PocketMac Syncs Blackberry With Mac

Written on December 05, 2006 by Louis Gray and 92 people have commented

Living as a Mac island in a sea of Windows machines at the office can sometimes be a challenge. Though Apple has made advances through simply enabling Mac OS X clients to attach to Windows networks, and mount shared file servers, third party devices are often the part of the ecosystem that goes forgotten - as Windows-oriented developers will sometimes overlook the Macintosh, assuming Mac users make up too small a part of the population to demand dedicated effort.

For too long, I thought my Blackberry, which I depend on for mobile e-mail, calendar, basic Web surfing, and address book functionality, was one of those devices that would never fully support the Mac. Living in parallel worlds, I had contacts and calendar in Microsoft Outlook on the Dell laptop, and simultaneously, a separate list of contacts in my Macintosh Address Book, and appointments in iCal. Updates on the Blackberry wouldn’t affect the Mac, and vice versa.

pocketmac_sync

This all changed with Blackberry’s adoption and free release of PocketMac. Now that I’ve discovered PocketMac, my two worlds have been united - with the added bonus of synchronizing the data via .Mac to multiple Macs.

Like the Palm Desktop years before it, PocketMac offers the option to synchronize personal data between your Macintosh and the Blackberry, primarily focused on your address book and calendar appointments. But PocketMac is more flexible, offering to synchronize with a variety of desktop apps - including Apple’s Mail and Microsoft Entourage to iCal and the Now suite.

After installation, connect the Blackberry to the Mac via standard USB cable, charging the device, and you can configure it to your .Mac account by entering your user name and password, select which applications you want to synchronize, and simply hit sync. (As seen below)

pocketmac_sync_data

Subsequent synchronizations will note differences between your local data and that of the mobile device, giving you the option to accept or decline the changes. In the below example, the Mac noted that the Blackberry had deleted a completed meeting. I had the option to restore it to the Blackberry, or delete it from the Mac. Having already sat through the meeting, and not wishing to repeat it, the Mac soon also had the appointment erased. (See below)

pocketmac_sync_deletion

This brief interruption didn’t stop the synchronization, by any means. After I had made my selection, PocketMac kept humming along, until all tasks were complete - from e-mail to contacts.

pocketmac_sync_contacts

Now, instead of two separate address books and parallel calendars, I have one universal data set, shared between my Blackberry, my Mac at home, my Mac at work, and the Dell laptop. Best of all, if you already own a Blackberry, PocketMac is a free download.

Share This

Filed in: Software Reviews

Related Entries:



Comments RSSComments

  1. #1 Rob Hyndman says:

    I’m not sure the app is ready for prime time. Without warning three weeks ago it stopped sync-ing my calendar. RIM’s tech support (this is not supported by PocketMac) has not been able to fix the issue so far, even after several uninstalls and reinstalls. Happily, it looks like the Missing Sync folks may be cooking something up.

  2. #2 Mirko says:

    I was using PocketMac about a year ago to sync my iPAQ and it just didn’t work at all, despite all the support tips. After about 10 re-installs and extensive troubleshooting I decided it was not worth it so I uninstalled. Definitely not a company I’d consider purchashing more software from in the future.

  3. #3 BingeBoy.com says:

    I’ve been using this app for about a year and a half. It tends no to work at all on my laptops. Not sure why but at least its free now.

  4. #4 Mirko says:

    @BingeBoy.com - How are you using it if it’s not working at all?

  5. #5 Louis Gray says:

    They say that a person with a happy experience tells 3 people, and one with a bad experience tells 7, so you need to keep a high percentage of folks pleased with your product. It sounds like some of you had trouble with PocketMac syncing on iPAQ or other platforms. Using it with my BlackBerry 7100, I have no complaints at all. It just works in the way that I would expect. It’s a breath of fresh air compared to not thinking I had any solution at all.

  6. #6 Kezza says:

    I just bought a Blackberry Pearl (8100), and can confirm that PocketMac does not work past the first sync at all. If you look around the Blackberry forums you’ll note that this is the experience of most people that have attempted PocketMac. I think the app has a long way to go to be usable, and it most definately needs syncing via Bluetooth to be added. Come on RIM - pull your finger out !

  7. #7 Rob Hyndman says:

    I didn’t realize it was systemic. I don’t watch forums any longer - that’s why I bought a Mac.

  8. #8 scott says:

    @Rob

    When you remove the PocketMac, you also have to manually delete the .plist file or it doesnt do anything to remove/re-add the app.

    @Kezza

    Hmm, I bought my BB Pearl the day the T-Mobile started shipping them and I have been using PocketMAC 4 series as soon as it came out. And I sync at least once a day and have no issues. And my father who has a 7105T uses PM4 to sync his to his mac with no issues.

    @ALL

    if you have issues with PocketMac 4, please submit bug requests or it will never get fixed. the PocketMac (I can not thing of their real company name, sorry) does still write the code for PocketMac for BlackBerry. Just now they get paid by RIM to do it. Plus they get access to the RIM Engineers that designed the BlackBerries. Now if only one person has an issue (or they only know of one person) then it may or may not get fixed. But is hundreds (or even thousands) do, then that get a much higher priority.

    just my 2 cents worth

  9. #9 Nick says:

    BE VERY CAREFUL. I have it and it isn’t ready for prime time yet. Yes, some people have been lucky but a quick look over forums will show you it is a nightmare.

    My case is simple, PowerBook g4, OS 10.3.9, iCal, Address Book, Mail and regular up to date stuff with a Pearl Blackberry. I’ve exchanged three pearls so far and reinstalled PocketMac three times from scratch. It is tricky at best. No matter how I set to overwrite the device, it still wipes out my entire calendar and only imports the “home” category but not the more crucial “work”.

    Blackberry support is quasi-nonexistant. I sent them tons of logs and a month later they are still looking over it. PocketMac was a little more helpful.

    This is beta stuff. Backup everything first and test it on a blank user account. And whatever you do, know you cannot count on BlackBerry. Maybe it’s a Windows type company that doesn’t care about its users. Come to think of it I will retry them.

  10. #10 Dave says:

    I used PocketMac for the iPaq I used to use. Well, I tried to use PM. I had a lot of clean-up to do after a number of attempts to make the program work. I tried technical support, but they were not very helpful.

    Because I just couldn’t get my iPaq reliably talking to my PowerBook G4, I bought a PalmOS device. It didn’t have the nice features of the iPaq, but it synchronized reliably with my PowerBook and Missing Sync was a blessing after the nightmares I had with PM.

    A few months ago I tired of having multiple devices to carry with me, so I bought a BlackBerry 8700. The only software to synchronize it with my PowerBook (and now MacBook Pro) is PM. With some trepidation, I downloaded and installed PM.

    It works, mostly. I don’t synchronize my tasks with the BB. I sometimes have problems with the address book dropping entries or phone numbers. PM sometimes makes changes to iCal entries as well (converting all-day events to timed events midnight-noon). None of these problems appear to be strictly reproducible.

    I’ve made PM technical support aware of these problems. They say they will be repaired in a subsequent release. So far, no joy.

    After my very positive experience with the Missing Sync folks, I’m praying they construct an appication. I’d gladly pay $50 for the capability to reliably synchronize all of my PIM data between my BB and my Mac. I might even pay $75 for confidence that my data were safely esconced in both my BB and my Mac.

    I don’t see myself dumping my BB. It’s not a perfect device by any means, but it’s the best game in town for a combination PDA/phone. It does both acceptbly. I’m also not dumping my Mac. I’m not going back to a Windows-based machine and all the headaches I had with maintenance.

    Besides, I just like unix…

  11. #11 Rob Sletten says:

    Using Pocketmac for Blackberry (Verizon 8703e) and it works fine. Now I just wish that the broadband tethered evdo modem would work under OSX.

  12. #12 Steve says:

    PocketMac worked fine with my BlackBerry 7100, but when the device started shorting out on me, T-Mobile sent me a BlackBerry Pearl as a replacement. PocketMac does *not* sync with the Pearl, even though System Profiler shows the phone connected through the USB port, and even though PocketMac shows the Pearl to be “available.”

    When you try to sync the Pearl, it hangs and reads, “Synchronizing data,” rather than, “Synchronizing Contacts” or “Calendar” or anything else.

    I tried running this on two separate machines with the same result. RIM support confirmed to me today that there is a specific anomaly between PocketMac and the Pearl. They said they’re working to develop a solution, but said it would not be happening quickly.

    As others have noted, Mark/Space is apparently working on its own version of a BlackBerry synch tool. Be interesting to see if they can bring it to market before RIM/PocketMac can figure out what’s wrong.

  13. #13 Keith Forman says:

    Just submitted the following request to PocketMac support:

    I am running:
    Entourage version 11.2.5 (060620)
    Mac OS X version 10.4.8
    PocketMac version 4.0
    Blackberry 8100

    After installing PocketMac 4.0 and making sure that the Entourage Sync Services were all checked, the first sync worked great. That was the one and only successful sync.

    I then de-installed PocketMac, re-installed it and again had only one successful sync that included recently added content to my contacts and calendar.

    At the end of every sync attempt I receive a PocketMac Sync Manager message box that reads, “There were warnings generated during the sync. Would you like to visit them now?”

    I click yes and the box reads, “Could not locate the Microsoft Entourage Synchronization Tool.” This message is repeated for as many of the applications I tried to sync. (ie: If I only checked the box inside PocketMac to sync calendar, only one message is shown.)

    What is and where does one find the Microsoft Entourage Synchronization Tool? I can’t find any reference to it on any Mac, Blackberry, or PocketMac help sites.

    Are Microsoft and RIM partners? Why do Apple and RIM not collaborate?

  14. #14 Rob Hyndman says:

    BB Support seems to be working diligently to try and understand what’s wrong with mine (yup - I have a Pearl), but so far no joy. I can sync Contacts, but not iCal.

  15. #15 Scott Egglefield says:

    Will the Pocketmac sync with the 7510 via Bluetooth? It synched when I first bought the Mac and now won’t do it?

  16. #16 Hans Riemer says:

    I’m having the exact same problem: “Could not locate the Microsoft ENtourage Synchronization Tool.” As far as I can tell no such thing exists. What do we do???

  17. #17 Sean Sweeney says:

    I had the same problem- “Could not locate Entourage etc..”
    Anyone hear anything? I contacted online help but have yet to hear back

    Any help would be great.

  18. #18 Dave says:

    Just to add a bit about synching with a Pearl. I do get through the synch without errors, but it is not a true “synch.” When I delete or make changes in Entourage to Contacts or Calender, those changes do not translate to the pearl. Only when making changes on the Pearl do the translate to Entourage. When you choose to overwrite the Pearl with Entourage, it does make the changes, but that’s not a very smooth transaction. Looks like the release came a little early.

  19. #19 David Topper says:

    Just purchased a Blackberry Pearl. Download & installed PocketMac SyncManager 4.0. Im using a PowerPC G5 dual 2.5 GHz with 4 GB SDRAM and Mac OSX 10.4.8. Plugging the USB cable directly into the G5. PocketMac SyncManager sometimes finds the Pearl and when it does, sometimes freezes during the synch process. Sometimes it works exactly as it should. No rhyme or reason. When synch fails, it crashes my Mac. Where I need to “force quit” and application from time to time, this is the ONLY application that crashes the Mac! I now keep Diskwarrior by my side whenever I “try” to synch. This is NOT ready for prime time. This is beta and not a good release at that. I sure wish the folks at Missing Synch would jump in to save the day.

  20. #20 Sean O'Sullivan says:

    Yup, I’m also having massive problems syncing (Blackberry 8705) with my PocketMac for Blackberry 4.0. It worked mostly fine, occasionally losing information, sometimes duplicating it, sometimes screwing around with my address book groups… then I finally got to the point before I sync’d it I’d always save a copy of my address book and calendar… that seemed to work well. Not anymore. Nothing syncs (nothing I do on my blackberry updates on my Mac). Could have something to do with SOHO Sync, another application that tries to muck with the Sync Manager… But PocketMac has been fairly continually unreliable, so I guess I’ll continue to blame them. I did like the 4.0 version, it has a decent interface and seems like it should work. It just doesn’t. Don’t worry, if you haven’t had problems so far, it will happen to you. Just wait. (Previously I had problems with two other Blackberry versions… the problem doesn’t seem to be on the blackberry side, it’s on the Mac side, unfortunately).

  21. #21 sjt says:

    I just got the Pearl and I am using a MacBook (Black, Core 2 Duo) with Entourage.

    Getting the sync to work was a complete pain. Finally I turned off all conduits except contacts and successfully got through that sync. Then I turnd contacts off and calendar on and got through that sync (last 60 days only, however). Then, in turn, tasks and notes. Once I got through all four of them, I was able to turn them all on and sync simultaneously. It has worked ever since.

    However, I really want to install the IM+ software so that I can have multi-system IM in one application. But using PocketMac to install software is a complete bust. It starts the process but after about 2 minutes it is clear that the PcketMac app has died and has to be forced quit (it shows as stopped responding).

    This solution is NOT for those new to the BlackBerry or the Macintosh! And the process is absolutely NOT Mac-like!

    sjt

  22. #22 Antiphonist says:

    I have been synchronizing my Mac (Powerbook G4) with my Blackberry Pearl for sometime now and everything works fine. PocketMac is a bit idiosyncratic so you need to keep a few things in mind:

    PocketMac will ONLY work once every time and you must do the following in the order they are listed in order to get it to sych:

    1) Open PocketMac THEN
    2) Plug in the USB cable and THEN
    3) Press synch.

    PocketMac WILL NOT synch if you plug your blackberry in first and open the program later. Once more, it is important to do it in the order listed above. If you need to synch again then you must unplug the device, close the program, and repeat the process above.

    The only frustrating thing that doesn’t work between my Mac and my BB is the Bluetooth function. But I have synched over 50 times in the way I describe above and it has worked every single time.

    A.

  23. #23 Rob Hyndman says:

    Mine worked for about 2 months and then abruptly stopped syncing the calendar. Pearl and MacBook Pro. RIM and PocketMac support are stumped.

  24. #24 Antiphonist says:

    The only time mine stopped syncing is when I used different languages in calendar & contacts. It only synchs in English - if you have any non-english entries restore them to english characters and retry.

    @ Rob

    I wonder if other MacBook Pro users are having the same problem.

  25. #25 Joe McCorkell says:

    All-

    I have a Desktop Imac and G4 laptop and I want to add a smart phone possibly. Where do I go to get them all synced. IT seems in the past when my dad tried to get things to sync it just duplicates everything. I also use Entourage.
    Thanks

    Joe

  26. #26 Barry Black says:

    I use PocketMac 4 to synchronize my calendar, contacts, and tasks between my MacBook Pro C2D and Blackberry 7210. It does not work reliably. Sometimes the dates for my Tasks all get set to today’s date. For contacts, some records are now missing email addresses and notes. Yesterday, I noticed that I have 2 contacts with the same name (but different people) on my Blackberry. After the sync, it replaced one of these on the Mac with a duplicate copy of the other. Strangely it did not do this for another pair of contacts with the same name.

  27. #27 Rob Hyndman says:

    Missing Sync has just announced that their solution is coming:

  28. #28 simon Koelmeyer says:

    Using BB Pearl (on T-Mobile UK) with G4 powerbook, OSX10.4.8 - sync contacts/addressbook just fine, but again - SO FRUSTRATING that RIM don’t offer proper Mac support - Why do MAC users have to suffer every time?!?!?

    Bring on the iPhone!!!

  29. #29 Sandra says:

    http://www.technologyevangelist.com/2006/06/syncing_a_treo_700p.html

  30. #30 Sandra says:

    oops. forgot to write. article mentions that Missing Sync works for Blackberry. no mention of Pear.

  31. #31 Rob Hyndman says:

    Missing Sync’s page clearly states that the upcoming release works with the Pearl.

  32. #32 Pablo says:

    Was having problems Syncing to Powerbook G4 with pocketmac but doing in the right order as stated above fixed the problem.

  33. #33 Will Royall says:

    FIXED: Had the same problem as the very first comment on this article… ical stopped syncing with the Pearl from Pocketmac…

    However, if you go to your finder, search for “.plist” and scroll down to the “Pocketmac” .plist files… drag them onto your desktop and out of the folder they were in, then restart pocketmac - (and reset your settings) - it should be good to go. The first time I tried to resync it didn’t quite make it through, but now every time is a charm again.

    The problem for me first occured when I put a new “calendar” in ical that was automatically generated from my new version of Quickbooks (2007) for a deposit reminder. I imediately deleted that calendar from ical as well when I deleted the .plist files from that folder. I don’t need a reminder that bad… i need my Pearl syncing!!!

    Good luck to those with issues…

    Anyone know how to fix a Brother MFC-5440CN printer that is now printing “mirrored” ever since my MacBook upgraded to 10.4.8? It still prints fine on my ibook that is running 10.3. It has all the “correct new” drivers installed supposidly for 10.4.8. I have no options in print set-up what-so-ever. Frustrating!!!!

  34. #34 Rob Hyndman says:

    This is what RIM told me to do. Tried it about ten times. Didn’t work.

  35. #35 Dale Smith says:

    I took out the .plist files as mentioned above and ical synced fine. I still can’t get my contacts to sync from NOW. Any takers?

  36. #36 Gavin says:

    This product is appalling!

    Trying to get PocketMac working with a BlackBerry Pearl is comical.

    PocketMac should be ashamed that they can release this product while making statements like, and I quote from their website: “This software has been written, tested, re-written, re-tested and then tested again for 14 solid months to make sure your data is being routed perfectly! And now it’s ready to run on your Mac!”

    This is just living in denial. I have NOT found one forum that has not overwhelmingly had negative things to say about this product.

    Both RIM and the PocketMac Team should be ashamed to put their name to this vapourware!

    Just a hint guys, when you’re looking for your next new job, I wouldn’t write anything in your CV that suggests you worked on this product, you just never know who has been punished by your PocketMac handiwork!

  37. #37 Dale Smith says:

    Removing the .plist files and plugging in Pearl after opening Pocketmac is allowing iCal and Mac Address book to sync final after a few…no…several…no a ton of testing. No luck with the Contact sync from Now and Up to Date though. Gives me a little hope. Very little that is.

  38. #38 Elyse Chance says:

    MacBook Pro running OSX 10.4.8, just got a Pearl. Was able to sync calendar (it appears to have worked okay) but not Address Book — get error message “An unexpected error has occurred: Bad default category length.” I have tried several times, but get the same message every time. Can somebody help? Thanks.

  39. #39 Elyse Chance says:

    One more thing — the last time I tried to sync, the Address Book on my BB was deleted.

  40. #40 Elyse Chance says:

    One more thing — the last time I tried to sync, the existing Address Book on my BB was deleted, now there’s nothing there.

  41. #41 Joshua Hughes says:

    Just a little word of advice… Forums (by their very nature) are populated with people with problems, so if you look through those forums and reckon it’s all doom and gloom that isn’t necessarily the case ;-)

  42. #42 Jerry Lawler says:

    I can confirm that this does not work correctly with NOW calendars. Period. I am now literall on my eleventh tech support person at Blackberry tech support (pocketmac.net stopped answering my e-mails a week ago with no explanation) and now even Blackberry support has stopped communicating with me. I’ve never “told them off” or anything of the support, just patiently asked for support and immediately supplied them with logs, descriptions of what is happening, etc. literally dozens of times. They have “passed the buck” with me to the point where my case was “escalated” by a supervisor with explicit promises of dedicated support from one person until my case was resolved. After 2 or three suggestions from “escalated” tech support which were no different than the previous non-working remedies, all tech support from Blackberry support has stopped, the other end is silent.

    If you use Now calendars, do not expect to ever sync them with a Blackberry, ever. It is simply impossible. I defy anyone to show me otherwise.

  43. #43 Antiphonist nailed it says:

    I was having huge problems synching my Pearl 8100 until I followed Antiphonist’s recomendation:

    Do everything in this order;

    1) Open PocketMac 4.0
    2) Plug in Pearl
    3) Synch

    If you need to resynch, then quit, unplug and do it all over again. Works everytime now.

    Thanks Antiphonist!!!

  44. #44 Steakumrl says:

    I am using a Powebook G4 Mac OS version 10.4.9, Now version 5.3.1, and the Blackberry Pearl.

    I have read every item listed on the blog, but have not seen this issue brought up.

    I was able to sync my Now calender by only syncing it (as someone mentioned synicing only one file at a time).

    My issue has been with trying to sync Now Contacts. I followed antiphonists advise and received the same result I always receive.

    The Pearl is recognized by PM. The only file I am trying to sync is Contacts. The sync begins. Pearl show that is connected to desktop. PM show is is syncing data, then synicing contacts. Contacts even opens up briefly, giving me false hope.

    At the end of the sync, just when I think this might be my lucky day, I get the following error message:

    An unexpected error has occurred: DesktopData::findMapUsing: no result found!

    Has anyone encountered this one, and if so were you able to find a work aroud?

  45. #45 Steakumrl says:

    Well through all of the advice and some part own my own, I got my BB Pearl to sync with my Powerbook G4 using PM. I was able to sync all of my Now Contacts (over 2900 records)

    I uninstalled PM. After that I went into the Library/Preferences and deleted both the com.plist for pocketmac and nowcontact.

    Then I deleted the version of I had previously donwloaded of PM 4. (It was the same version I downloaded just after I deleted it, but trying to get a fresh start).

    Even though I am trying to sync Now Contacts (Up to date had previously synced successfully), I decided to go ahead load the ability to sync Lotus.

    After everything was installed, I restarted the G4 making sure the BB Pearl was not plugged in.

    Upon restart, I opened PM (still without the BB hooked up to the G4). Once I opened PM, I went to the area in PM and clicked on Contacts and made sure I was properly set up to sync only contacts.

    After that, I clicked on the green sync button and low and behold the son of a gun actually worked.

    I have not tried any subsequent syncs, but at least I got all of my contacts in the Pearl for now.

    Good luck everyone……. this sure is a pain

  46. #46 Megallerina says:

    I am having the same problem as several others here, but don’t see any solutions listed. Has anyone figured out how to deal with this:

    [05:44:38.387] Could not lcoate the Microsoft Entourage Office Synchronization Tool.

    WTF? (They couldn’t even spell “locate” correctly. Now there’s attention to detail for you…) I am running OSX 10.4.9 on a brand new machine, and also have a brand new blackberry 8703e, which I got based on preliminary googling and assurance from Verizon that PocketMac would allow me to sync everything easily. I emailed PocketMac but haven’t heard back yet. Please help! I want iPhone now!!!!

  47. #47 Leah says:

    I have a Blackberry 8300…verything sycs fine except for the tasks - which sometimes it does none, a handful, or duplicate a whole batch. I’ve searched all day in the forums - any advice?

  48. #48 tom p says:

    8300 x4 and pocketmac 4.0.2; entourage latest rev; all G4 laptops just pre mactel
    pocketmac is so completely unpredictable - sometimes it works… sometimes it doesnt - really really rubbish
    was hoping the ’sequence’ advice of launch app FIRST then connect 8300 THEn sync would be the magic answer but no! im sitting watch it spin… 30 mins later… is there an 8300 problem…?

  49. #49 LDCresson says:

    Hi
    Can anyone discuss methods to get Palm data to Blackberry. Do I need to go through the Apple Address book (never used it) and then to the Blackberry? Not wanting to use Microsoft for anything right now . . .

  50. #50 Haley says:

    New to Apple and trying to make Mr. Blackberry and Mrs. Mac get along. Downloaded PocketMac and after plugging in blackberry pearl and tried to sync, received this message “[09:51:21.888] Unable to connect to BlackBerry (error 1); skipping.” Checked US B connection and tried alternate USB port. ANY IDEAS??

  51. #51 Tom says:

    iCal sync hangs.

    The first sync from my mac mini to my BB 8700 the progress bar stalled halfway and the message said Syncing Caldendar. After about 20 minutes I cancelled it. A few calendar items were on the BB, so something sync’d, but most did not. The logs said 2233 items sync’d but goodness knows what those are.

    Btw, I never got the warning message on the mac asking me to ALLOW anything.

    Meanwhile, Address book sync’d fine. The sync log said 825 items sync’d and the mac has 825 Address Book items. Success there.

  52. #52 Michael says:

    Well, the PocketMac worked on my computer and BlackBerry fine for what it does but it does not sync music and/or photos. So I tried the Mark/Space Missing Sync — what a disaster. I never could figure out how to make it sync — they do not have voice tech support. They have FAQ’s on their web site, but the FAQ’s did not answer the questions regarding the issues that I have. Voice tech support is not available unless you are willing to pay $59.99 per incident — so you pay $49.99 to download the Missing Sync software and if you have a situation like me where you cannot configure it to work, you are required to pay additional $59.99 for tech support. I do not think that it is worth it …. I am sure that someone will offer a sync program for photos and pictures fir the BlackBerry and Apple soon.

  53. #53 Yvonne says:

    I used the following procedure as suggested by antiphonist and it worked!!!

    1) Open PocketMac THEN
    2) Plug in the USB cable and THEN
    3) Press synch.

    I have been trying to sort this problem out for three days, installing, re-installing with no luck and finally the above has worked!!!

    I use a G4 Powerbook and Blackberry Pearl.

    Thanks for the help!!

  54. #54 Joe says:

    I have been reading all these posts and just bought a BB 8300 (curve) and have an iMac and would like it to sync, and when I went to the page for downloading pocketmac, it asks me what version I want. I do not know and read through the book that came with the curve and cant figure out what version I need. Anyone know?
    Since there seems to be some problems as outlined above, I wonder if I should even try? This is my first blackberry, and I am kind of new to mac too…

  55. #55 ERICK BRIAN says:

    Using it now.

    Sync’d the first time perfectly.
    Second time, crashed. Then again, and again, and again….

    I got it to finally sync. How? I only sync my iCal.
    How stupid is that? Maybe it’s something it’s sync’ng with …maybe the Stickies or someting. not sure.
    Still can’t get my MACPRO to bluetooth files to my BB Curve either. That sucks.

  56. #56 Chris says:

    You guys should check this link from the RIM site.

  57. #57 Rob says:

    Disappointing software. Keeps duplicating contact entries every time I sync. Tech support is non responsive. Glad I didn’t pay for the software. So I suppose you get what you paid for. I’d guess as soon as they get the sync to work properly they’ll start charging for it. We’re their beta group for sure.

  58. #58 Cukes says:

    To some extent, we get what we pay for… My only issue is that Notes do not sync (MemoPad Stickies), as many entries’ headings disappear and content changes altogether. Any suggestions?

  59. #59 Simon says:

    Cukes: I’m experiencing the same issue when trying to sync bb notes and stickies through PocketMac. Very frustrating when you loose all of your notes!

  60. #60 Eliseo says:

    I have a BB Pearl and Mac and all the sinchronization process through PM was just fine until the day my phone had a problem and the provider gave a new BB. Now i can not sinchronize anything. I guess that in some way the new BB has not been recognized by PM software. I have tried installing again the software but no happy results until now.

    Any ideas ?

  61. #61 electronicpeter says:

    I have a BlackBerry 8310 and the same experience as Leah. In my case most of my 500 Adresses have been duplicated. Most of them with a new empty private telephone number, or , if I have used more than one working number in addressbook, two entries without the second working number appeared in my blackberry. Same strange effect with iCal and birthday events. However, better than nothing to get it startet. However, after one year experience with a mac I will love to go back to good old windows - same problems, but more solutions :) At least, the sync of blackberry and outlook stuff etc will be better, or why do most large companies use blackberries and windows?

  62. #62 Apple Annie says:

    It doesn’t “sync” so much as “copy” and “delete.” It makes multiple copies of appointments if I check sync calendars and if you don’t check a calendar or address group, thinking it will just leave those alone, it deletes them! Glad I didn’t pay for it. Palm got this down cold like what, 10 years ago now?

  63. #63 electronicpeter says:

    I agree, eventually I bought “the missing sync”. It worked for 14 days (or 30?) as i trial and I learned loving it. So after the trial date expired I was glad to buy it for 40$.

  64. #64 ko says:

    The advice of Antiphonist (#43) worked for me–my sync still generated warnings, but what a relief. I have an eMac G4 running 10.3.9.

    If you are frustrated with PocketMac’s inability to recognize your Pearl, follow Antiphonist’s directions precisely.

  65. #65 dodo says:

    I have a Blackberry pearl 8100 and i would like to be able to connect to my eMac 10.3.9.
    I would like also to be able to transfer song from my itune to my blackberry.
    Can someone help me thanks.
    I am pretty new of this.

  66. #66 Maccas says:

    BLACKBERRY PEARL 8120 UNABLE TO SYNC WITH MACBOOK PRO USING POCKET MAC

    “Do everything in this order;

    1) Open PocketMac 4.0
    2) Plug in Pearl
    3) Sync”

    I have tried the following method numerous times now and I am still having problems syncing my Pearl with my Macbook, it looks as though it is syncing and then half way through the process it comes up with an error message stating:

    “There were warnings generated during the sync. Would you like to view them now?”

    Upon clicking “Yes” I am then presented with a further error message stating:

    “PocketMac SyncManager Warning(s)
    [02:25:56.851] Unable to connect to Blackberry
    (error 1); Skipping.”

    Can Anyone shed any light on this problem?

    Many thanks

  67. #67 Bill Belanger says:

    I have been able to get everything synced except for sticky notes (memos)

  68. #68 KNOWWARE says:

    Blackberry Curve
    NowContact 5.3.1
    Mac OSX 10.4.11

    I can successfully sync Now-Up-to-Date calendar file, but Now Contact generates

    An unexpected error has occurred: DesktopData::findMapUsing: no result found!

    Have uninstalled Pocket Mac; deleted all plist files; purged all data on Blackberry; reinstalled PocketMac (with or without Lotus notes support); tried launching PM first then connecting Blackberry; sync Contact alone /separate from syncing Contact/NowUpToDate/Email all together, to no avail.

    Have tried all of this on both a PowerBook G4 and now a PowerMac G5 — identical results.

    Spent two hours with Blackberry tech guy who basically walked through all of this with him — only difference was we used Terminal to look for two files that weren’t actually there.

    ** Maddening!!! **

  69. #69 Mark Mitchell says:

    Yea, PocketMac is lousy software. I’m seriously considering the iPhone. RIM/Blackberry please take note: you are driving away BBerry enthusiasts because your s/ware is not up to Apple standards. Fix it or lose marketshare. Many other companies have already realigned due to the iPhone.

    I am running:
    Mac OS X version 10.4.10
    PocketMac version 4.0.2.0b
    Blackberry 8300
    USB connection

    It will not sync even a simple Contacts list from Address Book. Constantly gives error: Unable to connect… and then it skips and ‘finishes’ the sync. Which means it does nothing.

    Tried restarts and clean starts and reinstalls and experts at TMobile. Just sloppy s/ware writing and testing and releasing on RIM’s part.
    WASTE MY TIME, LOSE MY BUSINESS. BYE.

  70. #70 aabas says:

    I have been downloading PocketMac from Blacberry website, but each time I get a message ‘Mounting Failed’, hence I can’t install the software on my macbook. Any ideas why or how do I resolve this?

  71. #71 Georgina says:

    I have uninstalled, reinstalled, installed Pocket MAC so many times. I finally give up. This product stinks. Is there any other way to get ITUNE songs on my Blackberry 8830. Thanks!

  72. #72 Scales says:

    This is the lamest program ever. I have synced various programs/handhelds for years. This one is just does not work….PERIOD.

    AA

  73. #73 Bill Belanger says:

    I agree. I returned my BB Curve and went back to my treo 650. Too bad, but I absolutely needed a desktop interface, not just a backup

  74. #74 Dunstan says:

    Fix for error below:

    “An unexpected error has occurred: Bad default category length”

    In the Address Book syncing options select the mysterious “No Category” under the Advanced Preferences.

    Good luck!

  75. #75 Dunstan says:

    BTW it syncs all of your contacts!

  76. #76 MichaelRH says:

    PocketMac will not sync all memos from Mac Entourage 2008 to BB8830 World Edition. Everything else syncs okay (calendar, address book, tasks.) Why would PM skip a couple memos out of 20? Very frustrating. Previous Treo sync’ed perfectly.

  77. #77 Georgina says:

    I gave up everyone! I used Bluetooth to synch my contacts. But no, my memos etc. are on my Blackberry and not backed up. So, I just hope I never lose my blackberry. Help us! Pocket Mact

  78. #78 Barry says:

    I have an iMac and the Blackberry 8830. As a Mac user, I got this free software from Blackberry Research In Motion. It is supposed to syn with Microsoft Entourage.

    If you ever need technical support from Blackberry, forget it. It is impossible. After numerous calls to Verizon Wireless, they just forward you to Blackberry.

    On the Mac, “Task” items DO NOT SYNC a Blackberry. I get the message:

    [08:19:06.597] An unexpected error has occurred: Bad default category length.

    No one knows what this is or how to fix it. In fact, Task to not sync with the Apple IPhone either.

    Anyone have any suggestions how to fix this bug?

    I used to used Task categories quite..till now.

    Thanks,
    Barry

  79. #79 fredo says:

    04:11:36.701] Unable to connect to BlackBerry (error 1); skipping.

  80. #80 matt says:

    i have the pocket mac software - and have tried to run it with my osx mac software - usinf a blacberry curve
    it has worked once or twice but i gave up because it keeps shooting bac this message:
    [11:41:19.003] Unable to connect to BlackBerry (error 1); skipping.
    i thin i am at the bottom of a lng list of those that have also tried and failed to make it work?? no.
    anyone have have the answer to skipping? (without a rope)

  81. #81 Chris says:

    I am tired of trying to get PocketMac Synchmanager to do its job - it’s unreliable, doesn’t synch he stuff it’s supposed to, synchs when it’s in the mood - I can never just assume that anything has been synched. I always have to go and double check to verify something has in fact synched - and no matter how many times I restart my Mac/open or close the applications, it just doesn’t do the job. I’ve even stopped trying to get it to synch my Calendar - the only reliable appointments book I have is my old A4 paper one. So much for smart phones and smart technology.

  82. #82 Keith says:

    I had trouble with Office 2008 for Mac and Pocket Mac synching with Entourage 2008 and my Blackberry 8700g.

    The support site told me that direct synching with Office/Entourage 2008 is not working yet, and they gave me this fix, and it worked:

    You can sync Office 2008 setting PocketMac to sync with iCal and Address Book. Next, go into Entourage Preferences, in the Entourage menu and turn on SyncServices.

    Worked for me! Good luck!

  83. #83 Helikyler says:

    I found a way to send songs to the BB from Macbook:

    1. Go to the Media application in your Blackberry

    2. Open the Music icon

    3. Click the Blackberry button and choose “Receive Using Bluetooth”

    4. The Blackberry will now wait for you to use “Send File” from the Macbook Bluetooth icon in the top right corner of the screen to send files via Bluetooth. You will probably have to pair the devices first.

    It worked for me on the 8310 and I’m assuming the 8800 series is the same because I had the 8820 for a short while.

    Kyler

  84. #84 MacDaddy says:

    Well, after the same frustrations I finally just set it to just sync my contacts and it seems to work. It appears that this is more of a driver issue. Why? Once I plug in my 8700 and then start the sync program the Blackberry says that there is not sufficient power. This was an indicator of a bad driver o the PC side. Interesting.

  85. #85 Michael Hale says:

    I finally gave up on PocketSync after a whole bunch of emails back and forth to support and bought Missing Sync. It works perfectly, syncs everything to my 8830. I think Blackberry/RIM is marketing a defective product in PocketSync.

  86. #86 Theresa K. says:

    I have not been able to get the software to work at all.

    At the end of every sync attempt I receive a PocketMac Sync Manager message box that reads, “There were warnings generated during the sync. Would you like to visit them now?”

    I click yes and the box reads, [12:13:15.781] Unable to connect to BlackBerry (error 1); skipping.

    I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the software with the latest version from the web, I have tried syncing using my .mac account, and every time, I get the same message.

    Help!!

  87. #87 Michael Hale says:

    See comment 85. Yes, I paid $39.95 for The Missing Sync for BlackBerry v1.0.3 from Mark/Space, but it works every time, and there are no apparent limits on note size as with PocketSync.

  88. #88 Kevin says:

    I’ve used this program to sync with my Blackberry Pearl as well as with my new Blackberry Curve 8310. Its worked perfectly FINE with both.

    If you use Microsoft products, use Microsoft Entourage; its like Outlook for Mac. There is a conduit that you have to get, but once you do, everything works great. Currently can only use version 2004 though (they don’t have a conduit for 2008 yet). MS Entourage works best because it can manage all of the pieces, rather than using iCal, Address Book, etc., that come with the Apple.

  89. #89 PocketMac says:

    MAKING Pocketmacg WORK:

    Mine seems to work following a simple trick - set up everything as you want it then turn off the application. Entirely shut it off.

    Connect your Blackberry and THEN start the application - it worked fine for me this way.

  90. #90 Emily Walters says:

    Hi,

    I was having the same problem as everyone above with numerous error messages. I followed everybody’s attempts and finally got it working. So what did i do?

    as mentioned above I went to entourage preferences and clicked all tabs in ’sync services’ i then went back into the pocketmac and deselected the entourage tabs for contacts, address book etc and instead selected ical, address book contacts, sticky notes and now everything is working fine.

    if you have issues with it not working - perhaps you could try restarting the computer after you’ve clicked the ’sync services’ in entourage.

    hope this helps and good luck!!

  91. #91 Frank Bongiovanni says:

    THIS WILL WORK FOR THE PEARL!!!!

    I recommend adding your pearl to the Blue tooth favorite list. Once you have them paired go to edit port settings under “open bluetooth preferences”

    I unchecked
    [07:44:45.859] Unable to connect to BlackBerry (error 1); skipping.

    leave BlackBerry8130-BlackBer-1 checked off but edit it so it says bypass service and leave port as RS-232. Apply and close window.
    Now when you open PocketMac, adjust your connection type to serial port. Select BlackBerry8130-BlackBer-1 under the drop down menue. Hope it works!

  92. #92 Frank Bongiovanni says:

    Typo… I unchecked the BlackBerry8130-BlackBer-2.
    It was the second one

Leave a reply

Avatars
If you'd like an avatar to appear next to your comment, simply signup for a Gravatar. It's free and takes all of about 2 minutes to setup.

Subscribe without commenting