sync calendar/contacts with iCloud versus iTunes

My iTunes, 12.12.3.5 (fully updated Windows 10 Pro PC) was no longer syncing with my updated iPhone 12 Pro, which I assumed was the deprecation factor, so I decided to swallow my pride and attempt an iCloud sync of my Window 10 Outlook 2016 Pop calendar with my iPHone. It asked my how many months to sync, and I said 3. Process seemed to proceed just fine.

Afterwards, I checked my Outlook Calendar on PC.

It had created a new Outlook calendar call iCloud. Indeed it did have 3 months of my calendar entries in it.

To my horror, though, it had ERASED all of my regular outlook calendar entries back forever.

I checked carefully, and they were just completely gone. I'd had an issue like this 4 years ago, but stupidly assumed Apple would have fixed iCloud syncing by now - especially since they were deprecating iTunes. I was so wrong.

Luckily, I keep backups of everything, so was able to recover by replacing with a backed up version of Outlook.pst. I did lose some emais downloaded since that backup, but I'm okay.

Dear Mr. Cook: I appreciate your valuing our privacy concerns regarding the selling of our data. There's something worse than selling data, though, it's DELETING it. ICloud is clearly not production ready (at least not for .PST files. You should be ashamed to force us to use it. Itunes was fantastic, both because it worked, but also because it allowed me to keep a complete local iphone backup on my PC. ICloud fails as a backup methodology, as it doesn't support image backup, and is even worse as a sync technology.

I now manually sync my calendar entries between phone and Outlook 2016.

I welcome other suggestions as to a workaround for manually cross-updating.

Thanks for confirming the support with iTunes 12.12.5.8 and iOS 15.6.

I tried a sync with iOS 16.0.2 using iTunes 12.12.5.8, and it is working.

I have also submitted feedback to Apple explaining how critical this feature is, and would encourage everyone who is interested in this feature to do the same:

Feedback - iTunes - Apple

iTunes can be used to sync calendar and contacts directly with Outlook without storing that information in the Cloud. Of course Apple *wants* you to store your information in the cloud, and I am sure it works just fine for most people. However, there are those, including myself, who do not want our personal info stored in a way that is out of our control.

iCloud for Windows is not a true sync. It just syncs what is in the cloud to Outlook. The data, is still stored in the cloud. The direct sync with iTunes means that the data is on your phone and on your Outlook, and nowhere in between. So sure, if you do not backup often, or you lose your phone, or your computer happens to die at the wrong time, you could lose everything, but for most people that is not an issue. It is more about keeping your personal data in your own hands and in your control and not in the cloud where it could be hacked, or whatever.

DD1509 wrote:

However, was the jist of this thread that Apple wants to stop allowing ITunes to do this?

Yes. See If you see an alert in iTunes that says syncing contacts and calendars has been deprecated - Apple Support.

tt2

I tried with iOS 16.1.1 and iTunes 12.12.6.1, the sync is working. This is on an existing (old) iPhone. Do not have a new iPhone for trying out.

It would be useful to hear about more experiences with new iPhone being setup for local syncing... it seems like Apple has already dropped support for local outlook sync for new devices?

Also, if I were to upgrade the computer and setup iTunes on a new computer, then try syncing the old phone by using old outlook.pst, it seems like it would appear as a "new" phone owing to the new install of iTunes, so that might also not work?

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

Feedback - iTunes - Apple

Hey folks ...

sorry for delay replying ... crazy at work during the holidays!

I have stayed with 12.11.3.17

later versions have security fixes and STATE that they add support for iOS 15 and then iOS 16,

but I have not taken the bait ...

I'm currently on iOS 16.1.1

and YES Outlook 2013 has been sync-ing fine....

My problem is/was that Outlook 2013 goes end of support early next year so bummer.

I was unable to find any information that said the format of PST files has changed

over the versions of Outlook, so I decided to upgrade all the way to Outlook 2021 and see what happened.

I put a test contact and test calendar-appt. on both my iphone and in outlook

closed my eyes and tried to sync.

The first sync. worked for contacts but NOT for calendar ... dang...

I ran ScanPST on my data file and tried again and IT WORKED!!!

Contacts and Calendar appear to sync. OK.

For (literately) years now every time I run ScanPST it NEVER comes back "clean"

it pops up dozens of errors in multiple categories - shown below.

Google-ing seems to offer no solutions other than:

1) Ignore it - it's harmless

or

2) Buy some 3rd-party scan/fix tool and life will be great.

If anyone has insight into these "categories" of errors I'd be indebted to you

Microsoft (R) Inbox Repair Tool

© 2021 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Version 16.0.15726.20068

!!AMap page <@855073792> has csFree of 126, but should have 255

??BBT entry (2A4654B8) has different refcount in RBT (4 vs 3)

??Couldn't find BBT entry in the RBT (30C257EC)

Failed to add row to the FLT, irow = 4620, RowID = 104A624

!!HMP incorrect for NID 1013FA4

Thanks!

Jim

Hello guys,

I can confirm the following setup still synchronizes Contacts and iTunes continues to display the Deprecation message about happening in the future.

FYI-I did not check the Calendar sync since I don't use it at the moment but i feel it would still work fine at least for now :)

iTunes 12.12.7.1 + iOS 16.3 + Outlook [2013]

Good luck all

Apple have released Apple Music, Apple TV, and Apple Devices for Windows. Installing any of these cripples iTunes such that it can then only manage audiobooks and podcasts, and cannot handle syncing duties. This is clearly part of a plan to retire iTunes, aligning the replacement apps across both Windows and Mac platforms. The problem at the moment is that Apple have yet to release matching Books and Podcast apps for Windows, or put in all of the features that many users rely on, such as the ability to rip CDs, switch between multiple libraries, use scripts for bulk metadata changes, etc. Hopefully iTunes as a standalone app will continue to function until the shortcomings are addressed.

Apple could allow Windows users to stick with a single ultimate version of iTunes, patching any iOS connectivity issues separately. They did this for quite some time with iTunes on Mojave. Whether they will or not is another matter.

tt2

Thank you very much tt2

I reckon for now I'll upgrade my Microsoft store version of iTunes to 12.13.1.3

(I have auto updates turned OFF)

So I can update from 16.7 to 17.3 and ... we'll just see how it all shakes out!

Jim

What problems are you having? One would think that it should still work as the feature is being depreciated on iTunes not iOS ... so I would be more hesitant about updating iTunes. However, Apple being Apple, who knows.

If you go to the info section of iTunes, does it still show the option to sync to Outlook?

Does anyone know anything about or have any of you tried CompanionLink/DejaOffice? It claims to sync iPhone to PC.

Companion Link does "deduping". Not sure about merging.

Tell Apple NO!

Make the time and fill out the feedback form here:

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

Backing up thru iTunes is still viable.

And I agree and said the same thing, don’t upgrade to a newer iTunes version that doesn’t support cable-/WiFi-synch to Outlook.

I encourage everyone to provide feedback on this topic directly to Apple via iTunes Help menu > Provide iTunes Feedback.

It's the only way I know to ensure they see user opinions.

Thanks!