Sync Mac OS X Server with Outlook Contact and Calendar

Sync Mac OS X Server with Outlook 2019 Calendar and Contact

In this year of 2021, more and more jobs require people to work from home due to COVID-19 pandamic. Syncing calendar, contact and task remotely from home in order to cope with colleagues has become an issue for those who have not done this before.

It's about the time to share some new IT stuffs with you guys Someone has recently asked me about "How to sync Outlook Contacts and Calendars with my studio's Mac mini with OS X Server?" (Catalina)

Yes, you can do it! It would be a happy ending if everyone is using Mac OS X. However, life is not as perfect as you think. Let say your friend is running a Mac OS X Server and gives you access to the carddav and caldav services his server provides. But, you only have a Microsoft Outlook 2013, 2016 or 2019. What can you do about it? How do both of you share nad sync all entries between each other? It is a tough job, believe it or not. To be honest, I have not found any solution until a few days ago when I was browsing EVO Collaboratorfor Outlook webpage. It adds a new feature of supporting Mac OS X Server's webdav services.

EVO Collaborator for Outlook

From the introduction of EVO collaborator of my previous blog post about syncing Gmail's contacts and calendars with Outlook, it was quite easy to add a CardDAV/CalDAV profile. For adding Mac OS X Server profile, an extra step you need to do is keying in HTTPS and service port number, such as example below: https://<servername>:8443/ or https://<ip address>:8443/ Once it is tested and a successful message pops up, it works the same as other profiles within ECO. Now you can sync your outlook’s contacts and appointments with Mac OS X Server, note that in ECO it will accept your self-signed certificates.

What is CardDAV and what is CalDAV protocols?

CardDAV and CalDAV are standard protocol API by IETF’s RFC for syncing contacts and calendars. Google and Apple are using contacts API and calendar API to take care of contacts and calendars at the backend to service their customers’ needs on such information. With these standard protocols, users can synchronize all their contact, calendar and task entries across almost any platforms, such as PC, Mac, laptop, pad, and phones. One master copy takes care of all because we no longer have to watch out for any change we make on one device and worry about duplicating changes to other units.

Hosting your own calendar and contact server with Windows PC

Mac OS X Server is great for hosting your on-premise server. However, what if you do not have a Mac server? Nevertheless, you can still host your DAV server under Windows OS. For example, EVO Mail Server is another good option that it is easy to set up and configure especially for small and medium size of companies. 2021.09.23