UPDATE: 9/12/20: I have removed old content on this post that no longer worked and replaced it with options that work as of today. I will do my best to keep this post updated as technology changes. Thanks for visiting!
Note that this post refers to syncing Outlook for WINDOWS (all versions, as far as I can tell) with your iPhone.  Microsoft offers (rather complicated) directions for syncing Outlook for Mac with iPhone. I can not speak to how well it works. These difficulties are a sample of the reason that I recommend AGAINST Outlook for Mac as a productivity solution.
A question I get asked often by clients and others is how to sync the Task List in Microsoft Outlook with an iPhone.Â
The reason I frequently get this question is that I help busy professionals regain control over the flood of details that too often swamp their lives and work. I teach them my proprietary Empowered Productivity™ System—a collection of habits and behaviors (or “methodology”) that allows them to accomplish more in less time, with less stress.Â
Combine the Right Methodology with the Right Tools
This Empowered Productivity methodology is what I call a “workflow management system,” but you could also think of it as a “life-flow” management system, because it’s not applicable just to work, but to your personal life as well.Â
Once you understand the methodology, it’s most efficient if you can apply it to the technology tools you use every day for your productivity suite of apps, which should include at least email, calendar, tasks, notes, and contacts.
For most of my clients, this is often Microsoft Outlook for Windows, and an Apple iPhone (although I offer training to teams using all kinds of different tools. It just seems that Outlook for Windows and iPhone are the most common).Â
As managing all the details of our life and work gets increasingly complicated, knowledge workers often find themselves turning to newer and better technology for help.Â
But, as I show in my training programs, the tools aren’t as important as the methodology. Once you have a methodology—a systematic process for managing everything—you can apply that methodology to most any tools.
To understand this, consider that just like fancy clubs don’t make you a great golfer, fancy software doesn’t make you more productive. But once you become a great golfer, you’ll golf well with most any decent clubs.Â
Get the Book That Will Help You Get More Done
Outlook: A Powerful Personal Information Manager
Microsoft Outlook for Windows is a comprehensive productivity tool in use by the majority of businesses I work with, although most users only take advantage of a small fraction of its capabilities. I used it myself to run my life for almost a decade. If you use it at work, it’s a great option for productivity that can easily handle the complexity of your life.Â
The technology has changed since I wrote the first version of this post, more than a decade ago (!), and I’ve updated it many times since then. Some of the comments below may be directed at prior content that has since been removed.Â
The Easiest Way to Sync Outlook Tasks on iPhone
If you’re running Microsoft Outlook for Windows on an Exchange server, or have an Office 365 subscription, you are probably already syncing your email, contacts, and calendar from Outlook to your iPhone. It’s easy to add Task syncing also.
Once you enable it, your Outlook tasks will automatically sync to the Reminders app on your iPhone. Enable Outlook Task syncing by first setting up a free Outlook.com account if you don’t already have one. Then tap Settings on your iPhone, then tap “Passwords and Accounts.” Under “Accounts,” tap your Microsoft Outlook account and make sure the slider beside “Reminders” is green.
This will sync tasks from the Reminders app on the iPhone to Outlook, and from Outlook tasks to Reminders on the iPhone. This is a convenient option because it allows you to use Siri to create tasks, such as by saying, “Hey Siri, remind me to run payroll on Thursday at 10am.” You’ll then see the task listed in both your Outlook Task List and in Reminders on your iPhone, and the alert will appear (on Thursday at 10am) on both your computer running Outlook, and also as a push notification on your iPhone.Â
One note: in order for this to work, you need to change the “default list” in the Apple Reminders App. Do this by tapping Settings again on your iPhone. Scroll down to “Reminders.” Tap on “Default List,” and choose your preferred list under “Outlook.”
From an efficiency perspective, I do have a complaint about Apple’s Reminders app, however. Its biggest shortcoming is that one field does double-duty as the date a task is due and the date that you can receive a reminder (a push notification) about the task. This is awful!
The date a task is due is definitely not the same as the date you want to be reminded of something, so these need to be two separate features.
An Alternative: Microsoft To DoÂ
If that single “reminder date” field is a problem for you, or if there is another reason you’re not a fan of Apple’s Reminders app, a second to easily sync your Outlook tasks with your iPhone is to download Microsoft’s To Do app on your iPhone. T
hen in your iPhone Settings, you’ll still need to change your “Default List” in Reminders to a list in Outlook (see paragraph above). This will sync your Outlook Tasks in both Apple’s Reminder’s App and Microsoft’s To Do app on your iPhone.
Avoid The Problem of Syncing Outlook Tasks with iPhone Altogether
A third option allows you to avoid the problems of syncing Outlook Tasks to iPhone altogether, by choosing a different task list app to manage your tasks instead of Microsoft Outlook. Personally, I use and recommend Todoist.Â
Todoist is a third-party app that has a desktop version, a version for all smartphone platforms, and a version for all tablet platforms. Your tasks sync via Todoist’s cloud server, so when you enter a task on your desktop app, it syncs immediately to all of your devices. I find Todoist very intuitive and user-friendly.Â
But to reinforce my recommendation above, the app you choose to store your tasks matters less than the methodology you use to manage them. Begin implementing the Empowered Productivity System by downloading a free chapter of my book that details the process, Personal Productivity Secrets: Do what you never thought possible with your time and attention, and regain control of your life!
How to Increase Productivity By Using Tools the Right Way
Interested in learning more about how to use gadgets and tools productively? Want to regain at least an hour in your day, every day? Here are some of my other blog posts that can help you get back in the driver’s seat of your technology—and your life!
- What is Attention Management and How Can It Help You?
- Defining Productivity
- Not As Productive as You Could Be?
Check out my books to find more strategies like the ones in this post:
-  “Personal Productivity Secrets“
-  “Work Without Walls” (recommended for workplace leaders)
-  “Attention Management“
Did You Sync Your Outlook Task List to Your iPhone? Share Your Results!
Please note that this technology regularly changes, and I will do my best to update this article again when necessary. If you try any of these options (or find a different solution) I would love to hear about your results! You can leave a comment below, or email me directly via my contact page.
Remember, the software and apps don’t matter as much as the way you use them—the methodology! To learn more about the Empowered Productivity System, check out my training for individuals, teams, and organizations, and also my productivity books!
I hope you have found this helpful. Good luck!
Amanda, thanks for reading and I’m sorry for your challenges. While I’m certainly not an expert in this, I did some reading on the Toodledo Forums and it appears that their sync product runs on a later version of the .NET Framework than 2.0. It leads me to believe that installing a later version (perhaps 3.5) may help. If that doesn’t work, I would suggest reaching out to Toodledo support. I hope that helps. Good luck!
Are you able to edit your tasks or just sinc?
Hi Krissy, thanks for reading! Using ToDo on your iPhone you can edit, add or delete tasks on your phone and your changes should sync back to your Outlook.
Thanks, Maura! I Googled for help on this subject and your link came up on the first page. Yours and Daniel’s info was exactly what I was looking for. My Outlook tasks are now synced with my iPhone. As usual, you’re awesome!
How great! Thanks Ken, happy to help!
Ken, which of the options did you use? Did you use Outlook in Windows or Mac? (Sorry, am not that techie 🙂
Worked like a charm. Thanks for making this so simple.
The app is half-price at the moment on iTunes (for those wanting to make a new year resolution to get organized!)
Yes, these instructions are for Outlook for Windows. Are you using Outlook for Mac 2011? I haven’t yet tried Outlook 2011 for Mac, mainly because I created a great Mac solution using iCal, and still also using Todo by Appigo to sync my tasks to my phone. I wrote a post about it here, and there is also a link in that post to an update, so be sure to read that one too.
I hope that helps, but if you have any other questions, you are welcome to ask. Advice from me is always free. Good luck!
Anshul, I will email you. I need more information to help you. Thanks for reading!
This was a fantastic post and it worked for me just fine. Do you mind if I reference you and post somethng similiar on my blog http://www.8categories which is all about organisation and living a balanced life. I would really like to include this as a blog post.
I’m sure you fill proud of been so helpful to others. In my case I was desperate and you gave me the solution. Don’t know if you receive “international” thanks, mine is one, from Mexico.
I followed the directions provided and it worked like a champ.
First time I had multiple steps like this and something actually worked!!!!
I highly reccomend this!
Awesome! Works with Win7 X64 & Outlook 2010, iPhone 4 – 4.3.3 and iPad 2 4.4.4 !
For $2.99 you get one app for both iOS devices!!!
Thanks Maura.
I’ve been looking for a viable solution for syncing Outlooks Tasks with my iPhone. This is it! Thanks for the post and especially for the easy-to-follow instructions.
nice! I’m using ,,Plan” . It Sync my todos on the go to Cloud 🙂
Fantastic! Just ant I needed. Thanks!
Hi,
I may ask stupid questions here, but aren’t any of you worried about uploading your calendar and tasks to some online service provider?
I’d prefer to synchronise Outlook with iPhone using the cable provided with the iPhone – not to rely on some online service provider.
Would this be possible somehow?
Hi Peter-
Thanks for your comment on my blog! I agree, I like to sync locally (with the cable) too. Unfortunately, Apple did not include task support in the iPhone, so the only way to get Outlook tasks into iPhone is with a third party app, which usually requires syncing up to the web first.
I hope that helps!
And incidentally, there is more information about iPhone and tasks here: https://maurathomas.com/apple/apples-big-failure/
Thanks for reading!
Thanks for the information. I am trying to figure out the best way to sync iPhone 4 with Outlook 2003 Tasks and came upon your site recommending Toodledo.com plus an App of some kind (still debating which App is best).
All seemed to be proceeding well until I went to install Chromatic Dragon from the link above. It said… “The ToodledoSync application is no being longer supported. Please consider the following alternative products: Appigo Sync, Captera Organizer or GSyncit ”
Not quite sure how to proceed. Any suggestions anyone? Thanks!
To replace Toodle-do, I suggest you use Appigo Sync. Another option besides these instructions is to check out 2Do (www.2doapp.com) by Guided Ways Technologies.
Chromatic Dragon’s Toodledo Sync Application is no longer being supported. The Toodledo iPhone app is only $2.99 now.
Thank you for such an excellent explanation. You made my life easy.
God bless . . .
Thanks, Maura! Your instructions were perfect. And even though Chromatic Dragon’s Toodledo Sync tool is no longer supported, you can still download it and use it.
The Toodledo method gets around the firewall problems that I encountered with 2Do when I moved and got a new router.
Finally I have my outlook tasks on my iphone! You are a life saver I’ve tried figuring this our for years, your instructions were perfect. thank you!!
The download from Chromatic Dragon is no longer available since both the main chromadrake.com is no longer valid and the mirror site for the download is gone. On the ToodleDo site there is a forum message mentioning a Outlook 2010 Addin OnlyToodleDo but it did not work at all. Downloaded TaskAngel which will synch between itself and the ToodleDo website which can be accessed by synching from the ToodleDo iphone app. After 12 years using BlackBerry’s we switched over to iPhones but certainly didn’t expect something we took for granted to be so hard. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
I’ve read the most recently dated responses and they seem to conflict. If I download and install the Appigo ToDo app ($4.99) is that the only thing I need to sync Outlook Tasks with my iPhone? And if I do use Appigo ToDo, is it a fairly simple process to install it, set it up, and make it work with Outlook Tasks? Appreciate any responses 🙂
This is very disappointing.
Appigo says “Synchronization Error, Appigo Sync Busy”, but it does appear to sync the tasks despite this error. However, it does NOT sync alerts, though Appigo claims they do (http://support.appigo.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/181/0/how-is-my-data-mapped-from-todo-to-outlook)
Neither does Guided Ways’ 2Do.
At least Appigo does seem to support every kind of recurrence Outlook has, which 2Do does not.
However, a tasks app that doesn’t provide reminders is pretty useless.
Update to my July 14 comment: Appigo Sync and Todo DOES work with Outlook, including alerts and most recurrence patterns. The problem was too many completed tasks hanging around. I solved the problem by making Outlook’s autoarchive a little more agressive on archiving old tasks. I could have accomplished the same by deleting completed tasks after some period of time, but I like to keep the record of when tasks were completed.
Thanks so much for the information, Sherwin!
when I got to step 5 for synchronization, I did not see the 2 options for synchronization methods. It shows Toodledo service. There is an line for “switch services” which asks: connection information for your current sync service will be cleared” – not sure what this means so I stopped. I question if this means you can only sync wirelessly between iphone and Outlook directly and not through Toodledo? Is that correct? The need for the online tasks (toodledo) would be to sync with a second version of outlook (i.e. home and work). Seems like I’m not understanding something about this?
So I’ve got my passcode to sync the phone with appigo now when I open appigo it doesn’t list my phone in the devices. HELP I really need to link outlook and my phone!
Greetings! Very helpful advice in this particular article!
It’s the little changes that will make the most significant changes. Many thanks for sharing!
I love getting help from knowledged people! They’re so informative.
The lastest Appigo Todo iPhone App no longer, repeat NO LONGER syncs with Outlook. Additionally, Appigo Sync is no longer available. If you don’t have it you’re sunk, and if you don’t have an older version of Todo, you’re sunk again, because the new version doesn’t recognize Appigo Sync if you happen to have it.
I strongly suggest a major update to this article or its complete removal. Appigo didn’t even have the courtesy to email their customers they were disabling the app.
Thanks for responding! You are correct and I have updated the post with my newest recommendations.
I agree that this is more complicated that it should be and perhaps this is not what I need. I use an Outlook calendar on my iPad. The calendar seems to be part of my Hotmail account. I would like my wife to be able to view it on her iPhone and iPad. She uses gcal. My calendar allows me to share by getting a link and sending it to her (supposedly), but when I try to view the link, I can only see part of it in the window and I can’t scroll horizontially in the window or copy all the link. Is there something I can do?
Dr. Tom, thanks for reading and commenting. Given that you and your wife both use Apple products, why not use the iCal? You can sync to all of your devices and share with each other easily via iCloud. Perhaps this page will help you: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2690 Thanks again for reading!
Thank you so much for this. I am a GTD lover and can’t live without my task list. It transferred my categories and everything. I’m using an iPhone 4S and syncing with Office 2013 version of outlook. Thanks you so much for taking the time to update the instructions – it worked wonderfully.
Sorry – hadn’t remember this link when I posted comment elsewhere. If you’re not using Exchange Server, gSyncit on Windows and Toodledo work great to sync Outlook tasks both with Outloook on other Windows machines and with iPhone/iPad. I also use it to sync calendars using Google Calendar as my online version. Working out the settings is a little tricky, but I’d be happy to share screen shots of all the settings (except my logins, of course 🙂
I’d like to add Akruto’s name into the hat of software that can to sync Outlook with iPhone. I had been using Akruto to sync Outlook calendar, contacts, tasks and notes with my Galaxy phone. Then Akruto added iPhone and iPad support last year and now I sent with multiple devices including an iPad. Nice people too. Check them out: http://www.akruto.com.
I’d like to suggest trying Akruto (www.akruto.com). It syncs iPhone Reminders with Outlook Tasks. It doesn’t add another app to the iPhone like some apps do. It also works seamlessly with Notes, Calendar and Contacts. It’s not free, but you can try it to see if you like it.
for users of exchange…. IMexchanges no longer seems to work reliably on the latest iPhone operating systems. I will try tasktask. thanks for the pointer.
Thank you for your information – TASKTASK works fine for my needs.
I use RemindersPro. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/reminderspro/id1021703188?mt=8
It has workflows to automatically move and reprioritize reminders. And these changes will even be reflected in your iOS Reminders app. E.g. If you have a “Call” list and you say to Siri “Remind me to call mom” then it will automatically move it in there. Or you can set up a rule to move reminders containing your boss’s name into your “Work” folder.
Easiest way so far which I have located to sync outlook with iPhone was to use Sync2. It took my tasks and transferred them from Outlook to Google and back, then I could use any Google Tasks app from store to access them and modify.
Next to that it also allows to synchronize Calendar and Contacts, and all of this this done automatically. You can check it in their website. http://www.sync2.com/sync-outlook-calendar-and-contacts-with-iphone.aspx
Thanks for sharing!
I use EVO Collaborator for Outlook to synchronize my iCloud tasks between my iPhone and Outlook 2016 for Windows. This Outlook add-in is like one of the utility software mentioned in this article. Initially, I focused on syncing calendars and I was using iCloud Control Panel. Later on, I found that iCloud folders of contact, calendar and task cannot be used as Outlook default folder. This often gives me a headache that I have to always click into icloud folders before creating new entries. Maybe you can give it a try.
Thanks for sharing that!
I’ve been able to sync my Outlook 2016 tasks to the cloud (and to my iPhone Reminders app), and vice-versa, without needing an Exchange server – using iCloud and the iCloud desktop app for Windows (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204283). I am using Windows 7, which might be helping me – I’ve heard later releases of Windows have had more trouble with the iCloud desktop app – but it’s possible Apple has updated their iCloud app and it is working more smoothly with the most recent editions of Windows. (It’s worth a shot!)
Obviously first make sure you have your iCloud account (Apple account) set up, and make sure you can access all the Apple apps at http://www.icloud.com (Mail, Calendar, Reminders, etc.).
Then you download the iCloud desktop app and set it to sync ‘Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and Tasks’ during set-up. Once you’ve done that, iCloud will appear in Outlook 2016 as one of the accounts, and your iCloud Reminders will appear in Outlook Tasks under ‘iCloud’.
The syncing works well for all basic Task functions, including:
– Task / Reminder text
– priority
– scheduled reminders / notifications (You can *set* scheduled reminders in either Outlook or the iCloud / iOS Reminders app, and the notifications will work in the Apple apps – on the web or on your mobile device – but for some reason Outlook will not give notifications for tasks in the iCloud tasks list. If you’ve normally got your mobile device with you, this might not be a big deal.)
The interfacing doesn’t work for the more detailed Outlook task functions, like assigning the tasks, etc., but if you’re just looking to categorize tasks into lists, set priorities, and set up notifications, this works just fine.
Thanks for this page! It is very useful 🙂
Thanks Fred!
Hi. I sync my iPhone reminders to outlook via the hotmail exchange server and that my reoccurring reminder alert notifications no longer come up on my phone. This occurs when the reminder notification comes up on outlook and I hit dismiss. How do I get around this?
Thank you so much for this!
I have a unique question and am open to buying a new phone
My company uses google and gmail to host email. Some use Gmail.com but I use outlook as the front end
Outlook tasks don’t sync to gmail.
Can I add an exchange server to mirror the google server?
Is there a phone that more compatible? I have an iPhone but would buy droid or windows phone to easily have outlook tasks on my phone. Thank you
Thanks for reading. I think that’s a question that is too complicated to answer here. But if you would like to submit it via the contact page, I’ll see if I can help.
I was REALLY hoping this would work… You state: Enable Outlook Task syncing by tapping Settings on your iPhone, then tap “Passwords and Accounts.” Under “Accounts,” tap your Microsoft Outlook account and make sure the slider beside “Reminders” is green. I tap settings and there is no “passwords and accounts”. Am I missing something??? CJ
Hi! Sorry this didn’t work for you. It may be because you are running a different version of iOS than I am. Try to find a “Mail” option in Settings. Then in your Outlook account you should find the setting options for mail, contacts, calendars, and reminders. Make sure “reminders” is green.
I hope that helps!
In settings, scroll down until Reminders is shown (between Notes and Voice Memos). Select that and press Default List. Change it from iCloud Reminders to Exchange Tasks.
Thanks for the tip!