MobileMe and Exchange: This is Getting Ugly
Users of Apple’s MobileMe have put up with a lot over the past couple of weeks since the service was launched. Many of these problems have to do with the availability of the service; for example, as I’m writing this, a number of people have been without access to their MobileMe e-mail accounts for several days. That’s bad, to be sure, but it seems like the kind of problem that Apple will correct pretty soon.
One of the latest shoes to drop, however, is the apparent lack of support for syncing with Microsoft Outlook calendars that are hosted on Exchange servers. A big part of the MobileMe vision was that you could install some software on your Windows-based PC, and sync your Outlook calendars with the same cloud of data that all of your other devices (such as your MacBook and iPhone) were synched to. And depending on who you ask, this seems to be working if you’re operating Outlook in “stand-alone” mode (as most home users presumably do).
Those of us who are using Outlook at work, however, tend to have Outlook hooked up to an Exchange server, so that we can share calendars and contacts and what-not with our co-workers. I (and apparently many others) have been struggling with this configuration, trying to get it to work. For me particularly, it’s the calendars that just don’t seem to sync at all. I have a default calendar (named “Calendar”) in Outlook, and that’s the one that all of my work events get scheduled on. I couldn’t figure out how to sync this one to Mobile Me at all. The additional calendars that I’ve created seemed to sync properly at first, but now it seems that events that I add to those calendars in Outlook never get pushed up to the MobileMe server (and thus they never appear on any of my other copies of those calendars).
Given all of the other MobileMe snafus that people have been dealing with since the launch, it was easy for me to assume that this was just another thing that Apple didn’t quite have working right, which would be repaired in short-ish order. More recent posts on Apple’s support forums suggest, however, that not only is this not going to be fixed, but that it’s this way by design.
Apple has already had to issue one major mea culpa regarding their false advertising of push capability for the desktop clients of MobileMe. As more people become aware of the “resolution” of this Exchange-synching problem, confidence in MobileMe is only going to lessen.
Come on, Google. Give us push-synching of our Google e-mail, calendars and contacts. If it works, I’ll even give you the $99 a year I might have paid Apple for MobileMe.
I second that emotion! Come on Google!
July 22nd, 2008 at 7:03 pmI’m having success synchronizing directly with the Exchange server.
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:39 pmYes, I experimented with synchronizing the iPhone directly with the Exchange server (bypassing MobileMe) and also found that that works fine. The problem is that our Exchange server is behind a VPN and it’s a little bit of a hassle to turn that on to let the phone sync up, and then turn it back off when I don’t need it. And of course that doesn’t include my personal calendars at all. So I’m still hoping to hit on some more unified solution.
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:11 amYeah I am having the exact same issue. Also my company does not allow personal devices to connect to the exchange server (only company issued blackberries) so I am stuck trying to sync over the air with my calendar, which is all I really want to sync.
Totally frustrating. If it is not sorted by the time my free trial is over I won’t be continuing to pay for instant email, google IMAP will do fine. However goggle push email etc would be awesome.
July 23rd, 2008 at 10:31 amI totally agree, I have a converted Mac fan for years (got iMac, appleTV, iPhone, Ipod….). Now I am beginning to have my doubts if it really is so cleaver. And come on Apple – give us some info on what is happening!!! Really frustrating just reading about other people having problems. HELP US!
July 24th, 2008 at 3:39 amHmmm, I’m looking at finally taking the plunge into the Windows/Exchange/MobileMe arena, but now am having my doubts…
I’ve been syncing my Exchange calendar to iCal for a few years now (via Entourage) and while at times I wind up with multiple calendar entries in my “Entourage” calendar in iCal, at least they are there…
Hmmm…..
July 24th, 2008 at 8:24 amI am having the same issue: getting MobileMe to synch with Oulook 2007 on an Exchange server behind a firewall. I also read (buried within the MobilMe Help files) that the service would not synch with Exchange until you had a paid account. This was a little confusing since the only way to sign up now is via the free trial (unless you are migrating from .Mac). Has anyone heard of this?
July 25th, 2008 at 7:30 pmI too have been having this same problem (Outlook hooked to Exchange through work, but want my calendars to appear on my iPhone 2.0 – my work doesn’t support external ActiveSync).
Been corresponding with MobileMe support for over 2 weeks (mostly silence from their end) and never have they asked if I’m hooked to an Exchange server for my calendar or not.
In my case the contacts in MobileMe simply won’t delete either (the ones from before the .Mac “upgrade”)! That’s a different problem though.
Very unimpressive of Apple, a complete debacle. Looks like they didn’t do any proper QA or load testing, or analyze how people were likely to use the service given the marketing messages that were created around the service.
July 28th, 2008 at 4:36 pmWhat do you guys n girls expect MS & Apple will never play nicely together, I second the Google PUSH
July 30th, 2008 at 11:17 am