ITunes not syncing properly between machines and devices

Question

My setup used to work just fine before the updates to syncing, now it is just a big mess.
Before:
iTunes install on my Mac tied to my iPad used primarily for video content and video podcasts.
iTunes install on my Windows machine tied to iPod/iPhone used primarly for audio content and audio podcasts.
Each one was in it's own little world and everything just worked.
Now:
Both iTunes installs are getting the full list of podcasts from each other and their devices, so my audio podcasts are now showing up on the Mac and video podcasts are showin up in Windows.  I don't really care that is happening, but the watched/played status is not updating properly across the board.  For example, if I watch or listen to a podcast that status is not updating everywhere.  Worst case is that on some occasions, items that I have already watched/played are reverting back to unwatched/unplayed status.
Is there a way to get syncing working properly, or do I just need to turn all of those options off and go back to just direct syncing between machine and device?

Answer 1

Jason,
Thanks for your response. I am using Exchange and syncing over-the-air, not using iTunes. As you suggested, I deleted the Exchange account and then set it up again - but that did not work. HOWEVER - observations that I made while doing what you suggested led me down another path, and I was able to solve my problem! So - thanks!
In case anyone else has this problem, here is what my problem was and I how I figured it out (I hope someone finds it useful).
My problem was not an iPhone-to-Exchange sync problem, rather it turned out to be an Entourage-to-Exchange sync problem with the calendar. Turns my entourage calendar folder cache was messed up and had to be "emptied". I found this article that helped me do that: http://www.helpdesk.ilstu.edu/kb/index.phtml?kbid=1453
How I discovered the solution:
As I said, my problem was that calendar items edited or created on the iPhone were not showing up in my calendar when viewed from Entourage. When I deleted the exchange account from my iPhone, the calendar items that were (as far as I knew) ONLY on the iPhone and had not been sync-ed to exchange should have been lost forever. When I put exchange back on the iPhone - those item showed up again. So either the database on the iPhone didn't get erased when I deleted the account or those items REALLY WERE in exchange all along. So, I used Outlook Web Access to view my calendar items in exchange by bypassing entourage - and sure enough, they WERE there all along. That isolated the problem to Entourage and once I figured that out the solution was pretty easy to find.