Outlook.com Calendar cannot be added to iCal

I have yet to see any good answers on this one, and it seems the Microsoft really doesn't raise the bar much with platform compatibility.

Even Outlook for Mac seems more like an unloved step-child since it cannot even sync with outlook.com -- (Microsoft's own browser-based system) making the calendaring functions for any Microsoft solution essentially worthless on the Mac -- and that's for a paid solution! You could probably run Windows in a VM and run Outlook there -- but that seems kind of silly.

Microsoft proudly advertises on the front page of Office:mac (www.microsoft.com/mac/outlook): "email, calendars and contacts working together." Which is why I bought it. But it's an exaggeration. The only thing that really works together is email -- and there is a herd of email clients that will do that for free.

Looking back, I have seen posts about issues with Macs and calendars go on for months, not just on this thread, but many, and the frustration of the user base should be apparent to Microsoft. It just seems that instead of dealing with the issue, there is a lot of buck passing. To borrow a phrase from Scrum, there is a lot of technical debt that needs to be paid back.

I will write this, the support for those who subscribe to Office 365 for Mac is pretty darn good. There is a phone number one can call and get stellar assistance (at least in my experience). But even those folks, as good as they are, can't do much about the calendaring functions. They say Microsoft is working on it. I hope they are.

Same here, really surprised by stupid Microsoft support... should go to hell.

According to Microsoft, Active Sync is designed for mobile devices. EWS is for desktop solutions like OS X.  Please refer to http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/dn144954(v=exchg.140).aspx

I quote: 

"The Exchange ActiveSync protocol is designed for direct mobile device sync with Exchange, including lightweight clients, such as the Windows 8 Mail and Calendar application, that can be used in mobile scenarios. Exchange ActiveSync is optimized for low-bandwidth applications, such as messaging applications that run on mobile devices. Enhancements to the Exchange ActiveSync protocol primarily support stability and reliability for mobile device scenarios.

The EWS protocol provides rich functionality that enables you to add features similar to those in Outlook to your desktop applications. EWS enables efficient and well-managed server-to-server communications. Investments in EWS functionality continue to enable rich and comprehensive interactions with Exchange."

Last time I checked, EWS is a Microsoft product.  So if Outlook.com wants to implement EWS it wouldn't take much effort.  It's really about whether Outlook.com wants to appeal to desktop clients.

Instead of getting **** off, why don't you do a few simple Google searches?

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook\_com/forum/ocalendar-oaddtask/how-do-you-sync-microsoft-outlook-web-appss/5e7691e3-ab29-4734-9af9-10cac3f807f1

You have to remember that the people responding to these issues sometimes do not speak English as a first language, are using a guide (hmm...keywords are...), and probably do not own Macs. Apple support is just as bad.

Turns out the issue is on the Beloved, faultless, Apple OS X. APPLE doesn't support the protocol. So contact APPLE.

I quote:

"Mac uses Exchange Web Services to connect to Exchange. iPhone/iPad uses Exchange ActiveSync to connect to Exchange. Hotmail/Outlook only supports Exchange ActiveSync."

So go on the Apple support forums and ask them when OSX will support Exchange ActiveSync.

Sorry about my tone. I have experienced absolutely boneheaded support in these forums. My problem is with Mac users that tend to have the opinion that Apple has done everything in their power to support everything, so the onus is always on the Other Guy to fix the problems, but that simply isn't true.

Instead of getting **** off, why don't you do a few simple Google searches?

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook\_com/forum/ocalendar-oaddtask/how-do-you-sync-microsoft-outlook-web-appss/5e7691e3-ab29-4734-9af9-10cac3f807f1

You have to remember that the people responding to these issues sometimes do not speak English as a first language, are using a guide (hmm...keywords are...), and probably do not own Macs. Apple support is just as bad.

Turns out the issue is on the Beloved, faultless, Apple OS X. APPLE doesn't support the protocol. So contact APPLE.

I quote:

"Mac uses Exchange Web Services to connect to Exchange. iPhone/iPad uses Exchange ActiveSync to connect to Exchange. Hotmail/Outlook only supports Exchange ActiveSync."

So go on the Apple support forums and ask them when OSX will support Exchange ActiveSync.

Sorry about my tone. I have experienced absolutely boneheaded support in these forums. My problem is with Mac users that tend to have the opinion that Apple has done everything in their power to support everything, so the onus is always on the Other Guy to fix the problems, but that simply isn't true.