  We investigate the relationship between the loss of synchronization and the
onset of shadowing breakdown {\it via} unstable dimension variability in
complex systems. In the neighborhood of the critical transition to strongly
non-hyperbolic behavior, the system undergoes on-off intermittency with respect
to the synchronization state. There are potentially severe consequences of
these facts on the validity of the computer-generated trajectories obtained
from dynamical systems whose synchronization manifolds share the same
non-hyperbolic properties.
