iPhone 3G not syncing locally with Adress Book or iCal

[Chencho]

I've had my 3G iPhone for a week now and everything worked great until I realized I can't sync my "local" contacts on Address Book or iCal.

In the days before I purchased my iPhone I set up a trial account on MobileMe to test the whole iPhone 3G experience; as it turns out it's really great but kind of expensive. Anyway, I said to myself "just ride the trial period out and then erase the MobileMe account". By the way, I also have a MS Exchange account from work.

But then I got a little curious and decided to erase the MobileMe account (on my iPhone) ahead of time and sure enough both my MobileMe calendars and contacts were erased from my iPhone. I then decided to sync locally my Address Book contacts and my iCal appointments and guess what... iTunes does not give me that option! Only the "Your contacts are being synced over the air with MS Exchange" legend appeared on the Info tab in iTunes.

I panicked and quickly added the MobileMe account back on my iPhone and, as expected, all my info was back on my phone.

My question here is: Is there a way to sync my ABook contacts and my iCal calendars locally or is Apple "forcing" me to get MobileMe so that I can have that info on my iPhone?? I really need to find a solution because I don't see myself retyping ALL my 200+ contact's info on my iPhone and updating said info on my Mac everytime!

Like I said, I've only had the phone for a week so I haven't had the time to dig further into the issue. Thanks in advance!

 

[TEG]

You can either sync with your local calendar and contact, or sync with exchange, but not both. You can just sync with your exchange calendar and keep local contacts, or visa-versa. If you want both, it has to be through MM. It is a complaint expressed many times here, and hopefully they will listen and give us the option to keep local sync with exchange.

TEG

 

[Chencho]

Thank you

Ok, I'll try deleting de MS Xchange account and sync locally.

I'll also try syncing just the Xchange Mail function which is what I'm really after; I care very little about the MS Contacts since I have copies on my Mac.

Thank you for your speedy reply!! I'll post back with my findings just for feedback purposes.

 

[TEG]

You can turn off the Exchange Contacts/Calendar in the Mail options on the iPhone, and just get mail. I currently use mine for just mail and calendars, keeping my own contacts from my Mac.

TEG

 

[Chencho]

Success!!

It all worked out as you said it would. Actually, I set up my iPhone with the same settings as you: Ms Exchange mail and calendars on but with my Mac's contacts on.

Thanks a lot!!

 

[TEG]

No Problem.

TEG