iCal sync does not work in Entourage 2008

[Frederick J.]

After reading this forum, I'm getting the idea that part of this is Apple's problem and part MS's. A picture seems to be forming in which Apple want's to do it their way, and MS likes their method, which in a way seems natural. But, does anyone else feel like neither wants to be the one to bend enough to correct the problem?

I work in both OSs all day (parallels), writing Access DBs and integrating with Sharepoint, doing web dev in both operating systems and doing what works best in OSx. I don't consider myself qualified enough to be an MVP for either but I have to advise 400 people in my company on what to buy.

Not too long ago I was asked to write an article on "Can I buy a Mac", the idea being can Mac and windows live together. To make it short, of course, at least in our Org. Most of the time, it depends on what you like, MS and it's devs take more of an enterprise approach while Apple and it's devs are big on personal prodictivity. Unfortunately, this one caviot will be a huge sticking point - it really seems to be affecting some people's purchasing decisions now. Mac users won't buy Office08 and Windows users wont buy a Macbook. Both companies lose.

Both companies seem to have been headed each other's way philosophically with each providing a needed nich for the other. Apple by changing processors and really opening up the windows world for Mac users (parallels and bootcamp really blur the lines) and MS in it's Office08 dev - they did a very good job in the design of word, xcel and pp making them much more usable to the individual than Office07.

So I guess I'm asking Apple and MS, since you've invested so much already in becoming compatible and filling a nich for each other, does it make sense to stop here? Will you minimize rather than maximize your investment after you've gone this far?

This may seem like a rant but actually, I think both companies are doing amazing things. I would just like to encourage both companies to continue with what seems to be a vision in which both benefit greatly if there is cooperation. There are obviously very gifted people in both camps and I for one am confident that a solution can be designed. I am excited to see what will happen if you will turn this corner.

Frustrated but hopefull,
Frederick J.

 

[Joe Wasser]

What a great letter. Three cheers for this guy.

After reading this forum, I'm getting the idea that part of this is Apple's
problem and part MS's. A picture seems to be forming in which Apple want's to
do it their way, and MS likes their method, which in a way seems natural. But,
does anyone else feel like neither wants to be the one to bend enough to
correct the problem?

I work in both OSs all day (parallels), writing Access DBs and integrating
with Sharepoint, doing web dev in both operating systems and doing what works
best in OSx. I don't consider myself qualified enough to be an MVP for either
but I have to advise 400 people in my company on what to buy.

Not too long ago I was asked to write an article on "Can I buy a Mac", the
idea being can Mac and windows live together. To make it short, of course, at
least in our Org. Most of the time, it depends on what you like, MS and it's
devs take more of an enterprise approach while Apple and it's devs are big on
personal prodictivity. Unfortunately, this one caviot will be a huge sticking
point - it really seems to be affecting some people's purchasing decisions
now. Mac users won't buy Office08 and Windows users wont buy a Macbook. Both
companies lose.

Both companies seem to have been headed each other's way philosophically with
each providing a needed nich for the other. Apple by changing processors and
really opening up the windows world for Mac users (parallels and bootcamp
really blur the lines) and MS in it's Office08 dev - they did a very good job
in the design of word, xcel and pp making them much more usable to the
individual than Office07.

So I guess I'm asking Apple and MS, since you've invested so much already in
becoming compatible and filling a nich for each other, does it make sense to
stop here? Will you minimize rather than maximize your investment after you've
gone this far?

This may seem like a rant but actually, I think both companies are doing
amazing things. I would just like to encourage both companies to continue with
what seems to be a vision in which both benefit greatly if there is
cooperation. There are obviously very gifted people in both camps and I for
one am confident that a solution can be designed. I am excited to see what
will happen if you will turn this corner.

Frustrated but hopefull,
Frederick J.

 

[Electroscribe]

Hmmm.
Which would Steve Jobs be more interested in selling to the public? An iPhone by Apple, Inc.?
Or a Tungsten by Palm Pilot?

Maybe Microsoft and Apple have their heads together more than we suspect.

n article , GM80 <> wrote:

I'm running Leopard 10.5.2, Entourage 2008 with Sync Services active,
and syncing everything in both directions with my iPhone.




That's probably because Microsoft only designed and tested it to work
with iPhones, and neglected to test it with anything else.

 

[Cvilledave]

I installed Mac Office 2008 this weekend. I previously used iCal for my calendar, and had sync services working fine with Office 2004. I turned sync services off for Office 2004 and turned them on for Office 2008. Today, Mac Office 2008 crashed and took with it all of my calendar entries. Nice.

Not only did they get wiped out in Entourage, but they got wiped out in iCal and Exchange too. At least I was smart enough to backup iCal yesterday so it's not a total loss ... but my confidence in Office 2008 is pretty shaken at this point.

 

[Diane Ross]

I installed Mac Office 2008 this weekend. I previously used iCal for my
calendar, and had sync services working fine with Office 2004. I turned sync
services off for Office 2004 and turned them on for Office 2008. Today, Mac
Office 2008 crashed and took with it all of my calendar entries. Nice.

Not only did they get wiped out in Entourage, but they got wiped out in iCal
and Exchange too. At least I was smart enough to backup iCal yesterday so it's
not a total loss ... but my confidence in Office 2008 is pretty shaken at this
point.

Office 2008 has known problems with Sync Services. Do not use until it's
fixed.

The crashing problem is another matter. Entourage rarely crashes for me. I
suggest doing some troubleshooting to work on your install.

First, apply the latest Apple combo updater for you system.

You might need to download the combo updater from Apple and run it again
rather than using Software Update. Doing so overwrites potentially
problem-causing files. Several users have reported this fixed some odd
problems they were having with Entourage. Combo updaters will install on the
same version as they¹re applying‹no need to roll back or do a clean install.

Leopard:

Mac OS X 10.5.2 Combo Update (This update delivers several improvements for
both PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs )
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx1052comboupdate.html>

Tiger:

Mac OS X 10.4.11 Combo Update (PPC)
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx10411comboupdateppc.html>

Mac OS X 10.4.11 Combo Update (Intel)

<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx10411updateintel.html>
==================================================
More info on why applying the combo updater helps:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/troubleshoot/combo.html>

It is recommended that you back up your system prior to installing any
updates.

 

[CNPH]

I'm glad I went to this discussion before I installed Office Mac 2008. As a relatively new Mac user, I've been frustrated to learn how difficult it is to sync with my Blackberry. I've had limited and uneven success syncing the BB with iCal, and no success syncing my Contacts/Address Book. Stupidly tried bringing my address book over from Lotus Notes/Blackberry by exporting/importing the file in a comma separated value and it created over 100,000 files in Entourage and crashed my MacBook. Apple helped me get the Mac running again & MS support helped me get rid of all that. PocketMac worked once or twice and stopped syncing with iCal until I checked one way sync to the Mac from the BB (we'll see if that continues to work). Would love to find a way to get my nearly 1,000 address book/contact entries (over 1200 but would be less if I could choose only certain categories) to my MacBook, but after 1st experience I've been afraid to try syncing to Entourage via Pocket Mac and reading all of the other posts, it appears that Office Mac 2008 won't work either. So right now it's staying in the box.
I also think one has to be careful installing any updates because after installing the update of Leopard 10.5.2 my iPod wouldn't sync - was stuck in Do Not Disconnect and it took a call to Apple support to get that fixed. I have to say that for all the advertising and writing on how easy Macs are, and how easy it would be to convert from a PC - I'm disappointed.

 

[Diane Ross]

On 3/8/08 12:57 PM, in article (e-mail address removed)9absDaxw,

snipped

Lotus Notes/Blackberry by
exporting/importing the file in a comma separated value and it created over
100,000 files in Entourage and crashed my MacBook.

Lotus Notes are known to be hard to transfer, however the comma separated
file should have worked. We have so few questions on Lotus Notes right now I
can't find anything that I could suggest.

I also think one has to be careful installing any updates because after
installing the update of Leopard 10.5.2 my iPod wouldn't sync - was stuck in

We've discussed using SuperDuper!(backup software) before, but this is an
excellent time to remind users (especially new to Mac users) about a feature
it has that protects you from system updates that so bad.

One of the options in SuperDuper! is to create what the author calls a
"Sandbox". It's used to revert to pre-update state of your OS. Here's a
description of how this option works:

A Sandbox is a bootable copy of your system, stored on another hard drive or
partition, that shares your personal documents and data with the original.
With SuperDuper!, you actually use the Sandbox as your startup volume. You
can safely install any system updates, drivers or programs in the Sandbox,
without worrying about what might happen to your system. If anything goes
wrong, you can simply start up from the original system. SuperDuper! has
preserved it in its original, pre-disaster state but all your new and
changed personal documents are totally up to date. Within minutes, you're up
and running again without having to go through a difficult and
time-consuming restore process.

SuperDuper! Is $27.95. I¹m not affiliated with the product. Just a satisfied

I have to say that for all the advertising and writing on how easy Macs are,
and how easy it would be to convert from a PC - I'm disappointed.

In defense, you have picked a horrible time to switch. Leopard is new and
has had more problems than any previous Mac OS. Office 2008 is also new and
extremely buggy right now. Try and be a little patient and I promise you
will be happy you changed.

 

[Celene Peurye-Hissong]

Thanks for the info about SuperDuper. It certainly sounds like something to consider, but is it necessary when one has TimeMachine? (I do use Time Machine to backup but haven't figured out how to use it to "go back" yet.) At any rate, it's nice to know now that I picked a bad time to switch (contrary to all the commercials and stuff on the Apple website singing the praises of Leopard I guess). Didn't feel I had a choice, my old Dell completely died (it was polite enough to warn me) and I thought going to Vista would be worse (who knows?) Hope this will be worked out, but have to note that I installed the Palm desktop for Mac to bring my address book over (since I couldn't use the BB) and this version is really poorly set up. Same with AOL desktop (which I've had since the beginning) for Mac (totally worthless). Thankfully Word and Excel work ok!

 

[Electroscribe]

.. Although it is still widely reported that it does not work to try to use Entourage 2008 to sync contacts and calendar through iCal and AddressBook to Palm, have determined that did not kill mess up my Palm Pilot. Somewhere buried deep in hidden files on my MacBookPro is a sliver of of a Palm DateBook conduit from a previous computer that used Palm OS conduits instead of those supplied by Microsoft and MarkSpace software (manufactures of the Missing Sync). Even after (i thought) removed all traces of Palm conduits and Mark Space conduits. Bought a new Palm Pilot and installed from scratch. It still produced exactly the same error as the old one the first time I synched. It appears the computer wrote the fragment of "DateBook" onto the PDA and the fragment drove it crazy.

Long story short, the laptop had imported or migrated settings files and applications from its predecessor. I haven't used Palm stuff since 2004. So probably was a hidden file. I reformatted the new PDA, and installed software on my iMac, which had been completely erased to deal with other upgrade problems from 10.4 to 10.5. Erasing it and installing 10.5. and all software applications from scratch solved those problems, and it worked on the Palm Pilot. Syncs with Entourage 2004 via Mark Space Missing Sync without a hitch.

Office 2008 does not get off unscathed on this, however. The laptop had synchronized the old Palm Pilot perfectly from Entourage 2004 and Missing Sync until I tried the roundabout syncing route using iCal, etc. I f Entourage 2008 had its own conduit for Palm Pilots (not just for iPhones), never would have used conduits from iCal and Apple AddressBook in the first place. They were the ones that got into the endless fight with the ghost Palm conduit

Please, Microsoft, please, even if we have to buy Mark Space's Missing Sync, please come up with a conduit. If you don't want to spend the money, work with MarkSpace. Not everyone wants an iPhone.

Thank you

 

[Kerry]

. Although it is still widely reported that it does not work to try to useEntourage 2008 to sync contacts and calendar through iCal and AddressBook to Palm, have determined that did not kill mess up my Palm Pilot. Somewhere buried deep in hidden files on my MacBookPro is a sliver of of a Palm DateBook conduit from a previous computer that used Palm OS conduits instead of those supplied by Microsoft and MarkSpace software (manufactures of the MissingSync). Even after (i thought) removed all traces of Palm conduits and Mark Space conduits. Bought a new Palm Pilot and installed from scratch. It stillproduced exactly the same error as the old one the first time I synched. Itappears the computer wrote the fragment of "DateBook" onto the PDA and the fragment drove it crazy.

Long story short, the laptop had imported or migrated settings files and applications from its predecessor. I haven't used Palm stuff since 2004. So probably was a hidden file. I reformatted the new PDA, and installed softwareon my iMac, which had been completely erased to deal with other upgrade problems from 10.4 to 10.5. Erasing it and installing 10.5. and all software applications from scratch solved those problems, and it worked on the Palm Pilot. Syncs with Entourage 2004 via Mark Space Missing Sync without a hitch.

Office 2008 does not get off unscathed on this, however. The laptop had synchronized the old Palm Pilot perfectly from Entourage 2004 and Missing Syncuntil I tried the roundabout syncing route using iCal, etc. I f Entourage 2008 had its own conduit for Palm Pilots (not just for iPhones), never would have used conduits from iCal and Apple AddressBook in the first place. They were the ones that got into the endless fight with the ghost Palm conduit

Please, Microsoft, please, even if we have to buy Mark Space's Missing Sync, please come up with a conduit. If you don't want to spend the money, workwith MarkSpace. Not everyone wants an iPhone.

Thank you

Yes sync services is just definitely a very flaky, if not broken
system. Using Entourage, it just always eventually messes up. But,
I've reverted to just sync'g with iCal and it will still mess up
eventually - get duplicates and have to do an overwrite. So, there are
two things messing up - entourage with its issues and Apple's sync
services with its issues. At least for us Palm users, a conduit would
solve the problem. It certainly wouldn't help the Blackberry,
Winmobile or iPhone guys who have no choice but to use sync services.

I've never spent so much time making sure my sync's haven't mucked up
but eventually its inevitable no matter what you're doing.

 

[Kerry]

On 3/8/08 12:57 PM, in article (e-mail address removed)9absDaxw,


snipped


Lotus Notes are known to be hard to transfer, however the comma separated
file should have worked. We have so few questions on Lotus Notes right nowI
can't find anything that I could suggest.


We've discussed using SuperDuper!(backup software) before, but this is an
excellent time to remind users (especially new to Mac users) about a feature
it has that protects you from system updates that so bad.

One of the options in SuperDuper! is to create what the author calls a
"Sandbox". It's used to revert to pre-update state of your OS. Here's a
description of how this option works:

A Sandbox is a bootable copy of your system, stored on another hard drive or
partition, that shares your personal documents and data with the original.
With SuperDuper!, you actually use the Sandbox as your startup volume. You
can safely install any system updates, drivers or programs in the Sandbox,
without worrying about what might happen to your system. If anything goes
wrong, you can simply start up from the original system. SuperDuper! has
preserved it in its original, pre-disaster state but all your new and
changed personal documents are totally up to date. Within minutes, you're up
and running again without having to go through a difficult and
time-consuming restore process.

SuperDuper! Is $27.95. I¹m not affiliated with the product. Just a satisfied


In defense, you have picked a horrible time to switch. Leopard is new and
has had more problems than any previous Mac OS. Office 2008 is also new and
extremely buggy right now. Try and be a little patient and I promise you
will be happy you changed.

I use Superduper but I've never used the Sandbox feature. But with all
the issues around recent upgrade problems (Leopard, Entourage etc)
this Sandbox function might be something I should really look into.

 

[Mike Greene]

I followed the below steps but Entourage does not create a calendar in iCal? So now what.

mg

 

[Gabster]

There is a new update....maybe this fixes things....

Anyone had any success with it?

Regards

Al

 

[Pim Renger]

Same problem at the other side of the pond in the Netherlands.
Syncing with the Dutch version is also impossible. Phoned Microsoft this afternoon but they're sending me to Apple because it's not they're problem. They refuse to give any support on this new product.
I'll never buy any product of Microsoft anymore.
Hope you guys out there will find a solution.

 

[John C. Welch]

Sync Services are broken in Leopard with Office 2008.

Hardly. I use them constantly, and have been for some time now. Twitchy,
yes, broken, no. However, there are issues with both Sync Services and
E'rage that you have to deal with. Hopefully the 12.0.1 update will fix some
of these.

The Caveats:

Not every application deals with the same data in the same way. This is both
good and bad, but keep that in mind, because it means Sync Services will
always be imperfect on some level.

Multiday tasks are a problem on the Sync Services end. This is a known issue
from Apple. As to when it gets fixed, who knows, but since this has been a
problem since Mac OS X 10.4, we'll assume it's not a simple fix. Things that
are truly simple fixes tend to get, well, fixed.

Because Address Book assumes iChat, and E'rage assumes Messenger, don't
assume that setting chat IDs in one carries over. It doesn't. This means
that people who only exist as iChat buddies will show up in E'rage as
entries with a name and nothing else. That's not "broken" in the technical
sense, but in the human sense it's lame. I completely agree that E'rage not
talking to the iChat presence frameworks in Mac OS X, and pretending that
iChat doesn't exist is really, really lame. However, that doesn't change the
reality of the current situation. If you are going to manage iChat buddies,
ONLY do that in Address Book.

Another Address Book <=> E'rage issue are middle names. Entourage knows
about them, but can't display them. Address Book knows about them and can
display them. This can and does cause a lot of frustration, because it's
kinda dumb, but again, it is what it is for now.

iCal items with categories can get duplicated. Not all the time, and you
can eventually, with some patience, make it stop. But it can take a bit to
get it sorted out.

I can't speak to the fixes in 12.0.1, but thus far, using sync services with
Exchange accounts == teh suck. Since I keep my contacts separate, that
aspect doesn't bother me. For events, I just drage them from my exchange
calendar to my local, and then they get put into sync services, and make it
onto my iPhone et al. A manual process, but it has thus far been quite
reliable.

When you start, pick a "source" and a "destination". Regardless of which
direction, for the initial sync, "Source" ALWAYS overwrites "destination".
In my case, for notes, E'rage was the source. Contacts, Address Book was the
source, since I never use Messenger. For calendaring, E'rage was the source.

The initial syncs can take a long time, and a lot of CPU. Be patient.

When you have calendaring conflicts, my algorithm is first, let iCal always
win. If you still have conflicts, then let Entourage win. If Sync Services
is one of the options, then Sync Services trumps either. So the order of
operations: Sync Services => iCal => Entourage.

For contact conflicts, I actually found it easier to just edit the problem
conflicts in either AB or E'rage and then let that win.

The procedures:

1) Enable syncing one item at a time. My path was notes, then calendaring,
then contacts. I enabled notes sync, then waited for a day or two. Any
duplicates, I took care of, and made sure things had calmed down. I then
enabled calendar / task syncing, and again, waited, took care of conflicts.
The same thing for contacts. Do backup your data before enableing a sync.
Really. I'm not kidding. Back up.

2) Sometimes, either Microsoft or Apple's syncing loses its pretty little
mind and won't do anything. I find starting Address Book and/or iCal while
E'rage is running can help here.

3) .Mac is an ADDITIONAL fun time here. Which I won't get into, this is long
enough.

4) Keep in mind that *again* not everything deals with the same data in the
same way. Just because an item has the same name in different applications,
that doesn't mean that it works the same.

So, yes, Sync Services is not as good as it can or should be, but it is in
fact usable, and long term, will solve FAR more problems than application -
specific conduits ever will. Looking at all of this, it looks like a lot,
but in practice, it wasn't nearly as involved as it looks. Proceed
cautiously, with good backups, (if you have 2008, do a DB rebuild, all you
lose is time and bad data, and starting with both sides as clean as possible
is a HUGE help), and sync services works rather well.

 

[franklin bean]

entourage just wiped 3 years of calender information, and put it into one folder called 'entourage' on my ical. Really useful. It's ALSO overwritten all this info on my .mac account so i cant even go back to where I was before choosing to sync.

I thought i'd give entourage a try because of all the hype but it's caused me untold grief now as I need to go through every single even in my ical and change it back to the correct calender catergory. how is that possibly a sync? it strikes me as just another example of microsoft's domineering approach to everything.

Oh yeah, the funny thing is, when i open entourage, i cant actually see ANY of the calenders at all!

bizarre and not to mention a little backward :angry: :angry:

 

[John C. Welch]

entourage just wiped 3 years of calender information, and put it into one
folder called 'entourage' on my ical. Really useful. It's ALSO overwritten all
this info on my .mac account so i cant even go back to where I was before
choosing to sync.

Three years of calendar info where? E'rage will put all of ITS data into one
calendar, because iCal has no clue as to categories.

When you enabled syncing, it would have asked you "What do you want to do".
How did you answer that question.

I thought i'd give entourage a try because of all the hype but it's caused me
untold grief now as I need to go through every single even in my ical and
change it back to the correct calender catergory. how is that possibly a sync?
it strikes me as just another example of microsoft's domineering approach to
everything.

Since I had 4 calendars, and E'rage didn't touch any of them on the sync, I
think you need to provide more information, and less rant.

Oh yeah, the funny thing is, when i open entourage, i cant actually see ANY of
the calenders at all!

bizarre and not to mention a little backward :angry: :angry:

Step one: Count until you're not very, very angry
Step two: Post.

 

[Gerd Bierbaumer]

I can't sync my iCal calendar at all in 2008. I have sync turned in preferences. It does not show me any options to choose which calendar to sync. Same on my Macbook. The address book does sync even though that doesn't show up to.

I have tried creating a new identity and I get the same thing.
At the moment this is unusable.

SAME ISSUE FOR ME!

 

[Electroscribe]

Entourage 2004 always worked for me as long as I used the combination of Entourage 2004 conduit and the Missing Sync for Palm OS, I never had a problem syncing my Palm Pilot.

Only after I tried to sync it to Apple iCal and Addressbook did this fatal error appear. I never would have tried to use those conduits if Entourage 2008 had its own conduit and hadn't tried to make us use Apple's stuff.

I absolutely loathe iCal and AddressBook (the Apple apps). When iCal sends out an invitation to an appointment, it comes in as an entire calendar on any Windows machine using Outlook. Addressbook does not allow the user to assign Categories like Entourage does.

And iCal has always imported synced Entourage items to a separate calendar, which frequently is locked. And if you don't have iCal check the Entourage calendar, it won't show up.

 

[franklin bean]

ok, I had 12 calenders in ical and a brand new install of office 2008. I chose to sync in entourage preferences and (thinking a sync would bring all of my calenders from .mac into entourage) when my auto sync occured, i came back to find all of the entries in ical had changed from their particular calender into just one called 'entourage' meaning i had all the info there but all under one calender which is really not much use to me. The odd thing is, when i went into entourage i couldnt see any of them! i'm a very happy mac user as it's simple both in the language used to explain stuff as well as the simplicity of perfoming tasks. One would have thought that entourage would sync TO the .mac data not over-right it. Admittedly i dont remember which option I chose in entourage but im fairly sure it was the one that said something along the lines of 'replace info on entourage' or something. ive just spent 2 hours going back through my ical and changing 3-4 years of events back into their correct calenders. very tedious and not what i would expect