What's the deal with Entourage 2008 and Blackberry sync?

There is a solution, involving entourage sync with ical and then pocketmac sync with ical, after a bit of fudging it works well, and you can then use ical to publish a web based calendar too!

Works for me!

You know, I'm just not that smart.....As with the PC version, all I'd like to do is install the software and sync my Blackberry...No muss, no fuss....this is frustrating because I learned to live with the limitations of Entourage 2004 vs. my PC (The PC sync. was the best I've ever seen), but this....I'd have never installed 2008 or would have at least waited, had I know...

And not just issues with Blackberrys. Palm Treos are also a mixed bag, as are most handheld syncing.

If you have Entourage 2004 still, stay with it or migrate back to it if you need to sync.

Sync is screwed up in general anyway. I turned on synching with my Mac Address Book, and it proceeded to create duplicate address card entries in Entourage Address Book each time I opened Mac Address Book. I turned the service off after I found myself with EIGHT duplicate entries.

Seriously, it feels like beta software. Did they test any of this?

The article definitely confuses Missing Sync for BlackBerry with Missing Sync for Windows Mobile.

Regardless, both products should work with Entourage 2008 via Sync Services.

Here's the scoop:

1. Missing Sync for BlackBerry never communicated directly with Entourage. Instead, both Entourage and Missing Sync use Apple's Sync Services framework. Nothing should have changed in Entourage 2008. If users are having problems, they should let both Mark/Space and Microsoft know.

2. Missing Sync for *Windows Mobile* does have a separate plugin to talk directly to Entourage in addition to Sync Services support. The main reason for this is historical -- MSWM was written before Sync Services existed. Users can just turn on Sync Services support within Entourage and use the other built-in plugins (contacts, calendar, etc) in Missing Sync and all should be well.

It is recommended that you back up all of your databases first and it may at times be necessary to do a "Mac overwrites device" sync first if switching between plugins to avoid duplicating records. [This may delete unsync'd records from the device, so you should do one last sync beforehand]

The one thing lost shifting over to Sync Services support is keeping track of which calendar a given event is in. This is a limitation in Entourage's Sync Services support. In iCal every event must be in a single calendar whereas Entourage supports multiple categories per item. All Entourage events will show up in a single "Entourage" category on the device.

Hope this clears everything up.

Do you think there's a chance Microsoft could release a piece of software for any platform that doesn't suck in blindingly obvious ways until the first set of patches have been released?

I want my drag-and-drop installation back. And an installation that doesn't need a reboot. And doesn't require administrative privileges (just like every other piece of software I have except those from Adobe and Apple) to install, and doesn't use those privileges to screw up the permissions of the files it installs. And can actually use SyncServices without trashing your data.

Please?