Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Arizona

If you sync Entourage calendar appointments with your iPhone or MobileMe account, you might notice duplicate entries popping up. Ted Landau has a procedure for eradicating unwanted copies with a minimum of fuss.

Local Companies

Isola Laminate
480-963-0022
165 S Price RD
Chandler, AZ
Batteries Plus
(928) 772-1152
7129 E. First Street
Prescott Valley, AZ
Audionut
623487-1116
9299 W. Olive #401
Peoria, AZ
SurplusEQ.com, Inc.
602-867-1904
329 W Melinda Lane
Phoenix, AZ
Halo Electric Corp., Inc.
623628-5256
15457 W. Gelding Dr
Surprise, AZ
Rnd Enterprises Inc
(602) 265-7564
17816 N 26th St
Phoenix, AZ
Unique Electronics Inc
(520) 577-5160
4525 E Skyline Dr Ste 117
Tucson, AZ
Primarion
(602) 454-7205
3650 E Wier Ave
Phoenix, AZ
Arrow Electronics
(480) 303-0068
2105 W 5th Pl
Tempe, AZ
Kingsbridge Healthcare Fitness
(480) 656-1519
29609 N 48th St
Cave Creek, AZ

provided by: 


Suppose you use Microsoft Office's Entourage to maintain your list of contacts and calendar appointments? Further suppose you wish to sync these data with your iPhone or with your MobileMe account. Can you do it? Yes.

To do so, go to Entourage -> Preferences -> General Preferences -> Sync Services. From here, enable the options to synchronize contacts and events with Address Book, iCal and .Mac (MobileMe).

This is what I've done and it works pretty well overall. Except for one persistent and annoying problem: My calendar appointments inevitably begin to reproduce. That is, at some point, I'll find two of every calendar event in Entourage. At the same time, iCal will show a matching set of duplicates. This replication process expands over time, so that older appointments (ones I have saved past their due date) often wind up with four or six copies.

Who's to blame for this bug? There is some dispute (see this Apple Discussions thread for example) as to whether the cause lies primarily with Microsoft Office or with Leopard's Sync Services software. Personally, I give the nod to Microsoft, as I have never had the problem in iCal unless I am syncing iCal with Entourage. What is undisputed is that there is not yet a permanent fix. Neither Apple nor Microsoft appear to be in a hurry to correct the situation.

What can you do in the meantime? Your choices are limited. Either give up on using Entourage for syncing or keep deleting the duplicates as you find them. The latter option can be a time-consuming nuisance, especially if you have a lot of duplicates. If so, try this procedure to eradicate the unwanted copies with a minimum of fuss:

  1. Download iCal Dupe Deleter and use it to delete all the duplicates from the Entourage calendar in iCal.
  2. Go back to the Sync Services Preferences in Entourage. From here, deselect the sync options and click OK. Return to the dialog to reselect the same options and again click OK. A dialog should appear with three choices (as shown in the screenshot to the right). Select the one to "Delete Entourage information." In theory, this should immediately eliminate all the events in Entourage, forcing it to repopulate with the duplicate-free data from iCal.

However, when I tried this, and waited about 30 minutes, nothing happened. Growing impatient for results, I tried something else.

I have Apple's Developer software installed on my drive. Inside the /Developer/Applications/Utilities folder is an application named Syncrospector. I don't know much about how this utility works. But I know enough to launch it and click its Sync button. That did the trick. I immediately checked back at Entourage and iCal; all the duplicates had vanished.

The entire process, starting with iCal Duple Deleter, should only take about two minutes. There are probably other variations on this theme, perhaps simpler ones, that would have worked as well. But this is what I tried and it worked. Having a way to prevent the duplicates from appearing in the first place would obviously be a preferred solution. Until then, this will do.


Read article at Macworld.com

Featured Local Company

Isola Laminate

480-963-0022
165 S Price RD
Chandler, AZ

Regional Articles
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Apache Junction AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Avondale AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Buckeye AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Bullhead City AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Casa Grande AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Cave Creek AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Chandler AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Cottonwood AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Flagstaff AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Fountain Hills AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Gilbert AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Glendale AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Goodyear AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Green Valley AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Kingman AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Lake Havasu City AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Mesa AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Paradise Valley AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Peoria AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Phoenix AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Prescott AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Prescott Valley AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Safford AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Scottsdale AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Sedona AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Sierra Vista AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Somerton AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Sun City AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Sun City West AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Surprise AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Tempe AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Tucson AZ
- Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates Yuma AZ
Related Local Events
Toastmasters
Dates: 11/26/2009 - 11/26/2009
Location: Peoria Chamber of Commerce
Peoria, AZ
View Details

Toastmasters
Dates: 1/7/2010 - 1/7/2010
Location: Peoria Chamber of Commerce
Peoria, AZ
View Details

Toastmasters
Dates: 2/4/2010 - 2/4/2010
Location: Peoria Chamber of Commerce
Peoria, AZ
View Details

Toastmasters
Dates: 3/25/2010 - 3/25/2010
Location: Peoria Chamber of Commerce
Peoria, AZ
View Details

Toastmasters
Dates: 5/6/2010 - 5/6/2010
Location: Peoria Chamber of Commerce
Peoria, AZ
View Details

Rss   Delicious   Digg   Add To My Yahoo   Add To My Google   Bookmark   Search Plugin

Topics:
Advertising Family Home Services Real Estate Resources
Business Services Fashion Industrial Goods & Services Retail & Consumer Services
Career Financial Services Insurance Software
Cars Food & Beverage Internet Technology
Computer Hardware Franchise Legal Telecommunications
Construction Health Miscellaneous Trade Shows
Education Holidays Nightlife Travel
Entertainment Home Appliances Online Database Weddings
Environmental Home Electronics Pets World History