The fastest MobileMe sync you can get is “Automatically.”

I was excited to try out the new MobileMe push service from Apple, so I made a change to my calendar on my MacBook and then put my computer to sleep. Several hours later, the change still had not appeared on the me.com website or on my iPhone. I thought this was supposed to be instantaneous?

Apple originally marketed MobileMe as a push service where all of your devices (Mac, PC, iPhone, iPod touch, and the me.com website) would be updated almost instantaneously. But the company later changed its tune by stating that your Mac or PC will only synchronize with your other devices once every 15 minutes. So if you put your computer to sleep relatively quickly after making a change, it may not have had a chance to sync yet.

To ensure you’re getting the 15-minute sync frequency as opposed to a longer frequency, go into System Preferences > MobileMe, click the Sync tab, check the box that says Synchronize With MobileMe, and choose Automatically. Be sure to check the checkboxes for Bookmarks, Calendars, and Contacts in order to get all of those syncing across all of your devices. (Note that your bookmarks won’t show up on me.com.)

If every 15 minutes isn’t often enough for you, you can force a sync to happen immediately by clicking the Sync Now button in System Preferences > MobileMe, or by checking the box next to Show Status In Menubar, and then clicking the MobileMe Sync icon in your menubar and selecting Sync Now from the drop-down menu.

Even better, you can permanently increase the 15-minute sync frequency by editing the property list file located at ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.DotMacSync.*.plist (* represents a unique identification number). You can edit this file with a program like Pref Setter (donationware, www.nightproductions.net) or Apple’s Property List Editor (part of the Developer Tools package on the Tiger or Leopard Installation DVD). Find the AutoSyncInterval key and change it to the number of minutes representing your desired sync frequency. You might need to log out and log back in for your changes to take effect. Your new setting will stay intact as long as System Preferences > MobileMe system preference is set to synchronize automatically.