How to get iTunes/iPhone to sync Outlook Contact Categories

[Fandango1822]

I use Outlook for both work and personal contacts and have applied categories to my contacts in Outlook. Either "Business" or "Personal". I was hoping that these would show up as "Selected Groups" in iTunes so that I could sync just my personal contacts, but they don't. I only have the option of syncing "All Contacts" which lumps them all together. Any advice or suggestions?


***Update - Solution found***

I added a new folder to "Contacts" and iTunes found it and added it as a group.

 

[msiler]

Could you elaborate on what you did to get cdatagories on the iphone as I am looking to do the same thing...

 

[JackSmithD]

To make your Outlook contacts groups visible in iTunes...

Could you elaborate on what you did to get cdatagories on the iphone as I am looking to do the same thing...

I know what you mean...Say you have different groups in Outlook and you want to sync them into your iPhone...you go into iTunes and under:

Devices>___'s iPhone

And you look under the "info" and see the option to sync your contacts with Outlook...only there are NO groups available for you to select! Where are your Outlook groups?

Solution:
The only thing I've been able to figure out is that you have to perform a sync without doing the contacts first. So, basically leave the "sync contacts with:" box UNchecked and perform a sync. (Sync your music or apps, or even just nothing and have it backup your phone. Doesn't matter, just click the sync button.)

Once that sync is complete you should be able to see your groups available. Now just tick the checkbox and select the ones you want to add and perform another sync.

 

[pikesuk]

sync outlook contacts with iPhone using iTunes

Problem 1
In outlook I have several sub-folders in the "contacts" folder. iTunes sync does not allow me to synchronise just the contact folder without the subfolders. So I have had to resort to creating a 'mobile phone' sub-folder which synchronises ok but when I update entries in the "contacts" folder I have to remember to transfer them to the 'mobile phone' sub-folder to ensure they reach my iPhone.

Problem 2
Syncronising contacts between Outlook ('mobile phone' sub-folder) and the iPhone causes many of the contact entries to be duplicated and triplicated. More recently many contacts are disappearing from the "contacts" folder and finding their way as duplicates in the 'mobile phone' sub-folder. I have not established how the system chooses which contacts to duplicate, it seems quite random.

I would be interested to hear how to overcome these problems, particularly the second one.

Pikesuk

 

[dkchung]

moving contacts

when syncing on iTunes, to Outlook, my contacts get moved from Contacts to a sub-folder under Contacts (which is where New Contacts created on my iphone are stored).

Why?

 

[Ladder22]

Problem 1
In outlook I have several sub-folders in the "contacts" folder. iTunes sync does not allow me to synchronise just the contact folder without the subfolders. So I have had to resort to creating a 'mobile phone' sub-folder which synchronises ok but when I update entries in the "contacts" folder I have to remember to transfer them to the 'mobile phone' sub-folder to ensure they reach my iPhone.

I'm having the same problem. Anyone find a solution?

 

[Big Gecko]

Recategorize Your Contacts

All,

I have had this happen to me a few times and its always a pain in the ass when it happens.

What you need to do is go to your Outlook > Contacts and categorize all of your contacts. (Its faster to highlight all of your contact and right click on your mouse and select categorize. Pick a category and worry about recategorizing your contacts later.)

I just categorized all of my contacts under "work" and then synced my Iphone in my I-tunes account.

It synced the all of my contacts and they were restored to my phone

Hope this helps.