Hi all

Does anyone know if the intention is for MobileMe to sync birthdays because at the moment it doesn't appear to?

Taggy

Greetings, Tagos!
I have all of my family/friend's BDays entered into iCal on my Mac and they've all synced with my iPhone - thank God since my memory is so lousy

I've yet to find an iCal calendar - whether default like BDays or one I create - that doesn't sync with my iPhone or via MobileMe to my other Macs. Have you synced via the "hard-wire" connection between phone and Mac? Are your iCal BDays entered in the "official" BDay slot iCal provides for each contact? Do your other iCal entries sync across your Apple stuff but not the BDay entries?

With a little more info, I'm sure MacOSG can help you solve this problem!

Hi there cjr

I have managed to sync using the hard wire and was able to see the birthdays calendar. However whenever I go back to using mobileme instead of iTunes to sync calendars, all the birthdays dissappear again

Thanks for the reply

Taggy

Taggy, could you please post the specifics of what you're trying to sync iCal to via MobileMe, whether one piece of Apple hardware or more? What is your "primary" device and to what other devices are you trying to sync your data?

Another thing you might want to check is if Address Book is selected in the sync list of MobileMe/.Mac Preferences.

Hi there cjr and Chakris

The specifics are:

1. The birthday details are entered into address book in the normal field.
2. The birthdays show in iCal on my iMac.
3. The birthdays are selected to sync via mobileme.
4. The birthdays are selected to show on mobileme and do so.
5. The birthdays DO NOT show on my iPhone unless I sync through iTunes.
6. If I do sync through iTunes the birthdays arrive but when I return to 'over the air' sync they disappear off the iPhone.

I have also contacted the mobileme support team and awaiting a response from them.

Taggy

Hi all

Well here it is folks ....




Guess I'll have to wait for the 'over air' sync of birthdays

Taggy

Wow, that's an interesting little "quirk," Tagos! I'm glad you contacted the MM team directly because I would never have suspected that.

Honestly, I've never liked how limiting the iCal BDay field is that draws from Address Book entries. For someone with a lousy memory like me, the inability to add a reminder to BDay or Anniversary entries is the biggest problem; I need a reminder about two weeks in advance so I can buy a card or a gift in time!

Anyway, for the key BDays and Anniversaries in my life, I created a separate iCal "Don't Forget!" calendar. Each event is manually set up to reoccur each year with TWO alarms: one two weeks out, the second two days before in case I've dropped the ball... This syncs just like any other iCal calendar and not only would meet your needs now but also offers greater usefulness, so you might give it a shot.

Hey cjr. a while ago I built something in Automator that gives two weeks notice for birthdays. The setup is pretty easy and described in detail here. I used an AppleScript to control which workflows run but you could adapt it to simply run the workflow that reminds you of birthdays in two weeks and run that workflow from iCal.

Full details are in the article along with all the needed parts and pieces. I haven't run it recently but everything should still work.

WOW, good stuff, Sly, and thanks for sharing this with me. I've dabbled with Automator in the past for a few (simple) scripts, but I tend to forget its around and just how powerful it is in the right hands...

Obviously, it would still be easier if iCal just offered alarms on its BDay entries, but I do find this inspiring and might give it a shot. I'll skip the auto email part, though, and see if I can get Automator to automatically go online, locate the perfect gift, buy it and ship it and leave a receipt on my desktop so I know just how thoughtful I am if the recipient thanks me How cool would that be?

And thanks also for confirming that I'm not the only one who might need help remembering BDays! It can't be a coincidence that you wrote a script that offers a two-week-in-advance alarm two years before my post!

I'll get right on that and see what I can do. Might take me all of 24 - 48 hours. Seriously though. Glad you enjoyed the article. I'm hoping to get back to some Automator projects soon.Unfortunately, most of the projects I have thought up are a bit beyond my current skills.

After my post yesterday, I searched for sites offering Automator scripts. Naturally, our favorite fruit company offers a whole section of downloads - going to show just how much I overlook this stuff.

But on the first screen, what do I find? A script to generate a BDay calendar in iCal with alarms... Sort of combines both aspects of what you and I suggested to Taggy, Sly, with a simple GUI. Here's the link:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/a ... hdays.html

Thanks cjr. I see by date on the page that this action has been out since March '08. How did I miss that one?

This might help you: try remote calender additionally... it's easy to use and works without any problems by now! It works on the basis of calDAV and you can sync it with various calendars. Moreover, it is a quite cheap soltution.