Entourage 2004 and iCal Aren't Syncing

[rabber]

I am using Entourage 11.4 and the latest version of iCal. For some reason, I have lost the ability to sync my calendars. I can sync my contacts with AddressBook, but the events are not syncing with iCal. I have deleted the iCal folder in user/application support/iCal, but this has not been rebuilt. I have turned off the sync services and turned them on again to no avail.

Can anyone provide advice on hwo to get them syncing again? Also, what initiates the sync?

 

[Helen Hauer]

I am using Entourage from Office 2004 as my calendar and address book. I had selected in Preferences to Sync to iCal and AddressBook. (OS is Leopard, 10.5.2) Everything worked well until last week when I "rebuilt the database" in Entourage by holding down the Opt key when starting to bring up the Database Utility. Now, even though I have rechecked the sync options in Preferences, I do not sync with iCal. I reimported from Entourage, but when I close iCal and reopen it, the info is gone. What am I doing wrong, and how can I get the sync back?

 

[rabber]

Helen -

I am not sure why you lost the ability to sync. As you can see from my message, I also lost this ability a while ago. I spent a couple of hours on the phone with MS and then Apple and was unable to resolve the issue. I finally reinstalled teh operating system from scratch and this resolved it.

To troubleshoot, I would do the following:
1. First try to create a new user in the OS. From within the new user go to Entourage and create a new event and see if it syncs. If it does, then the issue is not with Entourage and it likely lies with iCal. In this case, you try to reinstall your OS or move your stuff to a new user. Painful, but possible.

2. If that doesn't work, try using the switch identities command in Entourage and go to a brand new identity. You will first need to cancel the syncing with your original identity. Set up syncing in the new identity and see if this works. If it does, then the issue is within Entourage. To fix this, you can export all of your events from the old identity to the new - I can help with instructions on how I did it.

 

[Diane Ross]

Everything worked well until last week when I "rebuilt the database" in
Entourage by holding down the Opt key when starting to bring up the Database
Utility.

Why did you select to rebuild? Have you tried using the "copy" made by the
rebuild? Select Switch Identity, select the Identity named Main [Backed up
2008-05-xx xx.xx]

Now, even though I have rechecked the sync options in Preferences, I
do not sync with iCal. I reimported from Entourage, but when I close iCal and
reopen it, the info is gone. What am I doing wrong, and how can I get the sync
back?

See these steps for troubleshooting Sync Services:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/troubleshoot/syncservices.html>