Thursday, July 22, 2010

Fix Windows Live Sync Beta for Mac "There is a Problem..." Error


Microsoft recently announced that it will be rolling up it's online synchronization service Live Mesh into Windows Live Sync. I've been using the Windows Live Sync beta for Mac for the last week or so and it seems to be pretty solid, although I still prefer the 5GB free that Live Mesh offered. I also loved how Live Mesh would synchronize files between computers without each computer having to be on and logged in.

The other day, I was getting the error message whenever I started Windows Live Sync beta for Mac:

"Sorry, there is a problem with Windows Live Sync. Please quit Sync, make sure your computer is connected to the Internet, and then start Sync again."
I found out that this is a common problem affecting a handful of users. Since the software is still in beta, it's understandable that there will be some hiccups. None of the suggestions on the support forums seemed to solve the issue that I was having until I tried the following and it worked.
  • Quit Windows Live Sync
  • Delete the folder Macintosh HD: Users/Username/Library/Application Support/WLSync
Username will be your actual username, obviously. Fire up Windows Live Sync beta, and it will ask you to login, after which things should be working properly again. Please post in the comments if this works for you, or if you found a different solution.

10 comments:

  1. Hi
    I have had the same problem.

    Tried this, also uninstalling and reinstalling. No luck.

    It does seem to sync the files though, and then quits with that error message. Note this occurs only only on my macbook air: Works fine on the imac).

    Aaron

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hhmm...strange. Curiously, since I've performed this "fix" (hack?), Windows Live Sync beta for Mac has thrown this error on two different occasions on two different days. But, for the most part, it seems to be performing.

    I had problems with Windows Live Mesh for Mac. The status icon would be grayed out and I could not login or do anything...but the files appeared to be syncing behind the scenes. I wonder if there is enough of the underlying code that is shared that might be causing this same error in Windows Live Sync beta for Mac. Let's hope Microsoft takes this product seriously and continues to actively develop it and respond to customer feedback.

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  3. Good idea but it didn't help me. I deleted a Live Mesh folder and two Live Sync folders. Had Finder empty the Trash. No good. Even ran Disk Repair. Works on my MacBook Pro but not my iMac. Both are Snow Leopard. Brien

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  4. I found the fix here
    http://geekswithblogs.net/ryanc/archive/2010/08/23/windows-live-sync-on-mac.aspx

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  5. Deleting the LiveID folder did the trick

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  6. Thank you, this saved my day.

    I also had to delete the LiveID folder (and also deleted a bunch of other Live Mesh/Sync folders that were left over from previous versions and installations).

    Finally, after a reinstall I could logon and sync my folders again.

    thanks again,
    Peter.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks, the geeks with blog post helped me with deleting the ~/Library/Application Support/Live Id folder.

    Zac

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  8. Deleting the LiveID folder worked. Why can' t MIcrosoft automatically suggest that when you get the error?

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  9. it also worked on windows live mesh for mac osx lion.

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  10. Hello I cannot find the application support folder? it may be hidden how do i unhide it?

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