Syncing with Outlook (appointments vs meetings)

[bmcelhany]

Hi there,

I am currently syncing my iPad calendar with Outlook 2007 via iTunes. For the most part, this is working just fine, but I've run into one kind of annoying issue. In Outlook, you can put two different types of things on your calendar: Appointments (which is simply a reminder for a place you need to be or a task you need to complete) and Meetings (which are similar, but also have other people from your Contacts included as well as resources like conference rooms).

Events that are created on my iPad are synced to Outlook as a Meeting instead of as an Appointment. This isn't a huge issue, but I would really rather have items on my iPad calendar sync to Outlook as Appointments (Outlook Appointments seem to be much more similar to iOS Events anyway, so it seems like that would be a more likely match).

Is anyone aware of any way to modify how calendar syncing is done?

Thanks in advance!

 

[twerppoet]

I'm afraid that Calendar does what it does. There are no sync settings you can play with on that end, or in iTunes.

You could try setting up both the iPad and Outlook to sync to Google. I don't have Outlook, so I'm not entirely sure how that will translate, but I haven't heard any (major) complaints from the people who do it this way. It's also a more robust method of syncing, and removes the slow (only when you connect to the computer) updating of your calendar.

I don't have Outlook, so I can't suggest how to set that up (though I do know it is possible). To set up and iPad you'll want to use the Exchange method. Besides allowing you to sync multiple calendars it will also let you sync your Contacts via Google.

Setting up Google Sync with your iOS device : Mail, Calendar, & Contacts - Google Mobile Help

If you decide to give it a go, be sure to turn off syncing under the Info tab in iTunes before doing this, and pay close attention to the Keep/Delete/Merge options as they pop up.