Odd Iphone Outlook Calendar Sync problem

[Simon]

Odd little Iphone 3g Outlook calendar sync problem.

My sync with Outlook 2003 really works well, but with one small quirk.

In my Outlook 2003 calendar view, above my "tasks", is a monthly calendar
area I have set to show the next 4 months (don't know what that portion of
the display is properly called, but I'll refer to it as the auxillary
calendar, as opposed to the primary calendar display that takes up most of
the screen). On any dates where I have an event scheduled, the corresponding
date in that auxillary calendar is in bold.

The problem is that if I add a calendar event on my IPhone, then sync, the
date in the auxillary calendar view goes bold as it should. If I close
Outlook and then re-open it, however, the date in the auxillary calendar
section is no longer bold.

I am NOT losing the calendar entry. It remains on my IPhone in both daily
and monthly view, and remains in Outlook in "Daily View", "Week" view, and
"Month" view. The ONLY place it disappears is where the date should be
showing bold in the auxilary monthly display above tasks.

Also, if I make the calendar entry in Outlook and sync, the problem does NOT
occur. The date in the small auxilary calendar remains bold after sync, and
after closing and re-opening Outlook. The problem ONLY occurs if the entry
originates on the IPhone.

I've tried loading Outlook 2007, and it does the same thing.

Apple says they have not heard of the problem, but frankly claim to not know
much about Outlook.

Anyone have the same problem, and any suggestions?

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Is the appointment tagged as busy?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



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[Simon]

It does show as busy, but you are on to something. But before I tell you
what I found, I need to clarify something.

I said that if I sync, the date goes bold, but when I restart Outlook it is
no longer bold. Turns out that if Outlook is RUNNING while I sync it shows
bold, then disappears when I close and restart. I have discovered, however,
that if Outlook is closed when I sync, then the date NEVER goes bold. In
other words, the fact that the date goes bold when Outlook is open at the
time of sync is a bit of a red herring. It is NEVER bold anytime I OPEN
Outlook after a sync.

Back to the "busy" issue. When I sync and check the event, it does show as
busy, even though the auxilary calendar does not show bold. But if I change
the tag to something else (Free or tentative) and then change it BACK to
"busy", then the date goes bold and stays bold even after subsequent
openings and closings of Outlook, and subsequent syncs. And that is true
whether I change in and out of busy by right clicking on the event and
changing the field from the context menu, or double click on the appointment
and bring up the full event entry screen.

Making OTHER changes, however, does not have the same effect. For example,
if I sync, open Outlook, date is not bold, and I then change the time or
descriptive field, the date in the auxillary calendar initially appears bold,
but when I close and re-open Outlook it has again lost the bold. So to get it
bold and have it stay bold, I specifically need to modify the "busy" tag.

So apparently what is happening is that the sync registers the event as busy
in the main calendar, but not in the auxilary calendar. But if I manually
change it in the main calendar, then it shows in both places.

Knowing this is a big help, because it gives me an easy method to manually
force the appropriate display in the auxillary calendar of Outlook, so long
as I remember on what dates I entered events in my Iphone since my last sync.
But if you have any suggestions as to whether there may be something (i.e. a
corrupt registry entry) that might be blocking the busy tag from
automatically registering in the auxillary calendar, that would be even
better (I'm a greedy son of a gun!)

Either way, I'm VERY impressed you focused in on this based on my
description. I understand the MVP tag

Is the appointment tagged as busy?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
(e-mail address removed)

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.

Odd little Iphone 3g Outlook calendar sync problem.

My sync with Outlook 2003 really works well, but with one small quirk.

In my Outlook 2003 calendar view, above my "tasks", is a monthly calendar
area I have set to show the next 4 months (don't know what that portion of
the display is properly called, but I'll refer to it as the auxillary
calendar, as opposed to the primary calendar display that takes up most of
the screen). On any dates where I have an event scheduled, the
corresponding
date in that auxillary calendar is in bold.

The problem is that if I add a calendar event on my IPhone, then sync, the
date in the auxillary calendar view goes bold as it should. If I close
Outlook and then re-open it, however, the date in the auxillary calendar
section is no longer bold.

I am NOT losing the calendar entry. It remains on my IPhone in both daily
and monthly view, and remains in Outlook in "Daily View", "Week" view, and
"Month" view. The ONLY place it disappears is where the date should be
showing bold in the auxilary monthly display above tasks.

Also, if I make the calendar entry in Outlook and sync, the problem does
NOT
occur. The date in the small auxilary calendar remains bold after sync,
and
after closing and re-opening Outlook. The problem ONLY occurs if the entry
originates on the IPhone.

I've tried loading Outlook 2007, and it does the same thing.

Apple says they have not heard of the problem, but frankly claim to not
know
much about Outlook.

Anyone have the same problem, and any suggestions?

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

So apparently what is happening is that the sync registers the event as
busy
in the main calendar, but not in the auxilary calendar. But if I manually
change it in the main calendar, then it shows in both places.

The "auxiliary calendar" is called the "Date Navigator". iTunes has several
anomalies when it comes to synching. Apparently it's setting the "Show time
as" value but, perhaps, missing some additional flag that Outlook always
sets. Did you check the iTunes forums at Apple's web site?

 

[Simon]

First, thanks for telling me that the "thing" I've been looking at is the
Date Navigator Although there is not a lot of information out there on
it, it is certainly easier to try to look things up when you know what to
call them.

I've looked at the apple forum, and can't find anything on this at all.
Tough to believe I'm the only one who has noticed this, but since I've run
tests with syncing with two different computers, and even created a new
"blank" pst file to sync with in case mine was somehow corrupted and the same
behavior applies to all, I'm assuming this is not an anomaly unique to me.

The problem with Apple is that their strength is their weakness. Everything
seems to be automated and automatic, which is great when things work, but
when there are little glitches, there is not much of anything to tweak.

I'll just report it to Apple customer service, and hope they decide it is
worth looking at and fixing on their next update.

Thanks for the help., however.

P.S. I've having one more problem with Outlook. I'll scan the forum to see
if it is answered elsewhere, but if you you will soon see another thread from
me