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se419

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 7, 2008
10
0
SF, CA / NY, NY
I've been having really strange (and problematic) sync issues and wondering if anyone can help.

Ever since moving to Windows Vista and Office 2007 I've been having issues syncing my iPhone. Everything was working fine on Windows XP and Outlook 2003.

Initially, after moving to Vista, the issue was that syncing did not update contacts or calendar items unless I checked the boxes to overwrite contacts and calendar items on iPhone (bottom of the iTunes, iPhone, Info Screen).

Then recently I saw that I had a ton of duplicate contacts and saw that in sync info settings I had a list of my different contact folders (not groups, as I didn't use groups for contacts in Outlook). In a attempt to sync only to 'contacts' (which was not listed as any of the folders - only sub-folders of 'contacts' were listed) I unchecked the 'all contacts' box and hit 'sync.'

This wiped all my contacts form the phone, and now I could no longer see any of the contact folder options. I've tried deleting sync history, deleting previouse backups, re-installing iTunes, restoring the iPhone to factory settings, and anything else I can think of (each time I perform one of these options I try to sync the phone) and I have not been able to sync to anything. I have lost all my contacts and calendar items on the phone (although they still exist in Outlook) and I can't get them to the phone regardless of what I try.

When I hit sync, iTunes and the iPhone tell me that a sync is in progress and it takes about 15-20 minutes for iTunes to get through the "Syncing Contacts.." phase and it takes about 20-30 minutes to complete the sync cycle each time. At the end, still nothing on the iPhone, no contacts no events, even though the volume bar at the bottom of iTunes consistently tells me there is about 200MB of "other" data on the iPhone.

If iTunes has lost its connection to Outlook, how can this be restored. Again, I have reinstalled iTunes, restored the iPhone, and tried many other configurations.

Please, Please help!!
 

rayward

macrumors 68000
Mar 13, 2007
1,697
88
Houston, TX
Under the Help -> About command in Outlook, click the Disabled Add-Ins button and see if the iTunes Add-In is disabled. If it's not, then I don't know what the trouble is.

If it is disabled, try re-enabling it and see if that works. If that doesn't hold (i.e. you get an error message and Outlook disables the add-in again), try re-enabling it and then reinstalling Outlook before re-starting it. That worked for me, although it took a few rounds of it working for a bit and then crapping out before the add-in stabilised (about 6 months and counting...).
 

VenomousSVT

macrumors 6502
Dec 4, 2007
289
0
Charlotte, NC
Under the Help -> About command in Outlook, click the Disabled Add-Ins button and see if the iTunes Add-In is disabled. If it's not, then I don't know what the trouble is.

If it is disabled, try re-enabling it and see if that works. If that doesn't hold (i.e. you get an error message and Outlook disables the add-in again), try re-enabling it and then reinstalling Outlook before re-starting it. That worked for me, although it took a few rounds of it working for a bit and then crapping out before the add-in stabilised (about 6 months and counting...).


sounds like a great first start.. mine on vista ultimate syncs fine
 

se419

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 7, 2008
10
0
SF, CA / NY, NY
Solution to iPhone Sync issues

Finally I've solved my issues of the iPhone (and iTunes) not being able to see (or sync with) my contacts. I advise everyone make sure they are using a Unicode version of their PST file. Even if you are running Outlook 2007 you may still be utilizing a non-unicode PST (this is the file format of all pre-Outlook 2003 data files).

See this document for info on converting your file (I found the best method was to import my info into a new Outlook file):
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306635

Determine the format of your PST file:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HP010435561033.aspx
Convert your PST file:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HP010383511033.aspx?pid=CH010404871033

First create a new (Unicode) PST, make that your default data file via the File/Data File Management selection. Remove the data file that had been your default data file, then import your data from the data file you removed. (to be safe I quit Outlook and restarted after each of the steps above).

I lost my filter rules and master category list (with colors) after doing this, but that shouldn't be too hard to rebuild.

Best of luck,

Steve
 
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