Synchronise iCloud MacBookPro / iPhone

Question

I am using iCloud on my MacBookPro (Mail app + webmail) and iPhone 4S.
Recently I experienced that iCloud seems not to synchronise seemlessly with my Mac.
Problem occured with both iOS 6 and 5.
When reading an e-mail on my Mac, it is not automatically marked as read on my iPhone (unless refresh Mail on my iPhone manually)
but the other way around my Mac is immediately updated when reading a message on my iPhone.
Looks like a similar problem with IMAP as Hotmail elsewhere.
All settings are on 'Push' and also already removed my iCloud account from my iPhone and did multiple 'switch off/on' as per
the other support pages. No difference afterwards.
Sometimes it also looks like messages are not coming in automatically/immediately on my iPhone too. However this is not
always the case.
It seems that iCloud is 'pushing' new messages to your phone, but not stay seemlessly synchronised with a Mac (or webmail)
which I would have expected by using only Apple products. To be honest it's a bit annoying you need to manually refresh your
iPhone to have the 'same' mailbox as on your laptop/webmail.
Is this another 'setting' issue or is this 'normal'? In the past I used other mail clients and stayed synchronised perfectly.
Thank you.
Rgds Michael

Answer 1

You can do this. The iPhone will only sync with one computer for music/videos/other media, but can be synced with multiple computes for calendars/contacts/etc.
On your computer at home (with the music you want to sync), with the iPhone connected, select it in the device list in iTunes and set the music tab to sync music (and in the other tabs, videos, podcasts, ringtones, if you like). In the Info tab on the computer at home, make sure the options to sync calendars and contacts are UNchecked. On the computer at work, open iTunes without the iPhone connected. Go to Preferences > Syncing and check the box to "Disable automatic syncing for all iPhones and iPods." Connect the iPhone, select it in the device list in iTunes and in the Summary tab, check the box to "Manually manage music and videos." Then, on the Info tab, select the options to sync calendars and contacts. Then you can Sync. Uncheck the box in Preferences > Syncing that you checked earlier.
From now on, when you connect at home, your music will sync, and when you connect at work, your calendars and contacts will sync. Also (if you want) when you are connected at work you can click on playlists on the iPhone in the device list, and you'll see your music grayed out, but you can still select songs and play them through the speakers of the computer at work.
Hope this helps...