Internet Scofflaw

The upgrade problems were just the beginning. It turns out that with the new software, calendar sync with a PC is broken.

It seems there is something in my Outlook file that iTunes doesn’t like:

1. When it starts to sync contacts/calendar (or even when I so much as select the “Info” tab in iTunes), the CPU usage of OutlookSyncApp (or something like that) goes to 100%, permanently (until I kill it from the task manager). Notwithstanding the CPU usage, calendar does not get synced, even if I tell it to overwrite the data on the phone.
2. Both problems go away if I delete my Outlook file and start fresh. But then, I don’t have my calendar data.
3. When I import my old data into my new Outlook file, calendar sync is broken again (again, even if I tell it to overwrite the data on the phone). But at least the CPU utilization problem is still gone.
4. Delete the file, everything works again. But again, no data.
5. Then I try importing my old data from a CSV (comma-separated-value) file. Now sync works, in one direction. Data goes to the phone from the PC, but not vice-versa.
6. Repeat with same results: Delete the file, everything works, but no data. Re-import the data from CSV and sync works only one way.
7. I give up.

I suppose I could try re-entering my data by hand, but it seems unlikely that that would be any different from importing from text. Besides, even if I were to get it working, I no longer feel I could trust it to stay working. I’d like to say something dramatic now, like I’m giving up on iPhone, but the fact is I’m addicted. So, I’m going to give up on sync, and keep my calendar only on my phone.

But I don’t want to hear any more nonsense about the supposed super-reliability of Apple software. It isn’t.

POSTSCRIPT: The Apple techs were unable to do anything about the problem, but they were able to re-brick my phone for a few hours. It turns out that the “Restore” process isn’t reliable any more either. “An unknown iPhone error has occurred (6).” On the fifth try (at 20-30 minutes per attempt), I was able to unbrick the phone. At that point, calendar sync didn’t seem so important any more.

UPDATE: After some further investigation, it seems that Microsoft Outlook has to share some of the blame.  Events from the iPhone are making it into the database (you can tell this by inspecting an exported text file), but for some reason aren’t being displayed if the database also contains a sufficiently old event.  Very strange.  Perhaps upgrading Outlook will fix the problem.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 13th, 2008 at 9:43 pm and is filed under Technological. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.