Standalone Outlook Sync - No debate, just solutions

[jstbecuz]

Hi everyone -

I followed the other thread to it's bitter end and think we need a new one. This thread is for people who DO NOT use microsoft Exchange and are looking for solutions for offline syncing with Droid.

Please, no debate over why this is necessary or whether it is a defect that the phone doesn't already have the functionality built-in. Let's just all accept that some people need it and it's not currently there.

I believe the old post referred to three possible solutions to this, all in development with the first expected in December. If anyone would like to share what they know about them, or other alternatives, I (and several others are all ears).

For now, my personal workaround is:
For calendar: Google Calendar Sync on my laptop which pushes my calendar out to Google which then pushes to my phone.

For email: No Sync. I can read new mail via pop off my email server (with a copy left on the server for my laptop to later pop permanently) and I can send mail to my smtp server from my phone with a bcc to myself so that I can add it to my Sent mail on my laptop at a later time.

For contacts: I exported my contacts to a .csv file and imported them into google (which then pushes to my phone). There is no auto sync right now between my computer outlook and google, but my contacts don't change that often. I plan to re-do the export weekly and have not tried it yet, but am really hoping I don't get duplicates in the process.

For tasks and notes: I have no current solution. I can live without tasks on my phone anyway, and I'm learning to put notes on my phone instead of in my computer outlook that way they're always with me. I believe there are some notes apps with encryption that are mentioned in another thread. I haven't tried them out yet personally but I plan to and will comment in the thread that refers to them

I realize these won't work for everyone, but they're working for my needs until a better solution is developed. Any other workaround ideas would be great. That's what forums like this are best for.

Mods, if someone has already created a thread like this and I missed it, feel free to delete.

 

[techguru]

IMHO

Email: Go direct. If your provider supports iMap, then boxes will be synchronized.

Calendar: Current best are Google Calendar Sync unless you get Windows Livemeeting or Cisco MeetingPlace invitations which won't synch, or CompanionLink, which works great, but costs $40.

Contacts: Go Contact Sync (free) or CompanionLink ($40).

Tasks: This is a tricky one. CompanionLink will sync them, but it puts them as all day events in your calendar. I haven't seen anything better yet though. Lots and lots of task managers for Android, just none that sync to Outlook.

Notes: Also tricky. Companionlink puts them in your Contacts (sorted to the beginning by prefixing with a "|" and using the contacts notes field). I think this is an ugly solution, but I only care about getting my notes to my computer, not to Outlook, so I use Upvise which syncs notes to a web site, and can import existing notes that are in files. Also has a shopping list, contacts, and some other cool apps.

If you are a Google Apps Premium user, there is a sync app that does Calendar, Contacts, Notes, and Tasks, but it is not available to Google Apps standard or non Google Apps users.

There appears to be a need to an app that will do a direct wireline, Bluetooth, or WiFi synch to Outlook without using Google or another intermediary, and that does not seem to currently exist.

Alan

 

[digitaldewd]

Excellent idea for a thread.

Techguru - I am in the same boat you are and am waiting (and willing to pay) for a 3rd party solution that I'm sure someone will address. Hopefully I don't have to write it myself...

See my post here: https://supportforums.motorola.com/thread/17291

For now, I have similar work-arounds as you, however for my Notes, I am using a program I found (on the app store) called TextEdit. It's just a simple text editor that allows me to save text files onto my SDCARD. Seems to work well.

Of the 3rd party standalone Outlook sync apps out there in development, I have found the following that "appears" to be the most promising. They mention a beta version of the program that I'm chomping at the bit to try - but even the beta is not ready:

http://www.markspace.com/products/android/missing-sync-android.html?source=picker_android

Good luck - I'll check back at this thread for any updates.

 

[mmarino]

It's funny, I was just at the Verizon store and the sales guy (young and cocky) was really confident that sync would work with the included USB cable and some included software. That does not correspond with this thread and other posts I've been reading. Right now, everything points to CompanionLink for Google. What was the guy in the Verizon store talking about?

 

[pete1230]

companion link works, use it as a trial and transfer your phone book. as far as keeping it updated, just wait...
gtasks syncs gmail tasks with phone...no problems. download from market.

 

[SoCal65]

PIM Syncing Soultions:

The Missing Sync for Android from Mark/Space

CompanionLink

Media Syncing Solutions:

Motorola Media Link

DoubleTwist

 

[I H8 5_0 Stangs]

i'm just looking for a way to sync my college email which uses MS outlook to my phone so I get push notifications.

i know there is a widget that says "email" and i tap it and it says enter email and password, which i do, but then what do i do?

there are three options, POP3, IMAP, and exchange account.

i selected exchange but dont know what to do after that.

a little off topic but maybe someone can help me out

 

[sherri]

Microsoft Outlook is an e-mail management system, not your e-mail internet service provider. Who is your service provider (usually what comes after the @ in your email address...)? For example, my email address is [email protected] so my internet service provider (ISP) is Optonline. Some use Yahoo, some use Google, there are many.

It sounds like you don't have that set up on you phone yet. Once you tell us who it is, we can better help you. (Optonline is a POP provider. Google is IMAP...too many "unknowns" at the moment!)

 

[I H8 5_0 Stangs]

sherri, this is the page I go to on my computer to access my email.

https://fe.assumption.edu/exchweb/b...l=https://fe.assumption.edu/exchange&reason=0

and my email is [email protected]

 

[I H8 5_0 Stangs]

bump...can anyone help me out???

 

[jstbecuz]

You're more likely to get help if you start a new thread. This thread is for standalone outlook sync issues only, not for pop/imap connectivity between Droid and an email server.

 

[ygohome]

excellent thread. Looking for a solution as you describe which doesn't require gmail or google calendar. I use my current HTC Touch Pro running WinMo 6.1 and MS ActiveSync. My lil sister just got a motorola droid and now, of course, I want one too.

But I absolutely must be able to perform a 2 way sync (merging phone and laptop contacts, calender, tasks and notes (i keep all of my server names, IPs, userids and pwds in those)). I need to be able to sync at least once and sometimes a couple times a day to keep my contacts and calendar up to date. Going through gmail, csv files, google calendar, etc just wouldn't be feasible.

What is in the works so far? Can you tell us more about what is coming in December? How close do you think it will be to what I require?

Thanks again,

Ben


*PS to others... lets keep this as much on topic as possible. Thanks

 

[bodean]

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-general-discussions/3443-sharing-google-calendar-outlook-2010-a.html

 

[jmed99]

I just tried companionlink but it duplicated all of my contacts in outlook. Instead of syncing both google contacts and outlook contacts, it just copy each set of contacts to the other list of contacts so everything got duplicated.

That sucks! I finally got the contacts lists fixed but I'm not going to try comanionlink again!

 

[alkaholic]

I can't have my stuff in the cloud, but the info I'm getting from The Missing Sync is giving me a warm fuzzy. They're the only one of the three companies that e-mailed me back, their solution is just what I need (although some may have problems, since while it avoids the cloud you DO seem to need both USB and WiFi connectivity for full sync), and it supports the syncing of all kinds of stuff that wasn't available on previous smartphones I've had. As soon as it betas on 2.0 I'll be on board, but I was hopi g for some feedback from somebody that's used the product on an other platform.

Until that point I've been dealing with the note issue by sending pw protected word docs through e-mail...but it is getting old fast.

Al