Multiple calendars on iPhone, colors don't match

[atalerico]

I cannot get the colors on the web application to match the colors on the iPhone calendar. Does anyone else have that problem?

[jsteinhu]

Originally Posted by atalerico

I cannot get the colors on the web application to match the colors on the iPhone calendar. Does anyone else have that problem?

Vote for Bug 32262 – iPhone/iPodTouch do not sync colors for multiple calendars so the bug can be confirmed. That said, this is likely an apple issue, as apparently this is true of iPhone/iPod Touches syncing to exchange servers.

Josh

[dmg]

This will be a nice thing to have resolved.

[easytouch]

I see the bug 32262 has silently died in 2009-01.
Bug 32262 – iPhone/iPodTouch do not sync colors for multiple calendars
I also see that Google was able to provide a solution for Gmail and Apps
CalDAV Calendar Sync : CalDAV - Mobile Help
I see that Apple made it working with @me, but doesnt provide solutions for other applications. My stomach tells me this could be a little "advantage" feature to drive customers into @me - but maybe I am too paranoid.

Ok, but now back to my beloved Zimbra community:
Let me present a workaround which
- can be performed by endusers
- without tricks on the server
- only through the Zimbra webclient
- its some work for new users creating new calendars
- its more work for existing users having calendars "giving" shares to others

_________________________________________________
Create many new calendars in the zimbra webclient:
c1,c2,c3,c4,c5,c6,c7,c8,c9,c10,etc...

Sync your iphone/ipod touch via Exchange/ActiveSync
Now the crazy proprietary Apple iphone magic has happened:
The iphone did choose its random colors for your folders.
Go to the calendar application and click in the top left corner
on "calendars" where you will see a list of all calendar names
and the color of the dot.

In the zimbra webclient you can now look at the calendar names
and set the corresponding colors to match the colors on the iphone.

New zimbra users:
- Rename the Calendars to your liking.
- you are done
- create shares to others if/like needed

Existing users with existing calendars (with existing shares):
Now in the zimbra webclient go to settings export and
export your existing calendars into .ics files.

ATTENTION: This will only export the "content" of the calendar, but not the information about "shares" you may have given to others.

Import the calendars .ics file into the corresponding color folder of your liking.
Example: if the folder c4 is red on the iphone, and you want your calendarx to be red, import calendarx.ics into the calendar c4.
Now rename calendarx to calendarx_old, rename c4 to calendarx.
Recreate the shares to others as needed and tell them to remove the old share and accept the new one.
__________________________________________________ ________

Its all a little crazy effort for the little thing like colors of calendar on external devices provided by other companies.

But sometimes you have customers not accepting a compromise, and if they are the quick visual type deciding to go to "green" appointments, but avoid "red" appointments you are not in the position to throw their colored view of the world into a technical dustbin.

The calDAV route - colors work, but other weird behaviour comes up
P.S. I have also tried the calDAV route (as f.e. Google used it to provide a solution), but strange is that so many different versions of dav URL's exist in the many forum, wiki and blog entires about the issue to connect applications via dav to zimbra.

I only could get one Version working with 5.0.20_GA_3127.RHEL5_64
It was https://zimbra.examplea.com/home/use...b.com/Calendar with chaning port from 8443 to 443 and removing the :443 from the path in advanced settings.

Life looked fine, as the calendars colors where in sync, meaning that the iphone could understand what the zimbra server told him about the colors.

I was also able to create a new calendar entry on the iphone and sync it to zimbra with the Exchange mailbox also being active to sync calendar at the same time-

Then I have seen that lots of requests are thrown against the zimbra server which could let your 3G bill and the zimbra server explode, and most important: send your zimbra account into "locked" status hell.

After then deactivating the calendar sync in the Exchange profile on the iphone without touching the calDAV account settings on the iphone, the calendar became empty on the iphone and no action of reediting the calDav account and the sync frequency settings could bring the calendar back to life.

So as you see how much time you can invest in the color of a little button, and enjoy the first route with creating lots of dummy calendars on the webclient and export/import, recreate shares. Write one nice PDF guide for endusers, send it to me and them, and you have even this work delegated, compared to me poor guy having lost two hours of my life with colored buttons.... ;-)