[elmopri]

I don't know if this will work for anyone else, since I don't know anybody with a Blackberry Pearl, so try it and let me know.

I couldn't sync my BB Pearl with my mac (Powerbook G4). After numerous attempts I assigned a password to the Pearl and turned on the "BlackBerry requires a password" option under the connection tab in the Pocketmac application.

And surprise!!! It worked!!!

I then turned off both the password on the Pearl and the password option in the Pocketmac (witch makes sense, right?) and couldn't get it to sync.

Hope this leads to something.

<k>

[Rio]

Per advice on this page, plug cable in Mac, plug cable in pearl, see error message, unplug and re-plug cable in pearl, launch PocketMac. It was the only thing that worked after a couple of frustrating hours.

[wclyffe]

Originally Posted by Rio

Per advice on this page, plug cable in Mac, plug cable in pearl, see error message, unplug and re-plug cable in pearl, launch PocketMac. It was the only thing that worked after a couple of frustrating hours.

I just wanted to reiterate for all of you, that you have to plug in your Blackberry before starting the Pocketmac 4 application otherwise it cannot find it. It also sounds like the USB port recognition issue will get fixed (eventually). I remember when Palm Desktop (Hotsync) had this same problem syncing with Macs until they addressed the USB port recognition issues. You had to do the same plugging and re-plugging to get it to see the device. Same old game....

[seanr1]

Just joined today... looking for answers to the same issue I have with my Pearl. Anyone ever successfully return the Pearl and got a BB the works with pocketmac? Is the Pearl the only one that doesn't sync?

[edlazarus]

I returned my Pearl after it failed to sync, but the new software has messed it up for my old 7100 as well. It used to work flawlessly, but since downloading the new PocketMac software it doesn't work at all now. About to jump to a Treo since I can't sync any blackberry anymore.

[seanr1]

Well.... reinstalled pm4 and I was able to get ical to load. Nothing happened with my address book, but its a start.

[MattyL147]

i might be an idiot, but i can not figure out how to completely get rid of pocketmac so that i can download and reinstall the newest version. i have deleted all of it but it still wont work when i try to sync my pearl with the new version.

[Tim Koltek]

Originally Posted by MattyL147

i might be an idiot, but i can not figure out how to completely get rid of pocketmac so that i can download and reinstall the newest version. i have deleted all of it but it still wont work when i try to sync my pearl with the new version.

Run the "uninstall"?

[norcalroots]

Here are the steps I've taken to Synch my BlackBerry Pearl 8100 with my Macintosh Powerbook G4.

1. Downloaded PocketMac 4.0.
2. Plugged in Pearl, received power error message, re-plugged in and message did not appear.
3. Opened PocketMac.
4. Conducted Sync and Sync Occured.
5. Synched Pearl with PC (work) successfully
6. Additional synches with Mac have completed with several "overwrite" requests but no contacts have been updated. To troubleshoot I've edited contacts but synch still does not occur. It seems as though no push to Pearl can occur after initial sync on OSX.

I've tried and retried to sync my contacts several times. I've re-installed the software, I've deleted and re-entered contacts with continued unsuccessful synchs.

If there is a step I am missing please let me know. Has anyone else been able to get it to sync once on a Mac but not properly the additional times? In reading through multiple posts it looks as though many users are having the same issues but I haven't seen a definitive answer on how to fix this problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[jeffmcclan]

I finally gave up after many installs and unintalls. Save yourself alot of frustration and accept the fact that PocketMac 4.0 does not work with the 8100.

RIM and PocketMac did themselves a disservice by releasing software that does not work and apparently was not tested. Worse yet, neither company responds to user's bug reports according to other users' posts.

The lack of Mac synch would make me switch away from the BB if it weren't such a great phone. The same with the MacBookPro.

[Tim Koltek]

Originally Posted by jeffmcclan

I finally gave up after many installs and unintalls. Save yourself alot of frustration and accept the fact that PocketMac 4.0 does not work with the 8100.

It's even easier than that... "PocketMac 4.0 does not work" period.

[jdoom]

Actually they do work, just VERY poorly.

I found that to get you ical and address book to sync properly you have to do each one individually. go to the syncmanager and do it once for calendar and once for address book. clumsy but it does work.

I use mac and a PC (just switched to mac and am loving it besides this sync issue) and the PC works just perfectly.

[Tim Koltek]

Originally Posted by jdoom

Actually they do work, just VERY poorly.

I found that to get you ical and address book to sync properly you have to do each one individually. go to the syncmanager and do it once for calendar and once for address book. clumsy but it does work.

I use mac and a PC (just switched to mac and am loving it besides this sync issue) and the PC works just perfectly.

It would actually have to be able to connect to the phone for that to work. As many have reported here it won't connect to a Pearl.

[pete68]

For what is is worth I have:
1) T Mobile Pearl with the newer .64 os
2) Powerbook G4 - OS 10.4.8
3) PocketMac Syncmanager version 1.0.8

I have no trouble connecting to the Pearl. The Pearl seems to like the USB port on the left side of the computer, sometimes on the right port I get the power error.
Seems to work best in this order:
install pocket mac prior and click though what you want to sync first.
1) Connect the cable to the computer Left side usb port.
2) Connect the cable to the Pearl (I have a 1GB SD card so phone mounts as a disk drive at this point) I enabled mass storage in the the preferences of the phone.
3) Open Pocket mac (if you see connecting to the desktop on the phone you are good)
4) Hit sync but don't bother with safari bookmarks because it does not seem to work. I sucessfully use entourage address book, entourage tasks and I-cal.

One other note is that my user account on the mac is the administator account. I did see some of these errors everyone else is seeing at first but the seemed to go away for me. I reinstalled the software once and used the noted connection order.

Hope this helps.

[norcalroots]

What other settings did you use? Would you mind listing out the steps you took?

I tried synching from my 8100 to my Mac and the two devices appear as though they synch but following the completed synch certain contacts do not synch up. My iCal has been synching correctly with both the Mac and PC. I have tried synching it with PM set to both two-way synch and Mac override device and neither seem to work. My other settings and course of events are in this string with the author, "norcalroots" above. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

[pete68]

I had to reinstall pocket mac when I first got the Pearl but I had installed it a couple of weeks prior to look at it before I got the phone. I saw the power messages a few times and that is when I tried different USB ports on the Mac and found that for my Powerbook the one on the left seemed not to cause the power error. The only other thing that is not mentioned in any other post is that I went through my entourage address book on the mac. and "cleaned up" all of the entrys making sure they all had a first and last name and either a phone number or an email address. I am only syncing to the entourage address not the mac address book. I cal seems to work, with the occasional duplicate or loss if I do not pay attention to the warning messages about items that have been deleted on the device or the mac. From what others are saying it seems that having the latest OSX 10.4.8 with all updates is also very important. I have read other people with problems on previous versions of OSX, maybe that's it who knows?

[norcalroots]

Thanks Pete68, it looks as though we can verify that PocketMac works for iCal and Entourage Address Book in the synch process regularly. I've also been able to verify the left (furthest back) USB port does not regularly display the "low power" message. As for Mac Address book, I was able to synch it once but have not been able to do it any additional times. Two work arounds to get my address book onto my Pearl is to transer my contacts from my Mac Address Book to Entourage OR to upload my Mac Address Book contacts into my Outlook Contacts on my PC at work and then transfer. Very tedious but it could be accomplished.

Bottom Line: PocketMac 4.0 does not work properly with BlackBerry's Pearl 8100 on a Macintosh PowerBook G4. Synch can occur with iCal and Entourage Address Book and no other applications regularly or reliably.

[norcalroots]

I was able to sync my Mac Address book with my Pearl 8100 by going into options under the address application on the Pearl and selected "NO" under "Wireless Synchronization." After syncing again, I was able to load all my addresses from my Powerbook to my phone and then turned the sync option to "YES" again. I was able to find this information on the BlackBerry website. The PocketMac program is still terrible but I was finally able to get it to work. Bottom line: this is not an intuitive program at all and requires lots of work to get it to work at all.

[PocketMacAnne]

Hi, it's been a while since this conversation occurred, but I just wanted to stop in and make sure that everyone using a Pearl (8100) and newer devices like the 8800 knows that they work fine with PocketMac, and syncing works fine, and PocketMac has even been able to work around the different type of USB connection that these devices presented (that the Mac itself didn't recognize).

The one issue that can't be worked around right now is the "Wireless Synchronization" setting. RIM has not released a software "key" to allow sync programs to switch off that protection. In fact, if you sync wirelessly with one server, the intention is to block you from syncing from another source without your specific permission. That's why you have to manually turn off that setting. Sorry we can't control that, or even pop up an error message about that, yet. We're working with RIM on a solution to that problem.

In the mean time, I wanted to invite anyone who does experience any problems syncing to make sure you have the latest version of PocketMac for BlackBerry, which you can get directly from the BlackBerry site:

BlackBerry - BlackBerry for Mac

And don't hesitate to contact RIM for support (you can start on the same link) or visit PocketMac directly at PocketMac Tech Support Options | Call Toll Free 1-866-POCK-MAC.

Hope that helps!

[cliffsch]

Originally Posted by PocketMacAnne

I just wanted to stop in and make sure that everyone using a Pearl (8100) and newer devices like the 8800 knows that they work fine with PocketMac, and syncing works fine, and PocketMac has even been able to work around the different type of USB connection that these devices presented (that the Mac itself didn't recognize).

That has not been my experience.

I have the latest PocketMac v.4.0.20, and have spent hours trying to get it to sync my iCal calendars with my brand new Pearl using a USB connection on my PowerMac (v10.4.9). It sync'd my address book right away, but hasn't copied a single calendar entry over.

One thing I don't recall happening with my 7100 (which usually sync'd fine with PocketMac) is that it seems to cause my Pearl to reset (even going through its startup software security verification checks).

Any best practices or tricks to get this to work?