Is there any solution for keeping an Exchange calendar in sync with a Mac, either via MobileMe/iCal or some other method not involving Entourage? I have used Entourage for years but it is not working well lately for calendar events' I can esee the events in Outlook on my PC and in OWA, but for some reason they don't show up in Entourage. I am currently trying to delete my accounts in Entourage 2004 and start over but I don't have a good feeling about it. Now that the iPhone can sync with Exchange and also MobileMe/iCal it seems like this is the missing link. I know it is supposed to be here in snow Leopard but I need something NOW.
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Sync Exchange calendar?
- Thread starter danny_w
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Outside of Entourage 2008? Not that I can think of. Exchange is notorious for it being a closed system.
Two things to check in Entourage ...
1. Make sure you're viewing your Exchange calendar, not your local calendar. In the list on the left side, your local calendar will be under the folder named "On My Computer", the Exchange calendar will be under the folder named after your identity name.
2. When you're viewing your Exchange calendar, control-click on your Exchange calendar in the left folder list. Select "Folder Properties", then click the "Empty" button. This forces Entourage to re-download everything from Exchange, which usually fixes any syncing issues.
Regards,
Nadyne.
1. Make sure you're viewing your Exchange calendar, not your local calendar. In the list on the left side, your local calendar will be under the folder named "On My Computer", the Exchange calendar will be under the folder named after your identity name.
2. When you're viewing your Exchange calendar, control-click on your Exchange calendar in the left folder list. Select "Folder Properties", then click the "Empty" button. This forces Entourage to re-download everything from Exchange, which usually fixes any syncing issues.
Regards,
Nadyne.
Thank you for the input. Entourage won't even start right now for me. I'll probably reinstall tomorrow to try and recover. Any suggestions?
I can't provide any suggestions without knowing what "won't even start" specifically means in this case. When you try to open the app, what happens? Does the Entourage icon just bounce in the Dock and never load? Do you ever see the Entourage splash screen? Do you get an error message?
Regards,
Nadyne.
Entourage starts, displays the splash screen, starts to display the calendar and then just quits; relaunching does the same thing. I tried rebuilding the database to no avail. Before this happened, I had deleted my account and quit the app, then when I restarted Entourage it said that it had recovered some email. When I clicked to close the new email window Entourage quit unexpectedly and then this happened. Sorry I was short in my earlier response, but I was busy with other things at work and didn't have time to write more. I'm now at home, but can vpn into work if you need more info.
The first thing to try is to see if it still happens if you create a new identity in Entourage. If you're not in the calendar view (or if you quickly move out of the calendar into, say, mail), does it still crash so quickly? If not, go to the Entourage menu, select "Switch identity", and then click on the New button. Then enter in your Exchange account details and let it download everything. If this works, then it's possible that your old identity somehow got corrupted.
If Entourage won't stay open for long enough for you to create a new identity in the application, open up your Finder and go to ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2008 Identities/. Rename the folder in there to something else, then re-launch Entourage and create a new identity (don't point it at your old one).
If this doesn't work, you're likely better off talking with our tech support folks. With a retail purchase of any version of Office:Mac, you get two free calls to tech support. For the right phone number for your area, go to Microsoft support.
Regards,
Nadyne.
Sorry, I may not have been clear before. This is MS Office 2004 (not 2008) which connects only via OWA. I just checked my home copy and it too is missing certain calendar events (which is what caused all of this investigation to begin with). However, I can see the events in Outlook (PC), iPhone (Exchange) and Outlook Web Access, so I don't know why the events are missing in Entourage. I have tried Empty Cache to clear and refresh the calendar and it doesn't help. All that I really need MS Office for is Exchange email and calendars, so I hate to spend the money on Office 2008. However, that may be my last hope. Is there a demo version (with Exchange support) available that I could install and try?
The same steps will work in Entourage 2004 (except the folder name is "Office 2004 Identities"), so you can still try this to see if it makes a difference. My goal with those steps is to get Entourage working again. Also, you can still call tech support for Office 2004; you've got two free calls to tech support with that version, too.
Is it the same calendar events that aren't showing up on both your Entourage in the office and your one at home? I'm wondering if there's something about the calendar events themselves that's causing a problem.
There is a 30-day free trial. I think that's US-only right now, and being rolled out to additional countries over time. If you do decide that you want to keep it, make sure that you get Standard Edition and not Home and Student Edition -- H&S doesn't have Exchange support, but Standard does. Also, you might want to check with your employer to see if they take part in Microsoft's Home Use Program. This allows you to get lots of Microsoft products, including Office:Mac, at a reduced price.
Regards,
Nadyne.
Thanks for your help. I will try the Identities thing but don't expect anything to come of it, since the same calendar events are missing at home and at the office (both are 2004). I too thought that there might be something wrong with the calendar events, but they show up normally on Outlook, iPhone, and OWA. And since Entourage 2004 uses OWA it should be getting the same events unless they are perhaps in a newer format or something that Entourage can't understand. I don't know for sure if we use Exchange 2007 or the older version at work (but I wouldn't be surprised if it is the older version). Would the version of Exchange make a difference?
I installed MS Office 2008 trial today with a direct exchange connection and I still do not see these specific calendar events. I am about to give up on Entourage completely and just install Office 2007 (Windows) and run it under Crossover Office. Since everything else seems to display these events correctly it must be an incompatibility with Entourage and I don't have time to fight with it. Is there a free trial of Office 2007 (I assume that there is)?
I installed MS Office 2007 (Windows) trial under Crossover Office and the Outlook calendar (and email) works perfectly. Since that is mostly all that I need Office for I see no need to continue with Entourage/Office Mac. I haven't tried the other Office apps but I expect they will work fine and I will finally have complete compatibility with my coworkers again.
Well I spoke too soon. Outlook 2007 and.or Crossover Office keeps hanging on me. I had similar results using IE6 with crossover, so it is most likely a Codeweavers issue. Unfortunately that means that I am back to trying to make Entourage work. Why does it not show the current calendar events that Outlook and even OWA have no problems with? Is there some compatibility issue regarding calendar events? I am running Outlook 2003 on my PC and it sees the calendar events just fine, and so do Outlook 2007 and OWA. I really wish that my company would go to some email standard that does not require Outlook/Exchange; it is planned for the future, but that doesn't help much right now.
Do the events that aren't showing up in Entourage have anything in common? Do you know how the events were created -- are they events that you created, or invites sent to you, or forwarded invites, or something else?
Regards,
Nadyne.
Regards,
Nadyne.
They are updates to recurring invites that I am a participant to. The invites have always been on my calendar, but now all future occurrences of those invites since 1 or 2 weeks ago are now gone from the calendar, and when I receive an update to the invite (normally to change one occurrence) Entourage says that "This is an update to an occurrence in a series which couldn't be found in the calendar". Yet that same occurrence CAN be found and accepted by Outlook (both 2003 and 2007) and by OWA. The result is that I can't accept the update to the event, and the event does not show in the calendar.
Do you know what client was used to create that recurring event? Are these infinitely recurring events, or events that have an end date? Are the recurring invites all sent from the same person? Do all recurring events sent from the same person exhibit this behaviour?
Regards,
Nadyne.
Do you know what client was used to create that recurring event?
- Probably Outlook 2007 but I am not sure.
Are these infinitely recurring events, or events that have an end date?
- The problem events that I have noticed so far have no end date.
Are the recurring invites all sent from the same person?
- So far all problem events are from the same person (my boss).
Do all recurring events sent from the same person exhibit this behaviour?
- All updates that I have received from her since 7/2 exhibit this behaviour, but that is not enough data to know if that is significant.
- Probably Outlook 2007 but I am not sure.
Are these infinitely recurring events, or events that have an end date?
- The problem events that I have noticed so far have no end date.
Are the recurring invites all sent from the same person?
- So far all problem events are from the same person (my boss).
Do all recurring events sent from the same person exhibit this behaviour?
- All updates that I have received from her since 7/2 exhibit this behaviour, but that is not enough data to know if that is significant.
This looks interesting! So I can get my exchange mail in mail.app and calendar in iCal. How do I accept meeting invitations using this method (or can I)?
I'm sorry to say this, but your best bet is to call tech support. Since it appears to be an issue that's limited to a single case (updates from a single person), I'm not going to be able to troubleshoot it on the forums. 
Regards,
Nadyne.
Regards,
Nadyne.
OK, fair enough. I'll try to give them a call when I get a chance. Can I call them for the Office 2008 trial or do I need to reinstall Office 2004?I'm sorry to say this, but your best bet is to call tech support. Since it appears to be an issue that's limited to a single case (updates from a single person), I'm not going to be able to troubleshoot it on the forums.
Regards,
Nadyne.
The Office 2008 trial doesn't include support beyond with installation or product key, so you'll need the Product ID from Office 2004. When you call, make sure that you specify that you're connecting to Exchange (knowing which Exchange version would be helpful) so that you get connected to the right support guys.
Regards,
Nadyne.