Galaxy Nexus and Android 4.0 sync capability

[BJB1]

I will try to post this again Seems my first post did not make it.

I am new to Android but am pretty familiar wtih other phone OS's and PC's. I have been researching for a while Android's ability to sync with Outlook PST files located on a local PC (without an exchange server).
I know that using the google desktop app to push data to them first and then sync with an android phone is one possibility. If you don't want to do that, it looks like "some phones" allow a direct cable or wi-fi sync to a local outlook PST which would be fine (if it worked with contacts, calendar, notes, and tasks....)
I also researched a lot of the 3rd party utilities that claim to provide sync ability and it appears they all fall short....deleting notes in contacts that are too long, not syncing tasks, etc.

So the question is does Android 4.0 in general, or the Galaxy Nexus specifically offer any additional functionality regarding this type of syncing? Does the Galaxy Nexus even allow a direct USB cable or wi-fi sync? Or is your only choice if you want to use outlook is the outlook helper app two-step from desktop, to google cloud, back to phone?

Thanks in advance for any
BJBBJB1

 

[jdbower]

The general rule of thumb with any version of Android it to get it into Gmail and it'll work fine. There are plenty of options for this, one trick is to create a Gmail account, add it to Outlook as a MAPI/POP3 account, and then copy everything in your Outlook folders over.

Here are some more details:
Importing Outlook into Gmail

The last step:
Rejoice at not needing to install Office on your PC to access your calendar and email!

If you really want to sync to a local PST file without going through Gmail to do so there are apps for that but I can't vouch for them:
https://market.android.com/search?q=sync+outlook&so=1&c=apps

 

[BJB1]

jdbower,

Thanks for the Gmail tips! If I have to go that route they will be very helpful.

I just find it frustrating when you are forced to change something that has worked for you very well to something else just to use a new piece of equipment.

Perhaps someone that receives an early version of this phone can comment on whether it supports a direct USB or Wi-fi sync to a local PST file.

I have tried to sort through all the reviews of those third party sync solutions, and as I mentioned they all seem to be found wanting in one way or another. What would be nice is some kind of 3rd party bullet-proof sync program like was developed for Palm years ago and did very well.

Thanks again,
BJB1

 

[jdbower]

It's been a while, but IIRC my old Palm used MissingSync, available on the Android Market. May be worth a shot.

 

[BJB1]

jdbower,

Thanks for the Missing Sync tip. I did some research and if you use their calendar client on the phone (you can't use the default one the phone comes with) it will indeed sync with a PC-based .PST file. Including tasks and notes which is great.

However, you cannot simultaneously display the calendar results of an exchange sync because it does not support that! So the exchange sync would reside in the phone's default calendar client application and the missing sync .PST calendar sync would be in their own phone client calendar application.....so you can have either one but not both on one calendar. Which is the whole point.

I find it kind of ironic that the marooned Palm/HP WebOS seems to be the only one that did this.

BJB1

 

[greydarrah]

I will try to post this again Seems my first post did not make it.

I am new to Android but am pretty familiar wtih other phone OS's and PC's. I have been researching for a while Android's ability to sync with Outlook PST files located on a local PC (without an exchange server).
I know that using the google desktop app to push data to them first and then sync with an android phone is one possibility. If you don't want to do that, it looks like "some phones" allow a direct cable or wi-fi sync to a local outlook PST which would be fine (if it worked with contacts, calendar, notes, and tasks....)
I also researched a lot of the 3rd party utilities that claim to provide sync ability and it appears they all fall short....deleting notes in contacts that are too long, not syncing tasks, etc.

So the question is does Android 4.0 in general, or the Galaxy Nexus specifically offer any additional functionality regarding this type of syncing? Does the Galaxy Nexus even allow a direct USB cable or wi-fi sync? Or is your only choice if you want to use outlook is the outlook helper app two-step from desktop, to google cloud, back to phone?

Thanks in advance for any
BJBBJB1

I doubt that Android 4.0 or this phone in particular will be offering any new sync advantages.I was a dedicated Outlook user from the 1st day that Outlook was released (back in the windows 95 days?) Two years ago I made 2 big technology decisions. 1 was to switch from BlackBerry to Android and the other was to drop Outlook and switch to Gmail only. They have been the 2 best (tech) decisions I've made. Gmail has everything Outlook does...email, calendar, contacts (with notes), task. Some things might be slightly different, but it's all there. You can set your email up so that it says whatever you want for your outgoing email (if you have your own domain.com), and any email from other accounts can be forwarded to your Gmail account. Using Gmail provides a constant/instant sync to your Android phone, and you can log in and access all your data from any PC, any where in the world. You no longer need to be at whatever PC you have Outlook installed on. You'll also never have to pay for another Outlook software upgrade and suffer through whatever changes microsoft decided you need. Change is always scary, but my advice is to stop going against the flow and migrate to Gmail. Do it all at once and never launch Outlook again...like ripping off a bandaid.

 

[HES]

Ok I am considering this. How do you configure gmail so that it gets your pop3 email and then when it sends it looks like it is coming from your pop3 email account?

 

[Tom in Bristol]

Ok I am considering this. How do you configure gmail so that it gets your pop3 email and then when it sends it looks like it is coming from your pop3 email account?

Do you already have a gmail acct? Get one or open yours, hit the gear icon upper right, choose Accounts and Import, and then Check Mail Using POP3. It'll ask for your user ID and password and you're done.

Under Send Mail As you can add any account you own.

 

[BJB1]

greydarrah,
Ahhh yes, windows 95 memories. Thanks for the input. It may come to that going 100% google.

But Google can't control all corporations and there are a lot of corporate exchange servers around.
So here is a very specific question just about android and forgetting about Outlook. Can android keep more than one calendar separate? So say I go 100% google for my personal stuff....and of course that will sync to the phone happily as Google starts feeding me ads about my product preferences (just kidding)....anyway, that syncs. But I also need to sync to a corporate exchange server for work purposes. Can android 4.0 display those 2 calendars together but still keep them separate for sync purposes? And what would it do with contacts?

Or once you sync both google and exchange once will they both look alike? So would my google calendar include my exchange stuff and then android pushes my google stuff to exchange so they both end up looking the same?


Thanks for your help,

BJB1

 

[jdbower]

Two options:

1: Can you use Android on your corporate Exchange server? If so, I know at least Touchdown will keep the calendars separate. I do this with my D2G.

2: If not, I export my work free/busy data (the meeting itself has confidential information) to a free iCal service. I have Google set up to pull calendar information down from there and it shows up in a different color from my personal calendar. I use this with my personal DX.

 

[BJB1]

Two options:

1: Can you use Android on your corporate Exchange server? If so, I know at least Touchdown will keep the calendars separate. I do this with my D2G.
.

Yes, there is no problem syncing Android with a corporate exchange server. Looks like Touchdown's website seems to promise a better corporate exchange sync experience with android. Not sure how it is better???? However I am OK with just the basic calendar, contacts, tasks, notes sync that android does natively.

What is difficult is finding a local outlook .PST sync solution that will coexist with an exchange sync in the same calendar. If Touchdown somehow allows this to happen I am interested. Was not able to get there from looking at their website though but perhaps I missed something.

BJB1

 

[Guillerm?dico]

I have email automatically forwarded from my web hosting service to my Gmail address. Initially, doing it this way and leaving a copy on the web hosting service allowed me to download the email periodically to Outlook, in order to retain a "hard copy" on my computer rather than have it all in the "cloud". However, I quickly found that I never really looked at the Outlook hard copy because I was reading my email in Gmail and assigning Gmail categories to each thread. I ended up just using Outlook to "purge" the email server of my web hosting service to prevent the volume from exceeding the web hosting service's maximum capacity per email address.

If you would like to synchronize Contacts and Calendar on Microsoft Outlook with GMail Contacts and Google Calendar, try Dave Levinson's product gSyncit. I used gSyncit for a couple of years as an "umbilical cord" and it worked well due, in part, to the fact that Dave updates the product practically every few days to keep up with any Microsoft or Google changes in their respective Calendar and Contact programs.

I finally convinced myself that I no longer needed the Outlook security blanket and that I was really no longer using Outlook for anything other than sending out mail merge emails to a group of health care providers for a monthly conference I help organize. As greydarrah attests, dropping Outlook was one of the best decisions I ever made.

 

[kath00]

Ditto here. Dropped outlook 2 years ago and never looked back. Trust me! You really dont want to sync anymore. Google will do it all for you seamlessly. It's one of the best things about android and gmail integration.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[David0001]

Hi - I've just synced my new Galaxy Nexus with Microsoft Exchange Server but it only downloads one address book folder - the default address book "My Contacts". I hardly use this and instread have 6 other address book folders (split into categories) but it doesn't see these.

In my iPhone 3GS (which I've just upgraded from) this was no problem.

I've tried a few app to see if I can get round this including Exchange for Android 2 x by Touchdown which seems great but still only displays the one My Contacts default Exchange folder.

Does anyone know of a solution to this?

David (dp0001)

 

[David0001]

I've found the answer to this.

Download TouchDown (Android 2.0) and follow the instructions just like settingup MS Exchange Server. Once installed, in the settings menu of TouchDown you can see the different folders on your Exchange Server. I had to rummage about a bit to find them. Just select the folders you want and then they will all appear in your address book in the TouchDown Exchange section . You can then search using the search field or scrolll through. From the entry you can phone, text, email etc.

If you want to see the contacts in the original folders on Exchange Server then launch TouchDown/Contacts/settings and then filters and you can search using any colour filters you've set up. I'm still messing around with this but at least I can get the contacts. With MS Excgange Server you can't access any of the sub folders on Android without this software.

Hope this helps

Davd