My iPhone Calendar Challenge

My issue was, I wanted to get my work Outlook calendar on my iPhone without attaching my iPhone to the work computer. Nor do I have the option of using Exchange (yet). I also wanted to do it with no intervention on my part. Especially now that it can be done over the air in version 2 of the software using MobileMe. My first try was with free utilities and programs. None worked.

Therefore I decided to spend money. First is getting the Outlook calendar data into Google Calendar. I tried many programs (open source, free, paid), but none worked as well as SyncMyCal. $25

With my Outlook calendar now on Google Calendar, I needed to get it on my Macbook that I sync with the iPhone and Me.com. Unfortunately, subscribing to a Google Calendar does not sync up to Me.com. So once again, I tried many but settled on BusySync. $25

Then I used MobileMe to sync onto Me.com which pushes onto my iPhone.

It only took trying dozens of programs and $50 to get it done. For most people it may not be worth it, but it is for me. And it works by itself via syncing without me doing anything. Finally. Shouldn't this be easier?



iPhone Syncing between Mac and PC

Here is my situation. Most all I do and want sync'd to the iPhone is on my Macbook. This includes my personal contacts, music, video, podcasts, photos and bookmarks. What is on my work Windows XP computer is my schedule in Outlook.

I have tried multiple solutions. First, I connected to the work network via Entourage on my Macbook and sync'd the calendar via Entourage. Entourage had issues with any Outlook event that was and all day event. It put part of the event the day before and created duplicates. So that did not work.

Next, I tried the new Outlook to Google Calendar sync to get my schedule in Google Calendar and then subscribe to the calendar in iCal. However I could never get the Outlook to Google Calendar Sync to work. I may be due to the corporate firewall.

So I decided to try syncing just the Calendar on the Windows PC. I plugged in the iPhone, made sure no syncing at all would take place. Put a check mark only under syncing Calendar with Outlook and pressed sync. It gave me a notice that the iPhone was paired with another computer and did I want to merge or overwrite the data. I clicked on overwrite and prayed. It worked. I have my Outlook calendar on the iPhone and no other data was messed with.

I then connected the iPhone with my Macbook. I made sure everything was selected correctly EXCEPT the calendar. I also got the merge or overwrite question regarding the contacts and bookmarks. I believe this is due to the calendar, bookmarks and contacts all being on the same tab in iTunes.

Therefore, whenever I move from the Macbook to the Windows PC, it will ask to merge or overwrite. Not the most elegant solution, but it seems to work so far.