Spanning Sync Beta Blog

Spanning Sync v3.0.2 Out of Beta

Thanks to everyone who helped with the quick beta. Spanning Sync v3.0.2 is now available!

Spanning Sync 3.0.2 beta testing…and free stuff!

We usually have a beta test period for our client software before releasing it to the general public, and while we know that many of you download the beta versions, we don't actually end up hearing from most testers. With v3.0.2 we're going to try something new. If you download the v3.0.2 beta, try it out, and send us at least one "beta report", then we'll give you a complimentary Spanning Tools for Mac license. It's not a lot of work, you get the newest version with the latest fixes, you help other users by (potentially) finding bugs, and you get free stuff. Slam dunk! At least we hope so.

So what's a "beta report"? Simple: If something goes wrong, tell us what happened (in most cases along with a troubleshooting report from the Advanced tab of the pref pane). If all went swimmingly, tell us what you tried. Beta reports should be sent to beta@spanningsync.com. Known issues are covered in the User's Guide. We don't need to know about those :-)

Here's the link to download the beta:

https://secure.spanningsync.com/downloads/spanningsync-3-0-2-beta.zip

Here's what changed in v3.0.2:

• Removing a recurrence rule's "until" date from Google Calendar now syncs to iCal
• Fixed a problem that could cause the sync to loop if the "sync events older than N days" option was on
• Changing an event so that it's not "all day" wasn't syncing in some cases
• Trickle syncs are faster
• Exchange calendars will sync as read-only
• CalDAV calendars weren't showing up as read-only, now they are
• The sync app was crashing in some cases
• Trickle syncs are now delayed by 10 seconds and coalesced
• Contact "Department" properties were being deleted unexpectedly

We're hoping the beta period can be a quick one, so try to send your reports by Sunday night.

To recap, the rules:

1. Send a beta report, get a free copy of Spanning Tools for Mac
2. Reports must be received by Sunday 9/20 at 11:59PM, EDT
3. No more than one free license per user
4. Reports must be from the most recent available version
5. No freebies given out after the beta period ends

Thanks!
Larry

Spanning Sync 3.0 Beta 2 Now Available

Spanning Sync v3.0 Beta 2 is now available for testing!

What's New in v3 Beta 2:

• Snow Leopard and Leopard compatibility (Tiger users should continue to use Spanning Sync v2.1.3)
• Fixed messages being replicated in the user log
• The sync app could crash if the notifier wasn't running
• Fixed a problem with alarm syncing
• Fixed a problem where the pref pane wouldn't completely load immediately after an upgrade
• Fixed a problem with contact group filtering and sync batching
• Eliminated common cause of "** Couldn't load Info.plist..." logs
• In some cases starting a sync would silently fail
• Added support for syncing the deletion of certain properties (like birthdays) from Google to the Mac

Existing beta users will be prompted to upgrade the next time they open the Spanning Sync pref pane. New users can manually download and install the beta from spanningsync.com/beta-download.

Before installing the new beta please quit System Preferences.

Please continue to send all beta bug reports and feedback to beta@spanningsync.com. Thanks!

Beta Update

Thanks to the hundreds of people participating in the Spanning Sync v3.0 beta, we've found and fixed a number of bugs and are making steady progress toward releasing the final product early next month.

Fixed a server-side bug that allowed duplicate contacts

A last-minute server-side bug sneaked in that allowed duplicate contacts to be created in Google. It's now been fixed.

If you have duplicate contacts in Google but none in Address Book, you can clean them up by replacing contact data on Google (Advanced > Replace Data on Google > Contacts), but remember that doing so will wipe out your Gtalk chat lists and group information in Google Contacts.

If you need to clean up duplicates in Address Book first, you can use its built-in feature (Address Book > Card > Look for duplicates) or the more powerful Contacts Cleaner in Spanning Tools for Mac.

Spanning Sync 3 Beta 1 Now Available

After months of development and testing, we're happy to announce the first beta release of Spanning Sync 3, available for download now at spanningsync.com/beta-download.

If you're like me you won't read the ReadMe, so here are the five things you absolutely must know:

1. This is a beta. That means there are bugs. Back up your data before you use it.
2. You must quit System Preferences before installing the beta. Then just double-click the Spanning Sync.prefPane included in the download. (If you forget to quit System Preferences first, it will hang when you first launch Spanning Sync—just quit and reopen System Preferences, then reopen Spanning Sync.)
3. Some defaults have changed, so make sure you're happy with them before your first sync.
4. Your first sync will be a refresh sync, so it will take longer than usual. Be patient.
5. There's lots of cool new stuff. Keep reading.

What's New in Spanning Sync 3 Beta 1

• Event alarm syncing
• Customizable alarm types
• Syncs more contact properties, including birthday and nickname
• One-way syncing option for both contacts and calendars
• Option not to sync older calendar events
• One-way syncing for CalDAV calendars
• Much faster sync times
• Reduced memory usage
• Easier installation process
• Uses Sparkle for software updates
• Makes full use of Google's Contact Data API v3.0
• Bug fixes

To those of you willing to help us beta test—that is, to find the bugs we assume are there but which we haven't been able to find yet—thanks! We look forward to getting your feedback, either via email at beta@spanningsync.com or through our new ZenDesk-powered customer support system.

If you're not comfortable running beta software on your most important data (I know, who wouldn't be, right?) just hang tight for now and we'll let you know when it's safe to jump in the pool. Until then here's a sneak peek at some of the new features in the UI:

New Beta of Spanning Tools for Mac Available

A new beta version of Spanning Tools for Mac is available with lots of bug fixes and features you've asked for.

Note: We've changed the names of two of the apps. Sparkle can't auto-update those (see their bug #228447) so please download the most recent version (0.61) manually here.

Here are the changes:

Contacts Cleaner:

• Existing organization names are no longer lost when resolution is "reformat name".
• Existing person names are no longer lost when resolution is "convert to company".
• More info is provided in the preview area when deleting contacts.
• The icon for businesses is fixed.
• Merging is now a possible resolution for duplicates.
• Added option to "Ignore Similar Conflicts".
• Fixed some minor problems with backups.

Calendar Cleaner:

• Changed the name of the app (from iCal Cleaner).
• More info is provided in the preview area when deleting events.
• Merging is now a possible resolution for duplicates.
• Added option to "Ignore Similar Conflicts".
• Remembers "calendars to scan" selections.
• Added the option to delete older calendar events.
• Fixed some minor problems with backups.

Sync Tune-Up

• Changed the name of the app (from Sync Toolbox).

Please send bug reports and feedback to beta@spanningtools.com.

Spanning Tools for Mac (Beta)

Hi all, Larry here. It's hard to believe, but here at Spanning Sync we've been working on sync software for nearly three years! During that time, we've learned some lessons about the nature of the data that our customers sync like contacts and calendar events, and the problems that they sometimes run into.

First, most people just aren't very good at keeping their contacts and calendars organized. Open up your Address Book, or perhaps that of a friend or family member, and you're very likely to find duplicated entries, contacts with names in the wrong fields, mislabeled contacts…the list goes on. And who can blame us? Our lives are busy and complicated.

Second, sync software is generally not very good at dealing with bad data. We're proud to say that Spanning Sync is currently (as far as we know) the only sync product on the market with active duplicate prevention on both ends. If you find a duplicated calendar event or contact on your Mac or on Google, chances are slim that Spanning Sync put it there (barring Google Calendar time zone bugs; sorry New Zealand!). That said, once duplicates find their way into your calendars and contacts, all sync software has the potential to act like a virus and propagate these inconsistencies to every device and app that you sync with.

Clearly, these two facts can lead to a "perfect storm" of sync destruction which we sometimes find when helping our customers resolve various issues. When we find such issues, we refer our customers to useful utilities such as iCal Dupe Deleter and/or recommend a data cleanup that entails hours of tedious preening inside iCal and Address Book.

That is, until now. Today we're announcing Spanning Tools for Mac, a suite of utilities that analyzes, reports, and fixes dozens of problems with iCal, Address Book, and Apple Sync Services — problems ranging from the obvious, such as duplicated calendar events, to the subtle, such as invalid calendar dates and poorly formatted contact names.

We're going to kick things off with a public beta, which you can download right now from this download link. We'd appreciate hearing about any problems you run into or any enhancements you'd like to see. Just drop us an email at beta@spanningtools.com.

Thank You for All Your Help!

Now that Spanning Sync v2.0 is out of beta, we'd like to thank you for your tremendous help. This has been our most extensive beta program ever, with thousands of people participating and giving invaluable feedback. With your help, we believe this is our best release ever.

Thank you!

Build 356 Now Available

Note that the auto-update feature of previous Release Candidate builds won't recognize this build so please download and install it manually.

What's New in Build 356:

• In order to minimize conflicts with Address Book, no longer syncs the "primary email address" property
• Small changes to German translation

Spanning Sync v2.0 Release Candidate 3 (354) Now Available

Note that the auto-update feature won't recognize this build so beta testers will need to download and install it manually.

What's New in Build 354:

• Added checking for mutant detached events, which can keep a sync from ever ending
• Makes sure MobileMe doesn't try to sync our preferences to other computers
• Prevents street address conflicts with MobileMe

Spanning Sync v2.0 Release Candidate 2 (353) Now Available

Thanks to some patient beta testers, we've tracked down and fixed a couple of key issues.

What's New in Build 353:

• Fixed a problem that could cause postal addresses to be duplicated
• Fixed several localization issues
• Fixed a couple of issues that could cause the sync to abort with a "you referenced without pushing" error
• Eliminated a "-[NSCFDictionary setObject:forKey:]: attempt to insert nil key" exception
• When signing out, the user's data is deleted to prevent problems if the user signs in with a different Google account

Note that the auto-update feature won't recognize this build so beta testers will need to download and install it manually.

Spanning Sync v2.0 Release Candidate (352) Available

What's New in Build 352:

• Fixed an issue with the delete protection alert
• Fixed several problems with the German translation
• Added French translation
• Release Candidate!

Barring any unforeseen problems or last-minute changes, this build will become Spanning Sync v2.0. Please give it a thorough thrashing and let us know if you find any problems.

Added Support for Canadian Postal Codes

Until now, unstructured Canadian addresses on Google weren't properly parsed by Spanning Sync. Now they are—or at least we think they are. If you have any Canadian contacts, please try this test:

• Make some small change to a Canadian addresses on Google
• Sync
• Check the contact in Address Book to see if the address looks right

We'll improve postal address parsing for other countries as we get feedback from our users.

Spanning Sync v2.0 Nearing Release

Last night we pushed a few more small server-side changes that affect Contact sync. Now we're just waiting on some localizations before we issue a release candidate (RC1) client. If no new issues show up with RC1, it will become the official 2.0.

Once RC1 is released, I'll be asking all of our beta participants to use it and look carefully for any bugs. Look for another post here shortly.

Contact Sync Improvements

This afternoon we pushed a set of server-side changes that improve contact syncing:

• Added support for prefixes and suffixes in contact names (e.g., "Dr.", "Ph.D.", etc.)
• Improved "best-guess" name parsing

Build 351 Now Available

What's New in Build 351

• Added German translation
• Fixed a problem with the Japanese translation
• Fixed a problem with contact group syncing that could cause the sync to fail

More Server-Side Fixes

A few more server-side updates this afternoon:

• Fixed a problem where syncing Address Book contacts updated to include an email address used by an existing Google contact would fail silently
• Fixed a problem that was preventing Company and Title contact fields from syncing from Google to Address Book

Name-Based Contact Duplicate Detection Now Enabled

Since Google Contacts disallows multiple contacts with the same email address, duplicates usually aren't an issue. But contacts without an email address can become duplicated under some circumstances, so we've just enabled a server-side feature that should help prevent that from happening.

If you have duplicate contacts in Google but not in Address Book, and if Address Book has all of your contacts, you can perform a server reset (Advanced > Replace Data on Google > Contacts) to get rid of the dupes. Note that this will remove any group information or other "extra" information from your Google contacts that isn't stored in Address Book.

Build 350 Now Available

Note: There's a bug in build 349 that prevents the auto-update feature from working correctly, so please download the latest build manually from spanningsync.com/beta-download and install it.

What's New in Build 350

Fixed two error exceptions that could cause some items not to sync

In Leopard, alarms will no longer be created for iCal calendars whose "ignore alarms" preference is set

Japanese localization is included

Software update download progress bar is more accurate

Fixed software update problem in Leopard

Build 349 Now Available

What's New in Build 349

• Fixes some causes of the "you referenced a relationship without pushing it" error
• Better handling of deleted detached events
• In Leopard, future updates will be saved to the Downloads folder

Spanning Sync v2.0 Implements "Push" Sync from Mac to Google

While Apple is still trying to figure out how to get MobileMe to push from Macs to the cloud, Spanning Sync v2.0b is already doing it, and has ever since Build 344.

Our marketing skills don't quite match those of Cupertino, so we called the feature by its technical name—"trickle sync"—but the idea is the same. Whenever you make changes to your calendars and/or contacts on your Mac, Spanning Sync v2.0 will immediately push those changes to Google (unless you have your sync interval set to "Manual").

Please note that Google doesn't currently provide the notifications necessary to enable "push" functionality from Google back to your Mac, so Spanning Sync will still poll for changes at the interval you set in the pref pane. We're lobbying Google to add notifications so we could add true two-way push to a future version of Spanning Sync. Stay tuned.

Build 348 Now Available

What's New in Build 348

• Spanning Sync can now be installed for non-admin users
• Fixed a problem that could cause the sync to stall and never end
• Improvements to the "create troubleshooting report" system
• Improvements to the delete protection alert

Build 347 Now Available

What's New in Build 347

• Fixed a problem where the software couldn't refresh-sync one type of data without refresh-syncing all of them.

Build 346 Now Available

What's New in Build 346

• Dramatically improved network performance
• Fixed a problem that was briefly rejecting some logins

Build 345 Now Available

What's New in Build 345

• Don't trickle sync when schedule is set to manual.
• Don't allow pairing multiple iCals to a single gCal when there is only one gCal.
• A problem with the pulled record sorting algorithm was causing an "inconsistent data" alert.
• Added a default to disable trickle syncing.

Build 344 Now Available

What's New in Build 344:

• The pref pane detects the the Logitech Control Center hack and displays an alert to the user.
• Trickle syncing! Changes in iCal and Address Book are synced automatically as they're made.

Build 342 Available - Please Upgrade ASAP

The last build introduced a problem that prevented some users from completing a sync. The fix for that problem along with several other improvements is included in Spanning Sync v2.0b Build 342, which is now available for download. All beta users are encouraged to upgrade as soon as possible.

What's New in Build 342

• Fixes some causes of the "you referenced a relationship without pushing it" error
• Fixes the "inconsistent data" alert that Apple Sync Services would display in some cases
• Prevents all contacts from being deleted from Google when syncing with contact syncing turned off and choosing to replace contact data

Thanks!
Charlie

Build 339 Available (338, we hardly knew ye!)

What's New in Build 339

• Improvements to user logging
• Better handling of detached calendar events
• Fixed two causes of "you referenced without pushing errors" which could abort the sync

Build 338 Now Available

Spanning Sync v2.0b (338) is now available for download.

What's New in Build 338

• Addresses another cause of "referenced without pushing" errors involving calendar items
• Fixes a namespace problem with Google Calendar entries