My iPhone is synced with my iMac at home for music, email and iCal. Now how can I just sync my Work Calendar from Microsoft Outlook 2003 to my iPhone?
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How to sync Outlook Calendar to iPhone iCal?
- Thread starter whynot83706
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I'd like to find that my method for doing something similar is more trouble than I need to take, but I export my work calendar (it's Lotus Notes for me) to a .ics calendar file, which I can then import into the iCal on the Mac. Not direct syncing and not ideal, but it does keep things together for me.
I've lately been using MobileMe, which lets me sync an Outlook calendar from work, iCal on a Mac at home, and the iphone. I still move the *.ics file from Lotus Notes to either the iCal or to Outlook to keep things coordinated. Having OUtlook at work only means I don't have to wait to get home to do the coordination, since MobleMe handles it all automagically.
I've lately been using MobileMe, which lets me sync an Outlook calendar from work, iCal on a Mac at home, and the iphone. I still move the *.ics file from Lotus Notes to either the iCal or to Outlook to keep things coordinated. Having OUtlook at work only means I don't have to wait to get home to do the coordination, since MobleMe handles it all automagically.
It has been a while but I have spent siginificant time in the past trying to do this. I have even requested that Apple add this feature. I have not had success that is satisfactory. Ideally you would be able to tell iTunes on your PC to sync your outlook calendar to a separate calendar on the iPhone. And also be able to tell iTunes on your Mac which calendars you want to sync and each one would show up in its own separate calendar on the iPhone and you can pick which iPhone calendars sync on each computer. But no.
Back in the days of only one calendar on the iPhone it would merge the appointments from the two different sources and then not recognize that it is the same appointment so it would keep adding appointments.
With the addition of multiple calendars on the iPhone I had hope. Those hopes were quickly dashed. I forget all of the details but I do remember that each calendar on my iPhone was added as a separate calendar in Outlook. Many of those I did not want on there but it was okay that it did that since I could choose which to display. Unfortunately I cannot remember what exactly made me decide it wasn't working. I do remember having to scroll back to the beginning of time in Outlook to delete some repeating appointments that I didn't want.
When I try to connect my iPhone to work computer (iTunes) its just telling me that my iPhone is synced with another computer...
I assume you mean how do I set up MobileMe to do this.
At work, I make changes to my Outlook calendar. In the Control Panel there is an icon for MobleMe, which I suppose arrived when I put iTunes on my computer? Not sure, actually, which is a little annoying now that I think about it. Anyway, that icon is for a configuration program, for which I have selected an option to send it to the system tray where I can see it when I want. You can choose there what to sync and whether to do it manually or automatically. I have selected manually because this configuration program really, really wants Outlook to be my default mail and calendar program, which isn't an option for me. But if Outlook is your default, it can work in the background. When it syncs, it sends your changes from your Outlook calendar (and contacts if you wish) to the MobileMe calendar. (I don't synchronize my Outlook Contacts with MobileMe for reasons that probably don't matter here.)
My iPhone is set up to synchronize to MobileMe for its calendar and contacts, rather than to sync through iTunes to iCal on the desktop. You make that choice by adding your MobileMe account to the email portion of settings on the iPhone and choose there what you want synced to MobleMe. iTunes on your master computer detects the change and honors your wish to sync to MobileMe instead of to the desktop via iTunes. MobileMe pushes the changes from Outlook or iCal to the iPhone automatically as they are made. I do not try to synchronize my iPhone to iTunes at work. I fooled around with some workarounds to make it possible, but I gave up because I kept having trouble keeping applications straight.
MobileMe also automatically synchronizes my iCal and Mac Contacts at home too. I can't remember where I set the option for that to happen. Might have been on the Mac, but it could have been in MobileMe over the web.
Anyway, this all works fine for me. Any change made on my home Mac, iPhone, or on the calendar directly in MobileMe appear automatically on all three. And after I manually synchronize my calendar with MobileMe at work, those changes are also propagated automatically to my iPhone, Mac and my MobileMe account.
Hope all that is clear. If you have more questions, ask away. It seems complicated as I write it, but it really turns out to be simple.