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[pscocoa]

I took the advice of guys on here and installed Windows 7 Professional on the PCs of my new office - for reasons I will not go into this is a saving of £4000 against a budget.

However, whilst I thought Office 365  Business Premiumwould be problem free in terms of  sharing data across devices linked to my user name - sadly not so.

Microsoft will support syncing of emails via IMAP irrespective of email service provider - they create obstacles on sharing /transfer of contacts and calendars - pain in the ass.

What is microsoft's justification here if you do not want to use their exchange server/active sync?

[steve6367]

I am by no means a fan of Office 365 but it should very easily allow you to have contacts / mail and calendars across any device you add your 365 account to.

What exactly are you try to do? What devices? etc

Steve

[TheBoy]

Traditionally, the standards around calendars/contacts were not defined, and everyone made up their own, MS included with their Exchange (and previously Schedule+) products.

I've always maintained, if you which to use Outlook (not Outlook Express/Live Mail), you really need an Exchange backend. Outlook doesn't really work "satisfactorily" (using my definition) with POP3/IMAP mailboxes. IMHO, your choice is either dump Outlook, or get an Exchange back end.

MS haven't been great in this respect. But then nobody else has (Google almost nailed it, but only if you sync with their servers, and agree to let them snoop in there, and profile you based on contents).

[pscocoa]

TB has captured the issue precisely and I need to make the decision he sets out. I did not particularly want to have email server and web site server in different places.

[steve6367]

Are you not using office 365 then?

[Taxi_Driver]

Must admit I use Outlook, but use it in a probably an unusual way....

I use Gmail for my mail atm. So Iphone has gmail client on it, which syncs mail during the day (altho not 'push') and Outlook connects to gmail in the evenings and downloads all the mail.

For contacts and calendar I use Icloud which both the iphone and outlook syncs with.

Works for me .... but I am thinking of ditching gmail altogether and Icloud for mail as well 

[chrisgixer]

Speckled Jim would know.

[pscocoa]

Are you not using office 365 then?

I have set up 365 business premium as a trial but my web host is Media Temple and my mx records for email point to this server. Emails are IMAP and as said this is working and syncing just fine. Calendar and contacts are not and you just get the words "only on this computer" in the Outlook 13 menu list. I have a person with 365 experience going to contact me tomorrow.

This was an unexpected let down - I may as well just go for 365 proplus (which includes Access) as this is needed by at least 2 of team and work around the other issues and back up etc.

[Broomies Mate]

Can you not use a .pst file for your calendar and contacts. If you have a POP3 account in your profile, set it as default and move your calendar and contacts to the folders in the pst file. You can remove the (This computer only) folders by closing Outlook, deleting the IMAP .ost file then reopening Outlook. It will create a new .ost file without the special Outlook folders.

[pscocoa]

Can you not use a .pst file for your calendar and contacts. If you have a POP3 account in your profile, set it as default and move your calendar and contacts to the folders in the pst file. You can remove the (This computer only) folders by closing Outlook, deleting the IMAP .ost file then reopening Outlook. It will create a new .ost file without the special Outlook folders.

I did make a start on this but not sure about the last few steps. I take it I need a new profile to do this. I did set up new default profile and move a pst file in using open data file and then in data files selected this file as default a instead of the file "outlook". Trouble is do I have to do the same on each of the synced devices - I am not clear on the last steps. So far the IT guys are not really coming up with workarounds. I will try and push on in this direction but your post gives me some encouragement now.

[pscocoa]

The other problem is I need the mails to stay on server and pop3 clears them off of course.

[TheBoy]

Can you not use a .pst file for your calendar and contacts. If you have a POP3 account in your profile, set it as default and move your calendar and contacts to the folders in the pst file. You can remove the (This computer only) folders by closing Outlook, deleting the IMAP .ost file then reopening Outlook. It will create a new .ost file without the special Outlook folders.

Not sure how that could help with syncing?  How Outlook stores the records isn't the issue, its how it communicates them...

[TheBoy]

The other problem is I need the mails to stay on server and pop3 clears them off of course.

There is a setting not to delete, but ultimately, POP3 will not work satisfactorily for a mailbox shared between devices, as it lacks any synchronisation capabilities...  ...hence IMAP.

But you can't escape the fact that Outlook is clunky, fussy and unreliable on non-Exchange mailboxes.

Exchange/Outlook/ActiveSync to Apple devices is a hard thing to beat. ActiveSync to Android not too bad, bit naff in places, plus you need to persuade it not to share with g-apps as I suspect your company would not allow that.

[pscocoa]

Now making progress  - a few dns mx changes guided by Microsoft and we seem to be almost there. Will confirm next day or so as still not out of the woods for certain

[TheBoy]

Now making progress  - a few dns mx changes guided by Microsoft and we seem to be almost there. Will confirm next day or so as still not out of the woods for certain

So you're changing your mail server then?