ICal sync with Outlook 2011

iCloud is not a business-level service. If you need such a service and all your clients are already using Microsoft's proprietary Exchange system - then use that.

Apple made sure to make their iOS mobile devices and OS X computers compatible with Exchange a long time ago.

It's a shame Microsoft didn't bother to make their systems compatible with industry standards. Apple can't change that.

Julian Wright wrote:

It's a shame Microsoft didn't bother to make their systems compatible with industry standards. Apple can't change that.

That is a most disingenuous claim, as Microsoft IS the industry standard by any measure you could possibly throw at it. And while I'd normally be the one jumping on the "me too" wagin here, in this case it is Apple that has made things difficult to impossible by not toeing the MS line.

Hi Julian. My argument's not with you - but I think you've misunderstood - I don't think it's got anything to do with iCloud (I'm not sure what it is and I don't think I use it).

As an example to show you what I mean -

I have a client. I invite them to a meeting using iCal and their email address. They get an odd looking message which they can't process. In the rare occasion that they can process it I get a response in Mac Mail with an attachment that I can't process. I don't know anyone else who has a Mac - everyone I know - including all my clients - has Outlook. I agree that it might be well be a microsoft problem but I disagree that Apple can't do anything about it; they could write a translator, for example, if they cared to or they could just change to the de-facto standard that is Microsoft.

I didn't know that moving to Exchange might fix this problem; are you saying that if I turned on Exchange on my mailserver then I'd be able to use iCal and send invitations to Outlook users which they would be able to process - and receive responses? (sorry for using you as tech support - I'll understand if you choose not to answer such an ill-defined question!).

Thanks for the reply.

Apple that has made things difficult to impossible by not toeing the MS line.

What on earth are you talking about?

Apple includes support for Microsoft's closed & proprietary Exchange system in both its Mac OS and iOS products.

Apple uses the cross-platform, industry standard, and completely open CalDAV and CardDAV protocols in its own iCloud system.

So, it is Apple who is providing support for both a true open industry standard, AND a closed proprietary "de-facto standard" in both its desktop and mobile OSs.

How can you possibly interpret that as Apple making things difficult?

With Apple software, you have a choice which system to use.

With Microsoft software, you can only use Exchange.

And if Apple's own software doesn't suit your business needs you can use Microsoft's own software, just as you could on a Windows PC.

Ok, instead of arguing about all these stupid details...

Does anyone solved the problem?? I have Office 14.2.3 and I'm not able to Syncro my ****** calendars (Outlook and iCal)!!

Is it true that Apple do not support such syncro services starting with Lion and later versions?

Hi Davide. I'm afraid I can only answer one of your questions with any certainty.

I have Mac OS 10.7.5 and Outlook 2011 14.2.3. I use Outlook as my main mail and calendar app and use the sync facility to sync to my iPhone via iCal. I don't use iCal at all - it's just a conduit to get my events into iPhone. Outlook and iCal sync OK with a couple of issues only:

1. there are problems with repeating all-day events (e.g. birthdays) which sometimes result in multiple occurrences of the events (and I mean multiple - lots -sometimes 10 or more). I've fixed this by turning all my anniversaries into half-hour repeats instead of all-day repeats.

2. Outlook doesn't subscribe to calendar feeds. I thought that if I subscribed in iCal it would sync back to Outlook - but it doesn't.

So, to answer the question about sync support in Lion - it works for me. I know this doesn't help you much - but at least you know it works. I don't do anything to make it work other than make sure that the relevant boxes are all ticked in Outlook' <tools><sync services>

I had a problem a while ago when the sync stopped working. I tried lots of things to fix this - resetting sync history, deleting various plists, deleting other stuff - and none of it worked. All it did was to create lots of copies of some old events (not just all-day, repeating, but a lot of events), but new events created in Outlook wouldn't sync to iCal and iPhone. I can't remember, but I think that syncs from iPhone and iCal to Outlook worked - but it was a while ago so I can't be sure.

I fixed this by deleting my Outlook identity (I re-named it and transferred off the Mac) and starting again. I think (I have no proof) that my Outlook calendar was corrupt. In Windows, IIRC, there were tools to scan and fix Outlook corruptions, but I couldn't find the equivalent for Outlook 2011. Note that this solution was only viable for me because I already had most of my calendar events in iPhone/ iCal and so could sync back to Outlook with the new identity. I had to transfer all my mail messages into Mac mail before deleting the 'corrupt' Outlook ID (through an IMAP mailbox) and my contacts were synched OK with Mac's address book. I also used a free app to clean up iCal and delete all the multiple events (can't remember, can't find it, GIYF).

It was a pain and took a fair amount of time (mainly transferring the mail across) but once I'd done it then the new Outlook ID synched to iCal OK, as did the contacts. Mail took the longest because I had to set up all my accounts again and then transfer the mail back via the IMAP account (there are apps which claim to transfer mail between Outlook and Mac mail but they're all paid and I didn't try any of them).

Since then (it's been a few months, but I can't remember when) synch has worked fine for calendar, contacts and Notes (to iPhone). I have many meetings/events per week and they change, have multiple attendees etc and so far (touch wood) synch has worked fine.

This worked for me. It was a pain. It took a few hours of my time. I'm not offering it as a solution for you and I am sympathetic to your frustration in this. I spent more time trying to fix the synch issue (deleting synch records, plists, etc) than I did deleting and re-creating a working Outlook and I almost threw my Mac across the room a number of time in sheer anger that it should be so hard.

I wish I could help more. Good luck.

Welcome to the Apple Forum, David_D!

Davide_D wrote:

I have Office 14.2.3 and I'm not able to Syncro my ****** calendars (Outlook and iCal)!!

Is it true that Apple do not support such syncro services starting with Lion and later versions?

Has it worked before? If yes, and it's not working now, see the MS Support article regardless of the problem it fixes.

It's working for me with OS 10.7.4 and Office 14.2.3. I do admit that when I first used Outlook v14.1.0 there were so many issues similar to those stated by 4940863492 that after a month, I went back to Entourage 2004. iCal is only the bridge to my iPhone Calendar. After iOS 5 released, I tried Outlook again and it was better. It still will hiccup occassionally. If I reboot the computer, all is in sync again. Another method is to launch Activity Monitor, click on SyncServicesAgent and then click the red hexagon, Quit Process. Notice that the Real Mem will drop down, but then immediately grow in size.

HTH

Many thanks for your very extended support.

I'll try to do the suggested migration of my 13GB mail folder back and forth as you suggested. I'll keep all of you posted about the result just to bring this experience to all of the other lucky guys around the world that have this issue (searching around I saw quite a lot of people, actually).

I realized I have transmitted a sort of hostility in my request and was absolutely not inteded, it's just really surprising for me how could happen on 2012, with the state of the art on both Apple OS (I'm using 10.8.2) and MS Office v.14.3.2 that such kind of problem are not addressed in the proper way (it's a fact reading around).

Thanks again

Davide

I feel fleeced. I bought a state of the art computer... and it will not sync to my iPhone. It will sync to iCal, but it wont upload my Outlook Cal. I talked to an Apple representitive and he got defensive saying that the Outlook Calendar is locked to the computer... you'll need to talk to Microsoft to figure out how to unlock it... Well I turned off iCloud and am using iTunes to sync my Outlook.

Solution, just turn of iCloud calendar sync and plug your phone into iTunes... simple. Not a great user experiance but its a dirty fix.

I need to transfer the entries from Apple Calendar into Outlook Calendar 2011. I think this may be the other direction from your question -- but does anyone know a way to do that?

Thanks

If you use Microsoft Exchange it's very easy to sync to your iPhone. First you make sure that the Sync is turned off on Outlook 2011 then you add Exchange to your iPhone Settings and Walla, it works and no duplicates and no need to use iTunes. Hope that helps.

Orly

B.bar

Moving to outlook from iCal

Open iCal and go to File, export, (not archive) save in Documents as a "Calendar.ics" which should be the defult. Then close out iCal and open Outlook 2011. go to your Finder, Documents, find that file and click on it. i believe it will ask you if you want to open it in Outlook,

NOW, saying all that..... that is how I remember doing that.

Orly

YES, right mouse the "Calendar.ics" which is now in Documents and say
" open with" Outlook.....