Sync with Outlook?

[bearlaw1968]

I see what you mean - just export all fields (I have dozens of custom fields) and the gmail thing will hopefully sort out the fields it needs; I'm going to delete the csv when I'm done anyway, but just not sure if I trust the updating. Only one way to find out, though. I will test. Thank you.

 

[akcummings]

A Sad day once again

A little bit of history. I have only used PDA / Smartphones for roughly 3 years. As of late I have had the HTC VX6900 which has been physically replaced 3 times due to "windows mobile" locking up as well as calls not coming in and other issues. I have tried the voyager which I liked alot but would not sync more than I belive 200 calendar items (no where near sufficient). I then tried the Samsung Omnia and ran into the same issues with locking and returned that as well. I now am the sad / happy owner of the droid from Verizon and I can't sync "easily" with my outlook which contains my work contacts and calendar. I am no where near high enough in the company to get push so the corporate option is not really an option. The sync with google mail is not an option as well either due to the strict confidentiallity of working for a chemical comany and having a number of attachments in my calendar items. With that said I am seriously considering taking it back tomorrow due to it's lack of local sync capabilities with Outlook. I have read this entire string and really see nothing yet that allows me to actually "sync" with outlook. This is a very sad day as I was so geeked with finally having a descent smart phone..

 

[mrpush]

This is entirely my point. And there could be a million other people that sync directly to Outlook, without Exchange server.

It is absolutely absurd to put out a device like this without these former sync options.

Know this, that if you snyc standalone outlook now, your data IS STORED ON A SERVER SOMEWHERE (VERIZONS or Google) servers, else you would have not sync.

Take you pick, your data is elsewhere. The only way to keep your data yours is to setup your own Sync server like Funambol.

I have done it, and it works. I don't believe it supports the DRIOD however, but I did email them about it.

Other missing things on the DRIOD:

NO FLASH player (r u serious Android???) Please don't tell me that Flash 10 will be supported. I know, but I'd like to see flash sites NOW, not later.

No "click and listen" to Windows media Player or Real player directly from web sites.

If you guys tell me again that "this is not MS OS" I'm going to puke. How many web site use this type of links to listen to media???? MILLIONS!

YOU CAN'T LEAVE THIS STUFF OUT OF A SMARTPHONE and they have!!!

I'm sure I'll find many more problems as I go, but the be a bit positive:

The phone is great, the speakerphone is very good, browsing is very good, the thing is VERY fast.

Messaging with my test IMAP on AOL, is spotty. There are messages missing for some reason.

Thanks,

MP

 

[alkaholic]

Remain Calm

Sorry for the cross post from another forum, but I've been following this thread for three days, and it seemed like the appropriate place to put it: Alright, for those of you that are Googling like insane people because you just bought the Droid, here's a summary to save you the effort that I've made over the past three days. There is no way to Sync your phone to your Outlook WITHOUT going through the Google cloud, resulting in all of your information remaining on Google's servers (if posters on different sites are to be believed, that information will remain for as long as 18 months after you delete it, as per Google's privacy policy). So what's a Droid owner to do? My information is private enough that I don't want it all out on somebody else's server. This phone rocks. This is a problem. Here's your answer. There are at least three products currently under development which claim they will successfully sync your Outlook information to the Droid (including a lot of stuff like Notes that Gmail doesn't do). "Under Development" appears to mean within 30 days or so--at least one of them reports that they'll be releasing on December 1st. My personal choice has been to keep the phone, carry my old smartphone for a one month transition, and the first software manufacturer that releases a suitable product will have my business. the $30 or so I expect to pay is well worth having this great phone. For those of you that want to see what I'm talking about, here are the manufacturers: CompanionLink currently has sync through Google, but is developing direct syncing : Google Android sync The Missing Sync looks like it will do EVERYTHING, and already exists on other platforms: Keep your life in sync with The Missing Sync for Android from Mark/Space MyLink for Android purports to be released on Dec. 1, and it looks like it should do the trick as well: Wave Global Services UK Limited If you're aggravated by this like I am, please e-mail the companies and tell 'em you're interested...I e-mailed all three and told them that if they released first, they've sold to me--I would hope (although I'm probably wrong) that a little bit of feedback from potential customers might speed things along a little bit. If I'm missing anything please let me know, 'cause I want to fully use this thing TODAY! Al

 

[ebean]

Sorry for the cross post from another forum, but I've been following this thread for three days, and it seemed like the appropriate place to put it: Alright, for those of you that are Googling like insane people because you just bought the Droid, here's a summary to save you the effort that I've made over the past three days. There is no way to Sync your phone to your Outlook WITHOUT going through the Google cloud, resulting in all of your information remaining on Google's servers (if posters on different sites are to be believed, that information will remain for as long as 18 months after you delete it, as per Google's privacy policy). So what's a Droid owner to do? My information is private enough that I don't want it all out on somebody else's server. This phone rocks. This is a problem. Here's your answer. There are at least three products currently under development which claim they will successfully sync your Outlook information to the Droid (including a lot of stuff like Notes that Gmail doesn't do). "Under Development" appears to mean within 30 days or so--at least one of them reports that they'll be releasing on December 1st. My personal choice has been to keep the phone, carry my old smartphone for a one month transition, and the first software manufacturer that releases a suitable product will have my business. the $30 or so I expect to pay is well worth having this great phone. For those of you that want to see what I'm talking about, here are the manufacturers: CompanionLink currently has sync through Google, but is developing direct syncing : Google Android sync The Missing Sync looks like it will do EVERYTHING, and already exists on other platforms: Keep your life in sync with The Missing Sync for Android from Mark/Space MyLink for Android purports to be released on Dec. 1, and it looks like it should do the trick as well: Wave Global Services UK Limited If you're aggravated by this like I am, please e-mail the companies and tell 'em you're interested...I e-mailed all three and told them that if they released first, they've sold to me--I would hope (although I'm probably wrong) that a little bit of feedback from potential customers might speed things along a little bit. If I'm missing anything please let me know, 'cause I want to fully use this thing TODAY! Al

lol i could have written this post but you said it succinctly. and i'm doing exactly that. as tempting as it would be to have it all now, i feel strongly about staying out of the cloud but love the idea of this phone (which arrives today). i am also going to carry my treo 700p as my calendar and hope that my wait is only 30 days. i'm personally voting for missing sync and have also emailed them.

 

[Storm1126]

Has anyone else taken a look at Dataviz's RoadSync? Right now I am running the 14 day test trial and it seems to be working fairly well for me. It sets up a seperate email icon for your Exchange email and calendar. It does bring your contact directly into the native contact list.

The only downside that I have expierenced is that when it was pulling in the contacts from the Exchange server, it merged several contacts in to one and actually deleted a few. I was able to just put them back into my contact list from the Deleted Items.

Right now they are offering the software for $9.99 once the trial period is up. It is a nice prince point.

RoadSync - Access Outlook E-mail on Your Android-powered Phone Wirelessly!

 

[keiichi25]

Has anyone else taken a look at Dataviz's RoadSync? Right now I am running the 14 day test trial and it seems to be working fairly well for me. It sets up a seperate email icon for your Exchange email and calendar. It does bring your contact directly into the native contact list.

The only downside that I have expierenced is that when it was pulling in the contacts from the Exchange server, it merged several contacts in to one and actually deleted a few. I was able to just put them back into my contact list from the Deleted Items.

Right now they are offering the software for $9.99 once the trial period is up. It is a nice prince point.

RoadSync - Access Outlook E-mail on Your Android-powered Phone Wirelessly!

I believe that is the slight problem that is well known with DataViz programs if you don't look at some of the options carefully. DataViz got a lot of their work with Syncing things with Outlook for the Palm Pilot so you have to look at your options before you sync, generally found that it was more necessary for the first install to have all your contacts on one side, do an initial sync where one overrides the other and from there have both sides sync and it will work. If you do Sync from the get go, there might be some issues as the above where there is a likely chance it thinks "Oh, you don't have that on here and this side is newer, therefore, purge."

This is due to the slight confusion in belief that you may have purged the contact on one side as intended, so it is deleting it. And often times, when you get rid of a contact, you want the other side to also purge it so you don't have to do double duty. So generally, I have found with sync programs like that, you really want to opt for one side to have all the data and force the other side to take it instead of trying to co-mingle it the first time with such a program.

Once you got it at a 'stable' side, you then can try and co-mingle as both phone and computer side will now have a proper collaborative database to know 'hey, this is good, this is bad' and allow the sync program to work properly.

 

[alkaholic]

RoadSync also doesn't solve the stand-alone Outlook problem, it depends on the Exchange Server...I used DataViz stuff with my Palm and it did the trick, so I'd be happy to jump on board if they handled stand-alone...if I'm mistaken please let me know!

 

[BzB]

Guys,

forgot to tell you, while at store, they said I might be able to get sync with TOUCHDOWN from softpedia. But, after I looked it up, it only works with MS EXCHANGE 2007. AND, it does NOT do notes and maybe even tasks as well.

Nice try, NO GOOD VERIZON.

I have a smartphone that is not very smart.

MP

just to clarify, touchdown does work with exchange 2000 and 2003. i'm using it on exchange 2003 right now.

it supports active sync (push email) and will wirelessly sync your email folders, contacts, and calendar. it also allows you to use a signatures. it does not support notes from your outlook yet.

in any case i've found touchdown to be a great alternative to the droid email (very lacking imo), and is more of a business class email app. definitely recommend it and there is a trial version.

 

[rmaloy]

Great thread, lots of good debate back and forth.
I'm curious though if anyone has used gSyncit
http://www.daveswebsite.com/software/gsync/
Looks like it was updated as recently as Nov 2009.
I'm going to d/l and test drive the trial this week, i'm just wondering if anyone else has used it yet.

 

[mrpush]

Guys,

You need to know this when it come to syncing data from outlook to phones:

That if you snyc standalone outlook now, a copy of your data IS STORED ON VERIZONS SERVER SOMEWHERE, if you SYNC with Google Sync your data in on Googles servers, else you would have not sync! I have not done sync with Exchange Server, but I believe it still has a SYNC copy on the providers servers.

Take your pick, your data is elsewhere. The only way to keep your data yours is to setup your own Sync web server like Funambol.

I have tested this and it works, but I do not believe it currently supports the DRIOD however, but I did email them about it.

But who wants to have to setup their own web sync server?

It's just "not smart" of Verizon to put out this SMARTPHONE that does half of what my 4 year ol XV6700 can do!!!!

The Driod is a good phone but these ever so important missing features make it a bad choice for business users who want ALL OUTLOOK data, Cal, Con, Tasks, Notes.

Seems to me that the most complete solution is going to be Companion Link for google.

But its another $40 on top of this phone. Where is the Out of the Box functionality Verizon???

I'm NOT HAPPY about this, and I'm thinking this:

DRIOD does some good stuff, but "iTdon't" do a bunch of stuff it should to be classified as a smartphone especially when my 4 year old XV6700, iTdoes!.

Booo to verizon for not having google have an out of the box app for this. Bad planning guys. I'm not liking your half-baked smartphone and I'm letting everyone know so that they to can DEMAND a better out of the box product.

Thanks,

MP

 

[alkaholic]

I'm not with you, mrpush, maybe you can clarify for me. If you turn synchronization for your accounts off you will not be sending anything to the clouds. If you're not using Verizon WirelessSync you will not be sending anything to the clouds. Why would an application that supported direct Outlook client/Droid syncing push data anywhere except the local network? You should be able to conduct syncing like this even absent an Internet connection, and if you turn off account syncing on the phone your information should remain in your pocket. Al

 

[fegriffith]

I tried Roadrunner and I think for me, something is set up within IT to prevent using ActiveSync as I could not get it working (just like I could not get the built in OS to work). I've only found one way to get my e-mail and it's Moonrug Mobile. Even that, however, has issues. For some reason it's not giving me my calendar, but it does give me contacts and notes. E-mail doesn't look that good to me. In a pinch I can work with it, but I'm missing my Blackberry sorely in this area. I couldn't get calendar, contacts or notes via BIS on the blackberry, but this actually worked in my favor as I would get OTA work e-mail, OTA personal e-mail, and cable sync to my home PC for personal calendar/contacts/notes.

 

[mrpush]

Alk,

Let me clearify. There are 2 types of SYNC. Ambilicus Sync where you connect your device to your PC to snyc, and WIRELESS snyc, where you DO NOT have to have a physical connection.

The only reason I see that I would ever connect my phone to my PC would be to back the entire thing up! With 3G speeds, you can downlad large music files pretty fast.

So, why would you use a corded connection, when all your business data (Outlook Cal, Con, Tasks, Notes) can be synced when you are across the world?

Connecting your phone with a cable to sync is a thing of the past and has been for me for 4 years.

To WIRELESSLY Sync, your data MUST be copied out to a location where it can be COMPARED to both copies on your PC and phone. To do Wireless sync, you must have a copy of this data on either Verizons server or going the Google route on Google servers.

You can keep your data off other servers, but you have to host a sync server of your own. Not to many want to do that!

So, WIRLESS SYNC for Standalone outlook on your PC = Copy of your data on Verisons server.

WIRELESS SYNC for new DROID = Copy of your data on Googles servers.

I believe if you use Exchange server, there is still the 3rd copy of the data out in the cloud.

Why would you turn off snycing? That just requires you to manage 2 separate copies of your own data.

The whole notion of snyc is to only manage a single combined set.

Thanks,

MP

 

[alkaholic]

Gotcha, MP, I guess you didn't understand my first post. I DO indeed want to sync via USB with my computer...my whole goal is to avoid the wireless sync for the very reasons that you consider it better: I don't want my data on a third party server. Lots of folks don't have privacy concerns with their data; for them the Gmail sync is a beautiful thing. There is a lot of grumbling on many of the forms regarding Google and Verizon's failure to appreciate that many business users (and more than a few personal users) aren't exactly thrilled with their information floating around on the cloud...in fact many of them work with information that for a variety of reasons can't be shared. I fall into that category, my stuff can't be out there on a Google or Verizon server.

For folks like me a USB sync with my own Outlook .pst is the only way to go, and like my first post says, it looks like I'll be able to pull it off in the near future with the help of a third party app. I'm a little confused by your first post in this thread, though, I thought you were trashing the Droid for it's requirement to sync to the clouds, but your last post makes it clear that you're a fan of that. My bad, I guess I just didn't understand your post. Rest assured, though, there are some of us out there that DO need that USB sync, and luckily it looks like it (eventually) will be on the way.