Why won't Outlook contacts suddenly sync with MobileMe?

[David London]

My XP machine seemed fine with Outlook 2003 + iPhone 3G + MobileMe. Calendar
and Contacts seemed to sync OK. Now on a new machine Vista: apparently the
Contacts aren't syncing properly, intermittently at best. Kept getting FIRST
SYNC ALERT time after time. Finally resolved this by deselecting Contacts
from MobileMe and just syncing Calendar. Deleted all contacts from MobileMe
cloud, reset everying and tried a completely fresh forced sync from Outlook.
Calendar once again OK, but no contacts uploaded at all to MobileMe. Apple
engineers are suggesting this a problem with my Vista account. Does this
make sense? Anyone out there experienced the same and resolved, to get
Outlook contacts back syncing via the cloud instead of USB? Many thanks!
David, London

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

My XP machine seemed fine with Outlook 2003 + iPhone 3G + MobileMe. Calendar
and Contacts seemed to sync OK. Now on a new machine Vista: apparently the
Contacts aren't syncing properly, intermittently at best. Kept getting FIRST
SYNC ALERT time after time. Finally resolved this by deselecting Contacts
from MobileMe and just syncing Calendar. Deleted all contacts from MobileMe
cloud, reset everying and tried a completely fresh forced sync from Outlook.
Calendar once again OK, but no contacts uploaded at all to MobileMe. Apple
engineers are suggesting this a problem with my Vista account. Does this
make sense? Anyone out there experienced the same and resolved, to get
Outlook contacts back syncing via the cloud instead of USB? Many thanks!

Did you verify that MobileMe is compatible with Vista?

 

[David London]

Thanks Brian. Apple clearly markets the product as compatible with Windows
including "Vista SP1 or later" ...

 

[David London]

Thanks Brian. Yes, Apple explicitly state compatibility with "Vista SP1 or
later" ...

Regards,

David

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Thanks Brian. Yes, Apple explicitly state compatibility with "Vista SP1 or
later" ...

Outlook is completely passive in any sync operation. If you're getting sync
errors, you should investigate the sync software.

 

[David London]

Again thanks, Brian. I understand and am in long support dialogue with Apple
on this. However, Apple says that some Outlook Add-ins can throw MobileMe.
This poses a real challenge to me as an ordinary user, because diagnosis
starts to get complicated for the uninitiated and certainly time-consuming.
Don't software programers have a tool that can be loaded onto a PC to observe
an application's code "in motion" and detect where the fault arises and
therefore why?

Appreciate any further advice and insight you might be able to offer. Wits
end here!

David
London

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Again thanks, Brian. I understand and am in long support dialogue with Apple
on this. However, Apple says that some Outlook Add-ins can throw MobileMe.
This poses a real challenge to me as an ordinary user, because diagnosis
starts to get complicated for the uninitiated and certainly time-consuming.
Don't software programers have a tool that can be loaded onto a PC to
observe
an application's code "in motion" and detect where the fault arises and
therefore why?

I don't know of any tool like that (though other might), it really shouldn't
be too difficult to isolate the offending add-in. Disable them all in
Outlook, enable MobileMe and one other and test. If that doesn't pan out,
disable the second add-in and enable a third. Test again. Before too long,
you should see the unwanted interaction and you'll know.

 

[David London]

This doesn't sound that difficult, I agree. As a non-technical guy, my
concern had been that to disable any add-in without understanding its
function was asking for trouble! So would I be right in saying that Outlook
can perform its core functions without the add-ins, sufficient to add
contacts and calendar events and send/receive emails? You imply this, I know,
but just to be sure ...

Again, thanks.

David
London

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

This doesn't sound that difficult, I agree. As a non-technical guy, my
concern had been that to disable any add-in without understanding its
function was asking for trouble! So would I be right in saying that Outlook
can perform its core functions without the add-ins, sufficient to add
contacts and calendar events and send/receive emails? You imply this, I
know,
but just to be sure ...

Outlook should be completely fuinctional with no add-ins. It should hurt
nothing to disable them while finding out where the interaction occurs.
That's one of the things that the /safe command switch for Outlook does:
starts Outlook without allowing any add-ins to load.

 

[David London]

OK Brian, this has been really helpful. Much appreciated.

David
London