Forum Discussion
Outlook Tasks in Microsoft To-Do
I have started to give a look to Microsoft To-Do. I am a (veeery) long time user of Outlook Tasks and I was pleased to see that Outlook Tasks got automatically synchronized in Microsoft To-Do. But I...
Hi Salvatore,
In opposite to you I'm not a big fun of Outlook Tasks, but also started to play with To-Do. I use two accounts
1) Private on O365 Home connected to iPhone app
2) Work one with O365 E3 conected to Desktop and Win10 Mobile apps
Can't say right now about first option, but for the second one it looks like mobile app doesn't sync tasks in the background. You have to open (or re-open) phone app to sync after any change in tasks. After that reminders appear on the phone and it shows correctly all tasks, includes overdue one. Doesn't matter where they were created, in Desktop app or directly in Outlook.
Thanks Sergei.
This morning the notifications appeared on my iPhone.
Unfortunately, though, Microsoft To-Do TOTALLY screwed my Outlook Tasks, changing all the start dates of the recurring tasks (and also of some other non-recurring tasks): really a mess!
Luckily, before activating To-Do (being it a preview...), I made a backup of all my Outlook Tasks (that in my case are about 200) and therefore I have been able to restore them without further problems.
Well, I think To-Do has still a long journey to-do (pun intended) before being ready with Outlook Tasks integration, so I give up for the moment.
We will see...
cc Candy Ho
Agree, Tasks has a long way to go. There's currently little similarity with Outlook 2016 (Tasks) and the Tasks app itself. The Outlook version of Tasks is far more detailed and when you try to mix the two you get the issues you refer to.
I think you mean Microsoft To-Do, don't you? :-)
Anyway, I am now using routinely Microsoft To-Do and this is my takeaway:
- To-Do is basically a view of Outlook Tasks: all folders in To-Do are bidirectionally synced with Outlook Tasks folders in EOL. This is a point that is important to grab!
- In To-Do, you have by default an additional folder called My Day, which is, in turn, a view of items in other To-Do folders. This means that there is not a corresponding folder in Outlook Tasks and that you can add to My Day only tasks that already exist in other folders. (I don't need and don't use My Day.)
- Outlook Tasks have many more fields than tasks in To-Do, but such fields are not scrambled when you manipulate tasks in To-Do, which is good.
- Notifications in To-Do now work regularly (at least in the IOS app).
- Outlook Tasks are not scrambled anymore by To-Do.
- AFAIK, To-Do is the best way available to use Outlooks Tasks on an iPhone and it is free.
Just my two cents...
Perhaps it's only To-Do on Windows 10 (from the Store) that is a mess.
Yesterday, I started up To-Do and today, it began trashing my task list. It presented items (without the dates) as DUE and offered 'Snooze' or 'Completed' as my options.
I clicked 'Completed' on a task due today and To-Do presented the same data a second time. (It turned out to be the newly created task for tomorrow. I clicked 'completed' again and then look in Outlook where I found Tomorrow's version of the task ALSO marked completed. So I unchecked it and noticed there were TWO copies of the task for tomorrow. One marked complete by To-Do and another created by Outlook but not (yet?) marked as completed. So I rechecked the duplicate and UNINSTALLED To-Do yet again.
Oh wow ... thanks Salvatore. I was thinking to enable it and and give it a try but after reading your post I might need a little bit more re-think ...- Also looking forward to getting updates here. My recurring tasks are now also a mess. I've been waiting for a tasks app for ten tears now.
- And NOW you've been waiting for ELEVEN years!
Hi Salvatore,
Two hundred active tasks - that's impressive!
I played few minutes with with tasks - created one task each on To-Do Desktop, mobile, OL2016 and in cloud. Set reminders on couple of minutes ahead.
All reminders appears in time. Tasks were created in both To-Do:s everywhere are shown correctly - time of creation, due time.
Tasks created in Office (both OL and cloud) are shown with Due Yesterday. Moreover, reminder in OL interface shows strange time under the task, perhaps that's end of my business day, and strange due time (few hours from now), i have no interpretation for it.
Same OL interface for ToDo:s tasks shows the time of task creation and due time is relative to reminder time (or actual overdue).
It looks like different logic in classic OL tasks and To-Dos tasks.
Okay, that's just the task into my ToDo list to clarify all that stuff.
Hi Sergei.
Well, I ve been creating and mantaining recurring Outlook Tasks, wich are 90% of the total of mine, during the last 20 years (yes, I know, I am an old man...). Hence, most days of my life are marked by the popping out of some recurring task. :-)))
Also, since I own a couple of iPhones (and a couple of iPads), I am very disappointed by the native synchronization of Outlook Tasks with IOS Reminders. Therefore I hoped that To-Do could offer a better experience.
Unfortunately, To-Do makes a VERY poor job in importing recurring Outlook Tasks, as you are confirming, and so I am still more disappointed!
Candy Ho: are you aware that recurring Outlook Tasks (and also not recurring ones) get broken in To-Do? Do you plan to address such issues?
Candy HoMicrosoft
Hi Salvatore,
Yes, we are aware of it and actively working on a fix. Hopefully it will be working soon. We will let you know if there are any updates. Thanks for bearing with us on this.
Candy
