Solving Synchronization Connection Problems

This is an excerpt from the troubleshooting appendix of Michael E. Cohen’s “Take Control of Syncing in Tiger,” a $10 ebook published by Take Control Books and available through the Small Dog Web site at:

http://www.smalldog.com/tcebooks/control_syncingtiger.html

Syncing involves a variety of different programs and devices all working together. Any one of the actors in this syncing drama can, metaphorically, forget or flub a line or miss an entrance: when that happens, syncs won’t work right.

To sync two or more devices, you have to connect them, so when a sync fails, the connection is one of the first things I check. As I describe in more detail in “Connect Your Gear” in the full ebook, connections can be wired or wireless, and they can be direct between devices or established over a network. Adapt the following advice to the way you connect your syncing devices.

First question: Is everything plugged in? Cables, whether Ethernet, FireWire, modem, or USB, sometimes magically pull loose just enough to cause all sorts of havoc. Even when you know in your heart of hearts that everything’s plugged in, take the time to check the cables: sometimes your heart can be wrong.

Second question: Is everything turned on? Yes, this is a no-brainer. Check anyway. I once spent half an hour wondering why I couldn’t sync my Mac with my mobile phone until I realized that I had turned Bluetooth off on my Mac a few days earlier. (Yes, the Bluetooth status menu was visible; no, I didn’t notice it was dimmed.)

Third question: Is everything operating? Even when everything is plugged in and turned on, that doesn’t mean that everything is working smoothly. The following list describes some common potholes you might encounter on your own personal information superhighway:

Network hubs and routers: Wired network connections usually run from your Mac to a router or Ethernet hub. Check to make sure that these network devices are receiving power and operating normally. Check the lights: most network devices have lights for each port, and those lights usually blink when they receive data. If the lights aren’t blinking, it could indicate that the device’s built-in software may be hung up. Restarting the network device often fixes the problem.

Wireless routers: These devices, such as Apple’s AirPort Express Base Station, also run built-in software that can hang, just like wired routers. Check the lights on wireless routers, too. Restarting a wireless router may be all it takes to fix things.

Service outages: When you sync over an Internet connection, sometimes everything where you are works fine—the problem is far away. Not too long ago, I spent an afternoon laboriously rebuilding my iDisk because I thought I had fouled something up while I was experimenting with iDisk settings for this book. It turned out that .Mac, in fact, had a brief outage that afternoon. If I had just waited until Apple fixed the problem, or even checked Apple’s .Mac Web site, I could have avoided my iDisk rebuilding efforts. The moral here is simple: when you have a problem with syncing over the Internet, confirm that there isn’t a service outage before you start taking more drastic measures.

Bluetooth: If you use Bluetooth to connect, make sure the devices that need to be paired are paired, and that the ones that need to be discoverable are discoverable: Connect with Bluetooth describes discovery and pairing in more detail.

USB hubs: Ports on an external USB hub can sometimes become inoperative, leaving the device you’ve plugged into it unable to communicate with your Mac. Reasons for this can vary; I’ve seen hubs go deaf when I’ve woken a Mac from sleep or restarted the Mac, and I’ve seen hubs go deaf after running particular programs. Whatever the reason, in many cases simply unplugging the hub and plugging it back in brings everything back to life. Occasionally, powering a connected device down and then starting it up again does the trick.