It Tips – October 2013

It Tips – October 2013
 

Halloween is just around the corner! Do you think this costume might be too irresistible?

It's only $900!!

What’s Inside:

Tech Section

·         My iPhone/Android Calendar Appointments are not in Outlook!

 

iPhone & Android Calendar Appointments Missing from Outlook

The Smartphone is the swiss-army knife of our time. This versatile tool can act as a highly sophisticated voice-recognition device, a simple flashlight or a time-killing gaming machine (don’t get me started on Candy Crush). Yet, all of this functionality doesn’t come without a cost; for every new trick our little chunk of plastic can perform, there are new things we humans must learn.

While supporting these rapidly evolving devices over the years, I have discovered one feature that is commonly used but slightly confusing: the calendar.

Have you ever been ravenously entering appointments on your iPhone calendar and found that none of them synced to Outlook? Wicked bummer, right?

Setting the default calendar

I’m often asked, “Why aren’t my iPhone appointments syncing to my computer?” To which I reply, “You’re beat; I can’t help.”

Just kidding!

You may think that the appointments are stuck on your phone and not synchronizing at all. However, that is extremely rare. Rather, the calendar appointment is synchronizing to an account other than your Iredale Exchange account (Outlook).

Most of you have more than one calendar on your phone but may not realize it.

You must keep in mind that your personal email address will come along with a calendar. iCloud (in the case of iPhones) also places an additional calendar on your phone. Heck, even the facebook app adds a calendar to your device. How can we stay sane in a world full of so many calendars?!

I see… how can I be sure I’m using the correct calendar?

Following this tip will help to ensure that you’re working with the correct calendar. The tip is broken up into two sections (one section for each smartphone operating system we support): iPhone and Android.

Please note: Android screens vary in appearance based on several factors (including manufacturer, carrier etc…) but this guide should be close enough to get you through.

iPhone:

When you tap that little + to add an appointment, your phone will automatically use the “default calendar”. However, the default calendar isn’t always set to Iredale. Therein lies the problem; we need to be sure you’re defaulting to the Iredale calendar. If not, you’ll have to manually choose the Iredale calendar every time you enter an appointment. Manually selecting the calendar every time is tedious at best and completely forgotten at worst (which leads to missing Outlook appointments).

All you need to do is set your Iredale account as the default calendar. This will cause the phone to automatically choose your Iredale account when you enter a new appointment, ensuring your important work appointments sync to Outlook.

The process is virtually the same for iOS 5/6 and 7 but they look quite a bit different so I will include screenshots for each version. iOS 5/6 is on the left side and the new iOS 7 is on the right.

First, go to Settings.

Next, tap “Mail Contacts, Calendars”.

 

Scroll down to “Calendars” and tap “Default Calendar”.

Tap your calendar under “Exchange” (it may say Iredale) so that a checkmark is next to it.

That’s all! You’re done!

How can I manually change the calendar if I need to enter something on my Gmail account?

If you want to enter an appointment on a different calendar (not the default) you can choose a different calendar while entering the appointment.

Click the + to add an appointment. Then scroll down to and tap “Calendar”.

Tap the desired calendar and then tap “Done”.

This single appointment will go on the chosen calendar. Any new appointments will still go to the default calendar (provided you set Exchange as the default).

Android:

This guide will apply to Android 4.0 or above (which is all we support anyway).

The process is a bit different on this platform. It’s different in that there is no specific setting for “default calendar”. Instead, Android simply remembers the last calendar you used. This is slightly simpler but requires a bit more diligence.

If you only use the Android phone to enter Iredale appointments, you can set it and forget it. If you need to enter appointments to other calendars, you’ll just have to remember to manually change the calendar.

First, open your Calendar app and click the + to add an appointment.

Next, tap where it says “Calendar” at the top.

Now select your Jane Iredale account.

 

Once you save this first appointment, the phone will default to the Iredale account for all subsequent appointments.

Note: As I alluded to earlier, if you change this setting to a personal calendar, you’ll need to remember to change it back for work appointments. Again, Android uses the last used calendar as the default. 

Have a great month, everyone!

-Keith

Please don’t hesitate to shoot me an email if you have a something that you think will make a good tip. You’ll get credit on the blog for your contribution and I might give you a high-five