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mcoppock Author

Level 1

17 points

Calendar - Exchange sync issue

I'm having a problem with Calendar and Exchange syncing (my company uses Exchange 2010), with the following error:

"Calendar can’t save the event “Item title” to the Exchange server.

The account "Exchange" currently can’t be modified. To discard your changes and continue using the version of your calendars that’s on the server, click Revert to Server."

The options on the dialog box are:

Revert to Server

Try Again

Ignore

Syncing in general is working, i.e., items added in either system show up as they should. And, I'm not actually changing anything on the items on my MBA. The error pops up apparently randomly--so far, at least, I haven't been able to identify a pattern. I've checked credentials, which seem to be correct, and I've verified that time zone settings are turned on as I think they're supposed to be.

Any ideas?

MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Aug 3, 2012 12:42 PM

Best reply

furyg3

Level 1

16 points

Posted on Aug 10, 2012 12:28 AM

I also experianced this problem after an upgrade to Mountain Lion.

I think it has to do with the fact that in Lion the account settings were managed from iCal, and now they are managed by the OS?

Anyway I finally solved it by:

Open Calendar (formerly iCal).
Go to the Calendar menu and select Preferences.
Select the Accounts tab.
Remove the Exchange server account which is giving you the error messages. This calendar will be removed from the Calendar app.
Go to System Preferences and click on the "Mail, Contacts & Calendars" pane, find your Exchange server account, and check the "Calendars & Reminders" option to re-enable your calendar.
Your Calendar should now sync properly.

I had to do this for all of the accounts I had set up in Calander, and haven't had any problems since.

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145 replies

Jan 9, 2013 1:07 PM in response to mcoppock

Another bug report has been submitted...

Jan 21, 2013 9:41 AM in response to mcoppock

Just called Apple support on the issue. All they did to help was to read through the various forum posts and tell me that it must be a Microsoft problem and I should search Microsoft's web site and forums for a solution.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any help or mention of this problem except for here on the discussions.apple.com site.

Of course, the problem doesn't exist in MS Outlook, Outlook Web Access, nor on iPhone, nor for me on previous versions of OSX (had 10.6 and didn't have the problem - only have the problem on OS X 10.8). Seems to me a bug in OSX 10.8 Calendar.

Jan 21, 2013 11:44 AM in response to magiclantern

That is really disappointing. Not even an acknowledgement that this *might* be an issue on their end. There are enough of us with problems (who, unfortunately, have not found solutions), that there has got to be a way we can escalate this through the ranks at Apple until someone will acknowledge there is a problem with the Calendar App in Mountain Lion and fix it.

Any thoughts?

Jan 21, 2013 12:41 PM in response to magiclantern

magiclantern wrote:

Just called Apple support on the issue. All they did to help was to read through the various forum posts and tell me that it must be a Microsoft problem and I should search Microsoft's web site and forums for a solution.

Oh, and I'm sure Microsoft would love to help us with our Apple software when they could be selling us a copy of Outlook instead.

And since Apple would be happier if we did eveything through iCloud (which I do use for my personal calendars), nobody has an incentive to fix this. Blechhh.

Jan 21, 2013 10:47 PM in response to Randall Blank

Randall Blank wrote:

Oh, and I'm sure Microsoft would love to help us with our Apple software when they could be selling us a copy of Outlook instead.

Microsoft would surely prefer us to use Windows + Outlook instead; but rest assured that they also make plenty of money with OS X clients, because :

Apple licenced the ActiveSync protocol from Microsoft, and certainly not for free.
Microsoft sells additional CALs (Client Access Licences) to companies making their Exchange Servers open to non-Microsoft clients.

By the way, did anyone in this forum actually contact Microsoft or browse their forums for help ?

Jan 22, 2013 2:38 PM in response to mcoppock

I searched the office.com support site, and did a bunch of Google searches. I couldn't find anything from any Microsoft centric sites that addressed or acknowledged the specific problems mentioned in this discussion thread.

If someone else can find something, please share!

Csound1

Level 9

59,985 points

Jan 22, 2013 2:54 PM in response to Pascal_Sartoretti

Pascal_Sartoretti wrote:

Randall Blank wrote:

Oh, and I'm sure Microsoft would love to help us with our Apple software when they could be selling us a copy of Outlook instead.

Microsoft would surely prefer us to use Windows + Outlook instead; but rest assured that they also make plenty of money with OS X clients, because :

Apple licenced the ActiveSync protocol from Microsoft, and certainly not for free.

I was not aware that OSX had added the ActiveSync protocol, when did this occur?

Jan 22, 2013 3:53 PM in response to Csound1

Csound1 wrote:

I was not aware that OSX had added the ActiveSync protocol, when did this occur?

I assume he was referring to iOS. Microsoft only licenses ActiveSync for mobile use — OS X is stuck with Exchange Web Services, and from what I can tell they don't earn licensing fees from that.

Ironically, Microsoft does have a support article for Current issues with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and third-party devices.

I'm looking around in hopes that some obscure article on EWS issues will offer a clue…

Csound1

Level 9

59,985 points

Jan 22, 2013 3:58 PM in response to Randall Blank

That's what I thought, but the OP specifically referred to OSX, so I'm checking.

Jan 23, 2013 1:55 AM in response to Randall Blank

Randall Blank wrote:

I assume he was referring to iOS. Microsoft only licenses ActiveSync for mobile use — OS X is stuck with Exchange Web Services, and from what I can tell they don't earn licensing fees from that.

Sorry, my mistake, I thought that OS X used ActiveSync also.

Anyway, Microsoft surely finds a way to earn money on the server side for OS X clients using Exchange Web Services...

Jan 30, 2013 7:47 PM in response to Randall Blank

Randall Blank wrote:

Microsoft only licenses ActiveSync for mobile use

Well, I have to qualify that now — it turns out that Exchange ActiveSync is used by Outlook 2013 (and the Windows 8 mail client for that matter). So even Microsoft recognizes that the desktop/moble distinction was an artificial one.

(So perhaps OS X 10.9 will support ActiveSync and this problem becomes moot. We can always hope.)

Feb 5, 2013 10:55 AM in response to mcoppock

I found a workaround that works fine for me (the procedure in the other answers didn't worked):

- go to Calendar Preferences and delete de Exchange Account.

- close (Calendar->Quit Calendar) Calendar

- go to Terminal and delete "rm -rf *" all the files inside username/Library/Calendars/

- open Calendar

- go to Calendar->Preferences->Advanced and Turn on time support (if it is already enabled, disable it, close calendar and then re-enabled it)

- in the upper-right-corner of calendar, select your Timezone (very important to select your timezone before adding the Exchange account)

- close (Calendar->Quit Calendar) Calendar

- open Calendar

- go to Calendar->Preferences->Accounts

- add the Exchange Account

Problem solved.

Feb 5, 2013 11:20 AM in response to vicko.arocha

vicko.arocha wrote:

I found a workaround that works fine for me (the procedure in the other answers didn't worked):

OK, I'm game. We'll see how long it lasts.

Note that deleting the contents of ~/Library/Calendars also removes your iCloud calendars. After reactivating iCloud and Exchange in System Preferences, nothing appears to be missing…

Oh, and back up your calendars first (File > Export > Calendar Archive). Just in case.

acyclone

Level 1

13 points

Feb 5, 2013 11:26 AM in response to Randall Blank

As Randal implied, these "fixes" usually last only a couple days before the error returns. I'll be interested to see if it holds up for a week. At least Viko is still trying for a solution...

I've already spent a lot of time moving my calendar entries to Gmal so I'll let others report back before spending the time to experiment. Please check back in with updates on whether this works!

Feb 5, 2013 11:49 AM in response to acyclone

After this fix, I have been using the Calendar for 2 weeks without mayor problems.

The identified issues:

- with a Calendar entry that I made before this fix for testing purposes using a different timezone. I deleted this entry to fix the error.

- I always use the Create Quick Event function without problems, but if I use the "double-click in the date" method, the problem appears. Just stick to the "+" button to avoid problems.

Regards,

Victor

Calendar - Exchange sync issue