Fix Palm HotSync – Mac OS X Palm Desktop Conduit Manager

After certain software updates and/or Mac OS X installs your Palm HotSync may broken. You might have had to Force Quit it because it seems completely stuck. Don’t despair! Here is a fix.

* First off, know that Palm HotSync DOES WORK with Mac OS X 10.5.x Leopard and 10.6.x Snow Leopard. Yes, this really old software that started life as Claris Organizer before being bought by Palm Inc still works 10 years later in Snow Leopard, and the Palm HotSync too.

If your Palm HotSync software tries to launch, bounces in the dock, but is unable to get farther than that, that is the problem we’re talking about here. When I pushed the Sync button on the Palm Centro (or hot sync cradle) the HotSync software in the Mac responded by launching the hotsync manager, which tried, but was unable to launch.

The cure seems to be to remove these 2 files from your home folder;
~/Library/Preferences/Palm Desktop Info
and
~/Library/Preferences/com.palm.HotSync.plist
You can trash them, or if you prefer to be careful, just drag to desktop for now, & trash later. It will make new copies if it needs to. Actually, I’m not sure if you need you remove both of them or just one, but that will fix it, and no harm done.

You might Reboot, just because that is what I did about that time. :-)

Ok, your Palm Hot Sync ought to be operational again. (YAY!) It should launch without problem, and Sync. Expect this 1st sync to take far longer than usual because it is going to do a “slow sync” meaning that it actually compares each & every record in the address book & calendar.

 

2 thoughts on “Fix Palm HotSync – Mac OS X Palm Desktop Conduit Manager

  1. howdy, tried your solution several timesbut it won’t work for me. I’ve got a PalmOne LifeDrive trying to hotsync on a Mac/SnowLeopard-10.6.8. I have successfully hotsynced both devices in the past, just don’t know what is different. I keep getting this message:

    Transport Monitor
    Could not complete your request.
    (-4960)

    do you have any other suggestions I might try? i’ve got alot of info in that LifeDrive that I’d like to transfer over to my new Samsung Galaxy S2.

    Cheers,
    Frank

  2. I just migrated from OS X 10.4 (PPC) to 10.6.8, and couldn’t get HotSync working with my Palm LifeDrive. I found this page, and made one of the changes, i.e. moving “Palm Desktop Info” to a different folder. I did the restart, and this time I was able to HotSync successfully. I no longer have to rush the next migration, which will be from the Palm unit to an Android device. Thanks for your help.

    Thanks and blessings,
    Chris.

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