Syncing Outlook Calendars and Contacts with iPhone - There is NO SOLUTION

I have searched the Apple support forums, Mac Forums, MS forums, spoken to Microsoft Support and iCloud support. Everybody says that there is no way to directly sync Outlook Calendars and Contacts with iPhone and other remote devices and nobody has a work around. I see 100s of forum threads started with this issue, most have no answer and the few that do are not offering solutions. I post this as a final effort to seek a solution! Who will be my savior? Or should I just admit defeat and allow myself to be cast aside in the battle between two giant corporate babies who don't like to play in the same sandbox?

Is my knight in shining armor out there?!

Unfortunately, I cannot completely answer your question other than to say look into Exchange Mail services. I have been on an Exchange service since 2001, and I love it. I have Outlook 2011 on my MacBook Pro and have been managing my email, tasks, contacts, calendar and notes from all my devices: MBP, iPhone and iPad. I make a change on one and they sync across the board to all devices.

Again, I cannot answer if you are using Gmail or hotmail or some other service like that, but I can say if you use an Exchange server (full Microsoft Exchange), then everything will sync up.

I beta tested for 1and1.com and am grandfathered in at $1.99 a month, which is nothing for me as keeping my devices 100% sync'd is paramount for my work. I believe their Exchange service is $6 / month. If you search around, you may be able to get it for less.

Are you using Outlook as a client to something or are you using it standalone as a PIM? If you are not syncing outlook to something like an Exchange Server or Google Apps then there is no real way to "sync" the data. Outlook as a client syncs data by using a server.

So you could either try using a server to hold your data (Hosted Exchange, Google Apps, Etc) or you could have a sync by using iTunes. The problem with using iTunes is that it is not Over the Air and not On the Fly as a server would be. But if what you are asking - directly syncing to outlook without a server - you can do it through iTunes. Go to your iPhone -> Info -> Check Sync Contacts, Sync Calendars
In theory you should see Outlook as a choice but since I upgraded I haven't been using outlook so I don't see it in my iTunes. (Hopefully Apple didn't take out that option)

#deckyon - thanks for the suggestion. I will look around for a cost-effective option using hosted Exchange.

#IvanLasston - I should have made it clearer that I am using iCloud to sync my iMac with my iphone and ipad. I did spend time on the phone with an iCloud Support tech and he told me that there was currently no way to make them link directly that he was able to find (they "don't support third party products" so they had no documentation on the issue). He found references to using google calendar or outlook.com as a "bridge" (sync Outlook 2011 with google then sync google with the ipad). Outlook.com is a joke -- it cannot even sync with Outlook 2011! I dug around some more to find out how to use Google Calendar but was unable to find any instructions or success stories there either. As for iTunes, that is obviously not a real-time solution so it does not really solve my problem.

Thanks for the feedback.

Exchange is the best way to sync with outlook. I also have friends that I setup with 1&1 hosted exchange - and it all works with outlook, the built in Mac apps and the iOS devices.

I did use google apps and entourage together - Outlook 2011 had hooks into using google apps - but since the Mac built in calendar, contacts, and mail all worked - I didn't bother setting up outlook for those domains.

I'm with dekyon 1&1 is quite good for hosted exchange.

Deckyon said:

Unfortunately, I cannot completely answer your question other than to say look into Exchange Mail services. I have been on an Exchange service since 2001, and I love it. I have Outlook 2011 on my MacBook Pro and have been managing my email, tasks, contacts, calendar and notes from all my devices: MBP, iPhone and iPad. I make a change on one and they sync across the board to all devices.

Again, I cannot answer if you are using Gmail or hotmail or some other service like that, but I can say if you use an Exchange server (full Microsoft Exchange), then everything will sync up.

I beta tested for 1and1.com and am grandfathered in at $1.99 a month, which is nothing for me as keeping my devices 100% sync'd is paramount for my work. I believe their Exchange service is $6 / month. If you search around, you may be able to get it for less.

Click to expand...

Need your help if possible.
I have:
- MacBook Pro running 10.7.5
- Outlook for Mac 2011 - updated
- iPhone 5 running 6.0.1
- Exchange server through work...no idea of this version

Been using this exchange server for two years...no real problems until about 3-4 months ago. Started noticing that I wasn't syncing calendar events between Mac and iPhone. If I make the event on my iPhone, it seems to push to my Outlook fine. Problem comes when I make appt in Outlook, it's hit or miss if it gets to my iPhone calendar. I cannot see a pattern of any kind.

I have not noticed any issues with contacts or tasks, although I rarely use tasks. Vast majority is calendar and contacts.

Any thoughts? I'm not even sure if this is:
- iPhone issue
- MacBook issue
- Outlook issue
- Exchange issue - my hunch is this is the culprit

Any thoughts?