Nadyne Richmond <[email protected]> wrote on 12/23/09 4:12 PM:
> Technically, we don't sync with iCal. Instead, we use OS X Sync Services to
> sync with the back-end database known as The Truth.
Dear Ms. Richmond,
Thank you for your email regarding syncing.
I think many of us are familiar with the technique used by Entourage
Calendar to sync <-> iCal through the Truth.
I formerly used this method, and have had to stop using this method, because
of the foul-ups and corruption caused apparently by the Entourage Calendar
[and the corresponding Entourage calendar in iCal].
Here is the tale of woe. I am describing this in *excruciating detail*, so
that you can understand the problem with syncing Entourage calendar with
iCal.
Entourage List readers may wish to stop reading here.
You will see at the end of the story, where there is interminable
corruption, Apple's top level iCal support, and Apple's "engineers," report
"The corruption is from Entourage. We've seen it 1000 times."
I invite you to correspond with me off-list, if you want to follow-up. If
you think it is difficult reading this email, imagine how difficult it is to
go through this process.
As you know, when syncing Entourage's own calendar with iCal, iCal creates a
calendar called "Entourage". When syncing iCal to iPhone, iCal's Entourage
calendar creates an Entourage calendar in iPhone.
Under OS 10.4.11 with Entourage 2004, my work flow *WAS* this (all by wire,
not by MobileMe):
GIVEN:
MBP = MacBook Pro
ST = SyncTogether from MarkSpace
ST works through Truth as does Entourage and iPhone
Entourage = MS Entourage
"Entourage" = iCal's "Entourage" calendar
MBP Entourage <-Truth-> MBP iCal "Entourage"
MBP iCal "Entourage" <-iTunes-> iPhone Calendar "Entourage"
MBP iCal "Entourage"
<-ST-> <-Truth-> iMac iCal "Entourage" <-Truth-> iMac Entourage
Basically, I am doing Entourage to "Entourage" on each computer, and then
syncing the two computers using SyncTogether. SyncTogether does not
introduce any information into the data. It just talks through Truth.
In OS 10.4.11, that was all fine MOST of the time, and worked well, MOST of
the time. But sometimes, the Entourage <-> "Entourage" sync would tell me
that there were 642 changes to make...
Or iCal <-> iPhone would report a huge number of changes to be made...
Or MBP <-> iMac would report a huge number of changes to be made.
It was preposterous, as all those syncs had already been done 1000 times
before. Everything was already in sync.
So, in anticipation of this "resync," I was forced to do a backup of the
iCal calendars before every sync, in case I needed to restore after a
botched sync. My back/restore method was to make an "iCal Archive" [.icbu
file] in each of the two Macs, since Entourage does not have its own easy
backup/restore of its calendar.
This worked fine on every occasion. When iSync would report (on any sync
between any of the devices):
There are 642 changes to be made.
[ ] Proceed [ ] Stop
...I would tell iSync STOP, but the sync would always proceed. Sometimes
that botched sync would cause everything to disappear from Entourage's
calendar, as iCal was wiped out.
Then I would restore from the iCal archive on either one Mac or both Macs,
and try again. That always worked. Sometimes I would restore iCal on both
Macs from a single known good .icbu. Restoring two Macs' iCal from a single
.icbu always worked.
I then moved from OS 10.4.11 to OS 10.6.2 on the iMac (upgrade in two steps
10.4.11 -> 10.5 -> 10.6).
I retired the MacBook Pro 10.4.11, and started with a new MacBook Pro
running 10.6.1.
I also installed MS Office 2008 on both Macs, importing the Entourage 2004
database into Entourage 2008. I left OFF Entourage's pref for syncing
Entourage calendar to iCal, but left ON Entourage's pref for syncing the
address book to Address Book.app.
iCal OS 10.6 on the iMac automatically converted iCal OS 10.4 during the
upgrade.
On the new MBP, I tried to restore the new iCal using the iCal archive
[.icbu] from the old MBP 10.4.11.
Guess what? iCal can no longer restore from its .icbu archive (backup),
when that archive includes the "Entourage" calendar.
I have tested this many times by creating a new user account on the MacBook
Pro and iMac, creating a new iCal calendar, adding a few appointments,
exporting to a .icbu archive, wiping out the calendar, and then doing a
restore. It works fine. It works fine when using that clean .icbu to
restore an iCal calendar in yet another (third) new MBP user account.
So... Backup and restore of fresh iCal calendars works fine.
It does not work only when the info in the .icbu contains the original iCal
"Entourage" calendar.
The only way to get my iCal "Entourage" calendar back into iCal (after a
botched sync) is to have first _exported iCal's "Entourage" calendar as a
.ics file (not archive to .icbu). In case of a botched sync, I can then use
iCal to "Import" the old "Entourage" .ics file. This does not restore the
existing iCal "Entourage" calendar. It imports the entire .ics file into a
new (empty) calendar in iCal. (So, I have to be careful on an iCal
"Entourage" import to name the imported "Entourage" calendar with a new
name, maybe "Entourage Backup Import 12/27/09").
Confusing? Yes.
So... I had a series of long talks with Apple's level 3 iCal support, who in
turn had a series of long talks with Apple's "iCal engineers."
The result, Apple's support and engineering knows this issue. They advise:
Apple: "We don't get it. The information in the iCal Backup .icbu
package is just a collection of individual .ics files. The information in
the iCal export .ics file is just an .ics file. All that the .ics files
contain is text, with field names and text with each field. Backup and/or
restore should work just fine."
I respond: "It does not."
Apple responds: "We know. Entourage screws this up with its Entourage
calendar sync to iCal's 'Entourage' calendar. We have reviewed all the text
inside each calendar entry, and they appear to be the same. 'Restore from
.icbu' _should_ work fine. But it does not. All we know is that there is
corruption introduced by Entourage, and we can not find out where it is."
I respond: "So NOW what am I supposed to do?"
Apple responds: "First, turn off Entourage to iCal calendar syncing. (It
is already off, anyway.) Next, create a new Mac user account. Then, create
a new iCal calendar. Then, copy each calendar event from the old iCal
calendars into the new iCal calendars. Then, return to the original Mac
user account. Then, in the original Mac user account, delete all of iCal's
databases, plists, prefs etc., but leave the iCal application intact. Then,
restore from the .icbu created in the former new Mac user account. That
should work."
I respond: "How am I supposed to get the three years of events from the
original iCal 'Entourage' calendar into iCal in a new Mac user account?"
Apple responds: "Manually. Type them all into the new iCal 'Entourage'
calendar."
I respond: "I'm supposed to do that with three years of calendar events?"
Apple responds: "That the only way to get a calendar file that will
restore from .icbu."
I respond: "What's the cause of this problem?"
Apple responds: "There is some kind of corruption introduced by MS
Entourage. We can not identify it, but it's there. We have seen exactly
this problem 1000 times."
I respond: "But the whole system works just fine with the Entourage
address book and Address Book.app."
Apple responds: "Yes, it does."
If you want to discuss this in more detail, please contact me offline. (All
my contact info is found at the end of this email.)
I would be willing to provide my files to MS under certain circumstances.
/Tale of woe ends here./
Thanks/Roger+
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Roger S. Cohen
President
Cohen International
3 Main Street, Suite 602
Nyack, NY 10960 USA
[email protected]
http://www.rogercohen.com
Voice: +1 (845) 358-8936
Fax: +1 (845) 358-8937
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