After syncing with iCloud all categories of my 400 Outlook contacts were lost.

I went to unistall icloud because i read from other posts that this will bring back your data into Outlook. I clicked repair instead and it reinstalled icloud. I logged into icloud and followed the steps to link calendars and contacts. When that finished I opened Outlook and all my contacts and calendar items where back. It is in an icloud folder on the left pane. I then copied that folder to My Calendars and My Contacts so i have a computer copy and and icloud copy.

Dont waist your time trying to use iCloud to sync Outlook Calendar or Contacts please.

1. Use iCloud Windows App only for email, bookmarks and photostream.
2. to sync calendar between Outlook, iPhone, iPad etc use Gmail Calendar Sync
3. to sync contacts from Outlook 2007 to iPhone, iPad use iTunes cable or wifi sync.

Apple will fix nothing, they didn't with MobileMe Calendar Sync but strangly the Contact Sync worked?

Another Post :- https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3376567?answerId=16439171022#16439171022

It is Microsoft that have decided that subscribed folders (iCloud Mail, Contacts & Calendars are all subscriptions) may not be the defaults, this is the same even with Exchange (which does at least hide the local folders), events accepted from email will not go to the iCloud calendar, Outlook Today will not display the iCloud calendar etc etc.

Contact Microsoft, this is their limitation not Apples.

Csound1 wrote:

It is Microsoft that have decided that subscribed folders (iCloud Mail, Contacts & Calendars are all subscriptions) may not be the defaults, this is the same even with Exchange (which does at least hide the local folders), events accepted from email will not go to the iCloud calendar, Outlook Today will not display the iCloud calendar etc etc.

Contact Microsoft, this is their limitation not Apples.

um,, you sir are completely wrong and have no idea what the **** you are talking about..During the setup of iCloud on the PC, it specifically says "Merge", not "Move"..

****'n fanboys.

I suggest you read Outlooks documentation more carefully,

HRThomann wrote:

It's Appple that decided

- to create a new folder

- without asking

- without announcement

- without need

I'm now uninstalling iCloud. It's unsuitable for professional use.

Yep that's right, Apple are a Hardware company, they have no expertise in software solutions especially the Enterprise/Professional Environment that's why most company's with any sense use Microsoft Servers / Exchange Servers and Office Products.

@KingCobra33Hey, I enjoyed reading your message which Apple seemed to have pulled

"faras I can see iCloud doesn't do jack " etc etc

you hit the nail on the head there, nice one 🙂

I'll repost it a few more times! Thx for the support!

As far as I can see iCloud doesn't do jack squat for pcusers EXCEPT royally jack them up! Sync is the only way to deal with Outlookcontacts, Wi-fi sync ISN'T wireless, iCloud is to SMALL to back up the smallest16GB iPhone, (iCloud is only 5GB and dully says so every time it tries to backup data), Emails are already taken care of with how you set up the account inthe iPhone and FINALY you are betteroff BUYING a third party app to transfer your photos than risk having iCraprake you over the coals!

And for all you fanboys, yes MS has its problems, butthey sure as shooting listen to the consumer and fix the problem, instead ofhanging them out to dry and leave them to their own devices to fix what iApplescrews up!

Apple techs should have had this problem fixed after the first day of complaints, but no, they force us to run our own diagnostics andfix their error, and they benefit because we care enough about our fellow usersto post the fix on their web site!

Apple you make some SWEET products, but you need to pullyour head out of your @$$ and LISTEN to the costumer! Namely start supportingOutlook categories in iPhone Mail

Ok people, I think I found a workaround. Oh and BTW this is a Microsoft issue, not Apple. Here are the steps:

1. Go to your Contacts in iCloud and select all your contacts. Right click and select "Move to Folder". Move all your contacts back to the original Outlook Contacts folder. You now should see all your categories back in order.
2. Now right click on "Contacts in iCloud" folder and select "New Folder". Title as many new folders as you have categories.
3. Go back to your Outlook Contacts folder and select all within each category and move them to the new iCloud folder you created with that category title.

Now all your contacts will be stored in the iCloud folder, and copies of certain contacts will be in your categorized iCloud folders. The good news is that these categories will all be synced to your iphone by selecting the "groups" button in the upper left corner of your address book.

Hope that helps! It's great for me because before I had all my conacts in my iphone without the ability to sort. Now they are all categorized!

I found a solution that worked for me. Really just stumbled on it and honestly don't understand why it works, but it has for me. I used category colors for Calendar appointments in Outlook to distinguish between personal, business, travel and other appointments. The colors were not displayed in my calendar views, but when I opened up each individual appointment, the color bars were displayed until I closed the appointment.

The solution:

Open up each appointment (choose "series" if it is a recurring appointment). If your color/categroy is displayed already as a bar across the top, then click "Categorize", choose "clear your-color-here", when the color bar has cleared just reselct your color/category and save.

A pain in *** to have to do this for each appoint, or as many of you need to do with contacts, tasks, etc. but it worked for me.

Unfortunately, for new appointments (going forward) it seems that the category can only be added while the appointment is fully open (no quick right click) Though I did find a few items that could be right clicked, I could not figure out what made them special.

Maybe this approach will help get someone who knows a lot more about Outlook and software in general to identify a better path, but in the meantime, this has worked for me.

skored

What information do you have to support your assertion that this is a "Microsoft issue, not Apple."?

• Outlook works fine
• You install iCloud and sync Contacts
• Apple moves your contacts to the deleted items folder
• Apple creates a new iCloud data file
• Apple tweaks the new contacts folder and it no longer works as expected
• Apple puts your contacts in there
• Apple creates similar issues with calendar and tasks
• Outlook is now dysfunctional
• Everyone is coming up with cumbersome workarounds
• Apple didn't tell us this was going to happen
• Apple... seriously.

If Apple is going to provide an interface to another application it's Apple's responsibility to ensure that it works properly before releasing it, regardless of what hurdles they face with Microsoft.

I can manage two sets of contacts without iCloud. This release is beta at best.

I think we will probably have to resign our selves to the fact that we I stuck with this as it is, from past experience with a similar problem with MobileMe and Calendar Syncing Apple did nothing 😠

Theres probably more chance of Google doing a Google Contact Sync App for windows like the Calendar Sync.

charles_kelso wrote:

skored

What information do you have to support your assertion that this is a "Microsoft issue, not Apple."?

iCloud uses iMap, CalDav and CardDav to communicate, these are Internet standards, supported by almost all software available, Microsoft have implemented iMap support in their Windows and Mac versions of Outlook and they have implemented CalDav in their Windows product only, they do not support CardDav at all.

The WebDav standards are 9 years old and yet Microsoft still have not fully implemented them in Windows, and not at all on a Mac.

Now how is that Apples problem.