Sending iCal invitations to MS-Outlook users

Will there be a patch/upgrade/update option in the pipeline to solve this annoying incompatibility?

After getting no answers to this, I decided to open a real problem, so I went to Support.Apple.com and within a few short clicks, Apple called me.

I accidentally hung up on them, and they called back in 2 minutes.

I then waited in the queue for a few short minutes. The person who answered, understood my problem and transferred me to the iCal department where I waited another 15 minutes.

The iCal department then did some research for 10 minutes, and came back to tell me that, unfortunately, iCal is working / not broken. I disagreed, saying that this is my business computer and not being able to send meeting invites to anyone not using a MAC is insane.

The support guy suggested I tell the developers directly, via http://www.apple.com/feedback/ical.html.

I did.

He suggested that you all do to. The more people who feedback, the faster we'll get a fix!

(10 months later and MS is still not using standards that everyone else uses)

Have you sent feedback to Microsoft and told them they should use Internet standards for their calendar apps?

Doubtful Apple will change their system to follow non-standard ways of doing things.

No, I haven't tried approaching MS or IBM because:

1. It worked (both from my MAC and iPhone) until I migrated to iCloud
2. I don't own either of the other platforms (co-workers do).

Frustrating because it did work, now it doesn't.

I still cannot send iCal invitations to MS Outlook or Lotus Notes. 😟

This is even more frustrating, than a normal bug, because this used to work for me before I switched from MobileMe to iCloud. 😠

I keep waiting and testing every now and then. 😢

Anyone else have any suggestions? 😕

o1sowise wrote:

I still cannot send iCal invitations to MS Outlook or Lotus Notes. 😟

You can send them invites? Why not?

Perhaps you mean that those users cannot accept the invites you do send them?

To get them into Lotus Notes, see thread you started -> https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3403458?start=0&tstart=0

I am having the exact same issue. I have used Microsoft Office for Mac for years - using Entourage for mail and calendar - and had no problem sending invites to Outlook users, etc. Every once in a while I would "force myself" to start using iCal and Mail - and even though I preferred Entourage - I could send calendar invites to anyone.

Since iCloud came out - I decided that it was time to take the plunge and use iCal and Mail exclusively - because with iCloud, I would never have to worry that my laptop calendar, iPhone calendar, iPad calendar and desktop calendar were not all exactly the same (I am self-employed - and travel a lot for work -- so I use whichever piece of equipment I have in my hand at the time to schedule events, etc....).

Well - since doing this, anyone without iCloud or it seems (to me anyway) a Google calendar/gmail account - either doesn't even receive the calendar invitation - or if they do somehow - they cannot open the event invitation attachment.

This is BEYOND maddening. I am tired of trying to find "workaround" solutions to things that should be seamless.

Has anyone had any luck figuring it out??

Thanks in advance - and sorry for venting a bit!

By removing the Lotus Notes email id from my wife's applieid, she finally "sees" my invitations, but they cannot be accepted. Clicking on ACCEPT does NOT add it to her Notes calendar. Opening the attached ICS file also does not add it to her calendar. Ahhhhhhhhh.