iPhone, Outlook, and disappearing appointments

Update: iTunes version 7.7.1.11 (released 7/31/08) appears to fix some of the sync problems.

There is nothing like using hottest, newest technology. Except when it doesn't work as expected. This was the case with the new iPhone release and iTunes update. Suddenly syncing is broken for many iPhone/Outlook users. The problems are two-fold. Events created on the device are only visible in a table view, in the To-do bar, or in Outlook Today, but not Day/Week/Month view. Appointments may display correctly when the reminder fires but disappear again when the reminder is dismissed. Secondly, events created in Outlook won't sync to the iPhone. Until Apple releases a fix, possible workarounds for each problem are listed below.

Only Outlook calendar sync is affected, contact sync should work perfectly. The iTunes software (and the ITunes COM add-in for Outlook) is required for calendar synching and we believe the bug is in this add-in. Contacts synching is handled directly within the ITunes software.

Events Not Visible in Day/Week/Month View

What we know: there is a problem in the sync process with alerts and recurrence patterns.

If an alert is changed in any way after syncing to the iPhone, the appointment disappears from the Day/Week/Month view in Outlook. This occurs whether the alert change is done manually either in Outlook or on the iPhone or automatically by dismissing the alert once it pops up. Either way the appointment disappears from Day/Week/Month view on the next sync (use a table view to see it). One suggestion is snooze every alert for 2 weeks until Apple releases a fix. If you need longer than 2 weeks, you can type a new time in full words, ie, 6 weeks.

When new appointments are entered into the iPhone they're set as recurring when synced to Outlook but contain no data and Outlook doesn't know what to do with them. To fix, open the event on the iPhone and change it to recurring daily then end the recurrence on the date of the event before you sync to Outlook. Rather than change the recurrence, you could use a table view since only the Day/Week/Month view is affected. Also, set an end date to all recurrences - i.e., rather than go on forever, set them to end in 2012.

Outlook Events Won't Sync to iPhone

Events created in Outlook won't sync to the iPhone, possibly caused by a bad recurring event in Outlook or conflicts. We're not exactly sure of the problem or have a good workaround for it yet. If you still can't sync after trying the solutions above try this method.

There are several variations to this fix, but the end result is the same - fewer appointments that need to be synced.

If you can find the bad item(s) or conflicts without deleting everything in your calendar, congratulations. If not, you can fix some problems by exporting the calendar to a CSV or Excel file, delete all the events then import them from the CSV. However, this is not a workable solution if you have meetings scheduled on your calendar.

Since any items you delete will be in the Deleted items folder, you could delete all the recurring events and slowly add them back to the calendar folder.

You should also archive old calendar items, leaving just 2008 in the calendar, if possible. You can either use AutoArchive or create a second calendar folder and move all old events into it.

More Solutions

Go iTunes, Info, and Calendars. Uncheck Sync All Calendars and check each calendar separately.

Don't set a reminder on appointments, in either Outlook or iPhone.

Reset Sync history

If your pst was used with Outlook 2002 or older, upgrade it to a Unicode pst. See Convert an old PST to a Unicode PST for more information.

More Information

fixed iphone calendar sync to outlook (Howardforums)

Mail, Contacts and Calendar Forum (Apple Discussion forums)

iPhone and iPod touch: Some Outlook calendar events might not sync (Apple Support article April 2008)