Oh, You Naughty iSync, You!

I just submitted the following to macosxhints.com. Update: It got posted! Maybe they can use it, maybe not. Either way, here's a solution to a problem that's been driving me mad all day today:

Recently, my iSync got a little whacked out. The iSync on my work G4 Laptop wanted me to remove all my MS Exchange contacts currently installed within Address Book. I let it remove the contacts, thinking that it would repopulate the Address Book. But that didn't happen! iSync would connect correctly to my Exchange server, check both Address Book and Exchange contacts folder, and decide that no changes were necessary. Even though my Address Book was empty!

iSync's sync data must be messed up, I thought. I wanted to trash the sync data and let iSync start anew, but I couldn't find it!. Turns out it was stored within the main Library folder:

/Library/Application Support/SyncService/XXX/EngineData

Here, "XXX" is the uid -- an integer number used internally -- of your account. If you don't know the uid of your account, you can find it within /Utilities/NetInfo Manager.

I trashed everything within the XXX folder (WITH ISYNC OFF, OF COURSE), restarted iSync, and volia! iSync started jiving with Address Book correctly again.

Now, somebody with a little bit more iSync savvy can explain what within the EngineData folder was messed up; and how trashing the whole XXX folder was overkill. I'm just happy I got the contacts back in Address Book.