Yahoo Calendar Sync...now?!

[brightcell]

Has the Yahoo Calendar sync been added in the new iTunes??

Apple - iTunes - Syncing - iPhone

"Sync calendars and contacts.
iTunes makes address book syncing one-click simple: Choose individual groups or choose “all contacts” to keep your entire contacts list with you wherever you go. iTunes also syncs your calendar events from Yahoo! Calendars on a Mac or PC, iCal or Entourage on a Mac, or Outlook on a PC. Any new calendar events and contacts sync back to your computer the next time you sync your iPhone"

That would be awesome!

[h22kai]

Well I tried to post this on the Apple help site but to no avail (wow Apple is buggy right now)... so I am hoping someone else can help me on this one:

According to Apple's website: Apple - iPhone - Features - Calendar

When you sync your iPhone with your computer, the events you’ve created on the go sync back to Yahoo! Calendars on a Mac or PC, Microsoft Outlook on a PC, and iCal or Entourage on a Mac. And all the events you’ve added on your computer sync to your iPhone.

However, when you click the "Learn More" link this is what it says:

iPhone uses iTunes to sync with the calendar application you already use on your computer — iCal or Entourage on the Mac, or Outlook on a PC — just as it does with your contacts. If you don’t already use one of these applications to manage your appointments, now is a great time to start, so you’ll be ready to sync when your iPhone arrives. If you choose not to use a calendar program, that’s OK. You’ll be able to enter appointments directly into the iPhone calendar.

Also the 3G manual says nothing about being able to sync with Yahoo! Calendars. So the question is, can you... or can't you? If so, how?

[Libuff]

I would also like to see google apps syncing. Calendar, gmail, address book to gmail.

[YCaltoiPhone]

I don't know why, but this advertised feature on the iPhone is still not available. Its been killing me as I have been waiting for a solution.

I have been researching this for months and haven't been able to find any solution on the web for how to sync Yahoo calendar to the iPhone on a Mac. FYI, on a PC, it is pretty easy - download Yahoo Autosync, sync to local copy of Outlook, and from there to your iPhone. After testing different things out for hours, I figure out a pretty ugly solution, but one that works. Figured others might find it useful.

For it to work on the Mac, you need to get your Yahoo calendar to iCal. Unfortunately, there is no way to do it directly or through a single intermediate step. FYI, the web docs that say Plaxo works are not right - as of right now, it does not sync Yahoo calendar.

So here is the ugly solution: I am running a virtual copy of windows xp on my mac, which I leave open. On this, I have Outlook installed and Yahoo Autosync. This gives me a local copy of the calendar. Then I install Google Calendar sync. This takes the local calendar to Google calendar. From there, I bought Spanning Sync (free to try; $25 for a one year subscription), which syncs Google calendar to iCal. Then from the iCal to the iPhone. You need to make sure that all syncs are set up as two-way syncs.

Another note - Google calendar now has two way direct sync for free to iCal, but it doesnt let you do two way sync from iCal to iPhone on that calendar. Meaning, if you input calendar entries on the iPhone, they wont end up on Google calendar.

I recommend backing up your Yahoo calendar to a CSV file first. However, all the sync apps are good about alerting you if they are about to do something you dont want (like deleting all your calendar entries). It took a while to figure out all the syncing, but have had running for a couple days now and it seems to work. It also seems to retain repeating events, etc. in original setups (as opposed to turning repeating events into multiple separate entries). The best starting setup is to have only a Yahoo calendar and everything else blank (or deleted). Also, make sure your time zones are all set to the same one (caused me a bunch of headaches). Then sync to outlook, then to Google calendar, then to iCal, then to the iPhone.

The only software I had to buy for this was Spanning Sync. I already had Parallels (for the virtual Windows xp) and Outlook. Yahoo Autosync, Google Calendar Sync and, of course, iCal and iTunes are free. Spanning Sync is free for 15 days, so you can test it out first to see if it works. If you do end up buying, I would appreciate you using my referral code: 8E3XP3. It will get you $5 off and give me $5 as well. Would help me recover from the countless hours I have invested to figure this out...

Look, I know this may sound like a crazy solution on paper, but it actually works and it isnt really that hard to set up. If you are like me and absolutely NEED a solution, try it out!

[brightcell]

Nice post YCaltoiPhone!
Thanks for your help.

I really hope that there will be an easy way to sync Yahoo Calendar to the iphone very soon.