Spanning Sync Blog

Early Reactions to the Spanning Sync v2.0 Announcement

Our announcement last week that Spanning Sync v2.0 will sync Apple Address Book with Google contacts was very well-received by the Macintosh community:

Chris Foresman at Ars Technica wrote, "This is a feature that many of us at Ars have been dying for. Of course, you can currently export your Gmail contacts and import them on Address Book, but who wants to do that when you can have it happen automagically?"

From The Unofficial Apple Weblog: "It's nice to see Spanning Sync picking up the torch on contacts as the competition on calendaring heats up."

And on The Apple Core on ZDNet, PowerPage's Jason O'Grady wrote, "The best news comes at the very end of the screencast—Spanning Sync v2.0 will be a free upgrade."

But as happy as we are with the press coverage, it's comments like this from our customers that make us know we're on the right track:

When I saw the video this morning, I was more than prepared to purchase a whole new subscription for this. I couldn't believe when I heard you guys say it would be a free upgrade for paid subscribers. WOW.

Remember that while other products charge for upgrades, all Spanning Sync upgrades are always free to paid subscribers. We'll make an announcement soon about the public beta for Spanning Sync v2.0 with contact sync—watch this space.

Preview: Spanning Sync v2.0 Adds Contact Sync

People know Spanning Sync for its ability to sync Apple iCal with Google Calendar. In fact, more than 70,000 people have used Spanning Sync to do just that. But calendars are only one part of the equation.

Our users tell us that they also need to be able to sync their Mac Address Book with their contacts in Gmail and Google Apps. So Spanning Sync 2.0 does both—calendars and contacts.

Here's a quick video preview. Click here for a high-quality version.

Like all Spanning Sync upgrades, version 2.0—with Contact syncing—will be free to all paid subscribers. Watch this space for the announcement of the public beta, coming soon.

Google Calendar Scheduled Downtime: April 17

A Google representative has posted a notice of four hours of planned downtime for Google Calendar tomorrow (April 17):

Just a heads up that Google Calendar will be undergoing routine maintenance between 9:00 AM and 1:00 PM PDT on Thursday, April 17th. This means that you may experience some periodic downtime.

They go on to recommend that users who need access to their calendars during that period should either export them or print them out. Of course, Spanning Sync users won't be able to sync during the downtime, but will still be able to access their iCal calendars.

Spanning Sync on the New Google Solutions Marketplace

Google has revamped their Enterprise Solutions Gallery, relaunching it as the Google Solutions Marketplace, which lists third-party products like Spanning Sync and lets users rate and review them.

If you like Spanning Sync and would like to help support it, please take a few seconds to contribute a short review and give us a few stars at http://spanningsync.com/google-reviews.

Thanks!

[FIXED] Google Calendar Experiences Widespread Outages

Over the lat 72 hours we've heard from an increasing number of users who are unable to access Google Calendar either via the web or using Spanning Sync. The problem isn't limited to Spanning Sync users—many if not all Google Calendar users are affected.

This morning many more users are reporting the issue on the Google Calendar Troubleshooting Group.

There's no word yet from Google as to what the problem could be or when we should expect a fix. We'll post an update here as soon as we learn more.

Update: Google has acknowledged the problem and is working on a fix. (16:32 GMT)

Update 2: We're getting reports from some users that their calendars are now accessible, but Google has again acknowledged that "a subset of users may have difficulty accessing Google Calendar at this time", and is still working on a fix. (20:51 GMT)

Update 3: Google reports that the problem has been fixed. (00:34 GMT)

Our First Anniversary

One year ago today we launched Spanning Sync v1.0, which for the first time ever enabled people to keep their iCal and Google calendars in sync. In a broader sense, it tied together products from the two most innovative companies in the world to make something even more useful.

Since then, more than 65,000 people have synchronized their Apple iCal and Google calendars with Spanning Sync. We're thankful to all of them for using our service, and we're especially thankful to those people who bought subscriptions in the first days after they were made commercially available. (To those customers, look for a special offer in your email inbox.)

It's been an amazing year, but we're not resting on our laurels. We're hard at work on Spanning Sync v2.0, which will add support for syncing Address Book contacts with Gmail and Google Apps. And like all Spanning Sync upgrades, it will be free to paid subscribers.

We're also working on some other exciting developments we haven't yet announced. So stay tuned. It's going to be a great second year.

Upgrading to Spanning Sync v1.2

Given the huge performance gains and other significant improvements in Spanning Sync v1.2, we've decided to take the outdated v1.1 infrastructure offline. All Spanning Sync users are asked to upgrade to Spanning Sync v1.2 as soon as possible to avoid any interruption in service.

To upgrade, just download the new version and run the Installer.

Spanning Sync v1.2 Available, All Users Encouraged to Upgrade

We're very pleased to announce that after an extensive beta period, Spanning Sync v1.2 is now available.

Like all Spanning Sync releases, v1.2 is a free upgrade for all current subscribers and trial users. Everyone is strongly encouraged to upgrade in order to take advantage of the many enhancements and fixes included in this release:

• Extensive updates to both client and server sync engines
• Syncing is up to 5 times faster!
• Events synced from Google Calendar will inherit iCal's default alarm (Leopard only)
• Server-based calendars no longer show up in the Spanning Sync pref pane, since Apple doesn't allow syncing them
• Fixed a problem that could keep the next sync from getting scheduled
• Fixed a problem that could cause detached events to get deleted from Google Calendar
• Fixed a problem with deleting a recurrence in iCal
• Fixed a problem where deleting a single occurrence of a recurring event from Google wouldn't sync until the main event was changed
• Spotlight no longer tries to index the sync log
• The "Don't sync events older than N days" option is no longer needed and has been removed
• Events will now sync properly after moving from one calendar to another in iCal
• Lots of other minor bug fixes

Thanks to the more than 1,000 people who helped us beta test Spanning Sync v1.2! With your help, we've made Spanning Sync v1.2 our best release ever.

Spanning Sync v1.1.x Experiencing Outage, v1.2 Unaffected

We're currently experiencing an outage that is affecting users of Spanning Sync v1.1.x. However, beta users of Spanning Sync v1.2 are unaffected, so while we work on the problem we suggest upgrading to v1.2 Beta (220), which you can download from http://spanningsync.com/beta-download.

I'll update this post when v1.1.x service has been restored.

Thanks,
Charlie

Spanning Sync v1.2 Nearing Release, Build 220 Available for Download

Spanning Sync v1.2 Beta (220) is now available for download, and is recommended for all users. Except for minor cosmetic tweaks, and barring any unforeseen problems, this version will ship as the official v1.2 soon.

In addition to the dramatic increase in performance and numerous bug fixes since v1.1.4, a number of enhancements have been made since the last beta, including a fix for a problem that prevented events from syncing properly after being moved from one calendar to another in iCal.

The download is now a disk image instead of a zip file, so StuffIt Expander users should no longer encounter any problems with installation.

Please report any problems to beta@spanningsync.com. Thanks!

Mac OS X 10.5.2 Fixes Some Bugs, Introduces Others

This week Apple released Mac OS X Update 10.5.2, and while it fixes the notorious Leopard iCal bug present in 10.5 and 10.5.1, it introduces another bug with identical symptoms, plus others:

• Synchronized events are not reflected in iCal
• Endless sync conflicts when syncing with .Mac
• Duplicate calendars

Our Mac software architect Larry Hendricks has posted a comprehensive discussion of the new problems caused by 10.5.2 and their solutions to the Spanning Sync Google Group.

Apple is aware of these issues, which affect not only Spanning Sync but also applications like Plaxo, Entourage, BusySync, and .Mac itself, and is reportedly working on fixes.

We're very optimistic that Apple will fix these problems in Mac OS X 10.5.3, which is rumored to be right around the corner. (Updated 17 Apr 2008)

If you're affected by any of these issues, please follow the procedures described in Larry's post. And as always, please contact us at support@spanningsync.com if you need additional help.

Spanning Sync v1.2 Beta (216) Now Available

For those of you helping with the v1.2 beta program, a new build (216) is available for download at from spanningsync.com/beta-download.

This version fixes a problem that prevented deleted instances of recurring events from being synchronized unless the original event in the series was also modified. It also includes a number of other fixes and improvements.

We've been quietly rolling out new beta versions as we find and fix bugs, but we think we're getting pretty close to a final v1.2 with this build, so please install it and let is know if you find any issues. Remember to send all beta feedback to beta@spanningsync.com. Thanks again to our beta testers!

Please keep in mind that this is a beta, and as such probably has bugs we haven't found yet. The latest shipping version of Spanning Sync (v1.1.4) is available for download at spanningsync.com/download.

One Year Ago Today: Spanning Sync Opens Its First Public Beta

Exactly one year ago today, after a two month private beta period, Spanning Sync entered public beta.

The response was literally overwhelming, forcing us to temporarily close the beta while we worked with our hosting provider to add server capacity. We had no idea how much capacity we might need, and since we were (and are) totally self-funded we didn't have the money to simply lease racks of servers to find out.

Luckily, ServerBeach proposed a solution that would let us overbuild, measure our usage, and then pay for only what we needed. Without their flexibility we might never have gotten off the ground, and for that we will always be appreciative.

Only after we got the additional servers online and reopened the public beta did it become clear just how much demand was actually out there. Our traffic has been growing ever since.

Six weeks later we launched Spanning Sync v1.0.

At the time of this writing, 58,656 people have synchronized their Apple iCal and Google calendars using Spanning Sync. We've learned a lot about iCal and Apple Sync Services, Google Calendar and its API, and managing an online business that's growing at almost 10% per month.

We're hard at work on the next major release of Spanning Sync (v1.2, now in beta) which is highly optimized and will enable us to further accelerate our growth. To everyone who's supported Spanning Sync through our private and public betas and commercial release, thank you.

New Spanning Sync v1.2 Beta Released Amidst Google, PayPal Downtime

It's been a busy couple of days! First off, we've just posted Spanning Sync v1.2 Beta (210). All beta testers should upgrade to this latest release.

On Wednesday, one of Google's datacenters went offline, taking many Google Calendar accounts with it and resulting in many of our users seeing a Spanning Sync error message like the one shown here.

The Google problem was fixed, but was followed by similar problems last night and this morning at PayPal resulting from planned maintenance. Some automated payment notifications to our system were dropped, so if you've paid for Spanning Sync in the last 24 hours but are still seeing the Trial message, please send an email to support@spanningsync.com and we'll update your account.

Update: Spanning Sync v1.2 Beta (213) is now available for download.

v1.2 Beta (208) Available

Thanks to the large and growing number of people helping us beta test the next major release of Spanning Sync, we've found and fixed a number of bugs and made some significant performance improvements. The latest version, Spanning Sync v1.2 Beta (208) is now available for download.

If you'd like to participate in the beta, please download build 208 and report any problems or feedback to beta@spanningsync.com.

As always, the latest shipping version (currently v1.1.4), is available for download at spanningsync.com/download.

If you downloaded v1.2 Beta (207) while it was briefly available this morning, please update to build 208.

v1.2 Beta (205) Available

For those people participating in the Spanning Sync v1.2 Beta, a new version (build 205) has been posted that fixes a "You referenced the following records but did not push them" bug. You can download it here.

Spanning Sync v1.2 Beta Available for Testing

Today we opened the public beta of Spanning Sync v1.2, which includes a largely-rewritten sync engine that's dramatically faster, plus a number of other fixes and enhancements.

If you're willing to help us test it and don't mind running into some bugs, please download Spanning Sync v1.2 Beta (204). If not, please continue using Spanning Sync v1.1.4 until we complete work on v1.2.

What's New in v1.2 Beta

• Major updates to both the client and server sync engines
• Syncing is up to 5 times faster!
• Events synced from Google Calendar will inherit iCal's default alarm (Leopard only)
• Turning on "Don't sync events older than N days" with detached events no longer causes an error
• Server-based calendars no longer show up in the Spanning Sync pref pane, since Apple doesn't allow syncing them
• Fixed a problem that could keep the next sync from getting scheduled

Please keep in mind that this is beta software that includes major changes under the hood and is sure to have bugs. Known issues are listed in the ReadMe, which is also included with the download. We're looking for people to actively help us find those bugs so we can fix them before we release v1.2.

The beta is open to all customers and trial users—just download and install it and sign in with your Google Calendar or Google Apps account name and password.

Please send all bug reports, comments, and suggestions to beta@spanningsync.com. We look forward to a productive beta period leading to a rock-solid release of v1.2, which will be, like all Spanning Sync updates, free to paid subscribers.

Update on the Leopard iCal Sync Bug

We've written about various issues with syncing on Leopard, but many users are still unaware of the most serious Leopard sync bug so we wanted to call it out here.

Put simply, when syncing calendars on Leopard using any sync software—including Spanning Sync—it's possible for the iCal sync program ("iCalExternalSync") to get confused and stop syncing. The primary symptom of this bug is that updated events stop appearing in iCal, but continue to show up in other synchronized devices and applications.

For example, if you use Spanning Sync to sync Google Calendar with iCal and also use iTunes to sync iCal with your iPhone, events from Google Calendar will sync to your iPhone but not to iCal. The bug is fairly rare but can affect any user at any time. And when it does strike, it continues to happen, making it appear that nothing is syncing to iCal at all.

This bug is more likely to happen when you've enabled the "Show Birthdays calendar" option in your iCal preferences. If you are affected by this bug, you may be able to solve the problem simply by disabling this option in iCal. Note that once you do so, you'll still need to "reset info on this computer" in the Spanning Sync pref pane in order to force events to re-sync.

Another fix (although potentially only temporary), is to reset Apple Sync Services:

• Open iSync (in /Applications)
• Select Preferences from the iSync menu
• Click "Reset Sync History..."
• Wait for the reset to finish
• Try syncing again

We've filed this bug with Apple (bug #5597932) and, given the number of people affected by it, are optimistic that it will be fixed in Mac OS X 10.5.2, rumored to be shipping later this month. In the mean time you should:

• Consider this bug before upgrading to Leopard from Tiger
• Make frequent backups of iCal (File > Back up iCal...)
• Disable the Address Book birthday calendar if you think you might be running into the problem

We understand and share the frustration this bug has caused our users—and all Mac users trying to sync their iCal calendars with other devices and applciations. We look forward to a permanent fix from Apple.

Starting Off the New Year with a Bang

Judging from our server logs, nearly everyone returned to work—or at least to their Macs—yesterday. In the last 36 hours we've seen a huge surge in sync activity, free trial downloads, and subscription purchases. To our new and returning customers and trial users, thanks, and welcome back!

The New Year brings with it some exciting new developments, some of which I can talk about publicly, and some of which I can't—at least not yet.

One thing I can talk about is our work on Spanning Sync v1.2, which includes a new sync engine that's up to 5x faster than the engine in v1.1.x, but still includes its comprehensive duplicate prevention features. In the coming weeks, we'll be inviting you to help beta test v1.2 in order to ensure that it's our most reliable release ever. As soon as we've determined that it's rock-solid, we'll release it. And like all updates to Spanning Sync, it will be free to paid subscribers.

We'll also be adding a number of new features to Spanning Sync that we believe will be extremely popular given the requests we've gotten over the past ten months. I'll say more as soon as I'm legally allowed to do so. Let me just say that I think you'll be pleased.

And finally, we're continuing to improve some of the less glamourous but no less important aspects of our service, including customer support. We pride ourselves on providing personal support—often delivered by one of the people who wrote the product itself. We do that using a number of internal tools that help us respond to questions, update account information, and address support issues quickly and correctly. We'll be opening up some of those tools for our customers to use to make using Spanning Sync even easier.

With your help, we hope to make 2008 a banner year. If you have any ideas for how we can make Spanning Sync better, please let us know in comments to this post, via email, or in the discussion group.

Happy New Year!

Remembering What's Important

Two weeks ago one of our customers posted a very moving message to our discussion group, and I've been thinking about it ever since. It's about how something as mundane as software—calendar sync software at that—can make a difference in real people's lives.

Since most of the people who read this blog don't read the discussion group, I'd like to share the message here in its entirety (reproduced with permission):

This is not a support issue, just a post commending this product.

I can't even describe accurately how much Spanning Sync has changed my life, literally. It's been phenomenal, and if anyone is reading this group considering purchase of this product, I can't recommend it enough.

In September of this year, my mom passed away. She was going in for a quadruple bypass, and didn't survive the surgery. Before she went in, she begged me to move in to her home if the worst happened, and take care of my father and grandmother who are both elderly. Pop had a heart attack and double bypass two years ago, and grandma has Alzheimer's.

Needless to say, I agreed.

Now, I'm a father of five, and an IT Manager with an incredibly busy schedule. On top of this, I now have the responsibility of making sure my dad gets to his doctor's appointments on time, and that Grandma is getting to her variety of appointments including Social Security, doctors, and grief counseling. It's simply overwhelming.

There really is no way for me to keep track of everything. If I'm driving down the road when Pop makes an appointment, I have no way to write that down and get it into my calendar later if he calls me with the information. At 86 years old, if he doesn't call me right away, he will forget it, and either way, we're missing an appointment. In steps Spanning Sync. My Pop is a pretty good computer user. He has a Gmail account.

I have set up a couple of calendars for him where he can input his appointments. Those calendars are shared with me. They are synced from Google to my iCal with Spanning Sync, and from there synced to my iPhone.

At any time he can input a new appointment, and within 10 minutes it's synced back to one of my computers... I own 6 different Macs between work and home. Those all get synced together thanks to Spanning Sync, and each night, they sync to my iPhone.

Thanks to this product, my Pop and I can share calendars seamlessly between his PC and my Macs, and at any time I have his appointment schedule at easy access. We set reminders to go off one hour before each appointment, so even if he forgot to tell me about one and I didn't notice it, my iPhone will let me know and I can make a quick adjustment to get him where he needs to be on time. Without this product, I have no idea how I would be able to manage taking care of this many people. In fact, I flatly believe I wouldn't be able to at all.

But with Spanning Sync in my corner, everything gets handled quickly and easily, and I'm always on the same page with the people in my care.

I have expanded this system to include shared calendars with my wife for when bills are due, birthdays, important household tasks, and even the kids school calendars. My whole family remains in sync with my iCal being the hub of it all.

You guys have really saved me the pain of a nervous breakdown. It's not often you can really say a piece of software has changed your life entirely, and for the better, but this one really has, and it's been worth every penny.

It's not often someone tells you that your work has changed his life. We're humbled and incredibly honored. As my partner Larry Hendricks said in his reply, stories like these make all the late nights worth it.

Too often in conversation about computers, software, services, and business, the fact is lost that everyone involved is a real person with a real life. Reading this reminded me that even though I spend much of my day staring into a computer, there are real people on the other end of the network. It made my day to know that something I helped create made someone's life a little more manageable.

Spanning Sync v1.1.4 Now Available

Spanning Sync v1.1.4 is now available for download and includes a number of important fixes:

• Using the "Don't sync events older than N days" feature will now sync recurrences that start before the cutoff
• Fixes a problem where the background sync program would quit if Apple's Sync Server wasn't available
• Fixes a problem where events synced from Google could be missed in certain situations
• Fixes a problem with all day event dates that could affect users in certain time zones
• Fixes a problem where the software update check was getting stale data on Leopard
• Keychain management fixes
• Minor fix to the Swedish translation

All users are encouraged to download and install the upgrade.

As always, if you run into any problems or have any questions please post a message to the discussion group or contact us directly at support@spanningsync.com.

Spanning Sync Passes 10,000 Paid Subscribers, Growth Accelerates

Earlier this month Spanning Sync passed the 10,000 paid subscriber mark—and should reach 11,000 by the end of this week.

To put this in perspective, just ten months ago we were blown away when we opened the public beta and our daily user count jumped from 200 to over 1,000, forcing us to temporarily close the beta so we could add server capacity. (Thanks again to ServerBeach for helping us with that.) We now regularly service over ten times that many users every day.

It can be challenging for a small company to keep up with a large and growing number of customers, but we're committed not just to maintaining the quality of our product and customer support, but to continually improving it.

In September, Peter Koshakji joined our team as our first dedicated customer support engineer. In the coming months we'll be introducing other improvements to our service capabilities, including ways for the software itself to diagnose and fix problems, plus expanded online resources to help people find answers to their questions more quickly. We also have some new features in the pipeline that we think will prove to be very popular.

We're thrilled with the response to Spanning Sync. If you're already a customer, thank you! If not, we invite you to try it free for 15 days and let us know what you think. Either way, you can always contact us at support@spanningsync.com or on the discussion group.

Update: Spanning Sync v1.1.3 and Mac OS X 10.5.1

Since Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" and Spanning Sync v1.1 shipped three weeks ago, we've learned a lot about some undocumented changes—and a few serious bugs—in Leopard Sync Services and iCal. We've moved quickly to adapt, releasing three updates in rapid succession, the latest of which is Spanning Sync v1.1.3. If you haven't upgraded, please do so now.

We've been able to address almost all of the issues Leopard users have reported, including high CPU and memory usage, "referenced but did not push" errors, and false Delete Protection warnings. The biggest remaining issue involves a bug in iCal that causes it to become "stuck" and not properly reflect changes made in Google Calendar.

Some users have reported that disabling the Address Book Birthday calendar fixes this problem, while others have had success resetting their sync history as described here.

Apple is aware of the iCal bug causing this problem (Apple bug #5597932) and we're optimistic we'll see a permanent fix soon. Until then please be advised that Leopard iCal may not reliably reflect synchronized calendar events.

Spanning Sync v1.1.3 Now Available

Spanning Sync v1.1.3 is now available for download and includes a number of important fixes:

• Fixes a problem where lengthy syncs would fail
• Greatly reduces memory usage when syncing large calendars
• Eliminates a "referenced without syncing" exception that could happen after resetting Apple Sync Services
• Fixes a problem where the sync would repeat twice in a row unnecessarily
• Fixes a crash that could happen when running Mac OS X in Japanese
• In Leopard, allows syncing of the Birthday calendar from Address Book, CalDAV calendars, and subscribed calendars
• Eliminates a false delete protection alert
• Fixes a problem with Google passwords containing a "=" character
• Spanning Sync no longer appears to be "not responding" in Activity Monitor when syncing large calendars

Please note that Leopard Sync Services and iCal continue to exhibit some unpredictable behavior, leading to some events not syncing reliably. We're working directly with Apple to help them find and fix the problems and are optimistic that syncing on Leopard will soon be as reliable as syncing on Tiger. Watch this space for more information as it becomes available to us.

As always, if you run into any problems or have any questions please contact us at support@spanningsync.com.

The State of Spanning Sync: 10 Days After Leopard

The past ten days—since Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" shipped—has been a tumultuous time for Spanning Sync and our users. I want to take a moment to let everyone know what's going on, what works, what may not, and how we recommend our customers proceed.

The Short Version

• Some early users of Leopard and Spanning Sync v1.0.5 lost data, but we have been able to recover it for everyone who has contacted us
• Spanning Sync v1.1.2 is now available, addresses the most serious issues we've seen with Leopard, and is a mandatory upgrade
• To reduce CPU utilization, enable the "Don't sync events older than [ ] days" option in the "Advanced" settings
• We're still seeing unusual behavior from Leopard Sync Services and iCal, leading to inconsistent sync results
• Leopard users should make frequent backups and should not rely solely on Spanning Sync for important data until Apple makes bug fixes available for Sync Services and iCal

The Detailed Version

Mere hours before FedEx trucks started delivering Leopard DVD's on October 26 we shipped Spanning Sync v1.1, which not only added Leopard support but also included dramatic improvements to our duplicate event detection and prevention code and a new "delete protection" feature that would alert users before deleting significant numbers of events from either iCal or Google Calendar. Dozens of users running pre-release versions of Leopard had beta tested v1.1 for several weeks, and we were confident it would be our best upgrade yet. But a bug in the shipping version of Leopard Sync Services caused what could have been catastrophic data loss for some of our early adopters.

Several users reasonably enough upgraded their Macs to Leopard before upgrading Spanning Sync to v1.1. Immediately following the upgrade, Leopard Sync Services incorrectly reported to Spanning Sync that the user had deleted all of his events in iCal. Users who had upgraded to Spanning Sync v1.1 saw the delete protection warning and were able to cancel the sync. But the older version of Spanning Sync lacked this feature and dutifully followed the instructions it was given, deleting all of the user's Google calendar events. On the next sync, those deletions were synchronized back to iCal, deleting all of the events there.

Once we realized what was happening we made v1.1 a mandatory upgrade and disabled server support for older versions so that no user could be affected by this problem without seeing the delete protection warning. Then we went to work on a solution that would restore the affected events. Within days, we had worked directly with every customer who contacted us. To a person, they were gracious, patient, and understanding under difficult circumstances. To those people, thank you. I'm glad to report that we were able to completely restore all of their deleted events. We soon released v1.1.1, which added an automatic backup of all iCal calendars upon installation as well as other minor enhancements.

Over the next few days we received reports (in email to support@spanningsync.com and on the discussion forum) of various other issues, including syncs never completing, high CPU usage, and missing events. To mitigate these problems, we've released Spanning Sync v1.1.2, which is smarter about scheduling re-sync attempts after problems are encountered. Since this release consumes not only fewer resources on your Mac but also fewer server resources, we've made it a mandatory upgrade, resulting in improved performance for all users. Another version that fixes a crashing bug affecting Japanese systems will be available soon.

To further improve performance, we recommend that users with large calendars enable the "Don't sync events older than [ ] days" option in the "Advanced" settings, a new feature in v1.1.x.

Unfortunately, several important problems—including missing events and high CPU utilization—are still being caused by Leopard Sync Services and/or iCal 3.0. We're seeing events successfully synchronized from Google Calendar to Sync Services but failing to show up in iCal for several hours if at all. Changes in iCal are not immediately reflected in Sync Services, leading to inconsistent sync states. And some Sync Services operations appear to be extremely inefficient, leading to very high CPU utilization, especially on initial syncs.

We're working closely with Apple on these problems and are optimistic they'll be fixed soon. In the mean time however, we recommend that Leopard users make regular backups and not rely solely on Spanning Sync for important data until Apple makes bug fixes available for Sync Services and iCal.

We've heard from many customers that Spanning Sync is a crucial part of their professional and personal lives, and we take that responsibility very seriously. We're working as hard and as quickly as we can to make Spanning Sync as reliable and transparent as its has historically been. While we work toward that goal, we ask that if you have any questions or comments you let us know by commenting here or posting to the discussion forum. Please direct specific support requests to support@spanningsync.com.

Thanks,
Charlie

Spanning Sync v1.1.1 Now Available

Several users have encountered a serious bug in Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" Apple Sync Services resulting in data loss. After much research with the generous help of several people who've experienced this problem, we've done several things to make sure that no more users experience data loss. Specifically:

• We've posted Spanning Sync v1.1.1 as an optional upgrade for people who have already installed v1.1 and a mandatory upgrade for v1.0.5 users. It includes automatic iCal database backup on installation and several other important enhancements. For more information, please see the ReadMe.
• Since the problem affected users upgrading to OS X 10.5 while still using Spanning Sync v1.0.5, that version has been disabled, will no longer sync, and can therefore no longer be affected by the sporadic Sync Services bug that tells it to delete all events. Spanning Sync v1.1.x will still get the notification from Sync Services, but will confirm with the user before performing the deletes. Users presented with this confirmation dialog should disallow the sync operation.
• We're working closely with the Apple Sync Services team to isolate and fix the underlying bug that caused this problem.

In addition to these preventative measures, we're working with those people whose events were deleted to recover them. I'll post more about that later today.

Please let us know if you have any questions or run into any problems by emailing us at support@spanningsync.com.

IMPORTANT: Upgrade to Spanning Sync v1.1 Before Upgrading to Leopard to Avoid Data Loss

Several users have encountered a serious bug in Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" Apple Sync Services resulting in data loss. To avoid this problem, please upgrade to Spanning Sync v1.1 before upgrading to Leopard.

To ensure a smooth upgrade, please perform these steps before upgrading to Leopard:

1. Back up your iCal database. In iCal, select "File > Back up Database..." This only takes a few seconds and can save hours of work if something goes wrong during your upgrade.
2. Upgrade to Spanning Sync v1.1 before upgrading to Leopard
3. If you're presented with a dialog box asking for authorization to delete lots of events, do not allow the sync to continue

For more information about this problem please see this discussion forum post by our client software architect Larry Hendricks.

We've also discovered a problem with server resets and Aged Event Filtering. To avoid it, do not perform a server reset ("Reset...", "Replace info on Google Calendar") while using the "Do not sync events older than [ ] days" option. This problem will be fixed in Spanning Sync v1.1.1, which will be made available soon.

Leopard-Compatible Spanning Sync v1.1 Now Available

Spanning Sync v1.1 is now available for download and includes many important fixes and enhancements, including compatibility with Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard".

This release is our biggest, and we believe best, update yet. It reflects months of development work and incorporates feedback from hundreds of users. Thanks to everyone who has suggested enhancements and helped us diagnose and fix problems.

What's New in 1.1

• Compatibility with Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard"
• Improved privacy and security
• Improved protection against duplicate event creation
• Delete protection
• Better support for multi-Mac setups
• Aged event filtering
• Various UI enhancements and bug fixes

As with any major upgrade, we recommend you back up your data before installing as described in the ReadMe. And as always, if you run into any problems please email us at support@spanningsync.com. And thanks again for supporting Spanning Sync!

Spanning Sync Adds 9,000th Paid Subscriber

On October 22 at 9:27am CDT (1427 GMT), John D. A. LaRose purchased a one year Spanning Sync subscription and became our 9,000th paid subscriber.

I contacted John and asked him why he decided to buy Spanning Sync. Here's what he said:

I gave Spanning Sync a shot about four weeks ago, and liked the simplicity of the interface and setup.

It's a critical tool for keeping my schedule synchronized between gCal, iCal, and my iPhone. Since I work in a Windows environment (ick) at the office and have a pretty ridiculous schedule, having reliable synchronicity among those three calendars is pretty clutch for me.

I was pretty thrilled when I came across Spanning Sync, and hope that you guys keep rocking it out as well as you have been.

Much thanks to John and the thousands of other Spanning Sync customers! We're working every day to make Spanning Sync even better.

Later this week we'll be announcing the availability of our biggest update yet: Spanning Sync v1.1, which includes support for Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" and adds a number of other enhancements. It's our biggest upgrade since we launched seven months ago. As always, all upgrades—both major and minor—are free for the term of your subscription.

Watch for the announcement here on the Spanning Sync Blog.

Service Restored After Outage

This morning at 9:55am CDT (1355 GMT) our hosting provider suffered a systemwide outage, but by 2:03pm (1903 GMT) all of our servers were back online and operational.

Users trying to access the system during the outage saw the error message, "An unknown error occurred. Please check your network settings." If you're still seeing this message in the Spanning Sync preference pane, please quit and reopen System Preferences, then click on the Spanning Sync icon.

If you have any questions or run into any problems, please email us at support@spanningsync.com.

Thanks,
Charlie