Windows 7 - Best way to Sync Outlook, iPhone, & iPad Emails, Contacts & Calendar?

Hi everyone!

What is the best way to sync my emails, contacts, and calendar with my Outlook 2010 (Windows 7 pc), iPhone, and iPad2?

Basically, I want to send/receive emails to all devices, and update my calendar and contacts on my Outlook, and then have my iOS devices update automatically be synced with my Outlook contacts and calendar, and vice versa.

I've used Microsoft Exchange in the past to do this, but it seems like over kill... and it's a little overcomplicated for me. I was hoping I could just do all this with Gmail, but it seems that I need MS Exchange to do it that way too.

Any help and advice is very appreciated!!!
I'll be on the forum all day, so let me know if I need to clarify what I'm asking.

Thank you!!

I do the emails and calendar using gmail (imap) and Getting started with Google Calendar Sync - Google Calendar Help

I've never bothered to look into syncing the contacts though.

That's the biggest trouble I'm running in to... the contacts part. Gmail is great!.. but, it seems it won't allow me to sync contacts without MS Exchange.

Will Google Apps for Mobile solve my problem?

My goal is to be able to sync emails and calendar with my PC and iOS devices, but also when I update my contacts on my PC, I want them to show up on my iPhone's contacts too.

I have that, it you can see the instructions to sync contacts with outlook then I can test it for you (it's late here and I've had too much to drink to find it myself lol)

Awesome, Dr Evil, sounds like a plan! I appreciate your help!!

Hi. Just wanted to wrap up this thread and thank everyone for their help!

It seems the best alternative to MS Exchange for syncing emails, contacts, and calendars to Windows and iOS software & devices is Google Apps for Business. (That's what I'm going with)

It's cheaper, easier, and needs a lot less maintenance. So far it's been working great!

Thanks for your help everyone! This is an A+ forum!!

another option is to setup email using imap.
if your email supports it.it does real-time sync and no extra-cost

Yet another - oversimplified way is to use something like copytrans contacts - this Windows tool, which is still in beta, allows two-way transfer of contact entries between iOS devices and PC (Outlook, Windows Contacts, etc).

The program allows exchange of contacts via drag-drop from/to the main program window to/from the PC/iPhone:





If you are using the program to export contact entries from the iPhone to the PC, you will be asked in what format to export the contacts:



The down-side is that it is not a sync, but rather a manual drag/drop - exchange of contact entries. You would need to keep track of new contacts created on your Outlook, so that you can drag/drop the entries the next time you run copytrans contacts and connect your iPhone to your PC.

As a final note, I would say the method above bypasses the complexity of Exchange sync you wish to avoid, for the sake of the simplicity of manual contacts transfer.