[Macworld]

Post your comments for Bugs & Fixes: Dealing with iCal and Entourage duplicates here

[ObiWandreas]

I also used to get a lot of duplicates when syncing iCal with my old Palm OS Devices, whether using Palm's software or The Missing Sync. My guess is that it's something to do with how OS X's SyncServices play with others. Since my wife & I ditched our Treos for iPhones, we now have both laptops and both iPhones synced for contacts and calendars with no problems.

[scotty321]

A better solution is to just use iCal Cleaner from the excellent folks at BusyMac:
iCal Cleaner
http://www.busymac.c...tils/index.html

[himbo]

ObiWandreas said:

I also used to get a lot of duplicates when syncing iCal with my old Palm OS Devices, whether using Palm's software or The Missing Sync. My guess is that it's something to do with how OS X's SyncServices play with others.

And I have had the same thing happen with my Blackberry using PocketMac Sync Manager, so I think there's probably some merit to your guess.

[Xenu]

The inability to do clean syncs with Entourage, MobileMe and the iPhone is what has finally prompted me to begin the transition to being totally Microsoft free. That's right, goodbye Office.
What would be useful to MacWorld readers would be a how-to article on migrating over to a completely Microsoft free environment. Maybe there could even be 12-Step meetings for the diehards?

[robtain]

I put some of the blame on Apple and the trickiness of sync'ing in general.
I don't use Entourage, but I have no end of syncing problems with iCal, Address Book and my Blackberry Curve (using Missing Sync).
Duplicating events and contacts... disappearing events and contacts, or old deleted contacts (and I mean old, from my Palm III I lost in 1998!) mysteriously reappearing in my address book. Plus contacts that refuse to sync... Missing Sync is generally great, but it offers no way to force overwrites from the Blackberry back to the Mac.
I'll do a clean up, reset sync services, and everything will work fine for a month or two, then it starts all over again.

[Panglos]

Forget iCal and Entourage. It's the duplicate (and beyond) contact entries in Address Book that made me ditch my Windows Mobile device and Missing Sync for an iPhone (not to mention all the other incredible functionality gained in the process). Simple acts like doing a mass-email or printing address labels had gone from being virtual one-steps to nightmares and headaches. No more!
But I'm still pulling redundant contacts the old-fashioned way. An automated tool like Dupe Deleter would be a godsend.

[BLaT]

I've had this same problem without using Entourage. My iPhone grew over 900 occurrences of my niece's birthday in 2007 but only 1 in 2008. i sync through MobileMe from iCal and Outlook on a pc. I had to manually delete all the calenders and re-sync from a back-up in Outlook. That fixed that but now some of my events have editable fields and some don't.

[TGRuss]

I not only see duplicate contact and event spawning, I will get duplicate calendar spawning in iCal from Entourage. For example, I open iCal and see two Entourage calendars. I then have to go back and move events from the wrong one into the correct one and then delete the old one. Once I deleted the wrong one - all I can say is I am glad I had a backup for iCal. Unfortunately, I then had to put all of my events into the correct categories once they were back in Entourage.

[dougeddy70]

One of the best programs for the Palm is DateBook 6. I couldn't live without it! And the great news is he's bringing a similar app to the Mac (it is already out in a preliminary form for winders).
go to
http://www.pimlicoso...icalpreview.htm
and see. Or just go to
http://www.pimlicosoftware.com
to see what he has for the Palm and where it is going for the Mac.
Great support for his programs and he is constantly updating his product!

[shubnub]

Why not just leave the Mobile Me syncing to your Mac and just have Entourage sync with it? I have my iPhone and MBP sync with my corporate Exchange server. Both the iPhone and the MBP sync to MobileMe. I haven't had a dupe problem at all, plus, I throw in Google syncing just for giggles. :)