MobileMe and outlook

[Larryfgraver]

Ok people here's my problem, my contacts on my ME account and iPad and iPhone are are synced and the same, now my Outlook 2003 contacts are bad and I do not want them any more. How do I sync using MobileMe and be sure the bad outlook contact will not sync with my contact's on my me account?
Do you think I should delete my outlook.pst files before doing the MobileMe sync? And if I delete this file and it is empty will this cause me to lose my contact in my me account?

Thanks for any help

 

[twerppoet]

Not enough information.

What method were you using to sync your Outlook contacts? By syncing through iTunes (turned on in the Info page)?

Are the outlook contacts still on your iPad? Are they in the same contact database, or do you have two contact databases; one for outlook and one for MobileMe.

The MobileMe contacts are synced. Does that mean you can to to me.com and see your contacts.

IF the outlook contacts are separate from the MobileMe contacts on the iPad in the Contacts app, and if you were using iTunes settings on the Info Page, and if the MobileMe contacts can be viewed at me.com: Then turn them off on the Info page, go the Advanced page and select delete contacts. Do not do this unless all three conditions are met.

Otherwise, I'm waiting for a more detailed explanation of what you have set up.

 

[Larryfgraver]

Sorry if I did not explain completely, I only sync using MobileMe, my me account contacts and iPad contacts and iPhone contacts are all the same and staying in sync.
I have deleted all my contacts on my PC Outlook 2003, On my PC. Now if I use MobileMe on my PC to sync to my me account will my outlook contacts be populated or will my me contact be removed, because my outlook contacts are empty?
Thanks

 

[twerppoet]

Ok. Now I understand, but really can't be of any help with Outlook. I don't have Outlook and can't test what might happen. I do have a plan that should work.

If all your contacts are current on the iPad or other iDevice you can do this. Stop syncing on that device, and choose to Keep the contact database when you do so. Now you will have a backup that can be used to recreate the MobileMe address book if something goes wrong.

After that, go ahead and try to sync between Outlook and MobileMe. Keep in mind where your good address database is, and follow whatever prompts that appear accordingly.

If every thing goes well (after you've checked both on the computer and me.com that the address's are properly synced) you can turn the syncing back on, on the iPad. Choose to delete or the database when you are prompted. Delete will only delete the contacts on the iPad, and replace it with what is on MobileMe.

If thing go badly, choose to Merge the connects when re-syncing the iPad. This will copy the iPad's contacts back to me.com and attempt to merge hem with anything that is already there. That might result in duplicates, but you won't lose anything.

One other thing you can do to be on the safe side. Go to the me.com site, sign on, and go to Contacts. Once there use the gear icon to Select all addresses, then export them as a vCard file. Save this somewhere on the computer. You can use this file to reimport all you addresses if something goes wrong. You will probably lose all your groups this way, but it's a lot better than starting from scratch.