I've been a Microsoft user for about 30 years now (and 10 years as a Microsoft employee) but have very little knowledge of Android. (I still haven't purchased one myself - I'll do that when my current Windows Phone dies.) Since Microsoft has turned its back on smartphones, I need help understanding options for a good PIM for my parents. They are now on Android, but their calendar, contacts and e-mail are now in different places (VZW set it up, not me.) They're comfortable with Outlook (desktop) but noticed that while their e-mails are on both their phone (Android Outlook app) and desktop, none of their contacts, calendar appointments nor tasks are being synced between their desktop and phone. I even imported the Google Calendar into their Outlook desktop, but found that it won't sync with the phone due to a limitation of IMAP. After that, I saw that there was a way to do a read-only view of the Google Calendar in Outlook, but that's not what they're wanting. I'm not sure of what the new protocols are outside of ActiveSync, but also know that there are some third party apps around that might do it all for us.
So, what I'm asking is... how can I get it so that everything is in one place and syncs up properly to both their Android phones and their Outlook desktop? They should be able to make a change to a contact (including photo,) add a calendar appointment, add tasks, etc. on their desktop and have it show up on their phone (and vice versa.)
They currently have Gmail accounts, but not Outlook 365. Their primary e-mail is through their ISP (Charter.) I know that at one time, Google offered ActiveSync, but that appears to be gone now. Maybe the answer is migrating them over to a different e-mail account that uses a different protocol or maybe one of the many apps that says they can sync Outlook with non-Microsoft accounts (usually Gmail,) but I didn't want to do that until I knew the options.
I've done some looking on the forums, but the questions I find are specific to usually only calendar or contacts, not everything together. I'm sure that with all the people here that have Android phones and Windows desktops, there will be some good possibilities.
So, what I'm asking is... how can I get it so that everything is in one place and syncs up properly to both their Android phones and their Outlook desktop? They should be able to make a change to a contact (including photo,) add a calendar appointment, add tasks, etc. on their desktop and have it show up on their phone (and vice versa.)
They currently have Gmail accounts, but not Outlook 365. Their primary e-mail is through their ISP (Charter.) I know that at one time, Google offered ActiveSync, but that appears to be gone now. Maybe the answer is migrating them over to a different e-mail account that uses a different protocol or maybe one of the many apps that says they can sync Outlook with non-Microsoft accounts (usually Gmail,) but I didn't want to do that until I knew the options.
I've done some looking on the forums, but the questions I find are specific to usually only calendar or contacts, not everything together. I'm sure that with all the people here that have Android phones and Windows desktops, there will be some good possibilities.