Cannot sync mail accounts with iTunes

[Michael Graubart]

I Sync my iPhone 3G (iOS 4.2.1) with my Mac (OS 10.8.5) by means of iTunes.

Until recently I had no sync problems, but a few days ago, though other syncing worked, in Calendar events entered on the Mac no longer synced to the phone. I then went through all sorts of procedures on the Mac (verifying disk, repairing permissions, resetting P.R.A.M., rebuilding entire directory by means of Disk Warrior) and on the phone (re-starting, then re-setting). None of these solved the problem.

Then I used the Terminal command '/System/Library/Frameworks/SyncServices.framework/Versions/A/Resources/resetsy nc.pl full' to reset sync services on the Mac. This corrected the main issue: events entered on the Mac now synced to the phone, but alerts did not.

So I used the last arrow in my quiver, the Terminal command '/System/Library/Frameworks/SyncServices.framework/Versions/A/Resources/resetsy nc.pl full --preserve'.

This finally solved the alerts problem. But now my mail accounts on the phone do not sync to the Mac. In iTunes, the checkbox for 'Sync Mail Accounts' is greyed out. (They used to sync before all this happened.)

Can anyone suggest a solution to the mail-account syncing problem?

Mac mini, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

 

[Michael Graubart]

Astonishing! Half an hour after posting the above, the check box had spontaneously become active and my mail accounts had appeared, ready to be synced!

 

[scifan57]

Maybe your iPhone took so long because of its age and slow processor?

 

[Michael Graubart]

I suppose that could well be so. My phone is certainly slow; but that is measured in, say, tens of seconds. From the time I had finished all that repair work and synced everything else to the time the mail accounts appeared must have been at least 45 or 50 minutes. I wonder if it actually involved some data sent by my phone to BT Internet and Gmail and then data sent back.

At any rate all's well that ends well.