the troubleshooting options underneath Syncing with MobileMe in the left-hand margin, and a Chat Now button will appear.

Source: Maclife