Outlook Sync Problem

[ShrinkSteve]

Originally Posted by musiccity

I just thought I would add my two cents. After getting my iPhone last Thursday, I have spent at least ten hours trying to get a successful calendar synch. I spoke with Apple Tech Support for about an hour on Friday. (They also indicated to me that the most recent iTunes version has resolved any problems with synching.....) I have tried every suggestion in this thread as well as another I found without success.

Frankly, I thought my biggest complaint would be the lack of a synch conduit for Outlook's to do list. I rely on this heavily as well as my calendar. Without either, I have a novelty item here with some cool consumer interfaces.

I will keep monitoring this thread. Thanks to all who have contributed. I will remain hopeful that some solution presents itself.

What version of Outlook are you using? One thing that I found I had to do with Windows was exit Outlook, sync, then reopen Outlook. I never have to do this on My Mac at home, but iTunes won't access the data from Outlook as long as it is open on my desktop. I had a Blackberry Pearl before my iPhone and never had this problem. However, the Pearl was a lousy phone with bugs galore. I too need my notes from my Outlook and am frustrated that there is no conduit.

Just once I'd like to see someone like Apple, especially Apple, work out the kinks before bringing something like this to market!

[ph411]

Originally Posted by musiccity

I just thought I would add my two cents. After getting my iPhone last Thursday, I have spent at least ten hours trying to get a successful calendar synch. I spoke with Apple Tech Support for about an hour on Friday. (They also indicated to me that the most recent iTunes version has resolved any problems with synching.....) I have tried every suggestion in this thread as well as another I found without success.

My contacts appear to synch. I did fun Scanpst.exe on my primary PST data file and it found errors which were repaired. NOTHING appears to work. I have even tried disabling every COM and ADD IN other than the iTunes Outlook Add-In without success.

The only time I have been able to synch any calendar option is having set up a completely new user account with Admin privaleges. One "test" contact and appointment did synch. Using live data, no luck at all.

This may well be a "deal breaker" for me at this point. I definitely cannot recommend the phone to any business clients until the synch process is at least as solid as Activesynch (which isn't always perfect but is much more reliable than this incarnation of Apple's design).

Frankly, I thought my biggest complaint would be the lack of a synch conduit for Outlook's to do list. I rely on this heavily as well as my calendar. Without either, I have a novelty item here with some cool consumer interfaces.

I will keep monitoring this thread. Thanks to all who have contributed. I will remain hopeful that some solution presents itself.

My .02 as well...

I spent yesterday afternoon on the phone with Apple "support" to no avail. I exported the Outlook calendar and deleted all events. Then created a one-time event. After 10 minutes of churning the processor at 100%, Outlook went away and iTunes thought it was still sync'ing. I can't lay all of this on Apple since no api should allow the parent program to crash, other programs seem to have no problem sync'ing with Outlook calendar (Palm, cheap Motorola 3rd party software, etc.) Why can't the brains at Apple figure this one out.

As someone commented, the iPhone is cute, but it is a $600 brick for me right now. Shame on Apple.

[lanijean]

I just got my iphone, registered at itunes, synced with outlook and there was an error message...something about tmax addin, so i disabled it. Now, i sign on to my pc's outlook, it launches, then the error message pops up, click it off and it restarts, and that repeats itself over and over. I have reset my puter to previous day, still same thing happens. No way can I get into that outlook program...error message rules. Anyone else had this?

[tennsc]

Originally Posted by lanijean

I just got my iphone, registered at itunes, synced with outlook and there was an error message...something about tmax addin, so i disabled it. Now, i sign on to my pc's outlook, it launches, then the error message pops up, click it off and it restarts, and that repeats itself over and over. I have reset my puter to previous day, still same thing happens. No way can I get into that outlook program...error message rules. Anyone else had this?

Ding Ding.. That's what mine does. I've B!tched enough to have a iGenius to see me sat morning to resolve this.

[p9939068]

Originally Posted by JonP

I originally looked into this forum when my wife's iPhone would not sync with her Outlook 2003 calendar. It was here that I learned that the new release of iTunes 7.3.2 resolved the syncing problem. After installing 7.3.2 on her laptop, her iPhone synced her calendar as it was supposed to.

Then I made the big mistake. I "upgraded" my copy of iTunes to 7.3.2 and my Outlook 2007 calendar stopped syncing.

I tried to revert to 7.3.1 (no longer found on the Apple website; found a copy on filehippo.com) and the calendar sync still no longer worked. Spent about 2.5 hours on the phone with Apple support uninstalling and re-installing software, setting up new users, new calendars and the sync still didn't work. However, the Apple tech did give me some useful advice which I later applied to my original solution - to roll-back the iTunes version to 7.3.1 that worked.

Here's the trick that worked for me -- The uninstall function in the Windows control panel does not remove all components of iTunes. You must remove the following four application programs in this order. Do not re-boot until all 4 applications and other folders/files are removed.
1) Apple Mobile Device Support
2) Quicktime
3) iTunes
4) Apple Software Update
After these applications are removed, navigate to the Program Files folder and remove any folders (and the files contained within) labeled Quicktime and iTunes. Also remove any iTunes or Quicktime folders/files from the c:\WINDOWS\system32 directory.
Then re-boot.

Following the re-boot, open Outlook 2007 and remove the iTunes Outlook Addin. I found that the addin was made "inactive;" it needs to be removed. Remove it by clicking "Go" on the Manage COM Addins dialog box, highlighting the iTunes addin(s) and clicking remove. Quit Outlook.

Then re-install iTunes 7.3.1. Make sure that you unclick the checkbox during the install that enables automatic iTunes updates.

That did it for me. I'm back syncing my Outlook calendar again.

If you are right here, I will friggin kiss you!

[tennsc]

On Saturday 9/8 is spent 2 hours with the apple people at the Apple Store at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa. So far the problem has been solved. My Contacts and Calender has been fixed. So far I haven't had Outlook crash on me *crossing fingers*

What I have: Outlook 2003 and Windows XP
What we did:
- Uninstall/Reinstall Itunes
- ReBoot iPhone


Fredo

[impaler]

Originally Posted by tennsc

Ding Ding.. That's what mine does. I've B!tched enough to have a iGenius to see me sat morning to resolve this.

I blew away Windows XP, reloaded it with iTunes 7.4.1 and it works like a champ. Finally after months of frustration my calendars sync!

[SteveKLM]

I can't sync my calendar althought my contacts sync flawlessly in Outlook 2003

So I did some research and I only have one of the two COM addins in my Outlook setup (checked by going to Tools - Options - Other - Advanced Options - COM Add-Ins). I only have 'iTunes Outlook Addin' and nothing else. I understand from other threads that it's also meant to have one called 'Outlook iTunes Sync Addin'. Can someone confirm this and tell me .dll it points to please?

Thanks

[alex tang]

I am running Outook 2003 and iTunes 7.3.2. The contacts can sync, but there are problems with calendar. I tried all suggestions including:

- check the add-in is checked and enabled
- export calendar to pst file and scan and import again
- uninstall iTunes, remove all associated files, then to a "clean" install. I did that for version 7.3.1, 7.3.2 and 7.3.4
- changing category of the event, or update the text .. and save again

Here is my current situation:

- new event created in Outlook can sync to iPhone
- new event created in iPhone can sync to Outlook
- update of the new event can sync to iPhone
- update in iPhone can sync to Outlook
- remove in Outlook will remove from iPhone
- remove from iPhone will remove in Outlook

Everything seems fine for new events, but just not for existing events. I also tried saving an existing event to iCal format, then add it back to Outlook, and it can sync to iPhone perfectly. So, it seems to me it cannot pick up Outlook calendar format.

And I realized those can sync has a different icon in Outlook (The one in circle in attachment). I tested different things, it is not because of category, not because of recipients, not because of attachments ... I think that is a purely format issue. If I still cannot find a solution, the only work around I can think of now is for every invite I receive, I forward it to myself as iCalendar events ... but it is tedious.

I am really frustrated. Please help.

[alex tang]

Originally Posted by alex tang

I am running Outook 2003 and iTunes 7.3.2. The contacts can sync, but there are problems with calendar. I tried all suggestions including:

- check the add-in is checked and enabled
- export calendar to pst file and scan and import again
- uninstall iTunes, remove all associated files, then to a "clean" install. I did that for version 7.3.1, 7.3.2 and 7.3.4
- changing category of the event, or update the text .. and save again

Here is my current situation:

- new event created in Outlook can sync to iPhone
- new event created in iPhone can sync to Outlook
- update of the new event can sync to iPhone
- update in iPhone can sync to Outlook
- remove in Outlook will remove from iPhone
- remove from iPhone will remove in Outlook

Everything seems fine for new events, but just not for existing events. I also tried saving an existing event to iCal format, then add it back to Outlook, and it can sync to iPhone perfectly. So, it seems to me it cannot pick up Outlook calendar format.

And I realized those can sync has a different icon in Outlook (The one in circle in attachment). I tested different things, it is not because of category, not because of recipients, not because of attachments ... I think that is a purely format issue. If I still cannot find a solution, the only work around I can think of now is for every invite I receive, I forward it to myself as iCalendar events ... but it is tedious.

I am really frustrated. Please help.

I found out this post, and I did a test, created one using form, and another one didn't. I can see the 2 message in Outlook with different icons, the one with the form CANNOT sync!!!

Not sure if this would work for anyone else, but my company used a custom form in our outlook calendar (it has some special meeting template we're supposed fill out). normally, i'd just clear out the contents of the form and save my appointment. I set new appointments to use the default form (IPM.appointment) instead of the custom form and had success syncing. Maybe give that a shot?

to set you form:

Select Go > Folder List
right click on Calendar in the folder list and select Properties
Set When posting to this folder, use: toIPM.appointment

However, I check, and I already have IPM.appointments selected ... maybe I need to wait till someone send me another meeting invite and check again.