"Everything syncs without us having to think about it." - Apple CEO Steve Jobs, 2011-06-06, on introducing iCloud
Hey Steve! How about coming to my house and think about syncing my iPod and MacBook Pro? I have spent I don't know how many hours trying to restore dropped calendars and contacts or remove duplicate entries in either.
Maybe it's Microsoft's fault. These problems seem to have started when I switched from Office 2008 to Office 2011. Microsoft replaced Entourage in the former with Outlook in the latter. Similar software, but as usual, the new improved version can be several steps backward.
I don't know how many times I've searched in Apple's and Microsoft's support pages. Lots and lots of people report the problem, but few people, if any, answer with a solid long term solution. I've tried some, and some have worked for a while. But like the infamous cat, it always comes back.
I've called AppleCare and got some advice that sort of helped. But the cat came back.
I looked in Apple's support pages and did find a more detailed solution. It sort of seems to have worked, but I had duplicates going back to 2002, like 20 Christmas days on the same day and six voice lessons on the same day. I've spent well over an hour eliminating the duplicates in 2002. At least for the holidays I won't have to delete duplicates in later years, but all those other activities, it remains to be seen.
Also, I don't know what the side effects of deleting ALL the files in the cache folder. There was stuff for TurboTax, Google Earth, Adobe, and I've forgotten what else. At least they are backed up on my Time Machine.
Ah! Time Machine, that marvelous hourly backup in the background. Background? Hah! When the backup is busy for over an hour, lots of other things slow down and certainly make me think about it.
No, I'm not going to go over to the dark side. Microsoft Office is enough.
But I certainly wish you would run a company that is more efficient than the IRS, which contrary to Republican doctrine, does a nice job of co-operating with private companies to make reporting and refunds quick.
P.S. Thanks to the messed up composing page in Google's Blogger, I couldn't post this right away. Or maybe it was because Apple's instructions to delete the cache. I fixed the problem by quitting and restarting Firefox.
