How to Synchronize Your Contacts and Calendars

You can synchronize your iPod or iPhone with contacts and calendars from other programs on your PC or Mac. Begin to synchronize by selecting the iPod or iPhone name in the iTunes Source pane.

Connect your iPod classic (or older model), iPod nano, iPod touch, or iPhone to your computer.

iTunes launches automatically (if it isn’t running already).

Select the iPod or iPhone name in the Devices section of the iTunes Source pane.

If iTunes launched automatically, the iPod or iPhone should already be selected; if it isn’t, select it. The iPod or iPhone Summary page appears to the right of the Source pane.

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Click the Contacts tab for an iPod classic or iPod nano (or older model), or click the Info tab for an iPod touch or iPhone.

The Contacts and Calendars synchronization options page appears for an iPod classic, nano, or older model, as shown in the first figure. The Info page appears for an iPod touch or iPhone, as shown in the second figure.

Select the option to synchronize contacts.

On a Windows PC, select the Sync Contents From option and choose Windows Address Book or Microsoft Outlook from the drop-down menu. On a Mac, select the Sync Address Book Contacts check box.

Select the All Contacts option. (Alternatively, select the Selected Groups option and choose which groups to synchronize.)

You can synchronize all contacts or just selected groups of contacts.

To synchronize calendars, scroll the page and select the Sync iCal Calendars option (Mac).

Or you can select the Sync Calendars from Microsoft Outlook option (Windows PC).

Select the All Calendars option. (Alternatively, select the Selected Calendars option and choose the calendars to synchronize.)

You can synchronize all calendars but not selected calendars, with Microsoft Outlook in Windows. With iCal on Mac OS X, you can synchronize all calendars or just those you select. To choose specific calendars, select the check box next to each calendar in the list.

The iPod touch and iPhone also provide the Do Not Sync Events Older Than xx Days option, in which you can set the xx number of days.

Select the calendar to use for new events entered into your iPod touch or iPhone (Mac OS X only).

If you’re using Mac OS X and iCal, you should set the calendar to use for new events you create on your iPod touch or iPhone.

Click Apply to apply the changes. (Alternatively, click Cancel to cancel the changes.)

iTunes starts to synchronize your iPod or iPhone. Wait until it finishes synchronization before ejecting and disconnecting your iPod or iPhone. The iTunes status pane (at the top) displays the message "Sync is complete."

After iTunes finishes synchronizing, eject the iPod or iPhone by clicking the Eject button, and then disconnect your iPod or iPhone.

Remember to wait for the "OK to disconnect" message or the iPod main menu before disconnecting your iPod.