There is a problem with ActiveSync and iCalendar files, at least with Outlook/Exchange:
- you receive an email with an iCalendar attachment, .vcs or .ics file.
- you accept the meeting request or open and save the attachment
- New appointment shows up in Outlook, but does not sync to all mobile devices.
The programming question here is that is there anything you can do while creating an iCalendar file that would make it sync like an ordinary appointment in Outlook/Exchange? Probably not.
Below is an example of a barebone iCalendar file that synced ok with an iPhone OS4 but failed to sync with Nokia devices:
BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:1.0
METHOD:PUBLISH
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:
SUMMARY;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:Header
ORGANIZER:
LOCATION;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:Location
DTSTART:20101001T070000Z
DTEND:20101001T140000Z
DTSTAMP:201010011T072221Z
DESCRIPTION;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:Description
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR
The problem indirectly affects any application that creates iCalendar files. Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to know which combinations of handset, ActiveSync, iCalendar, Outlook and Exchange versions are affected. But I've seen quite a few support requests lately about this. The standard answer is that you can get the appointments sync by editing them manually in Outlook, but this is not good enough.