That's it, I've had it with .Mac Sync.
The service just doesn't work. It hasn't worked right since the first day I started using it years ago.
And it's the simple scenarios that fail miserably (say, one mac to the .Mac service). Bookmarks updated on my Mac won't show up on .Mac Sync. Bookmarks deleted months ago mysteriously reappear on either .Mac or on my Mac itself, randomly. Data is lost or corrupted. Resetting sync settings becomes a bi-weekly ritual, wasting more time than the "convenience" of the sync service in the first place.
And that's just syncing a single Mac! Attempting to do this with multiple Macs is just asking for trouble. Never, ever do all of my Macs get their data in sync. Something's always missing. And usually, it's the one time you really need that contact you just entered at home, oh no problem I'll just bring up my contacts here on my work Mac, and -- oh, not there. Odd, but no problem I'll just log in to .Mac's web service and check them there! Oh, not there either.. Hmm. Problem.
The straw that broke this camel's back was that my iPhone refused to sync my Mac Pro's bookmarks. Absolutely refused. I reset my bookmarks locally, reset my sync preferences and sync history, pushed bookmarks to .Mac, did everything I could think of. Then I noticed that my bookmarks on iPhone were always the ones that were on .Mac -- regardless of how that differed from my actual Mac sitting on my desk! No amount of convincing could make my bookmarks get updated on .Mac, so I assume that's why my iPhone also didn't want to update.
In disgust, I turned off .Mac sync and reset my sync history one last time. The iPhone suddenly started syncing to my local Safari bookmarks once again, and everything is in sync, albeit only locally and not over the network.
You know what? A sync service is even more of a pain when it doesn't work than just not having one. And that's what I've decided -- I'm dropping .Mac. Apple really, really blew it with this service, or they just don't care. Either way, I can't deal with the frustration any longer, which is a shame.. .Mac could really be excellent if it worked.
The service just doesn't work. It hasn't worked right since the first day I started using it years ago.
And it's the simple scenarios that fail miserably (say, one mac to the .Mac service). Bookmarks updated on my Mac won't show up on .Mac Sync. Bookmarks deleted months ago mysteriously reappear on either .Mac or on my Mac itself, randomly. Data is lost or corrupted. Resetting sync settings becomes a bi-weekly ritual, wasting more time than the "convenience" of the sync service in the first place.
And that's just syncing a single Mac! Attempting to do this with multiple Macs is just asking for trouble. Never, ever do all of my Macs get their data in sync. Something's always missing. And usually, it's the one time you really need that contact you just entered at home, oh no problem I'll just bring up my contacts here on my work Mac, and -- oh, not there. Odd, but no problem I'll just log in to .Mac's web service and check them there! Oh, not there either.. Hmm. Problem.
The straw that broke this camel's back was that my iPhone refused to sync my Mac Pro's bookmarks. Absolutely refused. I reset my bookmarks locally, reset my sync preferences and sync history, pushed bookmarks to .Mac, did everything I could think of. Then I noticed that my bookmarks on iPhone were always the ones that were on .Mac -- regardless of how that differed from my actual Mac sitting on my desk! No amount of convincing could make my bookmarks get updated on .Mac, so I assume that's why my iPhone also didn't want to update.
In disgust, I turned off .Mac sync and reset my sync history one last time. The iPhone suddenly started syncing to my local Safari bookmarks once again, and everything is in sync, albeit only locally and not over the network.
You know what? A sync service is even more of a pain when it doesn't work than just not having one. And that's what I've decided -- I'm dropping .Mac. Apple really, really blew it with this service, or they just don't care. Either way, I can't deal with the frustration any longer, which is a shame.. .Mac could really be excellent if it worked.
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