Nexus One syncing with Outlook

[3snakes]

gsyncit from daveswebsite (dot-com) is amazingly flexible, works great and has amazing support. It's $14.

 

[pam29466]

A couple of issues here:
> It's Outlook Tasks and Notes sync that is the biggest problem; Calendar and Contacts is easy;
> Everyone does not use exchange server;
> The cloud does not work with CDMA phones when you are out of the country, so there goes half of your productivity.
Do you realize how much of your phone's daily app use is dependent upon unobstructed phone service and not actually stored in your phone, regardless of the size of your SD card?

CompanionLink is the closest I've come, but that still is far removed from a workable replacement for Outlook sync on my phone.

 

[Joene]

You could use a Beta program (which does not work without errors, but it basically gets the job done, sort of) called Go Contact Sync to sync outlook contacts and google contacts. It is open source (or at least freeware) and you can get it from Sourceforge: (Do a google search for Go contact sync without quotes and pick the second result. The forum won't let me post links.

If you use that and the gcalendar sync google offers,you essentially should have anything (except tasks) you need.

 

[Devtodi]

its a month later and my palm contract is finally up. Is there a good solution to the syncing with outlook problem?

 

[addictedtoblackberry]

It's called Google calendar sync. It will sync your online google account with outlook. It syncs both ways.

i was thinking about buying a n1 but decided not too for a multitude of reasons. i am interested in jumping ship, but there are a few things i need in my phone before that happens.

also, syncing with outlook with google and then with google is a no go for me. i want to sync it natively without extra programs problems or etc. imo, a phone should be convenient and i should not have to work around it

 

[WarER4X]

Seems the best way to make it work propertly is to do as many have said and use Google Calendar Sync to get outlook events to your Google Calendar and then let the wireless sync push them from your Google Calendar to your phone.

I'm pretty sure my company's policy would not permit this because I would be storing calendar events on my external Google account, which would risk proprietary data, depending on how secure you think your Google account is and the fact that Google keeps tally of everything you do. Not to mention, using Google Calendar Sync would mean my work computer would constantly be sending and receiving data to/from my Google account through the proxy server, which would also raise some flags with my company's IT department. So, I don't think that using Google Calendar Sync is a reasonable alternative to USB syncing (like you can with a BB or Palm device).

Fortunately, in my case, I don't have an Android phone yet and, even when I do, I can probably survive without having my work calendar on my phone. It is more of a convenience for me than a necessity... at least for now.

One thing I'm wondering though is, regardless of how you go about syncing an Outlook calendar with your Android phone, would it then preclude you from having separate personal events on your Google calendar that are also on your phone? What I mean is, is Android smart enough to keep separate sync sources separate, or does it just mash them all together?

-SR-

 

[richpjr#AC]

I'll put in another plug for gsyncit. I picked that up the other day for my wife's new Droid so she can sync her stand alone Outlook contacts and calendar with her GMail equivalents and it is working great. For the $15 it costs, it is highly recommended.

 

[techgeek32#WN]

This is ridiculous! How about contact notes capacity as well?

its not just you. it is 100% ridiculous that no android phone can sync with outlook without paying $20 to $40. That is something I absolutely need to do with my phone.

I agree with you guys. Google will lose any business users that aren't using Exchange. Most people in business for themselves aren't going to use Exchange. I use stand alone Outlook on my laptop and can sync with Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Palm Pre, but would love to move to the Android platform. You might try downloading HTC Sync from the HTC website. I think it only works with Sense UI devices, but because the Nexus is an HTC device it might work. It is free and will work will all Windows O/S's.

My big question to all the Nexus owners is: Has Google allowed users to keep an unlimited amount of contact notes in version 2.1. I know in 1.5 and 1.6 they don't. I keep all of my customer conversations and details in my contact notes and some of them have several paragraphs of notes. Once again, no problem with Windows Mobile, BB, and Web O/S phones, even the iPhone will handle it. Just wondering if Google increased the capacity? This would also apply to those of you using Gmail for contacts. Does Google allow more than a few words to be saved in the notes?

Thanks everybody! I hope to be sporting an Android device very soon.

 

[ssullivan]

If your ultimate aim is to get your Outlook calendar on your nexus, you can just use google sync to sync up your outlook with your google calendar, which is readily available on your nexus....

Yes, in theory, you can do this. However, Google Sync is way too basic to be truly useful, and in my experience, it creates more headaches than it's worth. Sure, it will sync events, but there always seemed to be some random events in my calendar it would never sync. And then there is the problem with editing events. Google Sync tends to upload Outlook events to Google Calendar in such a way that Google Calendar sees the event as owned by someone else, and prevents you from editing it on your phone. Sure, you can view it on your phone, but if you wanted to actually change the event on your phone, well, sorry, you're out of luck. The workaround on that one is to open the event on the web in Google Calendar and manually edit the permissions so that "guests" can modify the event (the guest being you, the person who originally created the event ). I've also had major issues with events that I edited in one place completely being wiped out by a sync, as there is absolutely no method in Google Sync for resolving conflicts.

So, if you want the world's most basic sync program and don't plan on editing or creating events in more than one place, sure, Google Sync works. If you came from a BlackBerry type calendar system, with OTA syncing to Exchange, well, Google Sync really sucks.

My solution was to just kill Google Sync. When I create an event in Outlook I want to show up on my Android device, I manually forward it to my Gmail account. It's tedious to do it that way, but at least events aren't randomly disappearing anymore, and edits to events aren't being wiped out by Google Sync.

Honestly, Google needs to do some major work on improving the calendar program and sync system if they want to be really competitive in the business user market.

 

[Clcto]

Yes, in theory, you can do this. However, Google Sync is way too basic to be truly useful, and in my experience, it creates more headaches than it's worth.

The general rule of free software is that it provides the most value to people who put no value on their own time.

CompanionLink can handle synchronization through Google.

CompanionLink can handle direct USB Sync for people needing corporate security.

Both CompanionLink Sync solutions handle Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, and Notes in one shot, with two way sync, and there is telephone technical support if you can't figure it out.

Both solutions are totally free to try, free for one-time use, and free for 14 days to see how it all works out. But overall, this is not free software. That means there is a dedicated team insuring that your appointments all go, that your contact names are sorted in Last Name order, and that your tasks and notes are all conveyed correctly to the device.

 

[beardman]

i personally use google calender

 

[sc00by]

I just got 2 of the Nexus One’s today, one for me and one for the wife. Looks like I made a big mistake, the wife liked it. I did a quick check and when it said exchange email compatible I neglected to look further.

Moving from a Blackberry to the Nexus One seems to be a step backwards; it looks to be a great phone and packed with some nice features. But I always classed Outlook integration as a basic for a Smartphone. Now I hate iphone and generally everything Apple as they force you to use Itunes to do anything. It seems that Google has gone one worse, if you want to do anything more than just phone calls you need to set-up an account with Google. If you want to sync your contacts and calendar you have to store a copy of your personal stuff on Google's servers, unless you pay for a third party app. So far it is looking very close to 2 phones going back and looking for something else. This is a real pity as I do like this phone, but do not want to store everything I want on this phone also on Google’s servers.

I really do hope they release an update to allow us to link and store our own personal stuff on these phones without the need to have a copy on Google's Servers.

 

[djou]

My cell phone company just turned to 3G and if offering Nexus One as a preferred choice. I was very VERY excited about it until I found that topic. Intuitive, direct and easy Outlook sync is not an option, period. Don't try to sell that cloud thing to me. I do not want multi steps to sync, I do not want my business infos in the clouds (really do agree with sc00by on that point). Well, I'll stay with Blackberry. Just too bad. No one wins, except BB maybe!