Why won't Entourage calendar sync with iPhone?

[irchamandy]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel
Email Client: imap

I have and iPhone 3G with OS 3.0. My calendar as it appears in Entourage is fine but it won't sync properly with my iPhone. There is a lot of chatter about this (a lot!) in the Apple iPhone forum but no reason why it is happening and no solution. Does anyone here have any idea?

Thank you.

 

[Michel Bintener]

Hi,

you will need to give us more details before we can help you. What does "it
won't sync properly" mean? Does it sync at all? Which steps have you
followed to enable synching? What is the result you are expecting?

Here's a link to a short article that will explain some of the basic
concepts of calendar synching between Entourage and iCal (and since iCal
syncs with the iPhone, that's the important part):

<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2008/01/calendar_synching_between_entourage_
and_ical.html>

or, if the above link does not work:

<http://tinyurl.com/2thcnx>

 

[Kerry]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel
Email Client: imap

I have and iPhone 3G with OS 3.0. My calendar as it appears in Entourage is fine but it won't sync properly with my iPhone. There is a lot of chatter about this (a lot!) in the Apple iPhone forum but no reason why it is happening and no solution. Does anyone here have any idea?

Thank you.

The one thing to note is there are numerous issues with sync services
and Entourage and other third party apps that use sync services. Snow
Leopard actually introduced a couple of new issues I've run into.

The workaround that I and many others have used for a long time is to
have only one module in Entourage prefs turned on at a time. If
Calendar is mainly what you sync regularly go into Entourage prefs
sync services and make sure only that item is checked for sync. This
tends to work well. If more than one module is turned on you get a
number of bizarre behaviors including items from sync services (iCal)
will not populate to Entourage or dups or ....

If you're using Leopard your first sync should be the desktop over
writes iCal. Then go into prefs, turn off sync, hit OK and back into
prefs turn on sync and after hitting OK choose combine. Things should
then be fine.

If you're using Snow Leopard I have found the over write option does
not work and acts like a combine. To get around this, go to iCal, back
it up, delete the Entourage Calendar in iCal, go to Entourage prefs
turn on Calendar only sync and after the OK choose combine and this
will create a new Entourage calendar in iCal identical to Entourage's.
Syncs should go fine after this. With Snow Leopard though I have run
into another problem. I have a BlackBerry and using Misssing sync an
issue turns up in my tasks around completion status in Entourage only.
I'm using the pre-release version of RIM's new BlackBerry desktop for
the Mac and although there are some bugs it works fine so far. I'm
just in the early stages of testin

 

[irchamandy]

iCal is syncing fine with Entourage. Everything in Entourage is also in iCal.

There is actually NO syncing happening between the iPhone and Entourage/iCal. The only events in the iPhone calendar are ones that were entered into the iPhone calendar manually. NONE of the events entered into the iPhone calendar are in iCal/Entourage. So there is NO syncing in either direction.

To sync, I went to sync services prefs in Entourage and enabled all three syncs. I also tried turning off the address book and notes sync so that only calendar is enabled but that didn't work.

My expectation is that everything in the calendar will end up on the iPhone.

 

[Kerry]

Does anyone here have any idea?
You're actually probably in the wrong forum as if iCal and Entourage
are sync'g fine then the problem rests with the program that is
handling the sync between your iPhone and the Mac's sync services and
that I'm guessing for the iPhone is iTunes.

As a test, turn off Entourage sync altogether and see if iCal alone
will sync to your iPhone. If it doesn't check your settings for
handheld sync in the program that is handling that from the Mac to the
iPhone. If sync is not sync'g from iCal and Addressbook alone go to
Apple.com forums and ask there. iCal and the iPhone should sync no
problem. If they do and then when you turn on Entourage and it doesn't
it is simply the problems that exist in Sync services and the problems
that are happening with third party apps and sync services. These
problems can affect sync to the handheld when the third party program
is turned on. In my case I use a BlackBerry and a Palm TX and sync's
from iCal and Addressbook generally are always totally fine. Syncs
when Entourage are not and require a workaround. Under Snow Leopard a
new issue has arisen in which I have no workaround using Missing Sync
for the BlackBerry so Entourage is unusable using Missing Sync. So I
am trying an unofficial release of RIM's Destop Manager for the Mac
and although buggy the issue that I can't workaround in Missing Sync
isn't in RIM's product so it works however there are a couple of other
strange things happening that I'm watching to see if its workable with
Entourage. These strange things I have not yet tested with just iCal
and Addressbook to see if they're there but my guess is no based on my
previous experience with other issues.

Again, you'll have to go to Apple's forum if iCal alone doesn't sync
to you iphone as this is a problem in the sync software itself that
has to be resolved there.

 

[irchamandy]

Yes, I realize now that because Entourage is syncing with iCal just fine, it is an Apple problem, not Entourage.

Thank you

 

[irchamandy]

NEW NEWS!

Here is what is happening now:

- Entourage is syncing TO iCal
- iCal is syncing TO iPhone
- iPhone is syncing TO iCal
- iCal IS NOT syncing TO Entourage

This means stuff I enter in Entourage is getting all the way into the iPhone. Stuff I enter into the iPhone is getting into iCal but not all the way to Entourage.

Does this help?

 

[Michel Bintener]

As indicated in the article I referred you to, any event created either on
the iPhone or in iCal needs to be in the iCal calendar called "Entourage".
Any event that does not belong to this calendar won't sync back to
Entourage.

 

[Bernard Rey]

(e-mail address removed) :

Here is what is happening now:

- Entourage is syncing TO iCal
- iCal is syncing TO iPhone
- iPhone is syncing TO iCal
- iCal IS NOT syncing TO Entourage

This means stuff I enter in Entourage is getting all the way into the iPhone.
Stuff I enter into the iPhone is getting into iCal but not all the way to
Entourage.

Yes, I have seen this too . I'm rather new to iPhone (3Gs - 3.1), and very
new to Entourage (2008 EWS - couldn't say if that makes a difference) and I
haven't tested this throughout. But I have noticed exactly the same
behavior. Even when modifying the imported event in iCal, it still won't
sync to Entourage. Then I quit and relaunched Entourage: the event had now
made it's way to Entourage.

That's no real helping answer, I know. Just to say I have seen this too and
kind of found a workaround.

 

[Kerry]

(e-mail address removed) :

and relaunched Entourage: the event had now

made it's way to Entourage.

That's no real helping answer, I know. Just to say I have seen this too and
kind of found a workaround.

OK based on this and the NEWS NEWS report I'm pretty sure I know
what's wrong. You need to use the workaround that I've posted here
many times since March of 2008. If you have more than one module
enabled for sync services prefs - that is you have say all three
modules turned on for prefs or even two like Calendar and Contacts you
get the behavior you just described where an event or task will show
up in iCal and not Entourage. Only have one module turned on at any
one time for sync and your syncs to Entourage should be pretty
reliable although I have noticed that Snow Leopard has introduced some
new problems that is complicating sync's from handhelds and other
things.

There are bizarre behaviors you will get if you have more than module
in Entourage sync services prefs turned on at the same time and this
is only one of them. To effectively get your sync working with
Entourage is different from Leopard to Snow Leopard so I'll just
describe Snow Leopard.

- if you feel there might be problems in sync serv itself reset
following Apple's tech support article TS1627
- backup both iCal, Addressbook and Entourage's main identity found in
the user docs folder
- launch iCal and delete the Entourage calendar - if this is the only
cal create a calendar and call it whatever say temp and then delete
the Ent cal
- launch Ent go to prefs sync serv turn on Calendar syn and choose
combine - this will create a new Entourage cal in iCal
- delete the temp cal in Ent if you made it
- sync with the handheld first sync of Calendar and tasks being over
write
- now if you need to sync say contacts go to Ent prefs turn off cal
and turn on contacts combine and wait a few secs for it to do this and
now sync your handheld with changes then switch back to cal turning
off contacts

This should work.

 

[Kerry]

I forgot to mention in my previous post and workaround for Entourage
sync that if you have deleted something say in Contacts on your
handheld you must have switched Ent sync prefs from Calendar to
Contacts first before you sync so that the deletion will occur in iCal
and Entourage. The reason for this is if you sync your handheld with a
deletion on the handheld then turn on Contacts sync in Ent prefs since
its working in combine mode which is what you want it will have the
deleted item still in Entourage but combine it back into iCal so it
will just add the deleted item back to iCal and then in your next
sync the deleted item will reappear on the handheld. If contacts sync
is turned on when you sync the handheld with the deleted item it will
go and delete it in Entourage. This does not apply to additions or
changes though to items on the handheld or iCal.

So, although this works unfortunately it is a workaround and is
annoying, time consuming and prone to human error (forgetting to turn
off a module and leaving two on by accident or forgetting to switch
back to say Calendar and suddenly noticing no Cal events are showing
in Entourage). I would not expect a fix to this any time soon as this
has been like this in Entourage 08 since it shipped Jan 15 08.

 

[irchamandy]

Yup, this was exactly it! Thank you.

In the iPhone's settings, you have to identify which calendar is the default. Because my wife uses 5 categories in the Entourage calendar, iCal creates 5 calendars with 5 different names (it creates a calendar for each category because it doesn't so categories). This also cause 5 calendars to be created in iPhones settings, even though there is only one calendar on the iPhone. All iCal calendars get synced into the iPhone but you have to choose the calendar named "Entourage" in the iPhone settings to make sure events entered into the iPhone sync into iCal AND Entourage (I didn't do this).