How To: Fixing iCal iPhone Sync Issues

One of the the iPhoneWriter.Com team's favorite features about the Apple iPhone is integration with the iCal and Contacts applications. Sure, this is a cool feature for just about any "smartphone" on the market today, but no third-party software is required for the Mac user to synch with his iPhone. Instead, one simply uses iTunes to synch the iPhone with the iCal and Address Book applications (and also the Mail and iTunes Music applications.) Despite the simplicity and ease, an issue with syncing the Apple iPhone and iCal appears from time to time.

You'll know the syncing issue when you see it, because the new events you enter into the Calendar on your Apple iPhone will not appear in iCal. Said another way, you'll enter a new event into your iPhone, use iTunes to sync with your Mac (or MacBook in our case) and the new event on your iPhone will not show up in iCal. Keep trying, synch as you might, iCal and the Apple iPhone just won't get along.

Here's the down and dirty fix:

1. Open iCal and backup or export your entries. Make a note of the fie name and location, you're going to need them in a minute. Once your backup/export is completed, close the iCal application.
   
2. Open Finder and remove everything inside the "Username/Library/Calendars" folder. For instance, if your username is "Joe", then move everything inside the "Joe/Library/Calendars" folder.
   
3. Open the iSync application. It's located in the "/Applications/" folder. Once iSync is opened, go into the iSync Preferences (iSync -> Preferences) and push/click the "Reset Sync History" button. Then, close the iSync application.
   
4. Re-Open the iCal application and Import (File -> Import) a new calendar. When prompted, use your notes from Step #1 to select the file your created earlier. Once completed, close the iCal application (you should have all of your calendar entries back.)
   
5. Open the iTunes application and connect your Apple iPhone to the computer. 
   
6. Within the Advanced section of the Info tab for the Apple iPhone, check the box the overwrites/replaces the Calendar data on the Apple iPhone.
   
7. Click the Apple/Sync button. New, modified and deleted entries should now be syncing correctly.

That's it! You should be all set and iTunes, iCal and our Apple iPhone should all be playing nicely as friends again. We've used the exact method to repair our own Apple iPhone at least once... maybe even twice.