Sync with iphone and iTunes 7.6

[stewu]

Hi all,

I'm currently trying to sync an iPhone with my scalix account (contacts and calendar).
It seems, that the sync stopped working since iTunes 7.6 was shipped. (OutlookSyncClient crashes)

Has anyone similar experiences?
Is there any chance to get this working?

I use:
Scalix Outlook Connect 11.3.0.77
Scalix Server 11.3.0.77


Cheers,
Stefan

[grandtxred]

Same issue here. I see some fixes on apple.com. They suggest that you replace your pst file with a new pst file to fix the problem. Since scalix doesnt use a pst file what are we to do?

Have you had any luck fixing it?

Mike

[Valerion]

If it stopped working from one release to the nex, without changing the Scalix sidet, then Apple made a MAPI implementation change. I suggest you contact them as well to find out exactly what they changed. As far as I am aware iTunes is not officially supported by Scalix, so they do not test against it. If you can convince them too they would quickly be able to figure out where the issue is, but that (obviously) will take a lot of time on their side, so they need a compelling enough business case for supporting it. If you want to go this route, Florian is the right guy to speak to.

As for MAPI implementation in general, Scalix is fairly compliant. There are some hooks that don't seem to work correctly (mainly some on-send ones), though that could also be application-side. Scalix syncs fine with both the Sony Ericsson and Nokia software, and test actively against ActiveSync and BlackBerry software.

[grandtxred]

Did you ever have any luck with this Stew? I have not.

Mike

[stewu]

Not so far... I'm looking forward to a new version of either Scalix Outlook connector or iTunes.

[tdunk]

Same problem here with:

- iTunes 7.7.1.11
- Scalix Connect 11.4.1.7704
- Outlook 2007 SP1

Anyone found a solution?

[Alik]

Same problem here with:

- iTunes 7.7.1.11
- Scalix Connect 11.4.1.7704
- Outlook 2007 SP1

Anyone found a solution?

Please open a bug in bugzilla.

[eddyedfred]

hi,

the same problem for me with the same configuration like above. anybody with a solution. the bad thing with the g3 is, that the phone requires itunes 7.7 to recognize the device. tried
connector 11.2 and 11.4 but nothing works.

has anybody a working sync config with an iphone g3 and windows?

greetings,
marco

[grahamk]

https://bugzilla.scalix.com/show_bug.cgi?id=17888

[grahamk]

Also, does anyone have a workaround for this? Anyone running iPhone 2.0+ is unable to sync from what I can see...?

[mitip]

I am also struggling with scalix and iphone, a litttle offputting that scalix advice in this post is 'well Nokia works with scalix but iphone doesn't so you conact apple and get them to fix it'. Sorry I don't know Steve Jobs that well, wouldn't you stand a better chance?

[Valerion]

Just for clarity, I am a Scalix reseller, not a Scalix employee, and as such cannot speak for them. You will have to contact Scalix either here or directly to get an official answer.

[florian]

well, honestly, this is not as easy as it sounds.

It is not iTunes that talks to us, it is iTunes talking to Outlook and Outlook talking to us, so the 'error' can be in an area where we don't have any control. The MAPI API, which is behind all this, is written and spec'd out in ways that would allow for all these applications to coexist happily in an ideal world. In reality, however, it is a very broad API and most people implementing anythign with it narrow it down quite a bit, i.e. maybe just test with MAPI and certain servers behind it, like Exchange.

So... the problem could be on our side and we'll investigate if that's the case, but it may also well be in Apple interpreting MAPI specs too narrowly, and that's nothing we could control - so it should actually be reported to them as well.

I may want to add that this is *NOT* the biggest priority for us in terms of Apple support; we're actually more interested - and that's one of the reasons for delaying it out a bit - to get our ActiveSync Over The Air support working perfectly with the iPhone in wireless most; in all honesty, given that I have an unlimited data plan on mine, I'd rather have this gizmo talking to my Scalix server directly from anywhere, and not to my Outlook (well, actually I don't use it, I'm a Mac guy) through a USB cable. But yes, I firmly believe that we'll see both working very soon, come Apple or ourselves.

Florian.

[grahamk]

The lack of priority is communicated through the fact that scalix dont actually know if the issue is with the scalix connector, or outlook, or itunes

[florian]

Well, the reason is quite simple; to understand this, one needs to throw quite a bit of analysis time at it, first in QA to test all scenarios and understand how they interact, then in engineering to look at it from a tracing and debugging perspective. All-in-all, the is probably anywhere between 2 and 5 man days of work, with associated cost; and you can also imagine that with a product our size and complexity, there is no lack of things to do, so surely it is competing with other things.

Looking at the Bugzilla tracking entry, btw., I wouldn't see any "lack" of priority; there's been one request of a commercial customer so far for this through support (which raises priority) and it is marked up with it and currently it is sitting there in a queue waiting for a developer to look at, and we're planning to do so for Scalix 11.5, which is our next public release. It's too big to fit into a patch release (there will be 11.4.2 sometime soon), and so far no commercial customer has asked to escalate the issue, so it's pretty much as high as it would get on the priority ladder because of this. It isn't a firedrill either, but I think given the impact and percentage of users affected, that's reasonable.

On the lighthearted side, why would you punish yourself using Windows and Outlook if you enjoy the iPhone's user experience otherwise.... get a Mac! iPhone Mac syncronisation via Apple iCal calendar and Scalix CalDAV works just fine.....

So ... with all respect, if you were me and all things considered, what would you do differently?

Tx,
Florian.