iCloud changes your Outlook calendar and contacts.

I've had my iPhone for almost a year and synched my Outlook contacts with iCloud. I went through a lot of the same issues you all post about. When I went into Outlook, the contacts weren't there, but I just clicked on the iCloud Contacts button and they showed up. I learned to deal with it.

Well my company just switched to a Microsoft Exchange server tonight (from just a pop account) and after the process was finishing, there is nothing in Contacts. I mean nothing. No place to even click to see iCloud contacts.

The contacts are still in my iPhone, and my iCloud account (save a few Outlook distribution lists), but I have no idea how to get them back on my Outlook.

Any thoughts? I'd prefer not to type in over 1000 contacts again. And I had a few distribution lists that would have to be re-created; some of those addresses weren't saved as individual names, so I fear they are lost forever.

Dear specialkd24,

I haven't been through this so I'm just guessing here.

First, have you asked your IT department whether they can recover your lost contacts? It sounds like only the main contacts folder got converted. (I'd imagine you're also missing calendar data.) Maybe they can restore your PST file from backups and you can at least import your contacts (and calendar if necessary) into your Exchange account.

If that approach doesn't work, I'd set up a Gmail account (if you don't already have one) and sync my iPhone contacts to Gmail. That would give me a handy backup. (I'd also run the iTunes and iCloud backups to be extra safe.) After I was confident I had a usable backup in Gmail, I'd export those contacts to a file for safe keeping. Then I'd remove the Outlook account from the iPhone and recreate it. If prompted, I'd tell it not to delete any contacts from my phone during this process. Then I'd see if my contacts reappeared in Outlook. This wouldn't restore distribution lists, though. Also, if I was missing Outlook calendar events but had them in my phone, I'd use either the free Google Calendar Sync or something like gSyncit to copy my phone's calendar to Outlook.

If that didn't work, I'd take the contacts I'd exported from Gmail and import them into Outlook. Or, if I didn't mind spending some money, I'd use a tool like gSyncit to sync my Gmail contacts with Outlook. Again, this wouldn't restore distribution lists.

Good luck!

Robert

Their "Cloud" service is just awful. I wouldn't be surprised if they get sued over it at some point.

It likes to totally take over your contacts and do whatever it pleases to them. I'll never use their cloud services again after it happened to me in the past also.

I agree! Apple's iCloud and its indifference to issues makes for a disaster.

I have two Apple devices - Iphone 3gs and iPad2. It appears to be impossible to have the same contacts, same calendar events and same notes on both. And they change without reason. I regularly lose contacts and notes data. As for events being identical, don't make me laugh!

And I operate Outlook on my desktop and laptop. This simply quadruples the problem!

I have given up talking with the on-line Help desk. First, they have no access to Apple technicians - "place feed back in iTunes" I ask you! And can seldom solve iCloud related problems.

My biggest fear, as a frequent traveller, is that Apple software will be used in critical aircraft systems. Based on my experiences since OS 5.

Thanks everyone for thoughts on my issue. Our IT person (we have an outside firm to it) finally solved my problem, simply by signing switching back to my old profile in Outlook, and copying and pasting those contacts into my new profile.

So far Microsoft Exchange is awesome, and a lot better than iCloud.

Compared to iCloud Exchange comes at significant cost, that may be why it is better.

Sure it does ... $6 per user per month.

But as outlined by many above, iCloud has some flaws. It was great, but was my company agreed to pay the small price per month for Exchange, I've realized how much better it is.

specialkd24 wrote:

Sure it does ... $6 per user per month.

But as outlined by many above, iCloud has some flaws. It was great, but was my company agreed to pay the small price per month for Exchange, I've realized how much better it is.

No business should ever use a consumer grade system, which is what iCloud is.

I have just turned off icloud & icloud calendar syncing with my Windows 7 Outlook 2010 calendar & contacts on my desktop PC & two iphones (iphone 4 & iphone 5), and won't be using this unreliable service for quite some time until it becomes reliable. Basically I use Outlook 2010 calendar on my PC for my airport transfer business and have been syncing two iphones (using cables) to the PC Outlook calendar. I then decided to set up icloud to sync my Outlook calendar with the icloud calendar etc, so any changes I made in the PC calendar would also get changed on the two iphones & vice versa etc, which is how it is supposed to work. All worked fine for a day or two. But wait!! to my horror & amazement, after a couple of days, I noticed some Outlook calendar transfer appointments had disapeared from my PC & two iphones. I re-entered them again from my paper hard copy & double checked all my appointments again to see if any more had disappeared. The appointments went in OK on my PC & got synced with the iphones using icloud etc. A couple of days later the same thing happened again. Some transfer appointments had disappeared. Its a good job I check & remember, as my customers would be waiting for me to take them to the airport.

A long story short, after speaking to Apple support & explaining this unbelievable problem, I (& them) put it down to icloud outages. What I think is happening (not confirmed by Apple support) is that if I enter transfer appointments into my Outlook calendar, when unbeknown to me there is an icloud outage, then the apointments DON'T get up-loaded to the icloud calander. Consequently when icloud comes back on line, I think that the icloud calendar then syncs back with the Outlook calendar and removes the new appointments I just entered into Outlook on my PC. Which possibly explains why they disappear from my Outlook calendar. I now use the cables to sync my iphones with my desktop PC & Outlook calendar. All works perfectly. I can now also cut & paste again with my appointments, as icloud didn't allow this function.

I hope this message helps people in a similar situation to me, to understand why Outlook appointments disappear. PS, I never did get a return phone call (like promised) from Apple support on a possible explanation or solution to my problem.

I've give up on using iCloud to sync Calendar between Windows Outlook, iPhone and iPad.

I used to collect my mail through Gmail IMAP, but since Outlook.com have upgraded their services, it's now my service of choice.

I am forwarding all my mail to Outlook.com, and can effortlessly sync my mail, calendar and contacts between Windows Outlook and iOS using the much more reliable Microsoft Exchange Sync.

Now I can add and view Calendar and Contacts items directly to the synched folders. The only problem I had was to send from my work email addresses, as Outlook doesn't support sending from another address by default.

I had hoped (like many commentators here) that i-cloud would merely create a 'backup' in the cloud, leaving my outlook contacts intact - but in fact it transferred them all to the cloud leaving an empty original contacts folder on my PC.

So I exported the cloud pst file to a backup location on my hard disk and then imported that same file back into my original contacts file - so I now have two folders in contacts - 'original' and 'i-cloud'. That gives me the security that I still have contacts actually phyisically on my hard drive!!! (as well as in the cloud).

I'm not as concerned about calendars as they are not quite as critical but I guess the above would work for that as well.

Hope this helps!

Clive

I wish I'd read this before starting to use iCloud. I lasted less than a week before finding that my calendar functionality was completely screwed. I've moved all contacts, tasks and calendar items back from iCloud into my Outlook and set up sync via iTunes.

iCloud is off for these and won't be going on again.

I have read through all the posts in this discussion and I don't think anyone has mentioned the problem I am having yet. I sync Reminders on my iPhone 4 with Outlook on my PC using iCloud. I have two reminders/tasks which appear in the iCloud folder on my PC and nothing I do will make them go away. I have tried deleting, marking them as complete, moving the whole folder into tasks and back, but they refuse to go. They don't appear on my phone or on iCloud online and when I select all tasks and copy them to the Tasks folder they don't come with the rest. They are just stuck in the Outlook iCloud folder. When I click 'delete', nothing happens. When I click 'mark as complete' I used to get an error message saying something like 'you don't have permission to use that folder' and now simply says 'unknown error'. I even got my IT department to unintall Outlook and reinstall it and they are still there! Can anyone please suggest anything?

Not sure why you wouldn't expect that from Apple. They are just as bad as Microsoft these days...