[PocketMacAnne]

Originally Posted by Cocooningweb

I must agree with just about everyone. PocketMac just doesn't work. I was able to sync my Blackberry with my Mini but it won't see my Blackberry on my MacBook Pro. I tried the latest version, 4.0.20, but it's not better than the previous version.

What's weird is that I'm able to sync with Desktop Manager under Paralells on my MacBook Pro, so it's not the laptop that has problems recognizing the Blackberry; it really is PocketMac.

I have heard of some people having difficulty connecting. It's rare now in version 4.x, thank goodness.

When you worked with PocketMac Support, did our tech team have you submit a System Report so they could see what error messages our MacBook Pro was expressing? It is entirely possible that there is another application running in the Macintosh environment that blocks our access to the USB channels. Under Parallels, you would not have the same application running, and therefore, no blocking the channels.

If you haven't worked with our Tech Team on this, I encourage you to run the System Report on the Help Menu of PocketMac SyncManager. It makes a file called "PMSystemReport.txt" which you can attach to the Support Request at our support site, http://www.pocketmacsupport.net

Our techs can scan the report and look for any applications that may be blocking PocketMac's operation.

Sorry you were having trouble there!

[Pearly White]

PocketMac user here, albeit be it for only 36 hours but I see nothing wrong with this programme whatsoever. The identical UI to iSync is a nice touch.

The only grind I have is the BB icon, is it the same on every prog? It'd be nice to have the icon associated to the BB that is connected, A la iTunes. Maybe PMA can shed some light on this?

[bbplusmac]

Just started using PocketMac to sync my BB 8703e to my Mac iBook G4. I have run into many probs with missing tasks, incorrect calendar items, etc. Lots of time required so far and still no resolution. Withholding final opinion for another 24 hours, though.

Originally Posted by PocketMacAnne

Hi, Charles!

I work at PocketMac, and I can give you an insider's view. It's the easiest product we have ever had the pleasure of supporting. We have tens of thousands of Mac users syncing successfully with iCal, Address Book and Stickies. That is the most popular software chosen by BlackBerry users. (First runner up is Entourage.)

RIM (the maker of BlackBerry) recently posted version 4.0.20 of the software that includes improved support for the 8100 and 8800 models, and syncing with Now and Daylite, which were released after PocketMac was released, so users had to use some workarounds while RIM tested the updates in-house.

RIM licensed PocketMac for its own distribution free to users. It's available on the BlackBerry web site, here:

BlackBerry - BlackBerry for Mac

Many users who have posted in online forums have not visited PocketMac for support when they have questions. Support via the web at PocketMac Tech Support Options | Call Toll Free 1-866-POCK-MAC is free, and our team is very friendly.

About 99.5% of the users never need support, thank goodness, or we'd be inundated. So, that's just a little fact to balance out the conversation a little. I hope it gives you a little perspective so you can weigh the risks of using PocketMac vs. the benefits (it actually works very well, etc.)

Hope everyone has a great day!

[AuroraProject]

I currently use PocketMac, but I'm thinking of moving to Missing Sync. PocketMac misses certain fields when syncing, for example when copying data from address book to my 8800 it will copy the name, address, and phone number, but not the email address. Also the data ends up in the wrong fields on the 8800, a contacts home phone number in address book now becomes their work number when synced to my 8800.

[schalliol]

MissingSync works better for me.

[mr_kitty]

Originally Posted by WFLDEng611

Somebody help me out here. You have to pay for MS, PM is FREE when you purchase a BB. Therefore how can MS be less expensive than FREE. .

How much is your time wasted futzing with a program that doesn't work, or works inconsistently worth?

How about one that regularly kernel panic's your machine or sends system (root-owned) processes into an out-of-control spiral that can't be forced down without hard-booting your system, and the resulting damage to your harddisk drive's formatting and possible data loss?

$40 for a piece of software that works every time is a bargain by comparison. The rare times that Missing Sync has had problems syncing, it gave intelligible errors with clear steps for getting assistance from their support. In my experience with PocketMac, NOTHING is intelligible.

[anthonymoody]

I couldn't agree more. I used PM because it was free, and spent waaay too many hours getting it to work reliably (and never did). I paid for missing sync and haven't looked back. Like most Mac things, it just works. It may have some known limitations, but within those, it works.

TM

[flar]

My early experiences with PM were almost enough to make my blood boil.

When I first got my Pearl there was no supported Mac sync solution (I believe even M/S didn't support it right away). To get my contacts to the phone I spent several hours trying to export them and import them onto a PC program and then use the PC software to do the sync. It was fine for a one way transfer and it missed a bit of my data, but it got me bootstrapped.

Then in the ensuing month waiting for a Mac sync solution I made a number of changes to the info on my BB. A month or two later PM was finally released (and if I recall M/S hadn't released support for it yet), so I tried it. It was flaky trying to get a connection with the phone, but I finally did and I did a sync which appeared to work fine (no errors or timeouts or anything) and suddenly my Address Book and iCal databases on my Mac were completely hosed. The contacts were gutted completely and the calendar entries had every recurring entry doubled, tripled, or up to N copies - beyond what you could try to fix by hand. Luckily I had made backups of everything so I could (after a couple of hours of poking around to find where the database files lived) restore my information, but all of the changes I had made to my BB contact list were now lost.

I really needed my data synced so I ended up doing a full reset on the BB and then managed to get a one way sync from the Mac to the BB using the "all data on my computer overwrites all data on my BB" option and I haven't done any syncing since then.

Others on here had been reporting database corruption so I trusted that PM was being made aware of the problem. There is now a much newer version out so I may soon try again, but only after a full backup of both the BB and my Mac databases (if I can remember where they are again).

It's one thing to have trouble getting the program to recognize your handheld. It's one thing to have some data misplaced or misfiled or fail to be copied over. But it's completely unimaginable what kind of error can make an entire database completely disappear and to have massive changes made to the calendar with no real basis (there were no calendar entries on the BB handheld to try to merge back in the first place - why was the software even thinking of making any changes to the database?).

I tend to hold software that manages my personal data (email programs, contact managers, etc.) to some higher standards. If you are writing a program to make (or potentially make) mass changes to a user's personal data then you need to have some fairly rigorous processes in place to make sure that your failure modes are benign. What I saw did not give me much confidence at all that the PM engineers had a proper respect for the danger that their software could pose to the end user's data. Where was the dialog "We're about to delete 450 entries from your Address Book, OK/Cancel" for example?

[4n6doc]

PocketMac simply did not work for me. It would recognize and sync with my 8100 only 20-25% of the time (I would plug and unplug until it did finally connect). And each time, I would be holding my breath to see if everything survived the sync. Several times, data was lost or not synchronized.

MissingSync has been completely reliable. It behaves like we have come to expect Mac applications to behave...install it, use it, and count on it without having to worry about it.

When they finally get an install/uninstall plugin working, it will be perfect.

[bbplusmac]

I've had nothing but problems with PocketMac since I purchased my 8703e on 5/22/07. I sync only iCal Events, iCal To-Dos and Address Book. The sync with Address Book is fine. The opposite is true with Events and To Dos. I've seen everything from duplicate events to missing events. Date changes for To-Dos don't sync. My list of gripes is longer. Use PocketMac if you want to be a beta-tester.

[bbplusmac]

Dear Anne:

Not much on a positive note written about PocketMac in this forum. I concur with all the negative postings. I've had nothing but problems sync'ing between my 8703e and my Mac. Ask Steve Z. in your tech support department. He can show you a long list of gripes I have submitted over the past few weeks.

[michaelnicola]

To be honest, I haven't really had any issues with PocketMac and my 8700c. I've managed to sync everything to my BB - iCal, Stickies, Task List, all my contacts... it's awesome! And it's FREE!

About the only gripe I have with the software is that it won't uninstall the Bookmark Manager application that it installed on my BB!

I know this is a major issue for many Mac and BB users from everything I've read on this and other sites. So how about it Anne - when will we see a fix for this?

[Blown284]

I'm a mac user and wondering if there is a software that syncs up with thunderbird vs. mail? I don't use mac's native mail program and prefer thunderbird /firefox.

[jho51e]

I also use PocketMac and is great for Contacts syncing with Apply Address Book... have been unsuccessful though in syncing my calendar with iCal.. maybe I am doing something wrong...

I created a new calendar in iCal called PocketMac (i know how imaginative of me) and configured the settings to sync but alas, no luck..

[dcboy78]

Pocket Mac doesn't work for me with an iMac and a BlackBerry 8700. I tried re-installs, reboots, etc. Too much time wasted.

Going to try Missing Sync next.

[Tim Koltek]

Originally Posted by berksgr

For iCal and Address Book, missing sync works perfectly for me.

While pocketmac is easily the worst mac app i have ever used.

Agreed. Not just bad, but unbelievably bad, and their "support" is horrendous.

[4n6doc]

Originally Posted by Tim Koltek

Agreed. Not just bad, but unbelievably bad, and their "support" is horrendous.

Yah, their reps (like PocketMacAnne) don't even bother to make appearances on here any more.

[climberguy11]

just got my 8830 and bought Missing Sync. I was having similar problems as some other people of the computer not recognizing the BB all the time. Sometimes I would have to connect and disconnect 5 times before it would start syncing. Finally I ended up using a USB cable from my digital camera and it worked great.
Also was able to get a 1 hour dvd movie onto the BB although it didn't fill the whole screen. It was such a long process I will settle for a small screen movie since I don't want to try to mess with the settings again

[GadgetFreak]

Im trying to migrate to a Mac and having some problems. Does Missing Sync allow you to sync emails with Entourage that have been sent to the BB by a redirector and then either moved to a subfolder or deleted on the BB? Thanks.

[MattSEG]

just got my pearl, tried pocket mac a few times to no avail, bought missing sync and it works like a champ