How to Sync your BlackBerry with your Mac
October 15, 2008 by Ross McKillop
This tutorial will guide you through setting up and using PocketMac for BlackBerry to sync your email, contacts, calendar, tasks and notes between your BlackBerry and your Mac.
PocketMac for BlackBerry is a free download. It currently supports the following devices:
6230, 6280, 6510, 6710, 6750, 7100g, 7100i, 7100r, 7100t, 7100v, 7100x, 7105t, 7130c, 7130e, 7130g, 7130v, 7210, 7230, 7250, 7270, 7280, 7290m, 7520, 7730, 7750, 7780, 8100 Pearl, 8110, Pearl, 8130 Pearl, 8300 Curve, 8310 Curve, 8320 Curve, 8700c, 8700f, 8700g, 8700r, 8700v, 8703e,, 8705g, 8707, 8707g, 8707h, 8707v, 8800, 8820, 8830
And though the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 isn’t listed, that’s the device I have, and it worked perfectly.
You can use PocketMac for BlackBerry to sync:
* Mail.app Email
* Entourage Email, Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Notes
* Address Book Contacts
* iCal Calendar and Tasks
And several other apps, including iTunes, iPhoto and Safari Bookmarks (one way sync only). PocketMac for BlackBerry requires MacOS 10.4 or higher.
- After you’ve downloaded the app, close any open programs that you have running. The installer will force you to close them anyway, so you might as well avoid possibly losing work and saving open docs etc now. Make sure your BlackBerry is not plugged in to your Mac.
- Open the .dmg file and double-click the PocketMac for BlackBerry installer to begin.
- Like most people you probably skip the “review me” details at the start of most installation packages, but this one is actually worth a read - particularly the Known issues section. Once you’ve reviewed the info so you aren’t surprised at anything “odd” in the future, click the Continue button.
- You’ll be prompted to enter your password, click Accept at the license agreement section, and Continue a few more times. Eventually it will begin to install.
- When asked if you’d like to create a shortcut on your Desktop to PocketMac for Blackberry, click either OK or Cancel based on your preference.
- For a relatively small program (40MB’ish .dmg file) - it took quite a while to install on my Mac. Once the installation has completed, you’ll be prompted to reboot. You might as well get it over with now, so click the Restart button.
- Once your Mac starts up again, double-click the PocketMac for BlackBerry icon on your Desktop, if you opted to have a shortcut created there. If you didn’t, locate the PocketMac for BlackBerry folder in your Applications, and launch it from there.
- Now plug in your BlackBerry using the supplied USB cable. Before you click the Sync button, click the BlackBerry button to setup your preferences.
- The status tab doesn’t provide much in the way of info, or settings, but make sure the Status: is Available. If your device isn’t listed in the Device: section, don’t worry too much. Mine wasn’t.
- Select the Contacts tab. From here you’ll decide which of your Mac programs you want to sync with your BlackBerry. I opted to sync Address Book, as that’s where I keep all my contacts. If you use another program, like Entourage, select it instead.
- Click on the Advanced Preferences… button (the screenshot below is the Advanced Preferences for the Address Book). If you have more than one category of contacts, you may want to sync just one (or not all) of them. Make the appropriate select, and then click Save.
- Now select the Calendar tab. Select the app you want to sync with your BlackBerry (I use iCal, so that’s what I selected).
- Click the Advanced Preferences… button. If you have multiple Calendar categories, and don’t want to sync them all, select the Sync only categories selected below and then choose the categories you want to sync. Review the other options and make changes as you see fit. When you’re done, click Save
- Select the Tasks tab, and choose the app you want to sync Tasks with. Once again, I opted for iCal. Repeat the same Advanced Preferences… that you did for your Calendar.
- Now select the Notes tab. I opted not to sync any of my Notes (I use text files for notes) - but that shouldn’t stop you if you use one of the supported Notes applications. Review each of the other tabs (Bookmarks, Email, Redelivery, iTunes and iPhoto) and set each one to suit your needs. I opted not to sync anything from the remaining categories, but again, this is a “you” decision.
- Now it’s time - click the Sync button from the main PocketMac for BlackBerry window. Depending on the number of contacts, calendar events and other items you opted to sync, the first sync can take a while to complete. Once it’s done, all of the info on your Mac will now be on your phone too!
- In the future when you want to sync your BlackBerry and your Mac, plug in your BlackBerry using the USB cable, launch PocketMac for BlackBerry, and click the Sync button. You can make changes if you ever decide to switch from iCal to Entourage etc by to the Preferences section(s) again.
I have not been as successful as you with syncing my blackberry 8130 Pearl from verizon with my new Macbook - purchased last week. This is incredibly frustrating.
When I try to sync, I get the dreaded unable to sync error 1 message.
Any suggestions?
Adam, I could sync my 8130 Pearl from verizon with my iMac, iCal and AddressBook sync without any problem. I cannot copy music from iTunes to the Blackberry, failure code says “no media card present” even so I have a media card in my Pearl.
I would reinstall pocketmac and try it again
@Rainer,
When you plug in your BlackBerry Pearl, there’s an on-screen (on the Pearl) message that says something like “Do you want to mount this device” (the card). If you say no, you can’t transfer music to it as the pocketmac assumes there’s no card. If you say yes, you can xfer music. There’s a “don’t show me this message again” check-box, which you may have selected so each time you plug in your phone, it doesn’t mount the media card.
Yay, I do have Pearl 8120, too. My MacBook is Tiger early 2006 version, by the way.
I’m going to download the software soon, but for now I have been using Bluetooth between my MacBook and Blackberry.
Though, I only upload pics from Blackberry to my MacBook, it’s just fast and gives me no problem at all!
Have you used bluetooth?
I just got a Curve 8320. I really only got it so that I could sync my mac info to my phone but I get an ‘error 4′ skipping, when I try to sync. I tried the whole uninstalling and reinstalling and deleting the extensions the blackberry website suggested but nothing is working. Does anyone know how I can fix this? It’s REALLY annoying!
i have the Pearl 8110 and can not sync nothing……am so angry. Managed to sync my old 7100 to get my contacts out, and then tried the Pearl with out any luck. Got a message that I needed to update my Pocket mac which I did and now still doesn’t work.
And nor does my 7100 either after the update!?
Have tried every little “help” idea from the “support” page on the BlackBerry web.
Un installing,installing, suggested CleanSync and so on
It is driving me mad now….PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!
In addition to above:
I contacted the pocketmac support and received the below email:
And it actually worked fine.
“Please upgrade to version 4.1:
http://www.pocketmac.com/product.php?id=1
Please rebuild the Entourage database by holding down the option key when opening Entourage and clicking on Advanced.
Please be sure to select the proper Entourage version, Entourage for Entourage 2004 and Entourage2008 for Entourage 2008.”
Steve Z.
Technical Support Engineer
PocketMac Support Team
http://www.pocketmacsupport.com
http://www.pocketmac.com
I also uninstalled the current pocket mac I had on the computer and made sure I didn’t have any files or what so ever left on my mac by following these steps:
1. Log in to the Macintosh computer with an account that has administrator-level permissions.
2. Open the hard drive icon on the computer.
3. From the left menu bar, select Applications, and then open PocketMac Sync Manager.
4. Click Uninstall PocketMac.
5. When prompted to continue uninstalling PocketMac, click Yes.
6. When the uninstall process is complete, click Quit.
7. Open the hard drive icon on the computer.
8. Select the Users folder. The current user is indicated by the Home icon.
9. Click the Home icon to continue.
10. Open the Library folder, and then open the Preferences folder.
11. Delete the PocketMacBlackberry.plist file.
12. Delete the PocketMacAdvancedPreferenceData.plist file.
13. Delete the PocketMacSyncManager.plist file.
14. Open the Library folder, and then open the Application Support folder.
15. Delete the PocketMac and PocketMacSyncManager folders.
Pocket Mac 4.1.25 should remove the driver files, but to verify that they are, complete the following steps:
16. Remove the USB driver files by going to HD > System > Library > Extensions.
17. Delete BlackBerryUSB.kext and BlackBerryUSBDev.kext
18. Empty the Trash from the Dock by right-clicking and selecting Empty Trash.
19. Restart the Macintosh computer.
I just downloaded this and love how it adds my calendar appt. ; is there any way to get my pics off my blackberry and onto my mac; obviously i cannot install the driver that came with the phone as its windows only compatible; any ideas? I am soooo new to the mac… Help.
I need some help. I have the Blackberry Curve 8330 and i noticed that Pocketmac Sync Manager doesn’t support my device. Where do i find software that will?
i have a blackberry 8330 and cant seem to sync the contacts right. i want my blackberry contacts to be on my mac leopard 10.5…HELP
david -
To be perfectly honest, I’ve stopped using PocketMac. It had too many issues where things wouldn’t sync correctly etc. I have paid for The Missing Sync for Blackberry. I’ve had a couple of minor issues with it, but on the whole, it’s much more reliable than PocketMac.
will it work on storm? i can sync my contacts on it!
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I sync my new curve 8900 with my new macbook once…..today, when I tired again, it has error 4 message on it and it cannot sync, I tried all suggested methods…it still does not work…anyone can help?
thanks
I use PocketMac to Sync my Blackberry Curve 8310 - so far it only can sync my contacts. I tried to sync my Blackbery photos to iPhoto, but it keeps saying there is no mediacard. I purchased a mediacard and still PocketMac can’t recongize my mediacard. I tried hard reboot on both the BB and MAC and it still won’t work! Grrr!
I phoned Blackberry directly and they keep saying they have no software directly for MAC except PocketMac. They wanted to charge me $49.00 for tech support but I challenged the representative first, if they had support for MAC and he said no. Geez. I am fumbling MAD that I wanted to update my BB to 4.5 verison in order to make the 911 feature work. PocketMac doesn’t provide updates via its software. I am at loss of words. I am shocked that BB doesnt update itself from within the device like the iPhone does. All I keep was being told to use a friend’s PC and all - I do NOT want to impose any of my friends on this part. Let alone transferring sensitive information on my friend’s computer and the potential of messing up his/her PC.
Literally I have already wrote Blackberry a formal complaint about this for putting me in an unfair position having had bought the Blackberry and having a MAC. Although, I haven’t sent it today yet and turning to this forum for any help. Ugh. No wonder 6 out of 10 Blackberry users are switching over to the latest iPhone 3Gs - I would like to but if I do, I have to fork over $200 bucks to upgrade to the new phone out of my current contract!
Any advice for me? Thanks you all for your help!
So now I am
I cannot get PocketMac to sync the direct connect/PTT numbers to my Nextel Blackberry 7100i. I created the PTT field on the Mac but when it syncs, it puts them somewhere elst. BB requires them to be in PTT field.
Has anyone done this successfully?
Tahnks
How does everyone weigh in on Sidekick III versus Blackberry 7105? I’m on TMobile and about to make an upgrade from the original B&W Sidekick.