@ Kerry
Thank you so much for this helpful routine. I have been experiencing the exact said issues of MS sync service errors for the past 3 days.
Your routine has definitely helped to eliminate the syncing issue with regards to my address book.
HOWEVER: the entourage calendar vs iCal syncing process is still malfunctioning, persistently causing the same old error messages. Result: not a single entourage calendar entry is making its way into my iCal.
Have you got any idea on what to do?
Thanks so much. All my hopes lay on you.
There are some very serious problems with Entourage sync that
Microsoft has not addressed since it was released. In your case, I
suspect you've lost the sync relationship between iCal and Entourage.
Lets just re-sync from scratch which will re-establish the
relationship. One thing that I've pointed out numerous times over the
last almost two years is its best to sync Entourage with just one
module turned on at a time to get the best possible sync outcomes.
Leave your most active module on which is probably cal and tasks and
then switch to another module when you need to sync it by first
turning off the active module and turning on the one you want to sync
say Notes. Always though just have one module turned on at a time to
avoid all these bizarre sync behaviors such as dups and the loss of
the sync relationship. It isn't 100% mind you as there are serious
problems in Apple's sync services so even if you were to just use iCal
alone, it would be far more stable than Entourage but it will muck up
at some point too. Backups are essential.
To re-establish sync go into Entourage sync prefs and turn off all
sync. Once done, go to iCal and delete the iCal calendar Entourage.
Wait for a bit (minute or two) as this deletion needs to write out to
sync services to clear sync services of the calendar. Now go back into
Entourage prefs sync and turn on Calendar and Task sync and choose
combine at the prompt. This will regenerate a new Entourage calendar
in iCal which will be in perfect sync with Entourage and the sync
relationship will now be re-established. You can watch iCal to see the
Entourage Cal reappear with all its events and tasks. Test it if you
want. Finally, if you have a handheld or Mobileme you have to treat
this as a completely new as opposed to established sync. Set your
handheld sync for first time sync which is usually an overwrite of the
handheld from the desktop followed by a sync. Now all is back in
order.
Once again and I know this is a nuisance, just have one module in
Entourage sync enabled at any one time to ensure sync works as
reliably as possible.
Oh and maybe write Microsoft from Entourages help menu send feedback
and tell them they really need to fix this. I've written a million
times and talked to them but its done no good but it never hurts to
have another person say the same thing.
