MobileMe: Syncing calendar subscriptions and CalDAV calendars
Symptoms
iCal can subscribe to various calendars, including some calendars provided by Apple or published by other MobileMe members. You can also use iCal to connect to a CalDAV server (in Mac OS X v10.5 or later). After subscribing to a calendar, or adding a CalDAV account to iCal on your Mac and syncing with MobileMe, you may see some unexpected results on your other computers or devices syncing with MobileMe:
iPhone/iPod touch with iPhone OS 3.1
Subscription calendars configured in iCal on your Mac will sync via MobileMe to your iPhone/iPod touch running iPhone OS 3.1 or later.
CalDAV calendars configured in iCal on your Mac will not sync via MobileMe to your iPhone/iPod touch.
Outlook 2003/2007 (syncing with MobileMe Control Panel)
Subscription and CalDAV calendars will not appear in Outlook 2003/2007.
MobileMe Calendar (www.me.com/calendar)
Subscription and CalDAV calendars will not appear on MobileMe Calendar.
Mac OS X
After first adding a subscription or CalDAV calendar information on one Mac, and syncing with a second Mac, the calendar information might appear on the second Mac, but no events may appear in the calendar.
Products Affected
iPhone, iPod touch, MobileMe, Mac OS X 10.4, Mac OS X 10.5, iCal, iPhone, iPod touch, Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007
Resolution
iPhone/iPod touch with iPhone OS 3.1
With iPhone OS 3.1, calendars you are subscribed to in iCal on Mac OS X will appear automatically on your iPhone/iPod touch if you are syncing with MobileMe.
You can configure CalDAV calendars in Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars on your iPhone/iPod touch. (You can also manually subscribe to calendars this way). Calendars added to your iPhone/iPod touch this way are not synced with MobileMe, so the calendars you subscribe/connect to may be different on your iPhone/iPod touch than on your Mac. For more information on setting up calendars on your iPhone/iPod touch see the iPhone Users Guide.
Outlook 2003/2007 and MobileMe Calendar (www.me.com/calendar)
Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007, and MobileMe Calendar do not support subscribed calendars or CalDAV calendars. As a workaround, if the calendar you are subscribing to does not change often (for example, holidays or phases of the moon), you can convert the subscribed or CalDAV calendar to a regular calendar which will then sync as expected. Note: This workaround is not recommended for subscription/CalDAV calendars that often change.
- Select the calendar you want to convert in iCal.
- From the File menu, choose Export > Export....
- Export the calendar to your desktop.
- Double-click the newly created ".ics" file on your desktop.
- When prompted by iCal, choose to create a new calendar.
This new calendar will then sync with MobileMe, and appear on all of your other computers and devices syncing with MobileMe.
Mac OS X
Open iCal and wait for the events to download. You may have to manually refresh the calendar the first time to trigger this download (by Control-click or right-click the calendar and select Refresh). If the calendar you are trying to connect to is behind a firewall or has other restrictions, you may not be able to download the events to your computer, causing the calendar to remain empty.
This document will be updated as more information becomes available.
Important: Information about products not manufactured by Apple is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute Apple’s recommendation or endorsement. Please contact the vendor for additional information.