I think one big advantage the Eris has over the Motorola Droid is the ability to easily sync your Outlook from your PC to the phone, without using Google or your Gmail account. I’m old school and don’t like the idea of all my stuff being in Google’s hands.
There is a little learning curve to this so here it is step by step to save you some time.
1. Gmail contacts/mail.
The reps at the Verizon store and Best Buy have been trained to get you set up on Gmail before you leave the store, either on your existing account or starting you out with a new one. If you have an existing account there is one caveat. Gmail creates contacts for you from email addresses automatically if you really want them as “contacts” or not. If you do NOT want all these people in your phone contact list (found under the “People” ap by the way then delete them in Gmail before you set up the account. You can do this by clicking the “Contacts” link in the left column, hitting select all in the middle, and delete. You can also selectively delete then and or/sort them here. If you already have all these contacts in your phone and want to get rid of them on the device go to the People ap, then hit the menu key, then delete contacts, then menu key again, then select all, then delete. I would also point out if you want to avoid the phone picking up your Gmail contacts in the future go to the settings menu, data synchronization, and Google and there you can uncheck syncing with Gmail contacts and Google calendar too for that matter.
2. Get the sync software from HTC.
Its not in the box and there is no mention of it in the Tips and Tricks guide (the only documentation that comes with the phone. It does get a description in chapter 9.3 in the full user guide (available here: http://member.america.htc.com/downl...erizon/DROID_ERIS_Verizon_English_UM_11_5.pdf)
The link for the software is here. (note this is only on the HTC US site.) On that page are the instructions on how to install it so I won’t go into that. But its important to note to install the software before you connect your phone to the computer.
HTC Sync Update 2.0.8 for DROID ERIS
3. Using the HTC Sync.
Once the software is running and you phone has been found and recognized by Windows you will notice the buttons in the software don’t do anything. You will see Synchronize Now and Sync Manager. The is because you now have to tell the phone what to do which is different from most sync managers. On the phone there is a notification bar – the very top bar with the icons showing your network, wifi, battery etc. That’s actually a pull-down. Touch and hold there and when you see the grey bar appear below it drag that down. Now you will see “USB connected” and “HTC Sync”. If you touch USB Connected you will to another menu which will “mount” the phone as a drive on your computer – this is how you will then drag and drop items to the SD card in the phone. Docs, music, videos whatever. If you hit the HTC Sync button you will really be connecting the phone to the computer for syncing. On the phone you will get a sync now menu and on the computer you will see your HTC Sync has changed with the prior two buttons lit up and another button added “Application Loader”
The first time you do this you will get the Sync Manager settings dialog asking what you want to sync and from where. Be sure to hit the properties button to set these selections as you want. I had a problem initially getting my Outlook calendar to sync. If this happens to you under properties deselect “default calendar folder” and set the folder yourself to calendar – mine had defaulted to contacts which is why the calendar didn’t come in the first time.
That’s it, the rest is pretty intuitive. Have fun Eris brothers and sisters!
There is a little learning curve to this so here it is step by step to save you some time.
1. Gmail contacts/mail.
The reps at the Verizon store and Best Buy have been trained to get you set up on Gmail before you leave the store, either on your existing account or starting you out with a new one. If you have an existing account there is one caveat. Gmail creates contacts for you from email addresses automatically if you really want them as “contacts” or not. If you do NOT want all these people in your phone contact list (found under the “People” ap by the way then delete them in Gmail before you set up the account. You can do this by clicking the “Contacts” link in the left column, hitting select all in the middle, and delete. You can also selectively delete then and or/sort them here. If you already have all these contacts in your phone and want to get rid of them on the device go to the People ap, then hit the menu key, then delete contacts, then menu key again, then select all, then delete. I would also point out if you want to avoid the phone picking up your Gmail contacts in the future go to the settings menu, data synchronization, and Google and there you can uncheck syncing with Gmail contacts and Google calendar too for that matter.
2. Get the sync software from HTC.
Its not in the box and there is no mention of it in the Tips and Tricks guide (the only documentation that comes with the phone. It does get a description in chapter 9.3 in the full user guide (available here: http://member.america.htc.com/downl...erizon/DROID_ERIS_Verizon_English_UM_11_5.pdf)
The link for the software is here. (note this is only on the HTC US site.) On that page are the instructions on how to install it so I won’t go into that. But its important to note to install the software before you connect your phone to the computer.
HTC Sync Update 2.0.8 for DROID ERIS
3. Using the HTC Sync.
Once the software is running and you phone has been found and recognized by Windows you will notice the buttons in the software don’t do anything. You will see Synchronize Now and Sync Manager. The is because you now have to tell the phone what to do which is different from most sync managers. On the phone there is a notification bar – the very top bar with the icons showing your network, wifi, battery etc. That’s actually a pull-down. Touch and hold there and when you see the grey bar appear below it drag that down. Now you will see “USB connected” and “HTC Sync”. If you touch USB Connected you will to another menu which will “mount” the phone as a drive on your computer – this is how you will then drag and drop items to the SD card in the phone. Docs, music, videos whatever. If you hit the HTC Sync button you will really be connecting the phone to the computer for syncing. On the phone you will get a sync now menu and on the computer you will see your HTC Sync has changed with the prior two buttons lit up and another button added “Application Loader”
The first time you do this you will get the Sync Manager settings dialog asking what you want to sync and from where. Be sure to hit the properties button to set these selections as you want. I had a problem initially getting my Outlook calendar to sync. If this happens to you under properties deselect “default calendar folder” and set the folder yourself to calendar – mine had defaulted to contacts which is why the calendar didn’t come in the first time.
That’s it, the rest is pretty intuitive. Have fun Eris brothers and sisters!
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