Q&A: How do I sync from Entourage to my iPhone?

  • Article

I got a question via email about syncing from Entourage to your iPhone. Specifically, the question I was asked was:

Is there a way for me to sync my Entourage Notes & Tasks with my iPhone?

For the sake of completeness, I'll talk about syncing more than just tasks and notes, though. (This is the first non-Exchange Entourage post that I've written in quite awhile!)

Starting with Entourage 2004 SP2 (11.2 or later), Entourage uses OS X Sync Services to synchronise data with your devices (including, but definitely not limited to, the iPhone: here's the current list of devices supported by Sync Services). To enable this, go into the Entourage menu, choose the Preferences, and then Sync Services. From there, you can choose what data to synchronise: calendar events, contacts, and notes (only with MobileMe). Then, when you synchronise your device with your Mac, all of that data will be automatically copied over to your device. If you already sync your iPod with your Mac, it's the same thing: you can change your playlists and podcasts at any time, and any changes show up on your iPod the next time you sync.

But that doesn't get everything onto your iPhone. That only takes care of calendar events and contacts. Right now, Apple doesn't provide a method through Sync Services to synchronise notes or tasks with other devices (iPhone or otherwise). There are third-party applications that will do it. I've heard some Entourage users talk about Missing Sync or e2sync, but I have no experience with them myself.

I've also heard of some workarounds for getting your notes and tasks onto your iPhone. For example, if you use an IMAP or Exchange account, you could create a new mail folder there called "notes" or "tasks", and then create mail messages in those folders with the contents that you would have put in your note or task. It's obviously not perfect and is missing a lot of the flexibility inherent in real tasks and notes, but it might get you closer to what you're looking for if you're not interested in using a third-party solution.