iSync or iPod synchronization: SyncServer goes crazy

Suddenly, from one second to the other, I couldn't successfully synchronize my iPod or my mobile phone, with my Mac anymore. During the synchronization process the SyncServer background process went crazy and started generating very high CPU-load without ever terminating.

I don't know what caused this problem but I have finally found a hack that fixed the problem for me. I would like to share this hack with you, although you should keep in mind that you are fiddling with the guts of the SyncServicees here. Backup your data first!

  1. rename or delete your ~/Library/Application Support/SyncServices folder. I suggest, that you just rename the folder, hence you can revert to the old version if anything goes wrong.
  2. reboot your computer
  3. initiate a synchronization process. This causes SyncServices to build a clean version of the ~/Library/Application Support/SyncServices folder. Now iSync and iPod synchronization should work again.
Written May 25th, 2007