When Steve Jobs announced the iPhone at Macworld 2007, I was one of the thousands of attendees gawking at the phone in its crystal case flanked with security guards. The announcement generated more questions than answers. As an Entourage 2004 user and a prospective iPhone owner I wanted to hear "... and it will sync with Entourage!" but nobody knew until a short while before the iPhone was released in June that it would indeed sync.
Since then I've learned a lot about "the truth". That's not a biblical or existentialist remark but rather the name Apple gave a special database that stores sync information on a Mac. While the name sounds authoritative the truth about the truth database is it's only as good as the information synced to it and not everything syncs equally.
An electronic Shape-O Toy!
Think of the truth database as the well-known child's Shape-O Toy. The Shape-O Toy is a big plastic ball that can hold a variety of small plastic shapes but each shape can only fit through its own hole. An application such as Apple's Address Book or a device such as a Palm Zire has its own shape or its own unique schema. A schema can be thought of as simply the shape of the data. When using the example of the Shape-O Toy the star's schema is five points, the square's schema is four sides and the triangle's schema has three sides, etc. The schema for anything connecting to the truth database is a list of elements such as Name, Address and Phone Number.
At this point I should stress everything syncs to the truth database via an application called the Sync Engine and not each other. Entourage does not sync with Address Book. Palm does not sync with the iPhone. The truth database gets synced with everything first and then everything syncs to the truth database.
When two or more applications or devices have compatible schema elements in common then they can exchange or sync information. First Name in Entourage is the same as First Name on my iPhone is the same as First Name in Outlook. But when two or more applications or devices do not have compatible schema elements in common then they can not sync information. For example, the Custom fields in Entourage are unique to Entourage and are not recognized by other applications or devices even if they themselves have "Custom" fields. They're simply not compatible.
So why doesn't the truth database make everything compatible? Because that's the job of the Sync Engine or rather the Sync Engine's job is to find compatible information. The truth database can in fact hold all the different schema elements for all the applications and devices that sync with it but it's just a container for the information and nothing more. When applications or devices connect to the truth database through the Sync Engine, the Sync Engine reaches in and pulls out the information that it thinks the application can understand and then leaves the rest. Although Entourage may have put the picture of one of your contacts into the truth database (yes, the picture is in there!), the Sync Engine knows the Address Book won't understand Entourage's picture format even though Address Book has a picture element too. Pictures between these two applications are just incompatible.
A game of Gossip
I realized that I have a lot of stuff syncing with Entourage. Not only do I sync Entourage at home to the Address Book and my spiffy new iPhone but I'm also syncing information across the Internet to my Exchange Server at work via Outlook Web Access (OWA). The Exchange Server in turn is syncing to another copy of Entourage on my Mac and to Outlook on my Windows workstation.
If I'm not careful all this syncing will have the same effect as a secret told in the game of Gossip. Remember that game from childhood? A short phrase repeated between different people in a series of whispers can easily end up being completely misunderstood by the time it reaches the last person. If I change something on my iPhone, sync it to the truth database, sync to Entourage, sync to Exchange and then sync to Outlook then that contact will more than likely be very different from the contact that I edited. Information may be missing or the contact may be duplicated by one of the applications attempting to keep me from destroying data, which is annoying but preferable.
What can I do to protect my information?
Simple:
- Always make additions, changes and deletions on one machine and in the same application
- Accept that most applications, if not all, will sync less information than your original contact
Also, be aware of what will sync and what won't sync. All good contact managers will sync the basics: Name, Address, Phone and Email, but that's about all they will have in common. Other items such as secondary addresses, instant message addresses and children's names may sync to just a few other applications or none at all.
I made the following table to illustrate just how much I found will sync with the information I put into Entourage. None of my applications or devices syncs all of Entourage's contact information perfectly. Surprisingly the most compatible application that I use with Entourage is Entourage itself. (I find this surprising because I'm connectng my home Entourage to an OWA server at work, which is then connected to my Exchange Server and then connected to another copy of Entourage. This may be a reflection of the MacBU's commitment to making Entourage compatible in a corporate environment.) I found that Address Book syncs very well too while Palm OS and .Mac are the least compatible applications. And my iPhone, I'm pleased to find, syncs almost as much as Address Book.
| Entourage Schema |
.Mac | Address Book |
Exchange Entourage |
Exchange Outlook |
Exchange OWA |
iPhone | Palm OS |
| Name and work | |||||||
| First Name | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Last Name | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Title | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Suffix | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Nickname | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Company | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Job Title | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dept | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Address |
| Work Street Address | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Work City | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Work State | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Work Zip | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Work Country/Region | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Work URL | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Home Street Address | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Home City | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Home State | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Home Zip | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Home Country/Region | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Home URL | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Phone | |||||||
| Home Phone 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Home Phone 2 | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Home Fax | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Work Phone 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Work Phone 2 | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Work Fax | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pager | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Mobile Phone | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Main Phone | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Assistant Phone | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Custom Phone 1 | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Custom Phone 2 | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Custom Phone 3 | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Custom Phone 4 | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Email Address 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Email Address 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Email Address 3 | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Email Address 4 | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Email Address 5 | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Email Address 6 | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Email Address 7 | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Email Address 8 | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Email Address 9 | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Email Address 10 | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Email Address 11 | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Email Address 12 | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Email Address 13 | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Instant Messaging | |||||||
| Instant Messaging 1 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Instant Messaging 2 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Instant Messaging 3 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Instant Messaging 4 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Instant Messaging 5 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Instant Messaging 6 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Instant Messaging 7 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Instant Messaging 8 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Instant Messaging 9 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Instant Messaging 10 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Instant Messaging 11 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Instant Messaging 12 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Instant Messaging 13 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Custom and Miscellaneous | |||||||
| Custom 1 | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Custom 2 | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Custom 3 | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Custom 4 | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Custom 5 | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Custom 6 | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Custom 7 | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Custom 8 | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Custom date 1 | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Custom date 2 | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Spouse | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Birthday | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Anniversary | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Notes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Age | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Astrology sign | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Interests | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Picture | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Categories | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Certificates | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
For additional information about syncing Entourage with the iPhone see Using Entourage with iPhone on The Entourage Help Page.
Additional reading:
Comments (6)
This is an incredibly informative post. Thank you for taking the time. I administer about 10 Macs that are using Sync Services to sync Entourage to other applications (via the "Truth"), and this post is a huge help in my understanding about how to do this efficiently. Thanks again for taking the time to post this information.
Thanks for kudos, Joel!
Someone on another list recently asked about Entourage --> .Mac --> Entourage syncing and I hope to get the information updated to include that as well.
So, here's a good question for you. I, like you, have a nice iPhone that I use daily. I get a call from a colleague from a different number than usual. I use the cool interface to add that number ot the contact record. (2 different things could happen here, either adding it as a NEW type of number, or replacing an existing number).
Typically, I use Entourage for my updates. This time, technically, I'll be using Address Book for the update.
What should happen to my data? I will tell you in reality, I LOOSE MY CHANGES. Every time.
Additionally, I have a strange "refresh" that seems to happen more or less every 15 minutes. I loose all the contacts in AB for about 5 minutes, then miraculously they re-appear!
Trouble is, they're NOT THE SAME RECORDS. They have the same data, but they've been re-populated from Entourage. I know this because any group membership in AB or pictures I've added in AB disappear.
I would LOVE, LOVE , LOVE some sort of solution to this as it's crippling right now.
Hi Scott!
This post was written while Entourage 2004 and Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) were the latest software versions. I'm going to guess you're using Entourage 2008 and Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard).
Syncing was horribly broken with the earlier releases of both of these products but has gotten better with all updates applied. Still, lots of folks are having problems but I think they've given up complaining.
No one's quite sure if the problem is with Entourage or with Apple's Sync Services. I suspect if the problem is with Sync Services then Apple's new syncing architecture that's coming with MobileMe may be their solution. That's not to say you must have a MobileMe account but rather I think they're probably re-doing all of syncing or possibly eliminating it for something better.
Let's hope.
Great post here, thanks for everything. I was a PC/Palm Treo user for the past 5 years, and now am with a different company, they purchased me a Mac Pro (pretty sweet), but really want to get a Blackberry Bold, since I feel that it will work better for my needs (lot more emailing/texting, business type stuff) than an Iphone.
That being said I like to sync up and have everything in one place. Has the Blackberry and Entourage situation gotten any better? (PS I will be getting a BB Bold if it makes a difference)
That depends on what you're using to sync Entourage. I don't believe BB uses Mac OS X Sync Services yet, does it? I believe most folks are using MarkSpace products to sync their devices.
Syncing using Sync Services in Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and with Entourage is still a problem for a lot of folks. My consensus is that this is an issue with both Apple and Microsoft.
I'm really hoping that the Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) release fixes a lot of these issues. Snow Leopard is billed as a lot of "under the hood" fixes.