can't sync iPhone 4 with Outlook2010

[ejp]

I'm getting a new iPhone4 configed and can't seem to sync email with Outlook2010 on desktop PC. By "sync" I mean mirror deleted email. I just switched Outlook to a new IMAP acct and it works fine in terms of routine email send/receive, and the iPhone does get all my email too. thought I had everything set with iCloud as I did last Xmas with an iPad which syncs fine, but zero syncing going on with my iPhone. I get the following iCloud error (attached) saying I have multiple Outlooks installed which I do not, only 2010. My wife's new iPhone (we have 2) does sync with her iPad and laptop Outlook.

Just thought of something: the working iPad is working with a laptop via wifi while the desktop has no wifi; it's hardwired to the router, so is still on the net.

Any ideas about this error condition and where to go from here?

Thanks.

 

[ejp]

Whoops, just found that I do in fact have 2 office folders, but only 1 installed. Have not done a rename yet to see which one is in use. See attachment.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

11 is Outlook 2003, 14 is 2010 - if you upgraded, you left 2003 installed.

 

[ejp]

11 is Outlook 2003, 14 is 2010 - if you upgraded, you left 2003 installed.

OK, I renamed the old .exe and that made iCloud happy. it went ahead and did what looked like a bunch of good stuff including creating a 2nd duplicate IMAP acct. in Outlook; I had already created one for ATT/Yahoo. now I get that dreadded pop-up requesting a password and I don't know which one it wants.

Anyway, do I really care about the new iCloud IMAP account since I intend to keep using the ATT/Yahoo IMAP acct? I have set the ATT one back to default along with my old/original .pst location but Outlook now gives upload/download errors with that pesky pass word prompt op-up. If I hit cancel very fast repeatedly, A few emails will squeeze thru such as your reply I am replying to right now. I do have 3 accounts present and I know from past probs I need to delete unused accts which I will do shortly as soon as I figure this out. The 3 accts are 1) original POP I will no longer use, ever, 2) new IMAP I created a few hrs ago, 3) new IMAP iCloud created just now.

thanks for the quick reply!

ps: one more question: can I just delete the OFFICE 11 folder? I see no evidence of Office 2003 in add/remove. I MAY HAVE DONE AN UPGRADE, DO NOT RECALL. PROBABLY DID NOW THAT I THINK ABOUT IT.

pps: since I have no plans ever to use the new iCloud email addr. I guess that answers my question about needing the new iCloud IMAP acct, right? This is starting to make sense. Mybe I shouldn't have clicked the box in the iCloud control panel about enabling Mail, Contacts, Calendars, etc ??? I thought I needed that to get sync working.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

LOL. iCloud is as easily fooled as outlook. I thought you'd need to remove a reg key so it looked like outlook wasn't installed.

On the iCloud imap account: if you aren't using it, delete it. ICloud will still work, but you won't have access to any notes created on the iPhone or ipad as those are stored in an MAP folder as email. The old pop acct should cause any problems and you need it's pst file for calendar and contacts.

You needed to click the checkbox to sync calendar and contacts. if you use a non-iCloud address as your apple id, it doesn't set up the email account, just calendar and contact sync.

Yes, you can delete the folder - might want to rename it first and see if anything is looking it in. If no errors after a week, delete it.

 

[ejp]

You wrote: "The old pop acct should'nt cause any problems and you need it's pst file for calendar and contacts."

Am I correct with the edit above? This is very interesting as I did not know for sure but had a hunch that certain functions were spread over 2 pst files. I will retain my POP but think I deleted my wife's, thus triggering some grief that she experienced.

But...what if the old POP acct. used the same .pst that IMAP now uses. Or, did it always have 2 pst files, I guess it would have had to.

So, what if the old POP is deleted but the calendar/contacts .pst remains, will the IMAP acct. see it?

So, let me get this straight; let's say you create a new acct., does it go like this: 1) creates the POP acct itself, 2) creates the email data pst, 3) creates the calendar/contacts pst. Then I point Outlook to my old active pst file for email, but Outlook still uses the calendar/contacts pst back in the original location for calendar/contacts only.

Therefore, if I backup my data pst, I obviously am not capturing calendar/contacts. (I have been doing export backups on those

periodically so should be covered.

Thanks again for your usual stellar support!

 

[Diane Poremsky]

oh, yes, sorry about that typo. I don't type the n't more often than i care to count. Most people figure it out based on the reset of the sentence, fortunately.

The pst the pop account uses can't be the imap data file that are in use now. The IMAP pst can't be set as default and you need a default pst file.

On your new account creation: Step #3 can be merged with #2 - the POP3 pst can be used for calendar and contacts too, no need to create another pst file. If you keep mail separate from your calendar and contacts, then your steps are correct, although you can add the archive pst by selecting 'manually configure' after autoaccount setup creates the account.

 

[ejp]

This may be little off topic since it veers into Apple land but not much. I'm looking for reference material that can help me understand iCloud syncing. It's a little confusing since they're trying to do so much - much of which I do not want. At the moment, my config seems like a house of cards likely to collapse at any moment. For example, I just found my wife's new iPhone (and mine) had synced with my Outlook2010 desktop PC contacts, reminders, notes, etc. but neither of our calendars have synced. iPhone/pad calendar is blank and this is what I really want.

Here's what I want:

iPad + iPhone #1 sync with laptop Outlook2010 mail, calendar, contacts, reminders, notes. red = works fine now

iPhone #2 sync with desktop Win7 PC Outlook 2010 mail, calendar, contacts, reminders, notes. red = works fine now

Do not want syncing between desktop Outlook and laptop Outlook anything.

iPhone is 4s with iOS 7.latest_rev

one iCloud acct. in common, but 2 unique email accounts with ATT/Yahoo. Not using iCloud email and account deleted from Outlook.

Since I have been in a mode of blindly pushing buttons hoping for the right outcome, I decided it's time to step back and actually understand how iCloud works.

Any recommendations on a source that explains the how and why? A good starting place might be an explanation of the what/how/why of the iPhone iCloud settings where you have an on/off switch for mail, contacts, reminders, etc..... I fixed what I'll call the "cross talk" problem temporarily by shutting most off except mail. This allowed all my contacts to disappear from wife's contacts list. This could have been a problem had all my girlfriend's info not been secreted away elsewhere .

Any suggestions?

BTW, in an earlier post which I can't find now, you offered a bunch of links pointing to overcoming various iEverything syncing problems. Would you please repost that?

Thank you!

 

[ejp]

Could the problem be that I have just one iCloud acct. under my appleID shared by all equipment? Maybe it thinks it's just one person with 3 "i" devices and 2 PC's to sync. I saw no place to tell it to differentiate between multiple people living under one roof.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

I think the problem could be one icloud account - if you sync phone1 with iCloud and iCloud with outlook1, you get everything in the iCloud on the phone. When you add phone2, everything in the iCloud will sync to Outlook2... and then back to Outlook1. There is some way to share iCloud data between spouses, but I'm not sure exactly how it works - several months ago my daughter mentioned she and her husband share calendars via iCloud but I didn't ask for instructions. That would allow you to sync tow outlooks but not co-mingle the data.

I don't recall what links I posted. I have several pages on slipstick that cover problems syncing iCloud (and they need updated for iCloud 3) but they don't really describe how it works. http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/icloud-and-outlook-problems/

 

[ejp]

OK, great, thanks! will create new iCloud acct from laptop with 2nd AppleID and make sure the iPad and iPhone2 are pointed to that. seems logical that that's it.

I probably still have the posting with the iCloud syncing links, if I find it, I'll post for possible benefit to others.

 

[ejp]

Have not had a chance to make a new iCloud acct yet, but just discovered that all my Outlook2010 contacts are merged with my old Verion dumb phone contacts into one master iPhone contacts list. Of course the contacts from Outlook have no ph# associated with them except a few do in the comment field, but that's just plain ascii text and not an executable ph# link you can click on to dial someone when their name comes up in a phone# search.

Do you think this is the expected behavior? Let's say I have 50 entries in cell contacts list from my old cell phone and 1000 in Outlook, now the iPhone single unified contacts list is cluttered with 950 entries of no value for making a phone call. The next time Verizon does a backup/sync (with their proprietary Backup Assistant) of my cell contacts, their list will then have all my Outlook email only entries. Not the way I'd like to see it work. the problem is using one contacts list for both email and phone calls.

Do I have this right? comments/observations?

Thanks.

 

[ejp]

In trying to get iCloud squared away on laptop (wife's acct), I now find CONTACTS folders in Outlook2010 changed and/or added as follows; can you explain what happened?

MY CONTACTS
CONTACTS - empty
SUGGESTED CONTACTS - 4-5 contacts not in icloud one below

iCLOUD
CONTACTS - contains all contacts originally in main CONTACTS ABOVE
LOCAL CONTACTS - had 4-5 contacts not found elsewhere.

I moved all the stray contacts to the CONTACTS

 

[ejp]

(Repost due to timeout on edits)

In trying to get iCloud squared away on laptop (wife's acct), I now find CONTACTS folders in her Outlook2010 changed and/or added to as follows;

MY CONTACTS

CONTACTS - empty

SUGGESTED CONTACTS - contained 4-5 contacts not in icloud folder one below

iCLOUD

CONTACTS - contains all contacts originally in main CONTACTS ABOVE

LOCAL CONTACTS - had 4-5 contacts not found elsewhere.

1. can you explain what happened? Did this work right?
   
2. should I continue with this config? not crazy about only copy of contacts being on the cloud, or are the iCloud LOCAL CONTACTS truly local?
   
3. can/should I now delete empty folders?
   

I moved all the stray contacts to the CONTACTS under iCloud.

 

[Forum Admin]

when you use iCloud, it sucks the contacts out of the outlook folders and into the iCloud folders, so yes, it looks to be correct. The copy in iCloud in outlook are stored locally on the computer and synced with the iCloud. You can't remove the empty folders from outlook - you can remove the checkmark to use them as address books. (right click on folder, choose properties, then outlook address book)

I'm not sure what the 'local contacts' folder is or where it came from. iccloud found the contacts somewhere and synced them down.

 

[ejp]

ok, thanks. I believe I finally have this figured out. What started this mess was using just one iCloud acct., mine. This polluted all devices and the cloud with my info merged with my wifes. Now fixed after multiple iterations of cleaning up each device with syncing turned off.

You raise another question that' s bugged me for years; what's the difference between an address book and contacts list. I use a contacts list as an address book. Seems redundant.

Thanks again.

 

[Forum Admin]

You raise another question that' s bugged me for years; what's the difference between an address book and contacts list. I use a contacts list as an address book. Seems redundant.

The contacts list / folder is a collection of contacts, not unlike an old fashioned address book on your desk.

The address book is a collection containing all contacts, from several sources such as multiple contact folders. In real world thinking, it's the desk drawer where you keep your address book and return addresses torn from envelopes, slips of paper, business cards, etc. (Except Outlook's Address book only displays addresses with electronic addresses - either email or fax. Contacts who don't have email addresses or fax numbers aren't listed in the Address book.)

 

[ejp]

Got it ... finally. Thanks.

All well on the cloud now, thanks for help! The root cause? Thinking I could get by with just one iCloud acct. for 2 people.

 

[ejp]

For syncing "i" devices with Outlook, do you know who's the "master" and who's the "slave"? That is if I delete a contact in Outlook, will the cloud replace it back on the PC, or accept the deletion as the right answer. Conversely, if I delete a contact at icloud.com or on the iPad, will Outlook replace it?

Thanks

 

[Forum Admin]

There really isn't a master/slave - the iCloud server holds the master and syncs it to the other devices. Any of them can add/delete/edit the items. If you delete in one device, it should be deleted on the server and other devices. When you first sync, every thing in outlook and the iCloud merges.