When the iPhone stops syncing with the Mac

Just want to document this for Google to pick it up, just in case somebody else has a similar issue. The issue was that my iPhone stopped syncing. There was a variety of errors: timeouts, cannot read disk, hanging forever while syncing or just not recognizing the iPhone after connecting. I tried everything - restoring, reinstalling iTunes, swapping cables, but nothing helped. More mysterious, my iPod synced without problems.

The key to the solution was in the Mac OS X logs: the message

May 13 19:28:54 Jamaica usbmuxd[6182]: MuxInterfacev1Receive Dropping packet. Received 17408, expected 32764 bytes

May 13 19:28:54 Jamaica com.apple.usbmuxd[6182]: usbmuxd[6182]: MuxInterfacev1Receive Dropping packet. Received 17408, expected 32764 bytes

This somehow hinted an USB problem and after I disconnected a SanDisk ImageMate 12 in 1 Card reader the problem was solved.

This is by the way one of those situation where Apple's user friendliness gets into the way of solving an actual problem. None of the error messages displayed in iTunes hinted that there's an issue with USB. Good that's Mac OS X is UNIX and there's always a log to look at.

Back Home in NYC

Back from one of our short trips to Germany, we learned or confirmed three things:

First, business class is the way to fly, if you don't have to pay the full price yourself, that is (thanks again, Christian!). It's not only the amenities, such as a much more comfortable seat, where you can actually sleep, but also that you're not being treated like cattle. Here you can still find something of the old glory of travel.

Second, business class or not, airlines loose, or better mislay your baggage and don't care too much. We waited three days for our suitcase to be delivered, right in time for having fresh clothes on the flight back. Next time we'll be better prepared, with bigger hand luggage and multiple pieces, which hopefully don't get all lost at once.

Third, as nice as it is to visit family and friends, we're always looking forward to get back home to New York. People have different preferences, but we like this city very much, for it's dynamic and its diversity and even for its insane weather.