I was duped! My Iphone won't synch with Outlook!

[dscales]

I worked with an Apple tech for 3 HOURS last night and we couldn't get my iPhone to synch with Outlook 2003. He admitted to me that many people were having this issue. He also admitted that people with 2007 were having this issue as well.

I feel really duped by Apple. I now have to use the Windows Address Book to synch my contacts and I also have to use an online calendar which doesn't even synch with Iphone. I have to go to Safari and then to Yahoo where my calendar sits and read it there.

This is really unbelievable and shame on me for being a pioneer and wanting it so bad. I learned my lesson...

Now I'm just hoping an update will fix this issue soon.

[ColsTiger]

that's strAnge because my iPhone syncs perfectly with outlook 2007. Contacts and calendar both could not have synced any easier.

[dscales]

Its not strange when the Apple support guy told me he handled 20 calls about it and they couldn't fix it for anyone.

[JnC]

dscales: Are you running XP or Vista?

[dscales]

XP Pro Ver 2

Clean install which I did 2 nights ago. I formatted my hard drive and reinstalled everything!

[topshotta]

I cant synch with outlook 2003 either, however I am responding to this in the waiting room of my drs office on my iphone, which is wicked as hell imo.

[Matt-Helm]

You might wanna make sure Outlook 2003/2007 is closed when you install iTunes. I had an issue with 2007 not syncing because of this. I rebooted.. did a repair install of iTunes, docked the iPhone and everything worked. I left outlook closed the first time i started up itunes and docked after the repair install.. FWIW...

[Heckler]

I sync'd my Outlook 2003 contacts thru iTunes onto my iPhone perfectly, so it can be done. I hope you get this worked out but I think the problems are more likely related to user error and peoples individual computers/software configurations. I am sure there will be a small number of dud iPhones just like any computer/electronic devices, but I am willing to bet that the iPhone configurations are more consistant than the 500,000+ different levels of user experience and computer/software configurations that people are conencting there iphones to.

[digitalfx]

Itunes and iPhone sync perfectly with Outlook 2003 and 2007...sounds like operator error.

I have been syncing my ipod w/ outlook for years and my iphone syncs perfectly.

[ustna]

Itunes and iPhone sync perfectly with Outlook 2003 and 2007...sounds like operator error.

I have been syncing my ipod w/ outlook for years and my iphone syncs perfectly.


I am coming from WM6 and the Zune...

I really need my iPhone to sync with outlook also. Can someone give me a tutorial on how they are doing it?:smile:

[ColsTiger]

I am coming from WM6 and the Zune...

I really need my iPhone to sync with outlook also. Can someone give me a tutorial on how they are doing it?:smile:

You just plug it in and it should open iTunes 7.3. Itunes does the rest. Couldn't be any easier.

[DHNF]

that's strAnge because my iPhone syncs perfectly with outlook 2007. Contacts and calendar both could not have synced any easier.

Same here. I didn't even have to touch any setting or anything. Running XP and Office 2007 and didn't have one glitch.

[digitalfx]

When you plug in your iPhone and iTunes opens select your iPhone (Devices) then select the "INFO" tab.

Here you will define what info syncs with your iPhone. You can select the app like "Outlook" and what info syncs, etc.

BTW- I doubt the Apple rep wasnt aware of this option...give me a break its actually been available for iPods for years.

[LESLIEx317537]

my contacts didn't sync at first.
I had to copy them back in from a vcard format.

[JnC]

dscales: 32 bit or 64 bit addressing?

[JBG]

that's strAnge because my iPhone syncs perfectly with outlook 2007. Contacts and calendar both could not have synced any easier.


I too hav sync on both 2003 and 2007 with no problems. I do not understand why the did not include tasks and y samsung (little) bluetooth is not working.

[dscales]

I don't know--how do I find this out?

[Ljp]

Do you want instructions on how to do it with 2 different computers or just one?

To sync, close outlook. Download and install the newest itunes. get itunes and and running. open outlook back up. attach the iphone. Once the phone is showing on itunes, go to the second tab where it asks you if you want to sync calendar and contacts. Open each drop down box once selecting outlook. check the box in front of the choice to choose syncing for outlook contacts and calendar. Hit apply on the lower right hand of the screen.

It will *not* look like its doing anything. Just be patient. After 10 minutes or so (depending on how many contacts etc you have) it will just finish and then it will be done.

Unlike music syncing, there is no indication that the syncing is happening. Just be patient until the iphone stops saying it is syncing.

[dscales]

I have done this a total of 10 times. I've uninstalled Itunes and Quicktime. Installed both. The choose Outlook and hit apply and synch. Nothing happened after synching. My calendar is blank.

I'm fine using Windows Address Book for contacts, but it really bugs me that I can't synch my calendar.

The Com-AdIns are there, but the Outlook ITunes Synch Addin won't stay checked. It unchecks itself.

[Golgo13]

I sync with outlook 2003 perfectly also

[Ljp]

I know outlook is the default choice in the drop down boxes. did you open the boxes? I read somewhere that people had to change it from outlook to something else and then change it back at some point.

[hydro94530]

I was unable to do this up until right now. I had Outlook Express selected as opposed to just Outlook in the Mail Accounts section. Make sure you don't have Express selected. Once I did this, syncs perfectly!!

[dscales]

Ok, I tried synching on my laptop and it worked like a charm. What I had to do is download and import my appointments from Yahoo online into Outlook on my laptop. Then it synched with Itunes perfectly.

I really think that the fact that I have ACT synching with Outlook on my PC is conflicting with the sync with Itunes. I hope Apple can figure it out or allow us just to synch directly with Yahoo in the future because now I have to sync in this order:

Act>Outlook on PC>Yahoo>Outlook on laptop>Itunes>Iphone

Isn't that ridiculous? At least I don't have to sit there and manually type everything, but what a mess!

[digitalfx]

Unlike music syncing, there is no indication that the syncing is happening. Just be patient until the iphone stops saying it is syncing.

Not correct, it will tell you in the top "syncing contacts" or "syncing calendar" while it is syncing.

[dscales]

This guy over at the Apple forum figured the problem out and he's my hero!

Yes but Outlook 2003 disables one of the add-ins which causes Outlook to crash when you load program. Then the add-in is disabled and you can't enable it just by selecting the box in tools>other>advanced>com add-ins because it won't happen.It just keeps unchecking itself.
Here's what to do: with outlook open go to "about Outlook" You'll see a button "disabled components" under that will be the offending iphone addin. RE-enable it. Then do the manouevre I mentioned in second sentence. Then sync iphone and all contacts, calendar etc will sync to phone. BUT the next time you start up Outlook it will tell you that the addin causes a serious error and will disable it. I guess we will have to enable it each time we want to sync for now -Microsoft had no idea (nor did Apple) after several hours on support lines. God only knows when and who will fix this. This seems to work for now however.

[huss3d]

Hey I just got my contacts to work!!!

Go to the tools tab in outlook and then to options --> other --> then go to the advanced options. From there you can click on the COM Add-Ins button and make sure the Outlook iTunes Sync Addin has a check beside it!

Idid all of that and they imported perfect.

Huss3d

[huss3d]

Sorry, I did not see the post above mine! hehe

[Mactech]

First… I am sorry that you are having these problems.

Second, How is it Apples fault that YOU can't figure something so simple out?
Is Office updated? Did you update Office to SP2? and all the related updates, you do know that Office will have issues with syncing with SP1 right?
Do you sync with a Palm device as well as the iPhone?

You do know that there are limitless combinations or reasons why you can't sync, But it really steams me when users automatically point the finger when they point the finger at the Manufacturer, or the technician. No offence but the rest of us have no problem.

Third... what did you expect? The Apple tech you spent 3 hours on the phone with is NOT qualified nor trained to troubleshoot Microsoft Office products. Yes... he/she may have some knowledge of the general workings of Outlook sans MS Office.

It's a Microsoft product, all Apple did was create an easy to use conduit within (iTunes - iSync) to have the ability to sync with Outlook and Yahoo etc.

I support users at a company I work for, quite a few executives purchased the iPhone as well as me, no problems syncing here.

So don't blame the Apple tech or Apple, especially the phone techs and the guys/gals at the Genius Bar. These souls are trying thier best with the knowledge they have, I am not knocking them at all, but they don’t get enough training unless they get it themselves unless it’s all Apple inclusive. .

I can't undersatnd why you are having so many problems? Shoot me an email, I'll help you, I'll have you up and syncing in short time. But I don't come cheap. :laugh2:

[tharmsen]

I couldn't get my phone to sync with Outlook 2003 either. It would say it was syncing but it never pulled it off. Then I decided to sync my phone with my Macbook and Entourage (Outlook for Mac by Microsoft) and poof, it worked.

[ColsTiger]

Glad you got it worked out, but I don't really understand what ACT is in your posts. Could you elaborate on that program?

[TechnoDoc]

First… I am sorry that you are having these problems.

Second, How is it Apples fault that YOU can't figure something so simple out?
Is Office updated? Did you update Office to SP2? and all the related updates, you do know that Office will have issues with syncing with SP1 right?
Do you sync with a Palm device as well as the iPhone?

You do know that there are limitless combinations or reasons why you can't sync, But it really steams me when users automatically point the finger when they point the finger at the Manufacturer, or the technician. No offence but the rest of us have no problem.

Third... what did you expect? The Apple tech you spent 3 hours on the phone with is NOT qualified nor trained to troubleshoot Microsoft Office products. Yes... he/she may have some knowledge of the general workings of Outlook sans MS Office.

It's a Microsoft product, all Apple did was create an easy to use conduit within (iTunes - iSync) to have the ability to sync with Outlook and Yahoo etc.

I support users at a company I work for, quite a few executives purchased the iPhone as well as me, no problems syncing here.

So don't blame the Apple tech or Apple, especially the phone techs and the guys/gals at the Genius Bar. These souls are trying thier best with the knowledge they have, I am not knocking them at all, but they don’t get enough training unless they get it themselves unless it’s all Apple inclusive. .

I can't undersatnd why you are having so many problems? Shoot me an email, I'll help you, I'll have you up and syncing in short time. But I don't come cheap. :laugh2:

For what it's worth, Apple has acknowledged that there is a real bug/issue with their side of the Outlook conduit. I spoke to a level 2 Apple product specialist (regular tech support transferred me as soon as I described the Outlook sync issues, including the plugin error message, etc.).

The product specialist told me that they have escalated this to engineering, and he was hoping for a fix to be delivered soon, maybe as soon as the end of the week. This is a real problem that is affecting many users (just do a quick search on the apple support forums) and is an Apple/iTunes problem, not an Outlook problem. You, and many others, are lucky enough to have the sync conduit working properly, many others are not.

I think you were too quick to blame the user and Outlook in your reply above, while holding Apple blameless.

[plasmo]

This guy over at the Apple forum figured the problem out and he's my hero!

Yes but Outlook 2003 disables one of the add-ins which causes Outlook to crash when you load program. Then the add-in is disabled and you can't enable it just by selecting the box in tools>other>advanced>com add-ins because it won't happen.It just keeps unchecking itself.
Here's what to do: with outlook open go to "about Outlook" You'll see a button "disabled components" under that will be the offending iphone addin. RE-enable it. Then do the manouevre I mentioned in second sentence. Then sync iphone and all contacts, calendar etc will sync to phone. BUT the next time you start up Outlook it will tell you that the addin causes a serious error and will disable it. I guess we will have to enable it each time we want to sync for now -Microsoft had no idea (nor did Apple) after several hours on support lines. God only knows when and who will fix this. This seems to work for now however.

maybe this should be stickied for others that may have this problem...

[Mactech]

Apple is by no means blameless, I am sorry if I came accross otherwise, my point is the Apple techs are somewhat trained, even a "specialist" is not a specialist with Office products or he would be working at Apple Corporate and working closley with M$ to resoolve these types of issues from the programming to documentation for the techs.

The transfering to an engineer means you got a level 1 tech that has no clue. They go by what is scripted and rehearsed, and if they don't sound like it then they are performing thier job, I know, I have been there, done that.

That is the standard reply, what the techs don't know to tell you, is to make sure everything on the M$ side is patched and taken care of to rule that out.







For what it's worth, Apple has acknowledged that there is a real bug/issue with their side of the Outlook conduit. I spoke to a level 2 Apple product specialist (regular tech support transferred me as soon as I described the Outlook sync issues, including the plugin error message, etc.).

The product specialist told me that they have escalated this to engineering, and he was hoping for a fix to be delivered soon, maybe as soon as the end of the week. This is a real problem that is affecting many users (just do a quick search on the apple support forums) and is an Apple/iTunes problem, not an Outlook problem. You, and many others, are lucky enough to have the sync conduit working properly, many others are not.

I think you were too quick to blame the user and Outlook in your reply above, while holding Apple blameless.

[JnC]

FWIW, I went through the process on a freshly rebuilt PC of installing all the service packs and updates, installing iTunes, selecting and reselecting the plug-ins as documented here, using DEP to bless iTunes, reinstalling iTunes and repeating the above. And nothing worked.

I went to a newer class of PC, installed iTunes, verified the plug-ins, and everything worked like a champ.

The long and short of it is, the Wintel environment is an elaborate house of cards with many combinations and permutations. That said, I was still able to install Plaxo on the problematic machine and it didn't have any problems interacting with the exchange side of things. So despite the complexity, it wasn't fundamentally impossible. Yet iTunes couldn't handle it.

I don't think iTunes for Windows is sufficiently robust enough to handle just any configuration thrown at it. We adhered to the recommended system build and we were 1 for 2.

[TechnoDoc]

Apple is by no means blameless, I am sorry if I came accross otherwise, my point is the Apple techs are somewhat trained, even a "specialist" is not a specialist with Office products or he would be working at Apple Corporate and working closley with M$ to resoolve these types of issues from the programming to documentation for the techs.

The transfering to an engineer means you got a level 1 tech that has no clue. They go by what is scripted and rehearsed, and if they don't sound like it then they are performing thier job, I know, I have been there, done that.

That is the standard reply, what the techs don't know to tell you, is to make sure everything on the M$ side is patched and taken care of to rule that out.


Actually, I was directed to an iPhone product specialist, not a level 1 engineer/tech. He was fielding calls for this specific reason. He had no script, and didn't even offer any solutions, he wanted to hear exactly what I had experienced, including the 'scripted' solutions offered by the lower level Apple support. He gave me his name, his direct extension, his office hours, and asked me to call him if I had any more insights to share. He also took my name and phone number, and told me he was going to call me directly when a solution was available. This was not a typical support call.

He told me that they had received so many calls about this issue, that he and a few other product specialists were compiling data, so that engineering (software engineering, not tech support) could better diagnose and resolve the problem. He said that because of the volume of calls/complaints, this issue had been escalated, and was more than likely an issue with the iTunes sync plugin.

Lastly, I just received a brand new computer on Tuesday, high-end dual core, 4GB RAM, with a fresh build of XP Pro SP2, all updates installed...the only applications installed on the OS are MSOffice w/Outlook 2003 and iTunes. This machine has never synched.

My original computer, a lower end WinTel machine, with all sorts of 3rd party stuff installed, synched my contacts and calendar once, then never again.

As complex as the WinTel environment is, Palm and many other non-MS folks figured it out. Let's face it, the is a bug in the Apple sync plugin that doesn't always manifest itself, but it's real.

[TechnoDoc]

Well, things have changed drastically in 15 minutes...

I just installed the new version of iTunes that was released today. I opened Outlook to see what would happen, and there was no error message. When I checked, the iTunes sync plugin was disabled, so I enabled it in both places, closed Outlook, then re-opened...and voila...no error!

I verified that both plugins were still enabled, opened iTunes and performed a sync, and it seemed to work. I am now going to put in some dummy contacts and events to see if it is still working.

[TechnoDoc]

OK...so it seems to be working after installing the new iTunes! So far the only caveat is that Outlook has to be open for the sync to work, but it is working in both directions (new items, deleted items, and modified items).

Also, no error message when opening Outlook, and the plugin stays active.

[nikcomp]

Reply
I had the same issue. I had to go into outlook properties, advanced tab and there is a button in there I think it says com
Under that you will see 2 add ins. With the new Itunes 7.3 there are now 2 add ins it appears for itunes that syncs outlook. Check them both and it will work.

T

I worked with an Apple tech for 3 HOURS last night and we couldn't get my iPhone to synch with Outlook 2003. He admitted to me that many people were having this issue. He also admitted that people with 2007 were having this issue as well.

I feel really duped by Apple. I now have to use the Windows Address Book to synch my contacts and I also have to use an online calendar which doesn't even synch with Iphone. I have to go to Safari and then to Yahoo where my calendar sits and read it there.

This is really unbelievable and shame on me for being a pioneer and wanting it so bad. I learned my lesson...

Now I'm just hoping an update will fix this issue soon.

[Maynard123]

First, I'm not a technical person, so please excuse my lack of expertise in this area...I'm just trying to get this thing to work.

It is probably useful to distinguish between Outlook 2003 and 2007, XP vs. Vista, and whether or not your Outlook is connected to a company exchange server.

As far as I can tell, with OL 2007, you wont find add-ins in the options tab. Instead, you need to go to Tools/Trust Center/Add-ins. There you will see the active add-ins, inactive add-ins, and disabled add-ins. I show two iTunes add-ins that are active: "iTunes Outlook Addin" and "Outlook iTunes Sync Addin".

Unfortunately for me, I am unable to sync my iPhone calendar, even with all of the steps outlined in this thread. I think the problem may be that I am connected to exchange. IMAP is enabled on our exchange server, so I am able to get/send my exchange/outlook email fine on my iPhone. When I move an inbox item on my iPhone to a folder, the same thing quickly happens on my desktop. However when I move or deleted items in my iPhone inbox, the items stay visible in my desktop outlook/exchange inbox...perhaps that is just an IMAP thing.

Exchange Outook creates an ".ost" file, which is probably not supported for sync-ing in this release of iTunes. iTunes is probably looking for a ".pst" file, the standard for non-exchange Outlook. However I notice that my 2007 OL/Exchange now creates a file called "calendar for iphone.pst" and keeps it up to date. I was hoping iTunes would find that file and sync to it, but it doesn't seem to be happening. I have done a sync reset-history in iTunes, but that doesn't help.

My clumsy work-around at the moment is to export calendar items to a text file, and import that file to a iPhone-Profile version of Outlook, then sync. I'm still messing with.

[ImOnlyaUser]

I worked with an Apple tech for 3 HOURS last night and we couldn't get my iPhone to synch with Outlook 2003. He admitted to me that many people were having this issue. He also admitted that people with 2007 were having this issue as well.

I feel really duped by Apple. I now have to use the Windows Address Book to synch my contacts and I also have to use an online calendar which doesn't even synch with Iphone. I have to go to Safari and then to Yahoo where my calendar sits and read it there.

This is really unbelievable and shame on me for being a pioneer and wanting it so bad. I learned my lesson...

Now I'm just hoping an update will fix this issue soon.

After working with the Apple folks (~4hours) and reading a similar post (I think I did it slightly differently) from everything iphone, I found something that fixed my syncing problem with my 2003 Outlook. I am running windows xp professional. What I did was...Step one: in outlook go to tools>options>other>advanced options>com add-ins> remove all add-ins relating to itunes>select "ok">exit tools and close outlook and itunes. Step two: unplug iphone. Step three: go to control panel>add or remove programs>select the "change" option from "apple mobile device support>select "repair">once finished the repair open itunes, plug iphone back in and sync. this fixed my problem (for now).

[louveres]

I too hav sync on both 2003 and 2007 with no problems. I do not understand why the did not include tasks and y samsung (little) bluetooth is not working.

It would of been really nice if they had TASKS Included, I agree.

But on the subject, my calendar and contacts synced extremely easy with Outlook 2003.

[joeg679]

I run vista and it synched perfectly

[pcar993]

I run vista and it synched perfectly


I run vista with outlook 2007 and my calendar DOES NOT SYNC. I tried everything on this forum and I'm just livid.... I'm hoping that an update (VERY VERY SOON) fixes this.

By the way mine stopped working when i went to the latest Itunes. The first version of itunes worked fine.... ARGHHHHH

:frown:

This shouldn't be so hard apple. Everyone else has figured this out (and i would consider palm and blackberry to not be as advanced as apple).

[toothie37]

I run vista with outlook 2007 and my calendar DOES NOT SYNC. I tried everything on this forum and I'm just livid.... I'm hoping that an update (VERY VERY SOON) fixes this.

By the way mine stopped working when i went to the latest Itunes. The first version of itunes worked fine.... ARGHHHHH

:frown:

This shouldn't be so hard apple. Everyone else has figured this out (and i would consider palm and blackberry to not be as advanced as apple).
I also had problems syncing calender, my contacts would sync fine. I called apple support and eventually got to a support specialist (level 2) The first question he asked me was if I had any logictech pc cameras attached to my computer. I didn't, but I recently loaded drivers for a logictech mouse. After totally uninstalling all apple software and reloading to my XP machine, I removed the logictech software. I then hard reset my i phone, and my calender synced perfectly. BTW: Outlook never crashed in my case, both com-add in drivers would remain checked.

[roberbj]

My iPhone 3G and Outlook sucessfully synched everything (contacts, calendar, mail accounts, bookmarks, notes) until V 3.0 of the phone software. Then calendar would not synch no matter what. After a couple of hours on the phone with an Apple rep we discovered that when a new user account was set-up in windows, and a new instance of windows was opened in that account the calendar in the new account would sync. However, when the calendar from the old account was imported into the new account (via .pst export / import), it still wouldn't sync. At that point the Apple rep had no more help to offer. After much offline troubleshooting on my own I found a solution that at least worked for me by the following steps:
1) create a new mail account through: Control Panel | Category View | User Accounts | Mail (Add a new account, don't copy the old one)

2) don't know whether this step is necessary, but since the "old" .pst file was 1997-02, I exported / imported it into a 2003 Personal Folders .pst file, and then replaced the .pst file on the "new" mail account with the "updated" .pst file from the "old" mail account.

3) opened the new mail account and exported all Calendar appointments into an Excel file

4) in Calendar view of Outlook selected: View | Arrange By | Current View | By Category, then did an Edit | Select All and deleted all appointments.

5) then using File | Import / Export, imported the Excel file of appointments into Calendar,

6) open iTunes, select Preferences | Devices and Reset Synch History

7) under Info select only the Calendar Sync option and the option to replace the Calendar information on the phone with the new Calendar.

The calendar now properly updates (several regualr updates have since been tried). One small annoyance (but preferable to not syncing) the recurring aspect of any appointment (not the appointment itself) is lost, along with any color formatting, but those are easily fixed up afterward.

[MileHighRob]

Wow... welcome to EIC roberbj. How on earth did you dig up that old thread?