Birthdays show one day late in MacOS, correctly in iOS (synced through Exchange)

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Level 1

33 points

Birthdays show one day late in MacOS, correctly in iOS (synced through Exchange)

Since doing a fresh install of Big Sur, my contact birthdays show one day off (later) in Calendar and Contacts on my MacBook Pro. These are synced with Exchange. On my iPhone (iOS14.7.1) the birthdays are still correct (synced with the same Exchange server) and in Outlook on my Mac (also syncing with the same Exchange server).

From a google search I see that many people have had this issue and it seems unresolved. I did not have it until my MacBookPro had a clean install with Big Sur. Any suggestions on how to solve this are welcome. So far I tried:

checking the time zone settings; same for iOS and MacOS
logging out of the exchange calendar account on MacOS and iOS; then logging in again
adding new contacts on iPhone, MacOS Contacts and Outlook: iPhone and Outlook sync correctly, MacOS Contacts&Calendar is one day off for all. This means: adding a Contact with birthday on Big Sur makes it appear one day earlier on Outlook and iPhone Contacts/Calendar. Adding a contact with birthday through Outlook or iPhone makes it appear one day later on MacOS Contacts/Calendar.

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Posted on Aug 10, 2021 3:05 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

philipp779

Level 1

24 points

Aug 28, 2021 7:54 AM in response to Barney-15E

I know that EAS is not the same as EWS and that MacOS (must) uses EWS.

the point is however, that both protocols (EWS and EAS) share the same (by MS documented and awkward) semantics regarding the birthday field for contacts.

Apples iOS implementation of EAS on iOS used to have the same bug until they fixed it in late 2019 (I think).

they didn’t fix their EWS implementation on macOS however.

As to the question who is supposed to fix it:

Apple is advertising compatibility for Exchange and Office365 for mail, contacts and calendar
it’s documented by MS
it’s not easy to change a the semantics of a protocol when you have hundreds of implementations in the wild

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Answer 2

Aug 28, 2021 5:35 AM in response to Barney-15E

I agree, that the MS API has inconsistencies (not to say it is flawed to specify a birthday to be a date with timezone).

However, it is documented that way.

Apple has changed their implementation on IOS to adhere to the spec, but has failed to change their MacOS implementation....

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Answer 3

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,704 points

Aug 13, 2021 1:55 PM in response to mathieu__

iOS uses a mobile sync service (exchange active sync) that is different from the desktop service because Microsoft has not licensed it for use on Desktop computers.

The desktop computers must sync through exchange web services (EWS). EWS treats anniversary dates different from event dates and strips off any time zone information.

Contacts sends anniversary dates the same as other event dates with a time zone offset. EWS ignores that information, so depending on time zone offset, the dates may sync a day off.

There is nothing you can do besides requesting one or the other company pick a standard and use it to pass information.

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Answer 4

sterling r

Community Specialist

Aug 13, 2021 1:26 PM in response to mathieu__

mathieu__,

You can add your Exchange account and enable Contacts to sync to your computer. If you already have these contacts synced from a different account, it may result in duplicates showing. Simply turn off Contacts for the app you do not wish to sync. Check out Set up and use iCloud Contacts, specifically the section Add Contacts from third-party accounts.

Regards

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Answer 5

mathieu__ Author

Level 1

33 points

Aug 14, 2021 1:40 AM in response to Barney-15E

Dear Barney-15E,

Thanks for bringing the (sad) news clearly. I will send in a request and hope others with the same problem will also do this until the issue gets solved.

(At this very moment I can't find the pages for filling a request of either company - if anyone has the direct links at hand, please feel free to add them in a reaction to this discussion.)

As an extra, for those struggling like me, I found another post with a similar message as the one above :

It appears to be a sync issue between O365 and Apple Contacts app in my opinion which is well documented with no fix in sight -

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8534277

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252265297

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252172406

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/contact-app-issues-birthdays-day-off-deleting-mail-addresses.2268092/

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Answer 6

Chris_C1

Community Specialist

Aug 11, 2021 6:50 AM in response to mathieu__

Hi mathieu__,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities.

We understand that your Outlook calendar shows birthdays a day late after reinstalling macOS. After opening Calendar, go to the menu bar and choose Calendar > Accounts > choose the account and disable the calendar and re-enable. Allow for the events to re-sync.

Regards.

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Answer 7

mathieu__ Author

Level 1

33 points

Aug 11, 2021 2:47 PM in response to Chris_C1

Dear Chris_C1,

Thank you for making the effort to reply and for your suggestion. I did already try this procedure, but unfortunately it does not solve the issue. Do you have any other suggestions?

(As a bit of background information, I'd like to draw your attention to the fact that this issue is reported by many others on various forums over the years, and in none of these forums, including in the Apple communities, is it ever labeled as 'solved'. So it seems to be a rather complicated issue.)

Kind regards, Mathieu

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Answer 8

mario49

Community Specialist

Aug 12, 2021 1:23 PM in response to mathieu__

mathieu__ ,

We advise on checking to see if this behavior occur with birthdays on other accounts such as iCloud. If you make iCloud your default, does this continue? If this occurs only with Exchange, it would be best to check your calendar settings.

Regards.

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Answer 9

mathieu__ Author

Level 1

33 points

Aug 13, 2021 1:01 AM in response to mario49

Dear mario49,

Thanks for your response - it is much appreciated. I will check iCloud although I am worried about losing contacts - can you give me an indication on how to transfer contacts data between exchange and iCloud? I have previously read that having both iCloud and exchange address books will lead to doubles, is that true?

Meanwhile, I would like to check my calendar settings - I did this already but is there any specific setting you would suggest? As the date change also occurs in the Contacts app, is there any specific setting in Contacts I should also look into?

Sorry for all these questions - I am trying to do what I can to get this problem fixed.

Kind regards, Mathieu

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