Wednesday, July 23, 2008 -- 12:08 a.m. -- at my desk

Earlier, Apple took the much-needed step of posting some information on the problems with MobileMe. And I applauded Apple for doing that.

Well, now they post a document talking about another problem that I've seen far too often and that's where calendar colors don't match between iCal and the iPhone.

For example, as you can see in the accompanying screen shot, I have bills as a black calendar on my iPhone and the same in iCal. For the longest time, when I synced MobileMe here at work, the color for bills was green. That didn't match.

Finally, I got it to sync correctly by adding a new calendar item at home and resyncing. Not sure what the difference was, but it did work and that made me happy.

I don't necessarily hold out hope that it will work next time I add a new calendar, but that's minor compared to other problems.

Anyhoo, back to why I posted this ... today, Apple puts up a document talking about this problem and even posts a "resolution."

iTunes: Calendar colors do not match between computer and device
Symptoms: When synchronizing calendars with an iPhone or iPod touch using iTunes 7.7 and iPhone 2.0 software, the colors used for each calendar on the device may not match the colors selected in iCal or other calendar applications you are syncing with.

Resolution:iPhone 2.0 software for iPhone and iPod touch allows you to synchronize more than one calendar with your device. Each calendar is assigned a different color to allow you to easily identify which appointments belong to which calendar and this may not match the exact color used on the computer.

Ex-squeeze me? That's a resolution? That sounds like an answer a politician would give -- you know, the politicians that never answer a question no matter how many different ways you ask it?

Luckily, Apple gives you the opportunity to rate these articles on a scale of 1 to 5 stars with 5 being stellar. I was proud to give this 1 star and only wish I could give it negative stars.

Anyhow, if your calendars don't match, I suggest you try my trick -- do it on a different computer or enter a new calendar item and re-sync. You'll have better luck than if you follow Apple's suggestion, which translated is "too bad."

Thanks for calling.

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451600969e200e553ce62718834

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference You call this a resolution?!?:

Yeah, when I read the KB article yesterday I thought the same thing. Your solution is much more helpful. Thanks!

SCOTT'S REPLY: Certainly. Happy to help.

I just discovered another issue with the calendar. None of my subscribed calendar events got pushed to the iPhone. The events show up on the cloud, but their calendars don't exist any more. So my iPhone no longer show me the holidays. Argh!

SCOTT"S REPLY: Terrible limitation, but they don't transfer. You can cheat the system though. Go under file in iCal and export your subscribed calendar. Import it back into iCal as a regular calendar and it will transfer. It's not ideal, but it works. I did it.

I love everything about the new phone! It feels so great in my hands! I check the App Store at least once a day! All I want is an MMS app!!!

SCOTT'S REPLY: I still believe that AT&T will be the one to release an MMS app here in the States. I feel very strongly about that being the case.

Mine match!

SCOTT'S REPLY: Awesome! Mine haven't strayed, so hopefully that continues. First I thought that maybe certain colors weren't compatible with the iPhone, but that doesn't make any sense. And sure enough, not it looks perfect everywhere for me.

Do you mean resync your phone? Or resync to MobileMe from your computer? Mine messed up after Apple had me "Reset All Settings".....bummer-hope I don't have to do that again!.......I've added a new calendar, etc. but my colors didn't come back & I have resynced the phone & that didn't work either. :( In the scheme of things it's not a big deal, but it should work.

SCOTT'S REPLY: It should just take resyncing your phone as opposed to resetting all settings ... If the sync worked but the colors were off, that is. I sync from both places -- home and work -- and it was weird at home but not at home. now, it's consistent wherever I sync from, however, I have not added a new calendar color to make sure of that.

The comments to this entry are closed.