You Can’t Sync WHAT With Your Smartphone?
So, I learned something interesting today. While one of the big, wonderful, amazing, extremely hyped features of Office 365 is your ability to share things, such as calendars, it turns out there is a teeny tiny problem with this. You cannot sync those shared calendars on your tablet or phone.
I learned this today because someone asked me for help. My colleague’s tech person had been looking into the issue of why he couldn’t get the shared calendars to sync on phones and tablets. He was all but beating his head against a wall. You see, as is common in small offices, one person keeps the calendar and shares it. Everyone else then can access the same calendar through Outlook. Obviously, it is also important that the calendar be able to sync on phones and tablets, so everyone can be on the same page. However, when the tech guy asked Office 365 support how to sync the calendars they made it clear he could not.
Office 365 Responds to Tech Guy’s Question
“If you are not the owner of the calendar, in other words, the calendar is shared by others to you, the calendar will not appear in iPhone or iPad when you add your Office 365 account into iPhone .”
Office 365 support also had a suggestion:
“If you have some concern about the ‘shared calendar not appear in iPhone’ feature in Office 365, I would suggest you submitting a feedback at (comment link)If the service is requested frequently, the product team may include it in the future releases. Your useful ideas and feedback will help us improve our products and service. Your time and efforts are highly appreciated.”
Solution?
This meant that the tech guy and I had to cobble together a solution. I suggested that he use Google Sync to sync the calendar from Outlook to a Google calendar set up specifically for this purpose. Then everyone can sync the Google calendar to their phones and tablets. I am not thrilled with the option, but it is what came to mind.
Anyone out there have any other suggestions?
Please Complain to Office 365
If you too believe it is idiocy that you cannot sync calendars that you share with the others you have in your Office 365 group, please let Microsoft know. Perhaps, “the product team [will] include it in the future releases.”