What to do when iCal and iPhone have irreconcilable differences?

What’s Wrong?

Yipes! My iPhone’s calendar and contacts have stopped syncing with my MobileMe calendar and contacts. I’ve tried deleting my MobileMe account on my iPhone, then re-creating it to force the iPhone to sync properly with MobileMe. My mail synced OK but my calendar events and contacts have disappeared. They’re safe on my computers and on MobileMe itself but they just won’t sync with the iPhone. Help!

What to Do

One of the best selling points of Apple’s cloud solution, MobileMe, is how easily and transparently it syncs your mail, calendar, contacts and Safari bookmarks among all your computers and iDevices. Occasionally, however, it succumbs to hiccups like this one, where it refuses to sync properly.

You’ve done the thing you ought to do — re-creating your MobileMe account on your iPhone — and still you have no joy. Short of the cumbersome fixes (re-installing iTunes, restoring your iPhone from a backup — assuming those tactics would even work), here’s what has worked for some people:

Re-setting your Push settings. The objective of this solution is to “force” your iPhone to sync manually with MobileMe in hopes that your data will be restored to your phone.

1. On your iPhone go to Settings » Mail, Contacts, Calendars » Fetch New Data. Turn Off Push.
2. Set Fetch to Manually.
3. Go back one screen to Accounts, select your MobileMe account and click the red Delete Account button.
4. Back on the Accounts screen, select Add Account… and re-create your MobileMe account. Make sure you set Mail, Contacts and Calendars to On (Bookmarks, Notes and Find My iPhone are up to you).
5. Go back to Fetch New Data and turn Push back on.
6. Open your Mail or Contacts app. If all goes well, you’ll see them re-appear.

It didn’t work! What do I do now?

Re-setting your sync data. Here’s your other option; this one is your best bet, though a tad more complicated.

1. Make sure your Mac has synced very recently with MobileMe, and that it has the most recent Mail, Contacts and Calendar events.
2. On your iPhone go to Settings » Mail, Contacts, Calendars » Fetch New Data. Turn Off Push.
3. On your Mac, open System Preferences » MobileMe » Sync » Advanced.
4. Unregister your Mac.
5. Enable Sync again for just Contacts, Calendar and Bookmarks.
6. Go back to Advanced.
7. Select Reset Sync Data and make sure you pick Computer Overwrites MobileMe. This makes sure you’re re-uploading fresh data to MobileMe.
8. Wait until your Mac completes its sync to MobileMe.
9. Go back to your iPhone and re-enable Push.
10. Plug your iPhone into your computer and let it sync with iTunes.
11. When the sync is complete, check your iPhone: Your Contacts, Calendar events and Bookmarks should have returned!

This solution should work for both iOS 3.1 and iOS4, and on all flavors of iPhones (though I used it on my iPhone 4). Apple has a tech note available for other combinations of hardware/software, which you can read here. It’s a cautionary tale.

Today’s Question: What’s the use of WordPress 2.9′s new ‘post thumbnail’ feature if I’m using an older theme with its own thumbnail hack?

Answer: If you’re a user (as opposed to a theme developer) there’s a big upside to WordPress’ new thumbnail feature — that is, if you care about people visiting your site from an iPhone or other Web-enabled smartphones.

It’s quite possible you’re already using a WordPress theme that automatically generates a thumbnail from images you upload to accompany a blog post or page (check out how I’ve implemented it on the home page of Blue Seraph Productions). So why should you care if your theme already takes care of thumbnails?

A HACK WordPress themes that created thumbnails for you did so courtesy of a hack concocted by your theme’s developer; thumbnails weren’t a built-in feature of WordPress up til now. As of version 2.9, WordPress includes thumbnails as part of its core functions. Great, right? It is for developers of new themes, or those who update their old themes, to take advantage of it.

Where this makes a difference for a regular WordPress user like you and me is what smartphone visitors to our sites see. Thanks to the amazing plugin, WPtouch, your site becomes smartphone-friendly without you having to write a lick of code. A recent revision to WPtouch took advantage of the post-thumbnail feature, allowing you to replace calendar icons on your mobile-version homepage with a thumbnail image. The result: a less generic-looking version of your mobile Web site.

BEFORE AND AFTER The combination of WordPress 2.9′s thumbnail feature and WPtouch gives your mobile Web site a brighter, more individualized look.

Next: How to do it yourself »

Extreme Distress Dismissed by AirPort Express

Two questions from my pal P.K., who’s clearly trying to win Brownie® points from his boss —

My boss has a two story house. He has an AirPort upstairs that allows his Mac and his work PC to print wirelessly. However, the range is not good enough to allow him to print from downstairs. Is it possible to set up another wireless airport downstairs that can relay to the upstairs unit? What do I need to buy to make this work?

The short answer is yes, you can do this using an AirPort Express (the cheaper version of the AirPort Base Station; other than its limitation to 10 simultaneous wireless users it’s nearly as full-featured as the base station) in “bridge” mode. The Express can extend the range of a WDS (Wireless Distribution System) network hosted by an AirPort Extreme Base Station or another AirPort Express. Just plug the AirPort Express into a power receptacle on the first floor to improve the signal downstairs. You can learn more at Apple’s AirPort Express FAQ.

The longer answer has to do with figuring out why the range of his existing AirPort is so limited. Is it really more than 150 feet from his downstairs to his upstairs? I lived in a three-story townhouse that presented no problem to the range of my AirPort Express. While the extra Express will certainly solve his problem, your boss may want to try manually switching to another WiFi channel that may be prone to less interference, especially if he lives in a neighborhood with a lot of WiFi networks. Here’s a Google search with links to a number of helpful sites about improving your WiFi range.

Please Delete Me, Let Me Go …

On to P.K.’s next question:

On his iPhone my boss would like to be able to delete call logs individually. It appears that you can only clear the entire page [all calls in your Call History], but not delete individual calls.

You can’t do this natively on the iPhone but luckily lots of third parties have come to the rescue. Here’s the Google search I used to find them. Or, if you have a Mac, you can use the incredibly useful software I use, PhoneView. Only $19.95 (and a free demo to try before buying), and it allows you desktop access to almost everything on your iPhone (including archiving your Visual Voicemail), not just your phone logs. All without jailbreaking, which many of the other apps that do what your boss wants will force you to do.

PhoneView: A simple way to access everything on your iPhone

Have a question about your iPhone or Mac? Try stumping me at carlos (at) cosmicsitcom (dot) com.