Force iSync to reimport Microsoft Exchange contacts

Dec 15, '04 08:14:00AM

Contributed by: CNE

Recently, my iSync got a little whacked out. The iSync on my work G4 Laptop wanted me to remove all my Microsoft Exchange contacts currently installed within Address Book. I let it remove the contacts, thinking that it would repopulate the Address Book. But that didn't happen! iSync would connect correctly to my Exchange server, check both Address Book and Exchange contacts folder, and decide that no changes were necessary -- even though my Address Book was empty!

iSync's sync data must be messed up, I thought. I wanted to trash the sync data and let iSync start anew, but I couldn't find it. Turns out it was stored within the main Library folder, here: /Library -> Application Support -> SyncService -> nnn -> EngineData. The "nnn" is the uid -- an integer number used internally -- of your account. If you don't know the uid of your account, you can find it using NetInfo Manager (in Applications -> Utilities).

I trashed everything within the nnn folder (with iSync off, of course), restarted iSync, and voila! iSync started jiving with Address Book correctly again.

Now, somebody with a little bit more iSync-savvy can explain what within the EngineData folder was messed up; and how trashing the whole nnn folder was overkill. But I'm just happy I got the contacts back in Address Book.

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