sync calendar/contacts with iCloud versus iTunes

I've posted before about how I'm extremely disappointed in Apple for slipping this 'little' change in without a formal announcement. Just imagine all the people who clicked through that message and in a future version of iTunes they'll go to sync and be left out in the cold.

As someone else posted, if this feature is important to you, provide feedback via the following form:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

Hopefully, if there is sufficient interest and request for this feature, it may not be removed in future. (Although I highly doubt it.)

I've already submitted my complaint via feedback and through eChat.

Agreed. Please voice your complaint like I did through: https://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

If anyone has any media contacts or anyone with a technology site, blog, or YouTube channel, we need to get them to highlight the loss of this function. Even today if you search the web for this change you will find nothing except what we all have written in this community.

This would be a big loss of feature for me also. I started seeing this after upgrading to iTunes 12.11.3.17.

If this feature is important for you, suggest providing feedback via the following form:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

Hopefully, if there is sufficient interest and request for this feature, it may not be removed in future.

This reads like the message is coming up as a result of using an old version of iTunes and the sync via iTunes option should continue to work. I have 12.11.3.17 now and got the message. Using iCloud isn't a solution for me, because it doesn't play well with Outlook. It has created multiple contacts and multiple versions of calendars when I have used it.

With iPhone <-> Outlook Calendar and Contacts syncing possibly being deprecated, I am going to add to my monthly hard-drive back-up routine the step of manually exporting my Outlook Calendar and Contacts to .CSV and .PST files to have readily available for my future migration from Apple phones to Android and an equivalent hard-wired/cabled syncing process that iTunes may stop offering. Sad situation, Apple. You're losing some loyal customers.

Many thanks @robertsig...a quick look at the website makes me think CopyTrans may be a viable alternative if/when Apple decides to go through with crippling the Outlook sync utility. I really cannot understand this idea of making one's product more difficult to use and less responsinve to the needs of the user community. Removing the ability to sync with the industry leader seems like a surefire way to drive established clients away and to discourage new users looking for the seamless integration that we all aim for.

In fact, the reason I shifted to Apple was exactly that. I was a dedicated BlackBerry user for over a decade but had to leave because they did dropped support for integration with standalone instances of Outlook (only Enterprise versions). I tried a number of work-arounds before giving up and leaving the BlackBerry community...still miss my BlackBerry(s) but just couldn't use them anymore. Apple seems intent on doing exactly the same thing. Unlikely that this mistreatment of users will be quite as disastrous for Apple as it was for BlackBerry, but it will cost Apple some of their (formerly) dedicated users and certainly won't encourage any new users to buy into the new walled-garden approach that Apple seems to be building.

BTW - we all know how well the walled-garden approach has worked out for other that have tried it....just think back to AOL's early days and look at it now.

If anyone does use a Synology NAS as a Cal/Card DAV server I have just remmebered a couple of thigs that might help:

1) Synology haven't updated their notes so please don't waste your time trying to get the an iOS device to connect via a http connection. You MUST use https and port 5001 (or alternative port number if you're not using the default settings).

2) I found it safer to make the initial sync to populate the NAS from Outlook rather than my iOS devices as by default iOS will wipe your local calendar/contacts before making it's first connection! (It does ask you to confirm before it does it though).

3) Advice on the Synology forums is to NOT edit your data using the Synology webDAV apps. Just use your devices and Outlook as normal.

4) Outlook may do it's usual trick of ignoring the end date of any reoccuring events so you may have to go into any such events and reset the reoccurance. New events and edited events work without any issues (so far!). I think this also applies to any other Cal/Card DAV servers when used with Outlook.

Hope that helps you avoid wasting your time with these little gotcha's!

Here are all of the ways currently possible. Sadly, we're probably going to have to pick the one with which we can live:

https://www.online-tech-tips.com/ms-office-tips/how-to-sync-outlook-contacts-with-android-iphone-gmail-more/

@jimbob5941: The sync to Outlook will be deprecated in a "future release". I have 12.11.3.17 installed and it still works. What I think we are all discussing is NOT moving off of this version going forward with this "threat" from Apple to sync to Outlook.

But, I do have older versions - 12.10.10.2, 12.10.9.3, 12.10.8.5, 12.10.4.2, 12.10.0.7 and so on - back to 12.7.3.46. Hit me with a PM if you really want an older version.

I got the same message you did: The sync to Outlook will be deprecated in a "future release". I had the same experience: when I called to ask about the deprecation and later how to sync with iCloud and again on how to remove iCloud sync, none of the 3 support folks I talked with had any idea of I was talking about. If anyone can find out the date or if they have changed their mind, that would be great.

FYI: when I did try the sync via iCloud: it deleted ALL my contacts from Outlook. When it uploaded my contacts to the cloud, it deleted 100 of my contacts, which I only discovered because I searched for 2 of the deleted ones the next day. Luckily, I had backed up my Outlook.pst file two days previously and was able to use it to get everything back to normal. Compared how many uploaded vs how many I had in Outlook and found that 100 were missing.

I just installed Office 2019 Home & Business and re-installed iTunes 12.12.1.1 (to be sure the DLLs were up-to-date for this version - since my previous version is Office 2010, believe it or not) and Sync to Outlook works fine. I did a two-way test and Calendar and Contacts all went over & back just fine.

Like many posts, I also sync my Outlook 365 Calendar/Contacts via Itunes to my Iphone SE second generation, and viceversa. To avoid it being 'deprecated' (who in Apple came up with such an ugly word - just say 'deleted'!) I have simply stopped any updates to my current ITunes (version 12.11.3.17), and so far synching has continued without any problems.

I don't use the Cloud, which I believe is the only way to now sync the Outlook and Apple calendars using the latest version of ITunes. So, as long as it keeps working for me, I will dismiss the update requests - how long Apple will allow me to do this is anyone's guess!

@Davy_ray:

TuringTest2 (tt2) posted the link to older versions some time back. Here it is:

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6562#versions

As for WHEN we'll have to bite the bullet on this, no one here knows for sure. BUT, I do recall, once, that I got a warning that I needed to update iTunes for it to work with the OS I now had loaded on my iPhone. If/When they have that same requirement, we'll looking at all the other options for synching offered in this thread.

Just upgraded to IOS 15.3 on the IPhone and then synched my PC Outlook calendar via ITunes 12.12.2.2, and Calendar on IPhone updated fine.

I suspect the problem will only be via any ITunes updates, which I've blocked from happening automatically - at least for now!

I was forced by the death of my venerable iPhone 6s to buy a new iPhone 13 Pro, so I am a test-case ;-)

I did the "Quick Start" to move data to my new phone.

That all seemed to have worked ok, but I was worried about data integrity going forward,

so I crossed my fingers and did a sync. (i have iTunes V12.11.3.7 installed on my Win10 laptop)

with the "advanced option" desktop overwrites phone on just this sync.

It seemed to have worked as well - I have a 90 day sync. window for the calendar ...

I'm wondering it something 'bad' would happen if I opened that up,

I occasionally try to view older events on the phone ... but anyway...

SINCE the overwrite I sync-ed a few days later using just the normal sync. and got no errors.

This morning I sync-ed again and got 4 calendar errors for repeating events, and I'm not sure why as they were all old

events outside the 90 day window ...

It also re-synced my entire music collection (which it had NOT done on prior sync sessions).

So while I am confused about those things ... it still appears to be sync-ing.

I do fear for our future...