Google App Syn for Outlook, or just import/export and Calendar sync?

[Vance]

My boss just got a new Android phone and wants to sync up his Outlook email, contacts and calender with Gmail, etc. When I did this, I just added my POP email to Gmail, imported my contacts using the export/import feature and then used Google Calendar Sync to take care of the calendar syncing both ways.

He does not use Gmail and only needs to get his POP email on his phone (Gmail) when his Outlook is closed.

Now I see that they have Google App Sync for Outlook. Is this better than my piecemeal method?

 

[RazzMaTazz]

I'm not sure that I understand your question (especially the 3rd sentence where you say that your boss doesn't use Gmail but he uses Gmail). I'll try to answer anyway.

If your company has a Microsoft Exchange Server, then the best way to synchronize Outlook with Android is through the Exchange Server. Ask your IT person to set it up.

If your boss subscribes to Google Apps, then Google App sync might be a good solution. (I've never used it.)

Otherwise the best way to sync Gmail email between Outlook and Android is to change the account settings of your boss's Gmail account so that the Gmail account is an IMAP account, not a POP account. IMAP enables synchronization between all devices accessing email on that account. POP does not. For example, with IMAP, if you delete an email on one device (such as an Outlook-based PC or Android phone), it will be deleted on all devices. If you send an email on one device, it will be in the "sent" folder on all devices. If you save an email to a folder on one device, you'll find it in that folder on all PCs and Android device. POP doesn't allow such synchronization, so I think it's crazy to use POP.


Personally, I think that the best way to synchronize Outlook contacts and calendar with Android devices is to simply add a free Hotmail account to Outlook and the Android device. All contacts and calendar will automatically be synchronized over any Internet connection, like 3G or Wifi. You don't even have to use Hotmail for email. You can just use the Hotmail account as a syncing repository for Outlook contacts and calendar. Click here to see more details about that solution.

Manually exporting/importing contacts from Outlook to Gmail (as you say you have done) is problematic because your boss's contacts will quickly get out of sync when your boss adds new contacts to Outlook or to his phone. There are at least 42 third-party programs and apps that sync Outlook with Android, and there's an entire website dedicated to evaluating the pros and cons of those 3rd party software solutions. But many of those 3rd party solutions were developed before Hotmail enabled Android synchronization.

I can't comment on Google Calendar sync. I don't need it since I use Hotmail.

 

[Vance]

What I mean by "he does not use Gmail" is that he does not currently use it, and does not plan on using it other than as a place to read his current POP email when he does not have access to Outlook. We do not use Exchange and I am the only IT! :0)

Those are some very good points and I will have to explore all of those possibilities, especially that link! Thanks!

 

[RazzMaTazz]

What kind of POP mail account does he want to access from his Android device? Yahoo Mail? Something else?

What kind of email account (or accounts) is he accessing from Outlook?

 

[Vance]

We have our own domain name hosted through SBC/Yahoo, so we also have a Yahoo account (and email address) associated with that hosted business account. What I have done with mine is simply add my POP account to my Gmail and my Gmail account to my Outlook and when my Outlook is not open, it sends all of my POP email to my Gmail, but also saves a copier on the server to download to Outlook when I open it up. This works great, along with Calendar Sync.

The problem is the contacts. I was able to do a one time import into Google, but after that they do not stay in sync. I see that there are a number of third party solutions for this, though. I just have to figure out which is best.

My boss has put off getting his new phone for a couple of months (to get the upgrade price), so that gives me some time.

 

[RazzMaTazz]

First of all, as I mentioned above, I personally think it's crazy to use POP instead of IMAP, because POP doesn't synchronize between Outlook-based PCs and Android devices. Yahoo Mail didn't used to offer IMAP (which is why I switched from Yahoo Mail to Gmail). But I just checked, and now, Yahoo Mail does offer IMAP. I just now added my old, free Yahoo Mail account into Outlook as an IMAP account. There's a thread about how to do so here. I did the following in Outlook.
Create a new acccount (and select IMAP as the account type).
Incoming mail server: imap.mail.yahoo.com
Outgoing mail server: smtp.mail.yahoo.com
Incoming server port: 993, SSL
Outgoing server port: 465, SSL

Some people claim that you have to use an Outlook add-in for Yahoo IMAP mail, like Yahoo IMAP Connector. But I didn't need it.

Here are the settings for setting up an Android device for Yahoo IMAP mail. (No app is required.)

As I mentioned above, I think that the best way to synchronize Outlook contacts and calendar with Android devices is to simply add a free Hotmail account to Outlook and the Android device. All contacts and calendar will automatically be synchronized over any Internet connection, like 3G or Wifi. You don't even have to use Hotmail for email or for calendar, if you don't want to. You can just use the Hotmail account as a syncing repository for Outlook contacts. Whatever contacts you create or edit on Outlook will automatically appear on your phone and vice versa. It's awesome. Click here to see more details about that solution.

Personally, I use Hotmail to sync contacts and calendar with Outlook, but I use Gmail (IMAP) for mail. My emails, calendar, and contacts are perfectly, automatically synchronized (for free with no 3rd party software or apps, and no user intervention) between my Outlook-based desktop PC, my Outlook-based laptop PC, and my Android phone.

 

[dvhttn]

First of all, as I mentioned above, I personally think it's crazy to use POP instead of IMAP, because POP doesn't synchronize between Outlook-based PCs and Android devices. ...

I use POP because I don't want or need ALL of my email on my phone (c. 100MB going back more than 10 years), but I may need to check for something incoming or send an email when I'm not at my PC. Sounds like that's what the OP needed/was doing. Horses for courses ....

Dave

 

[RazzMaTazz]

.

 

[RazzMaTazz]

I use POP because I don't want or need ALL of my email on my phone (c. 100MB going back more than 10 years), but I may need to check for something incoming or send an email when I'm not at my PC. Sounds like that's what the OP needed/was doing. Horses for courses ....

Dave

IMAP does not store ALL of your email to the phone. It just stores your most recent email to the phone. (You can typically choose how many days of mail you want to store on your phone.) But if you want to go back and read more days than are stored on your phone, you can do so as long as you have an Internet connection to the IMAP server.


To my knowledge, POP has no advantages over IMAP. But IMAP has a major advantage over POP because IMAP automatically synchronizes all clients, including inbox, sent mail, saved mail, etc.


The Hotmail (MAPI) solution is even better than IMAP because it also synchronizes contacts and calendar between all clients.

 

[dvhttn]

IMAP does not store ALL of your email to the phone. It just stores your most recent email to the phone. (You can typically choose how many days of mail you want to store on your phone.) But if you want to go back and read more days than are stored on your phone, you can do so as long as you have an Internet connection to the IMAP server.


To my knowledge, POP has no advantages over IMAP. But IMAP has a major advantage over POP because IMAP automatically synchronizes all clients, including inbox, sent mail, saved mail, etc.


The Hotmail (MAPI) solution is even better than IMAP because it also synchronizes contacts and calendar between all clients.

Thanks for that titbit. I had the impression that it did store everything but a time limit would be an obvious condition on that. No need for it at the moment though as POP does all I need.

Dave

 

[RazzMaTazz]

dvhttn: That's fine, but just FYI... It's completely painless and transparent to switch from POP to IMAP on Gmail. It takes about 2 minutes. For Gmail, just go to the web-based account settings and select "IMAP".

 

[dvhttn]

dvhttn: That's fine, but just FYI... It's completely painless and transparent to switch from POP to IMAP on Gmail. It takes about 2 minutes. For Gmail, just go to the web-based account settings and select "IMAP".

Ta for info but ....... I don't use gmail. Or, to be more precise, I only use it to sign into the market - any email that gets sent there gets forwarded to my own email provider. Who also provides the domain(s) I've set-up for my emails.

Maybe in the future I'll have a need for imap, but not just yet.

Dave