sync calendar/contacts with iCloud versus iTunes

Duplication of calendar entries is also ocurring occasionally using iTunes sync via USB cable, so its not just an iClouds problem, but a broader "Apple Cant Solve Syncing Multiple Calendars" problem - there is an occasional glitch. Like occasionaly the iOS devices have a breakdown at daylight savings time, or the iOS 'calendar widget' or 'voicemail' doesn't update when you expect it to. I'm not sure if its a hard computer science problem or more just a system that has become too complex it cannot do the basics well anymore.

I'm running iTunes 12.12.2.2 and an iOS 15.4 upgrade just now happening. (If only the notice where I checked the box to 'dont remind me' would honor that request, but no it keeps popping up to remind me).

iCloud is not an option for some (our employers control the Exchange calendars and those calendars are never going to be allowed into iCloud for the foreseeable future), so via USB cable is the only way to sync my work Outlook Calendar with my iPhone in order to have a common calendar that also shows on my personal Apple Watch in the watch face... that watch face telling me when my next meeting is, is one of the huge reasons I use the Apple Watch.

If Apple proceeds with the removal of syncing by USB cable, then it breaks the usfulness of the iPhone and Apple Watch as a daily life platform rather substantially, and I may not further update down the Apple Watch path since it won't have my work calendar on it.

If the Apple Watch could work with two iPhones at once, that might solve it - as my work phone can have the work calendar, and my personal phone my personal calendar, and the watch then displays the union of the two. But I somehow doubt that will be possible, given that an iPhone can seemingly only trust ONE PC at a time.. because whenever I plug it in at work to sync, the phone asks 'trust this computer' to which I say yes, then when at home to sync my music, again 'trust this computer' to which I say yes, then back at work it again asks if I trust that computer... which I'd told it already it could trust. Hence only trust the last computer you authorized.

All of that bunny trail is just to underscore that the Apple software architecture seems to be headed in a bad direction because it is fundamentally at odds with how I suspect a substantial portion of the users need to use the gear. Remenicient of Apple telling its customers they were 'holding the phone wrong' back in the iPhone 4 time.

Minok,

Let us know if you can still sync once the upgrade completes. I am curious to know.

For me, while the notification "do not remind me again" is useful. As long as I still see that, then I know that I can still sync with iTunes. I am afraid that if i remove that option and I upgrade iTunes, it will not show up again. Anyhow, that is just a personal choice.

I too do not want my data on the cloud. Unlike you, who uses it for work, my issue is that of privacy and control. I want control over my contacts and calendar. As well as to backing it up and what not. My personal info has no business on the cloud. What happens if my account gets hacked or whatever? If my info is in the cloud, I am screwed. At least if i have my data stored locally, which is also backed up, it is less of a big deal.

I currently have iTunes V12.11.3.17 installed on my Win10 machine and an iPhone 13 Pro currently running iOS 15.3.1

I have automatic updates turned OFF in the Microsoft Store application.

If I open the Microsoft store app. and click "get updates" ...

it starts downloading ALL available updates and installing them with no selectivity.

The app. did NOT used to work that way ... you could pick and choose what you wanted updated.

Has anybody got an easy way to keep the store from automatically updating?

I want to try to assure I don't accidentially update to the deprecated version ... :-/

Thanks!

Jim

I’d not use the store version. There is, when you look at the alternate methods at the bottom of the install page, you can still get an MSI sort of installer and use that instead. Then you avoide the whole MsFT Store dumpster fire.

Thank you TT2 and Minok for your help!

on controlling iTunes versions....

I was using the stand-alone version of iTunes "for older video cards"

This was because (IIRC) it was the 32-bit version which I thought would be more compatible with my 32-bit version of Outlook.

When I upgraded to a new computer several years back (still using outlook 2013 32-bit)

I went to the STORE version of iTunes to get away from the 32-bit vs. 64-bit errors....

but now ( a few years later) I think the "full" 64-bit installer would work... ???

So I've stashed a copy of 12.12.3.5 for safe keeping ;-)

I have V12.10.11

dndell:

Well that stinks... I wonder if it was a V12.12.3.5 deprecation thing or ... something else.

I have found my calendar in Outlook will not sync. if I have any calendar events that "repeat without end"

They can be found by changing calendar view to: "list view" and then sorting by the "recurrence range end" column.

Edit any entries found to have a specific end-date instead of no-end

If you add a birthday to a contact Outlook (at least my version) it automatically ADDs a calendar event that ...

yup... repeats without end ... blowing up my sync.

I have 12.12.3 running iOS 15.4. It syncs just fine. I think the problem will be more when iTunes needs to be upgraded and not the phone. At one point when a new iOS comes out, you will need to upgrade iTunes. Not always, but on some major releases you do. That is when you need to worry.

So as long as you have 12.12.3 you should be fine up until at least 15.4.1..... what happens when the next major release, perhaps 15.5 or 15.6 comes out would be anyone's guess

@dndell

I am surprised that it does not work. I have the same version of iTunes and i successfully upgaded to iOS 15.4 and I can still sync just fine to Outlook. Granated I am on an iPhone X, but that should not matter.

I agree that it should not delete your old entries. If it did that, then it was syncing with Outlook. When the syncing is removed, then the ability to delete from your Outlook should not happen. I would think. They cannot have it both ways.

I'm replying here mainly to keep the thread from being shut down ... I'm not sure how the "inactive" counter is set...

I currently have iTunes V12.11.3.17 (from MS Store) installed on my Win10 machine,

with iPhone 13 Pro currently running iOS 15.4.1

Things are sync-ing well... <beer>

dndell wrote:

Thanks, I wish I could download older itunes versions through the Microsoft Store.

You can't do that, but you can find recent versions of the standalone installer at the bottom of Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates - Apple Community as well as advice on rolling back the library when this is necessary elsewhere in the user tip.

tt2

Some applications, when upgrading, alter the database or working files to be updated to the latest version of the software. In effect making a downgrade next to impossible. If iTunes is upgraded, and one needs to downgrade it, will the iTunes library and other info work?

Recent updates to iTunes haven't been doing this, but if there is a change to the database structure iTunes copies the existing library into the Previous iTunes Libraries folder and dates it, then uses that library to build a new one in the new format. Downgrading is supported by restoring and renaming the previous library.

tt2

I have chickened out and am still on Microsoft Store V12.11.3.17       it still works for me with iOS V15.5

(not the stand alone version)

But when I started my sync. today I got an error message from iTunes:

"Your iTunes Store Session has expired. To reconnect sign in ... "

I could not clear the message so I went ahead logged, but wonder if at some future date re-logging in ...

might trigger "Deprecation" :-/ ???

I wouldn't think so but ... well you know ...

I installed 12.12.5 in a sandbox and connected my iPhone. While I did not actually hit the sync button, I did get the popup stating that it will be removed in a future version of iTunes. So I would assume that it would sync properly. Has anyone actually installed 12.12.5 and upgraded to iOS 16 to see if it works?