Showing two simultaneous calendars and cannot delete one

[Grebington]

Greetings,

My home computer is a PC with Windows XP and Outlook 2003. I also have
a Macbook Pro that I use when I'm on the go. My calendar and contacts
are in Outlook. After looking at the cumbersome ways available to get
my calendar and contacts over to the Mac, I suddenly had what I
thought was an "elegant" idea.

So using my .mac account I synced Outlook to the .mac calendar and
contacts which then synced with the Mac. It worked and I had most of
the data over to the Mac. But all of my color coding in the calendar
was gone. So on the Mac I proceeded to make the changes. Then the
computers synched again and suddenly I had ten simultaneous calendars
side by side in Outlook.

I was able to delete most of them and re-entered the events in the
main calendar by eyeball. But one calendar (or special folder as the
error message says) cannot be deleted. So every time I open Outlook, I
see a blank calendar and have to check the other calendar then un-
check the un-deletable one.

Any tips on how I can delete this folder? Or if the other has to be
deleted, how can I get the events across without spending all of the
time doing it manually?

 

[Patrick Reed]

As you discovered, the MAC calendar won't be able to pick-up Outlook's
Categories and Calendar color labels. The categories in 2003 are stored in
the local registry and I believe the color labels are a property of the
Calendar folder (not 100% on this). Regardless, MAC's calendar doesn't know
these things.

At one time, I had Entourage, Outlook, and the built-in MAC OS-X calendar
synching around. This quickly gets hard to manage. Be aware, Outlook is only
concerned with its own Calendar in the message delivery location for
synching and that is the calendar it will display and use by default. At
best, you will have two calendars and you'll just need to be aware of which
calendar you're updating/viewing on the MAC and PC. I'm not aware of an
elegant solution. I would say stick to the Outlook calendar to make all your
updates and such as this is the only calendar from which reminders will fire
when you're using Outlook. iCal should be able to fire reminders from any
active calendar it has. From the MAC, perform all your updates and such
against the synched Outlook calendar - with the expectation the Outlook-only
features will not be avaiable. In iCal, you can uncheck its default calendar
so you're just working with and viewing the synched copy of the Outlook
calendar. Whatever calendar is highlighed when creating new events is the
calendar into which those events will be saved. Again - none of the
"advanced features" in iCal will transfer to Outlook, and vice-versa.

 

[Grebington]

As you discovered, the MAC calendar won't be able to pick-up Outlook's
Categories and Calendar color labels. The categories in 2003 are stored in
the local registry and I believe the color labels are a property of the
Calendar folder (not 100% on this). Regardless, MAC's calendar doesn't know
these things.

At one time, I had Entourage, Outlook, and the built-in MAC OS-X calendar
synching around. This quickly gets hard to manage. Be aware, Outlook is only
concerned with its own Calendar in the message delivery location for
synching and that is the calendar it will display and use by default. At
best, you will have two calendars and you'll just need to be aware of which
calendar you're updating/viewing on the MAC and PC. I'm not aware of an
elegant solution. I would say stick to the Outlook calendar to make all your
updates and such as this is the only calendar from which reminders will fire
when you're using Outlook. iCal should be able to fire reminders from any
active calendar it has. From the MAC, perform all your updates and such
against the synched Outlook calendar - with the expectation the Outlook-only
features will not be avaiable. In iCal, you can uncheck its default calendar
so you're just working with and viewing the synched copy of the Outlook
calendar. Whatever calendar is highlighed when creating new events is the
calendar into which those events will be saved. Again - none of the
"advanced features" in iCal will transfer to Outlook, and vice-versa.

Thanks for your insight Patrick. The whole experience created such a
sinking feeling ;-) that I don't want to try again. It caused too many
changes in my Outlook calendar and my contacts that I'm still fixing.
I'll probably get an iPhone in the future to have my calendar on the
go.. I got my contacts across and that was a plus. So I'm finished
with that for now.

But my real problem is the extra calendar that won't delete. The
details are above. I want just one calendar as it was before and am
seeking the simplest way to do it. My calendar has some repeating
appointments but many "one hits."

 

[Patrick Reed]

That un-deletable calendar should be the default calendar in Outlook. It
sounds to me as if that's where the appointments need to be and that's the
one you need to keep. You should be able to change the view in the other
Calendar to All Appointments or By Category or another table view (View |
Current View) and then copy everything to the un-deletable calendar. Once
done, can you then delete this other calendar?

--
-Patrick Reed

As you discovered, the MAC calendar won't be able to pick-up Outlook's
Categories and Calendar color labels. The categories in 2003 are stored in
the local registry and I believe the color labels are a property of the
Calendar folder (not 100% on this). Regardless, MAC's calendar doesn't
know
these things.

At one time, I had Entourage, Outlook, and the built-in MAC OS-X calendar
synching around. This quickly gets hard to manage. Be aware, Outlook is
only
concerned with its own Calendar in the message delivery location for
synching and that is the calendar it will display and use by default. At
best, you will have two calendars and you'll just need to be aware of
which
calendar you're updating/viewing on the MAC and PC. I'm not aware of an
elegant solution. I would say stick to the Outlook calendar to make all
your
updates and such as this is the only calendar from which reminders will
fire
when you're using Outlook. iCal should be able to fire reminders from any
active calendar it has. From the MAC, perform all your updates and such
against the synched Outlook calendar - with the expectation the
Outlook-only
features will not be avaiable. In iCal, you can uncheck its default
calendar
so you're just working with and viewing the synched copy of the Outlook
calendar. Whatever calendar is highlighed when creating new events is the
calendar into which those events will be saved. Again - none of the
"advanced features" in iCal will transfer to Outlook, and vice-versa.

Thanks for your insight Patrick. The whole experience created such a
sinking feeling ;-) that I don't want to try again. It caused too many
changes in my Outlook calendar and my contacts that I'm still fixing.
I'll probably get an iPhone in the future to have my calendar on the
go.. I got my contacts across and that was a plus. So I'm finished
with that for now.

But my real problem is the extra calendar that won't delete. The
details are above. I want just one calendar as it was before and am
seeking the simplest way to do it. My calendar has some repeating
appointments but many "one hits."

 

[Grebington]

That un-deletable calendar should be the default calendar in Outlook. It
sounds to me as if that's where the appointments need to be and that's the
one you need to keep. You should be able to change the view in the other
Calendar to All Appointments or By Category or another table view (View |
Current View) and then copy everything to the un-deletable calendar. Once
done, can you then delete this other calendar?

--
-Patrick Reed





Thanks for your insight Patrick. The whole experience created such a
sinking feeling ;-) that I don't want to try again. It caused too many
changes in my Outlook calendar and my contacts that I'm still fixing.
I'll probably get an iPhone in the future to have my calendar on the
go.. I got my contacts across and that was a plus. So I'm finished
with that for now.

But my real problem is the extra calendar that won't delete. The
details are above. I want just one calendar as it was before and am
seeking the simplest way to do it. My calendar has some repeating
appointments but many "one hits."

Now we're getting somewhere....

The calendar with all of the events and appointments seems to be a sub-
calendar of the the empty, undeletable one. The question is... how can
I copy everything over to the empty, primary calendar? Click-dragging
doesn't work and I found no command for it. There also appears to be
no mention of it in Outlook Help.

 

[Patrick Reed]

In this sub-calendar, change the view to one of the table views (View menu |
Arrange By | Current View | By Category may be a good one). Hit Ctrl+A to
select all (or Edit menu | Select All). Using the right mouse button, click
and drag the items to the top-level Calendar. When you release the right
mouse button, you should be prompted with an option to Copy. Select Copy.

Now would be a good time to check some appointments to ensure reminders and
recurrences have carried-over. They should have.

--
-Patrick Reed

That un-deletable calendar should be the default calendar in Outlook. It
sounds to me as if that's where the appointments need to be and that's the
one you need to keep. You should be able to change the view in the other
Calendar to All Appointments or By Category or another table view (View |
Current View) and then copy everything to the un-deletable calendar. Once
done, can you then delete this other calendar?

--
-Patrick Reed





Thanks for your insight Patrick. The whole experience created such a
sinking feeling ;-) that I don't want to try again. It caused too many
changes in my Outlook calendar and my contacts that I'm still fixing.
I'll probably get an iPhone in the future to have my calendar on the
go.. I got my contacts across and that was a plus. So I'm finished
with that for now.

But my real problem is the extra calendar that won't delete. The
details are above. I want just one calendar as it was before and am
seeking the simplest way to do it. My calendar has some repeating
appointments but many "one hits."

Now we're getting somewhere....

The calendar with all of the events and appointments seems to be a sub-
calendar of the the empty, undeletable one. The question is... how can
I copy everything over to the empty, primary calendar? Click-dragging
doesn't work and I found no command for it. There also appears to be
no mention of it in Outlook Help.

 

[Grebington]

In this sub-calendar, change the view to one of the table views (View menu |
Arrange By | Current View | By Category may be a good one). Hit Ctrl+A to
select all (or Edit menu | Select All). Using the right mouse button, click
and drag the items to the top-level Calendar. When you release the right
mouse button, you should be prompted with an option to Copy. Select Copy.

Now would be a good time to check some appointments to ensure reminders and
recurrences have carried-over. They should have.

--
-Patrick Reed







Now we're getting somewhere....

The calendar with all of the events and appointments seems to be a sub-
calendar of the the empty, undeletable one. The question is... how can
I copy everything over to the empty, primary calendar? Click-dragging
doesn't work and I found no command for it. There also appears to be
no mention of it in Outlook Help.

It' worked just as you said. All events transferred over with ease.
After checking the newly fattened primary calendar, I deleted the
subfolder. When I reopened the calendar, there was a "calendar in
archive folders" choice below the main calendar. I don't think I need
it. Is there an easy way to not see it? Also, I can find no way to
rename the calendar, even though I must have done it before somehow,
because it is named after one of our categories. I'm happy with
"calendar" if I can just find a place that will allow me to change it.

 

[Patrick Reed]

You should be able to just right click that other calendar entry and remove
(delete) it.

Strange that it got renamed. In the Navigation pane, select the Folder List
button (yellow folder icon - it will display, "Folder List" when you mouse
over it). Let's just double check a final time to ensure that renamed
calendar is the only one left in the list of folders.

Now close Outlook and open Task Manager to ensure Outlook.exe is no longer
running (right click the Windows Task Bar, select Task Manager, and then
select the Processes tab). Once you verify Outlook is no longer running,
select Start | Run.
Enter outlook.exe /resetfoldernames (note the space before the "/")

That should do the trick - I believe. If not, try the same as above, but use
"Outlook.exe /resetfolders"

....any better, now?

--
-Patrick Reed

In this sub-calendar, change the view to one of the table views (View menu
|
Arrange By | Current View | By Category may be a good one). Hit Ctrl+A to
select all (or Edit menu | Select All). Using the right mouse button,
click
and drag the items to the top-level Calendar. When you release the right
mouse button, you should be prompted with an option to Copy. Select Copy.

Now would be a good time to check some appointments to ensure reminders
and
recurrences have carried-over. They should have.

--
-Patrick Reed







Now we're getting somewhere....

The calendar with all of the events and appointments seems to be a sub-
calendar of the the empty, undeletable one. The question is... how can
I copy everything over to the empty, primary calendar? Click-dragging
doesn't work and I found no command for it. There also appears to be
no mention of it in Outlook Help.

It' worked just as you said. All events transferred over with ease.
After checking the newly fattened primary calendar, I deleted the
subfolder. When I reopened the calendar, there was a "calendar in
archive folders" choice below the main calendar. I don't think I need
it. Is there an easy way to not see it? Also, I can find no way to
rename the calendar, even though I must have done it before somehow,
because it is named after one of our categories. I'm happy with
"calendar" if I can just find a place that will allow me to change it.

 

[Grebington]

You should be able to just right click that other calendar entry and remove
(delete) it.

Strange that it got renamed. In the Navigation pane, select the Folder List
button (yellow folder icon - it will display, "Folder List" when you mouse
over it). Let's just double check a final time to ensure that renamed
calendar is the only one left in the list of folders.

Now close Outlook and open Task Manager to ensure Outlook.exe is no longer
running (right click the Windows Task Bar, select Task Manager, and then
select the Processes tab). Once you verify Outlook is no longer running,
select Start | Run.
Enter   outlook.exe /resetfoldernames    (note the space before the"/")

That should do the trick - I believe. If not, try the same as above, but use
"Outlook.exe /resetfolders"

...any better, now?

--
-Patrick Reed







It' worked just as you said. All events transferred over with ease.
After checking the newly fattened primary calendar, I deleted the
subfolder. When I reopened the calendar, there was a "calendar in
archive folders" choice below the main calendar. I don't think I need
it. Is there an easy way to not see it? Also, I can find no way to
rename the calendar, even though I must have done it before somehow,
because it is named after one of our categories. I'm happy with
"calendar" if I can just find a place that will allow me to change it.

I checked the folder list and found two folders. The calendar folder
is wrongly named and there is a second folder in the archives folder
with the same name. There is a delete option in the right click
dropdown menu for the archive folder. But it is deleting the exact
same folder name. If I delete the archive, which is empty, will it
also delete the real calendar with the same name? Also is the archive
folder necessary. I don't remember seeing it before, although it's
possible that I just didn't notice it.

If I reset the folder names, won't that reset ALL of the folder names?
I've got a number of folders set with rules to send certain senders to
certain folders and wouldn't want to disturb them.