Like me, Gary Deane is a huge mac enthusiast. Recently he upgraded his MacBook Pro to Mac OS 10.5 Leopard. Gary loves Leopard and says its one of the best pieces of software he has ever worked with. But, he is having some problems syncing his Blackberry 8830 with his MacBook. Gary went through so much, trying get a solution to this problem. He e-mailed me these notes on his problems:
“PocketMac (software for Blackberry syncing with Macs) was not recognizing My Blackberry 8830. It gave an error message when Pocket Mac ran.
I called Blackberry technical support but, after 45 minutes on hold, gave up.
He called Verizon Technical support and was told that – w/r/t syncing – they only support Windows computers, not Macintosh computers and ref’d me to Apple.
I called AppleCare talked Linda who transferred me to Mark (in Hardware support!) who transferred me to iApps Help. He said that the new Leopard Program of iSync should be able to do this. S/W “Amy” who told me that iSync doesn’t work with Blackberry phones. She suggested that I contact PocketMac.
Called PocketMac at 866-POCK-MAC [(866) 762-5622] and left a message for “Informational Associates”, Manufacturers of PocketMac. Left a detailed voice mail message regarding their product not working with Leopard and their web site only referring to Tiger O/S. Followed Apple’s suggestion by contact them. PocketMac message at 4:45 PM, 1/4/08, also told me to try e-mailing them at their link on their web site: www.pocketmacsupport.net
Called R.I.M(the company that makes Blackberry phones). They admitted that the currently available version of Pocket Mac for Blackberry (developed by a 3rd party developer with whom Blackberry has a contact) WILL NOT WORK with any MacBrook Pro computer running Leopard. They’ve known about this since Leopard was introduced in October and are still testing a Beta version. Their solution: Find a computer that still has Tiger O/S or go use a PC! A real problem when the most popular phone for Verizon Wireless (Blackberry 8830) will not sync with the most popular/state of the art computer platform (Macintosh running Leopard).
For the time being, I have to double enter everything into the Blackberry and the MacBook Pro.”
After all that Gary had only three options
1) Move back to Tiger
2) Wait for either PocketMac or some other 3rd party vendor to release a stable app for Leopard
3) Get rid of the Blackberry 8830
Gary did not want to move back to Tiger because he loved Leopard so much and he did not want rid of the Blackberry because he loved his phone and did not want to switch.
So Gary is going with #2. He is going to wait and in the meantime, he is going to have to sync his Blackberry manually.
So in conclusion, as of now, Blackberrys are incompatible with Leopard. The Blackberry 8830, one of the most popular Verizon phone is not compatible with second most popular OS in the United States (should be #1). In my opinion this is not apple’s fault. RIM should have software available for download that will allow syncing with Mac’s. Or, they should make there phones so that it is compatible with Macs. If they cannot do any of these things, they will lose a lot of marketshare because now, everyone who is on a mac and looking for a Phone cannot get a Blackberry. Do you know what they will get instead…an iPhone. So my question to RIM “What are you thinking?”
So, do you have a Blackberry? Are you having the same problem with Leopard? Do you have anything that could help Gary with this problem? If so, comment and I will forward your comment directly to Gary.
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January 6th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
I have the same setup. iMac. Leopard. Curve 8830. Just upgraded to Leopard last night. I then reinstalled the latest version of PocketMac. I am able to sync contacts and calendar but unable to sync Notes and Tasks. So it works for the important bits and means that you won’t have to double enter everything for contacts and calendar. I am not sure if you are using Entourage however - that could be the difference.
January 9th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
I have leopard and bb 8300 curve, i used pocketmac and it was a disaster, so i went to use “the missing sync for bb” and workes great, i now sync calendar, address book, tasks, music, photos, notes and even sync files into my bb, try it out, i guess its not a cheap solution, but it works for me.
January 13th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
I just bought a new Mac with Leopard already preinstalled. PocketMac worked fine with my BB 7250. Actually I had one issue, it would hang when synching my todo list to iCal. I cancelled the synch and disabled synching my todo list. I haven’t tried snching it to another application.
January 15th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
I have the same problem. Can sync everything in Leopard except Notes/To Dos from Ical to BB. Using stickies in meantime until RIM gets its act together (option #2). Not impressed and would consider using iPhone now. RIM should be on the ball with OS updates–I mean, you can bet that they were working to make BB snycing work with Vista.
I guess we will wait, meanwhile RIM is telling me that I’m not an important customer and wearing on any loyality I have towards them.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:31 am
I just bought an iMac with Leopard OS 10.5 and have BB 8830 World edition. Frustrated and unable to sync even when limiting to ical and address book when using Pocketmack V4.0. I deleted Pocketmac and loaded The Missing Sync. That also doesn’t work. I tried having ISync find my Blackberry and it couldn’t find the device. Nothing seems to work. What gives? I would put the blame on Blackberry. If someone made this easy, many more people would be happier and would buy the product. My sister returned her bb and got a Treo. Maybe that or the iPhone are the way to go
February 20th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
I have a Powerbook/Leopard/Blackberry 8310. Pre leopard everything Sync’d. Now life is crap. I too paid for Missing Sync and that didn;t work either. There is some kind of calander fix on the Blackberry site, but I couldn’t figure out how to use it or if it was particularly for macs, so I’m at a loss. Waiting for a solution and the iphone is looking shiny and nice, but I’ll wait for the second generation of that I think!
February 29th, 2008 at 10:17 am
I’m MacBook Pro/Office for Mac (Entourage)/Leopard/RIM 8800, and I’m also currently screwed. More specifically, my error messages read “The application EntourageRimNotes (or calendar, or contacts, etc.) quit unexpectedly.
Kudos though to Gabe and the other posters here for achieving what I so rarely, rarely see in blogs or web postings: a clear, easy to read, succinct, and informative review of a specific tech problem. I too am not inclined to give up either Leopard or my 8800, so I’ll wait for #2 as well - but I had the iPhone for a week and gave it up as a lousy business tool (pull technology, not push; crappy system diagnostics; no horizontal keyboard for email, etc etc.) so don’t hold your breath for that as a good business solution.
March 8th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Exactly the same problem here but with Leopard on a G5 and Macbook and a Treo and Missing Sync. Everything synced fine until 10.5.2 then all hell let loose - calendar entries duplicated, some missing, calendars deleted, entries not syncing to .Mac, entries from treo not in iCal, entries in iCal not on Treo or MacBook etc. I have tried everything but nothing seems to work. It must be an iCal syncing issue. Think I’m going back to Tiger on a bootable external drive until this is resolved. Shocking!
March 9th, 2008 at 1:25 am
After trying to work with Missing Sync, I gave up. One of the key reasons was that I seem to have deleted the calendar that syncs with Entourage from iCal and can’t find any way to restore it. I have gone back to PocketMac and it is working perfectly - syncing directly with Entourage calendar, contacts and notes. I don’t use Tasks so am not sure if this works. Now I say it is working perfectly except I still get duplications in the Calendar but think that that is a symptom of needing to clean up Entourage and create one clean file. Before I used PocketMac, I did export an archive of Calendar and Contacts just in case it all went pear shaped. So it can work! Will keep you posted if anything happens to the contrary. (BTW - I am syncing across an iMac and a Mac Book Pro both with Leopard using the Blackberry 8830 to carry the info across.) One last thing, i have been syncing with Entourage open. When I sync with it closed it doesn’t seem to work. There seem to be no clear answers to any of this - but wanted to give you hope!
March 10th, 2008 at 8:10 am
I have an imac intel with leopard and a bb curve. Runs as smoothly as a blocked sink. Like Gary I’m simply gobsmacked by RIM’s apparent unwillingness to cooperate with mac users. As long as the syncing keeps blocking the more BB’s profits will slip down the drain. Extraordinary. Yes RIM, what ARE you thinking?
April 21st, 2008 at 8:51 pm
My Blackberry 8830 running Mac OS Leopard (10.5) will not even sync with Missing Sync!! I bought it primarily to download some iTunes and iPhots pics of my family to my 8830. No luck. Does not connect! Error message after error message. Swing and a miss!
April 25th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
i have a bb8120, pocetmac didn’t recognize it on leapard g5 computer, bought missing sync, now only part of my contacts are syncing for some reason. Ical looks ok so far. frustrating to have a contact name without the phone or email to go with it! no answer from missing sync peeps yet.
April 25th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Pocketmac was great for me pre-leopard. I’ve spent the whole day now trying to find a work around after upgrading the OS. So far, everything I found regarding PM 4.0 is not working as they describe (the utilities, data purge, etc).
Has anyone tried to wipe their BB clean and start from scratch? I thought that might work, but am afraid to try it…
April 26th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
I, too, have had it with RIM and these two awful applications, PocketMac and Missing Sync. What amazes me even more than these lame programs for syncing with a Mac is that there appears to be NO WAY to simply BACK UP your BB to a Mac! I was told almost two years ago, when I bought my 5120 that it was a slam dunk. Baloney! Hog wash! Because I was stuck with this, I made it a point to drive about 20 miles round trip every few weeks to have a Sprint/Nextel store employee back it up to a PC for me. After two years, the BB croaked and the store couldn’t transfer my 1500 contacts. So they tried the backup - it was corrupted! Sprint customer service is bad beyond belief. It’s been a nightmare. I would buy an iPhone in a heartbeat if it was more oriented to a business user: push technology, an easier to use keyboard, and GPS. When that appears, I’m out of here. I helped set up an iPhone for someone else last week and it was so effortless and simple - just launch iTunes and plug it in. Voila. Almost 100% automatic and flawless. Made me want to puke.
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:44 am
Entourage 2008, Leopard, BB Curve and Pocketmac - unable to sync any of my data. Moved data from Entourage to iCal and Address Book but it will not sync between iCal/address book and BB. Wow what a customer service nightmare. What makes me even more angry is that there are no announcements saying when this is targeted to be resolved - if ever. A new BB and new iPhone is due for release - will BB issue new software at the same time for the older model phones.
Thanks for this info so I at least do not waste anymore time on a futile task.
May 8th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
I thought I am the only one having this kind of problem. since I upgraded my macbook os to leopard I cannot sync my blackberry. I hope RIM will fix this problem.
May 13th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Just got off the phone with Verizon and RIM. Couldn’t get MB Pro/Leopard to find media card. Spent 3 hrs on the line (they had me upgrade pocketMac/driver) of course it still doesn’t work but they were super courteous and said they’d look into it. Will post again if they come up with something. Eyeing AT&T/iPhone but their coverage is terrible!
May 25th, 2008 at 6:12 am
Hi,I have had some success with my Intel Macbook Pro /Leopard / Entourage 2004 / Pocket Mac. Calendars and contacts are fine, but i cannot get Tasks and notes to sync at all. I did try installing the driver update from RIM’s website but this actually made it worse and i couldn’t get any sync at all. Removed the driver and Pocket Mac and then reinstalled pocket Mac and got Calendar and contacts back.
May 28th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Got a Blackberry Curve and a new MacBoook Pro. I have spent over 15 hours with Pocketmac, Verizon, and Blackberry tech help and data tech help. NOTHING WORKS. I returned the Blackberry phone (I have 30 days to return the whole thing) thinking it was defective since the MacBook didn’t even SEE the Blackberry. No, it still doesn’t see it, but now it doesn’t even indicate if it is charging when the chord is attached. I had been using Treo with Palm software for years but couldn’t stand the phone. Am at a loss as to what to do, butI don’t have this kind of time to waste with people who must know what is going on, but aren’t honest about it. Has anyone tried to synch Verizon’s VX 6800? Are there any other business options? I also need to be able to download attachments that are mp3’s, and can’t do that either.
June 6th, 2008 at 11:02 am
I have a new MacBook and 8830 too. I downloaded pocketmac sync manager and pocketmac blackberry and still can’t the two to sync. I called verizon, they couldn’t help me. I call Apple and they first sold me a $250 extended support plan before they would let me speak to a tech rep. When I finally got to the tech rep, they said they don’t support third-party devices. Needless to say, I was not happy. The good news: they refunded my money. The bad news: I am still syncless…I will try some of the suggestions above.
June 6th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Blackberry has recently released an updated USB driver for Macintosh/Blackberry that seems to resolve at least some issues.
June 6th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Ed, can you provide everyone with a link?
June 27th, 2008 at 11:19 am
I have been trying to decide whether to upgrade to Leopard on my intel macbook so that I can finally sync my BB Curve (t-mobile). Once there is a link provided I guess I will buy the Leopard upgrade.
But has anyone heard of syncing the BB on mac using Google’s calendar, contacts instead of the mac calendar and contacts? Any ideas if that would work with PocketMac?
Thread above was really helpful to a non-computer whiz like me.
August 9th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
I’m also having trouble with BB 8320 (Curve) and my MacBook Pro running Leopard. The PocketMac software is really bad, but it looks like they’ve made progress on Leopard compatibility,
http://www.pocketmacsupport.net/index.php?section=knowledge&action=view&article_id=88
You can try downloading the new driver from RIM,
August 14th, 2008 at 8:25 am
Why not install Windows XP under Leopard using like Parallels ( not free) or Sun’s Virtual Desktop (free). Install Windows under it and use the proven Blackberry Desktop software with it.
One can install Thunderbird under Windows to get all the contacts/address book and calendar sync with apple mail, ical, addressbook and todo list as well.
Thunderbird is the best way to sync Outlook under Windows with all the Apple apps like mail/ical/addressbook.
Gabe Jacobs reply on August 14th, 2008 8:58 am:
don’t you think its a little bit of a hassle to install windows xp JUST cause your blackberry won’t sync…
August 14th, 2008 at 9:03 am
yes it can be a hassle but it resolves an issue that people with Blackberry’s have and it is proven.
I use pocktemac with Blackberry 8830 and it works though it does not sync the tasks on the Blackberry with the todo list in ical.
My solution was to run XP and go that route thats all.
Gabe Jacobs reply on August 14th, 2008 9:15 am:
Windows xp + parallels or vmware is about $200
I don’t know many people who are willing to spend that unless they think they would benefit from windows in more ways than just being able to sync their blackberry.
I would think people would be more happy with a $200 iPhone…