Outlook 2003 Calendar synch

Thats the strange thing - my contacts are synching perfectly in both directions (ie change on ipod and then change on PC). The calendar not synching is a nightmare.......

Yep - its set to Outlook. Just trying something with the .pst file. I've closed Outlook - changed the name of my pst file (saving a copy first) and opened Outlook again.....and imported emails etc in from the saved .pst file.
Strange that when you open oulook after, effectively, removing the .pst file it creates a new one....and finds all your calendar items from somwhere ?!!? where are they saved off to then ? I had assumed that the .pst file contained ALL mails/contacts/calendar items ?
Synching again now....will post results....

Nope - didnt work........

Ha - ALL the calendar appointments have just disappeared from the iPhone after the last synch - AND I'd selected 'Replace information on the iphone' under advanced !!

This can't just be happening to me.......

This is crazy. I've set up a completely new, empty, set of Outlook folders because this is related to the 'older' version of .pst files ("Office Outlook Personal Folders pst" rather than "Outlook 97-2002 personal Folders file"). If I test with the 'newer' type file then sync works fine - both directions. So....I try and import my saved calendar file - doesnt sync. I manually start drag and dropping (by category) records over to me new folder and it works fine.....up to a point....it must either be a particular record or type of record that is screwing it up but as I have about 650 records.....how the heck do I find it ?
I thought it might be recurring recs but anniversary's went over fine to the iPhone.
Surely Apple can release a patch of some kind to allow the older file to work ?

I'm presuming this is a feature of v2.0 software on the iPhone ?

Some Apple support would be good here.....

Ok - I seem to have been able to drag and drop 500 events over to to the new folder in Outlook and its syncing ok with iPhone.....none of these events had a recurrence pattern associated with them....just about to try and copy those now....I think these are the problem items....

...or possibly events that are dated back in 1940 (so as to bring up 'age' on b'days etc)....

I sat up till midnight trying to resolve this last night.
Here's what I found:

- Defo something to do with the .pst file, need to use the 'newer' type of file. I had calendar records in there from 2000 so the file 'type' was the old one. I created a new one and copied over the records DON'T import. I exported the calendar out to a file and then added it as a folder in a 'new' pst based outlook instance (using the data management option under file). I then changed view to categories and manually dragged the records over by each category to the newly created .pst calendar file.

- 'Old' recurring events. Everything seemed fine until I got to Birthday's that were created on the DOB and set as recurring each year. The records that were <1970-ish appeared to cause the problem. I reset these and they then copied over fine AND, more importantly, allowed me to continue syncing.

It sounds like they've changed the way the calendar in iPhone handles outlook records - perhaps to do with the new mobileme service ?

Anyhoo - Dont think it affects ALL recurring events - as business meetings set up this year appearing to sync ok.
Perhaps Apple support will have an official work around or patch soon ? Presumably they'll update iTunes to cope ?

Chris.