Mac Daniel's Advice

Getting iSync to Work with an Unsupported Cell Phone

Dan Knight - 2005.08.01

Popularity: LEMLEMLEMLEMLEMLEMLEM

Low End Mac Reader Specials

Memory To Go Special: MacPro 8 Core 8GB kit $232 / 4GB kit $116 / 2GB kit $72. New Macbook 2GB DDR3-$65. HARD DRIVES available -- Free shipping / LIfetime warranty.

Download Typestyler, still the Ultimate Styling Tool for Internet, Print and Video Graphics. Works great in Classic with a Native OS X Version on the way. Free Tryout: www.typestyler.com

LA Computer Company: Specials on AppleCare, iMac's, Apple Batteries and Apple A/C Adapters. Also Great prices on Used Apple Computers. Call 1-800-941-7654 Click Here.

Mac users can finally play Party Poker for Mac. Not only that, they can also learn how to play PokerStars for Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, laptops, and LCD TVs side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for a new cell phone GPS products or MP3 players. The Ciao network makes searching products easy for you.

I added a bunch of new phone numbers to my Mac's Address Book over the weekend and ran into problems when I tried to upload them to my cell phone.

That had never happened before. iSync had worked with my old Motorola cell phone via USB, and also with the newer V262. Now iSync couldn't see the phone at all

What had changed?

Tiger. I'd upgraded to Mac OS X 10.4 shortly after it was released, and the new version of iSync couldn't see my phone at all.

About this MacOddly enough, the computer could. To determine that the USB cable hadn't gone bad, I went to the Apple menu and selected About This Mac. Then I clicked on the More Info... button, selected USB in the box on the left, and then selected Motorola V26x - all the information about my cell phone showed up.

I did some Googling and discovered that the Motorola V265 was supported. That's the same phone, but with a camera. I couldn't see any reason for iSync not to work with my V262.

USB detailMore research brought me to the data inside the iSync program itself. By left-clicking (command-clicking for those who still use one-button Apple mice), I was able to examine the contents of the iSync package. Going down several levels, I found the file I needed.

Contents / PlugIns / ApplePhoneConduit.syncdevice / Contents / PlugIns / PhoneModelsSync.phoneplugin / Contents / Resources / MetaClasses.plist

I opened the MetaClasses.plist file in TextWrangler, found the section with data about the Motorola V265, and saw that the vendor ID and product ID were identical for the V265 and V262. Then copied the data, pasted in a second copy, and replaced the three instances of V265 with V262 in the first listing so it looked like this:

<key>com.motorola.V262</key>
    <dict>
        <key>Identification</key>
        <dict>
            <key>com.apple.gmi+gmm</key>
            <string>Motorola CE, Copyright 2000+Motorola V262 Phone</string>
        </dict>
        <key>InheritsFrom</key>
        <array>
            <string>com.motorola.usb.0x22B8/0x2A22</string>
        </array>
        <key>Services</key>
        <array>
            <dict>
                <key>ServiceName</key>
                <string>com.apple.model</string>
                <key>ServiceProperties</key>
                <dict>
                    <key>ModelName</key>
                    <string>V262</string>
                    <key>PhoneIcon</key>
                    <string>MOTV710.tiff</string>
                </dict>
            </dict>
        </array>
    </dict>

And then I could finally synchronize the phone numbers I'd added to Address Book with the ones stored in my cell phone.

If you have a cell phone that isn't officially supported by iSync (and you're far from alone if that's the case), you may be able to make it work. First, determine the vendor ID and product ID of your phone, and then do some research. Maybe there's already another phone in MetaClasses.plist with the same identifiers. If so, you can do what I did.

If not, you'll need to do some more research and identify cell phones that are nearly identical to yours. If it works, cool. If not, you're no further behind than when you started.

Happy hacking! LEM

Not sure if you should upgrade your old Mac or replace it? Check the Mac Daniel index to see if we've already addressed your problem.

Recent Mac Daniel columns

Links for the Day

Recent Content on Low End Mac

Recent Deals

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
  LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
  Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
  Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
  PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
  Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.


Have a question?
Ask an expert!

Navigation

Used Mac Dealers
Apple History
Video Cards
Email Lists
InfoMac's Low
End Mac Forum

Favorite Sites

MacSurfer
MacMinute
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
Macs Only!
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac
   Museum
DealMac
DealsOnTheWeb
Mac2Sell
ramseeker
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End
   Mac FAQ
Abandonware
   Petition
Mac vs. PC Info

Affiliates

The Apple Store
Mac Connection
MacMall
TechRestore
MacResQ
ExperCom
Crucial Memory
batteries.com

Advertise

All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For price quotes and advertising information, please contact at BackBeat Media (646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.

Open Link

Problems viewing this page with Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6? It works fine in other browsers, including IE 7. We recommend Firefox for those using Windows, as it is standards based and more secure than IE 6 (and earlier). More LEM visitors use Firefox than any other browser.