Question about Outlook Syncing Contacts

[Raeki]

Hi, I got a question about syncing contacts with outlook:

When I sync my iPhone contacts using iTunes to Outlook, anyone with a phone number under the "iPhone" section (his iPhone number) becomes an "other" number in Outlook. So if I synced my contacts to Outlook, and them synced them back, would all the iPhone numbers change to "Other" numbers? Or would iTunes know to automatically change it back to an iPhone number?

Thanks

 

[Alli]

That "iTunes" category is only in the iPhone and is very inconsistent. I have yet to see it for any of my contacts, even the ones who use iPhones (a lot of them!).

 

[Raeki]

hmmm I don't really understand your post

but basically when you sync from outlook it becomes very glitchy right? the numbers don't get transfered over properly right?

and are there any other 3rd party applications you can use to sync that are more consistent?

 

[TSInes80]

sorry for the intrusion but i am having a similar problem in syncing contacts with Outlook.
case in point: i accidentaly deleted some contacts i had manyally entered on the iphone. however i had previously updated my outlook list with said contacts before the deletion. however now eveytime i sync, a couple of those contacts just aren't transferred to my phone.

help?

 

[Wiltron]

For the first problem - there is no "iPhone" section in your contacts list in Outlook, so it puts them in "Other". Now, the issue is, iTunes sometimes doesn't read this "other" category too well, and may not transfer, transfer only certain contacts, or just send wrong data. I've personally seen all 3!

Best way to fix this, is to stop selecting "iPhone" as a category on your phone, and sync it with the regular options such as mobile, home and work.

As for the second one, I had a similar problem, what I did was in the Info section of my iPhone in iTunes, theres a section that lets you select where you want your contacts to come from/sync too, change it to something other than outlook. Wait for iTunes to say "Changing contacts" or something. Then change it back to outlook. iTunes will say "Merge info" or "Remove info", you select merge. This will merge contacts from itunes, and your iphone into one file and fix sync issues.

 

[Alli]

My point was, the iPhone category doesn't exist consistently. And unless you create it and use it consistently in Outlook - don't use it if it shows up on your iPhone.

Sync with Google.

hmmm I don't really understand your post

but basically when you sync from outlook it becomes very glitchy right? the numbers don't get transfered over properly right?

and are there any other 3rd party applications you can use to sync that are more consistent?

 

[Raeki]

So if I create a section called "iPhone" would it work?

 

[Alli]

What do you mean by a "section?"

 

[Raeki]

My point was, the iPhone category doesn't exist consistently. And unless you create it and use it consistently in Outlook - don't use it if it shows up on your iPhone.

Sync with Google.

You said that "And unless you create it and use it consistently in Outlook"

Does that mean creating and using a new phone category in Outlook called "iPhone"?

Edit: I've never used Outlook really just for syncing so I haven't tried

 

[Alli]

Sometimes iPhone randomly shows a category "iPhone" as a phone number category.

You can create whatever categories you want in Outlook. You might want to get into Outlook a bit before going further - it's quite involved.

 

[Raeki]

So if I created a category in Outlook called "iPhone" then syncing "'iPhone' numbers" would be fine right?

 

[Alli]

If your category is like "business," "family," "personal," etc. But not if your category is just for phone numbers.

 

[Raeki]

So would it be like this? (attached)

I got it from this site http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HP052432891033.aspx

I don't think there are any other missing categories in Outlook but if someone knows some other missing categories please let me know so I can add them