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How to Sync Outlook Tasks with your iPhone
UPDATE: 7/28/11: This post refers to syncing Outlook for WINDOWS (all versions, as far as I can tell) with your iPhone. It covers using ToodleDo (the free way) and using ToDo by Appigo ($4.99 as of today). Since this post, I can recommend another way to sync tasks to iPhone either from iCal for Mac or Outlook for Windows, and that is 2Do by Guided Ways Technologies. It works well and there are instructions on their website. I have not yet found a solution for syncing Outlook 2011 for MAC tasks directly with iPhone. I did find this article about syncing to iCal and if that works successfully, you can then sync tasks from iCal to iPhone via 2Do or ToDo. I can not speak to how well it works. These difficulties, to me, are sufficient reason to recommend AGAINST Outlook for Mac as a productivity solution. For other suggestions of productivity tools for Mac users, see this post and this post.
I used Outlook to run my life for almost a decade, and the majority of the training I do is still using Outlook as the support tool. I am a fan and think it is a very powerful PIM (personal information manager) that can easily handle the complexity of your life. The one shortcoming is if you need to share calendars or other information, you need to be running an Exchange server and this doesn’t make sense for everyone (however you can sync your Outlook calendar with Google and share it that way).
A question I get a lot is how to sync Tasks in Outlook with an iPhone. I found an article online with detailed instructions for doing this and got permission to repost it here. It comes from Daniel B. Curran’s excellent how-to blog. Below are his instructions. I hope this helps. If you try this and run into any snags, I’d love to hear about it. And incidentally, I’m using To-Do (the app he mentions) to sync Tasks with iCal and I am VERY happy with it – well worth the $10 in my opinion. You can read about my experience with that here.)
Here is Daniel’s Post:
Let’s start with how you can sync your Microsoft Outlook Tasks to your iPhone for free.
I have read several articles about how to do this but I found the process to be convoluted. Let me make it very simple.
Step 1. Set up a free account at Toodledo.com The direct link for a new account is right here.
That should have taken you about 15 seconds. Let’s move on to step 2.
Step 2. Close Outlook, download Chromatic Dragon’s Toodledo Sync Application and install it.
Almost done! The sync application will want your Toodledo ID number. Leave it open on the tab that wants the ID number.
Step 3. Log into Toodledo and from the menu on the left select Account Settings. On that page you will see your Unique ID, simply copy and paste it into the sync program that you left open.
On the Synchronization tab you can change your Automatic Synchronization to whatever works for you. I don’t add tasks very often so once every 60 minutes is fine for me. To close the Options window select File -> Close. You will see a green checkmark icon in your tool tray. Right click it and hit Manual Sync.
Outlook is now synchronized to ToodleDo.
Ready for the iPhone part?
On Your iPhone, go to the App Store and Download ToodleDo for $3.99.
<end Daniel’s post>
Open ToodleDo on your iPhone and select “Settings” and log in to your account.
You should now see all of your tasks on your iPhone in the ToodleDo app.
Further instructions if you have been through Empowered Productivity Training from RegainYourTime.com:
In the Chromatic Dragon ToodleDo Sync Application on your desktop, open “Options.” (You may have to find ToodleDo in your System Tray in the bottom right corner of your screen, right click on that, and select “Options.”
Select the tab that reads “Mappings.” Select the following options:
Then select the “Folders” tab and click “refresh folders and enable.”
Now select “File – Manual Sync”
Your Outlook tasks should now be grouped by categories on your iPhone app by selecting “folders” from the Home Screen.
I hope you have found this helpful. Good luck!
Finally I have my outlook tasks on my iphone! You are a life saver I’ve tried figuring this our for years, your instructions were perfect. thank you!!
Thanks, Maura! Your instructions were perfect. And even though Chromatic Dragon’s Toodledo Sync tool is no longer supported, you can still download it and use it.
The Toodledo method gets around the firewall problems that I encountered with 2Do when I moved and got a new router.
Thank you for such an excellent explanation. You made my life easy.
God bless . . .
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Chromatic Dragon’s Toodledo Sync Application is no longer being supported. The Toodledo iPhone app is only $2.99 now.
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[...]How to Sync Outlook Tasks with your iPhone | Time Management Training, Productivity Training, Speaking, Consulting[...]…
To replace Toodle-do, I suggest you use Appigo Sync. Another option besides these instructions is to check out 2Do (www.2doapp.com) by Guided Ways Technologies.
Thanks for the information. I am trying to figure out the best way to sync iPhone 4 with Outlook 2003 Tasks and came upon your site recommending Toodledo.com plus an App of some kind (still debating which App is best).
All seemed to be proceeding well until I went to install Chromatic Dragon from the link above. It said… “The ToodledoSync application is no being longer supported. Please consider the following alternative products: Appigo Sync, Captera Organizer or GSyncit ”
Not quite sure how to proceed. Any suggestions anyone? Thanks!
iPhone 4 deksel…
How to Sync Outlook Tasks with your iPhone | Time Management Training, Productivity Training, Speaking, Consulting…
And incidentally, there is more information about iPhone and tasks here: http://regainyourtime.com/apple/apples-big-failure/
Thanks for reading!
Hi Peter-
Thanks for your comment on my blog! I agree, I like to sync locally (with the cable) too. Unfortunately, Apple did not include task support in the iPhone, so the only way to get Outlook tasks into iPhone is with a third party app, which usually requires syncing up to the web first.
I hope that helps!
Hi,
I may ask stupid questions here, but aren’t any of you worried about uploading your calendar and tasks to some online service provider?
I’d prefer to synchronise Outlook with iPhone using the cable provided with the iPhone – not to rely on some online service provider.
Would this be possible somehow?
Fantastic! Just ant I needed. Thanks!
nice! I’m using ,,Plan” . It Sync my todos on the go to Cloud
I’ve been looking for a viable solution for syncing Outlooks Tasks with my iPhone. This is it! Thanks for the post and especially for the easy-to-follow instructions.
Awesome! Works with Win7 X64 & Outlook 2010, iPhone 4 – 4.3.3 and iPad 2 4.4.4 !
For $2.99 you get one app for both iOS devices!!!
Thanks Maura.
I followed the directions provided and it worked like a champ.
First time I had multiple steps like this and something actually worked!!!!
I highly reccomend this!
I’m sure you fill proud of been so helpful to others. In my case I was desperate and you gave me the solution. Don’t know if you receive “international” thanks, mine is one, from Mexico.
This was a fantastic post and it worked for me just fine. Do you mind if I reference you and post somethng similiar on my blog http://www.8categories which is all about organisation and living a balanced life. I would really like to include this as a blog post.
Anshul, I will email you. I need more information to help you. Thanks for reading!
Yes, these instructions are for Outlook for Windows. Are you using Outlook for Mac 2011? I haven’t yet tried Outlook 2011 for Mac, mainly because I created a great Mac solution using iCal, and still also using Todo by Appigo to sync my tasks to my phone. I wrote a post about it here, and there is also a link in that post to an update, so be sure to read that one too.
I hope that helps, but if you have any other questions, you are welcome to ask. Advice from me is always free. Good luck!
The app is half-price at the moment on iTunes (for those wanting to make a new year resolution to get organized!)
Worked like a charm. Thanks for making this so simple.
How great! Thanks Ken, happy to help!
Thanks, Maura! I Googled for help on this subject and your link came up on the first page. Yours and Daniel’s info was exactly what I was looking for. My Outlook tasks are now synced with my iPhone. As usual, you’re awesome!
Hi Krissy, thanks for reading! Using ToDo on your iPhone you can edit, add or delete tasks on your phone and your changes should sync back to your Outlook.
Are you able to edit your tasks or just sinc?
Amanda, thanks for reading and I’m sorry for your challenges. While I’m certainly not an expert in this, I did some reading on the Toodledo Forums and it appears that their sync product runs on a later version of the .NET Framework than 2.0. It leads me to believe that installing a later version (perhaps 3.5) may help. If that doesn’t work, I would suggest reaching out to Toodledo support. I hope that helps. Good luck!