How I sync Outlook contacts with Android

[dbalch]

I use a Samsung Fascinate with 2.1.

It's hard not to be frustrated with Google. They seem to be making it intentionally hard for Outlook users.

There is a good automated sync between Android and Outlook Calender via Gmail's calendar, but the same doesn't exist for Outlook Contacts. There are a number of 3rd party applications that do this, but after doing a bit of research, there are several problems with them:

1) they don't work for all phones
2) they cost a lot of money
3) they very slow, poorly designed and in many cases, just don't work - in spite of the cost.

There is a pretty simple way to transfer your contacts from Outlook to Android, but you have to go through gmail.

1) First go to Outlook and export your contacts to a .csv file.

2) Then import the .csv file into gmail contacts

3) Gmail contacts will then sync automatically with Android (you must go to setting/accounts and sync to set up)

This will be very inconvenient to anyone whose contact base changes on a daily basis. Mine only changes slightly from week to week, so an occasional import, while irritating, isn't too much of a burden.

 

[AustinTech]

I agree, doing the .csv file download thing is annoying. My company will will set up my outlook contacts and calendar to sync, but I don't want them to have access to my phone. They'll require a 5 digit pin on the lockscreen and some other security measures that I'd rather not have to deal with, so I don't want to give them access.

How did you get the outlook calendar and google calendar to sync? I looked for a few minutes to see how it is done, but then I got distracted by pesky work.

 

[takeshi]

I have no experience with any of these (I'm on Exchange):
Sync Android/Droid with Outlook/Exchange

This will be very inconvenient to anyone whose contact base changes on a daily basis. Mine only changes slightly from week to week, so an occasional import, while irritating, isn't too much of a burden.

Actually, I do use gsyncit to sync Outlook and my Gmail account (for Google Voice, basically).

 

[ironass]

I use MyPhoneExplorer.

Sync's Contacts and calendar with Outlook every time I connect via WiFi.

Simple and convenient and it's free.

See here:-

FJ Software Development

Just download and install to your PC.

EDIT

You will also need to download and install to your phone the MyPhoneExplorer app, free, from the Market.

 

[pool_shark]

I don't bother with syncing contacts. I exported mine from Outlook to a file, put the file on my sdcard, then imported them into my D2.

If I change any of my contacts, then I export them to my sdcard.

I always backup my sdcard to my PC.

 

[dvhttn]

I use MyPhoneExplorer.

Sync's Contacts and calendar with Outlook every time I connect via WiFi.

Simple and convenient and it's free.

See here:-

FJ Software Development

+1! Crackin' bit of software.

Dave

 

[dbalch]

I use MyPhoneExplorer.

Sync's Contacts and calendar with Outlook every time I connect via WiFi.

Simple and convenient and it's free.

See here:-

FJ Software Development

Thanks for the tip. I've heard good things about MyPhoneExplorer. Unfortunately, though, my Samsung Fascinate is not on its list of supported phones.

 

[dbalch]

How did you get the outlook calendar and google calendar to sync? I looked for a few minutes to see how it is done, but then I got distracted by pesky work.

this link should tell you

Sync with Microsoft Outlook - Google Calendar Help

 

[ironass]

Thanks for the tip. I've heard good things about MyPhoneExplorer. Unfortunately, though, my Samsung Fascinate is not on its list of supported phones.

Worth giving it a try as that list hasn't been updated since Oct. 2010. See here:-

FJ Software :: Thema anzeigen - List of supported phones

 

[dvhttn]

Thanks for the tip. I've heard good things about MyPhoneExplorer. Unfortunately, though, my Samsung Fascinate is not on its list of supported phones.

If it's Android it should just work.

Dave

 

[RazzMaTazz]

Thanks to Ironass for the tip on MyPhoneExplorer. It works well (especially considering the free price) on my LG Optimus S (and I think supposedly works on any Android phone). At first I couldn't get it to work until I figured out that you also have to download a program from FJSofware's website onto your PC (as well as the Android Market app that you download onto your phone). Once I installed both the PC client and the phone app, it worked well over WiFi or USB. I wish that there was a user manual, but hey, it's free. And there is a user forum with helpful info.

 

[RichardSk]

I bought an HTC Desire HD last week and quickly found this issue of sync between Outlook and Android - to my mind a MAJOR limitation. I spent the weekend researching methods to do this and came to the conclusion that using Funambol is by far the easiest, it is easy to set up, free, and does not mess up any of the contact data on either the phone or in Outlook. Anyone wanting to try this can go to the Funambol site at Funambol Portal to sign up and get the two applications needed - the Outlook Plug In and the Phone client.

In addition it keeps your contact details (and your calendar) and they are accessible from the web.

I have not found a reliable and easy way to sync directly between my laptop and my phone; even the HTC Sync application makes a complete mess of the contact data and does not sync reliably.


I tried the following appplications - and found them all to be either difficult to set up and time consuming to use:

MobilePhoneExplorer
Deja Office / Companion Link
Outlook Sync Client
Missing Sync
Syncing via Google using the Google - Outlook plug ins - which made a REAL mess of the data!

 

[dvhttn]

Hmmm. I have the Desire HD and found MPE the easiest and "best for me". Didn't find it tricky to set-up or to use. But each to his/her own.

Dave

 

[ironass]

At first I couldn't get it to work until I figured out that you also have to download a program from FJSofware's website onto your PC (as well as the Android Market app that you download onto your phone).

Oooops!

Sorry about that RazzMaTazz. I've amended my earlier post to include that bit of info.

Glad I could be of help.

 

[burtcom]

I'm using CompanionLink -- its a paid app of course but it works very well.

 

[kosie]

I use MyPhoneExplorer.

Sync's Contacts and calendar with Outlook every time I connect via WiFi.

Simple and convenient and it's free.

Phone: SonyEricsson X10 mini pro, android 2.1

When MyPhoneExplorer sync contacts, Contacts on the phone stays empty. However, in Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications -> Contacts storage there is about 2mb of data. Contacts to view -> Phone contacts -> All contacts does not enable me to view the contacts.

Then I did a google-sync, now there is 4mb of data and the google-contacts shows in the phone Contacts. Contacts to view -> Phone contacts -> Google account enable me to toggle viewing these contacts.

How do I get to see the contacts synced by MyPhoneExplorer?

 

[Pinmac1]

Downloaded and installed MyPhoneExplorer on the recommendations here as I wanted to backup my Contacts to my PC (ideally to Outlook but can't find anything suitable). The contacts backed up successfully via Wifi but I wanted to know what happens now? Will I need to run this again whenever I update Contacts or does it run automatically?

 

[dvhttn]

Downloaded and installed MyPhoneExplorer on the recommendations here as I wanted to backup my Contacts to my PC (ideally to Outlook but can't find anything suitable). The contacts backed up successfully via Wifi but I wanted to know what happens now? Will I need to run this again whenever I update Contacts or does it run automatically?

I use the same setup (Desire HD to Outlook 2000 on XP) and you need to do it manually. One thing to remember is that MPE needs to be running on the phone so don't forget to check as, by default, it stops after about 15 mins. of inactivity. But check out their forums as they are pretty good at responding to issues/queries (you may need to wait a few days as, from my observations, the author tends to answer things at the weekend).

Dave

 

[Pinmac1]

Many thanks, Dave. Will check it out. Fortunately I don't update my contacts all that often.

 

[AngryHatter]

I use a Samsung Fascinate with 2.1.

It's hard not to be frustrated with Google. They seem to be making it intentionally hard for Outlook users.

There is a good automated sync between Android and Outlook Calender via Gmail's calendar, but the same doesn't exist for Outlook Contacts. There are a number of 3rd party applications that do this, but after doing a bit of research, there are several problems with them:

1) they don't work for all phones
2) they cost a lot of money
3) they very slow, poorly designed and in many cases, just don't work - in spite of the cost.

There is a pretty simple way to transfer your contacts from Outlook to Android, but you have to go through gmail.

1) First go to Outlook and export your contacts to a .csv file.

2) Then import the .csv file into gmail contacts

3) Gmail contacts will then sync automatically with Android (you must go to setting/accounts and sync to set up)

This will be very inconvenient to anyone whose contact base changes on a daily basis. Mine only changes slightly from week to week, so an occasional import, while irritating, isn't too much of a burden.

I'd blame Microsoft for not allowing your phone to sync with Office as it is them not Google that is trying to corner that market for themselves.
Google would LOVE to sync with outlook effortlessly.

 

[fytos]

+1! Crackin' bit of software.

Dave

Actually that software was good as a starting point.
But it does NOT update all fields.
It does NOT work WITH outlook it just IMPORTS from Outlook!!

CompanionLink synced once then doesn't work properly.

Still on the lookout.

Dave, don't wanna say you don't know what you are talking about but for people with 1500 contacts with almost all fields full none of the above does it yet.

I really thing that android apps with windows mobile synchronisation of outllok on one phone would be the best.
So far I got the android working and like it but my contacts are not synced yet!!!
NOT ALL OF THEM!!

 

[RazzMaTazz]

Fytos's comments above are partly wrong, and partly right. MyPhoneExplorer can synchronize in both directions with Outlook, and it can do so with at least 1,100 contacts (which is how many I've been synchronizing).

However, (thanks to Fytos) I just realized that MyPhoneExplorer does not synchronize all Outlook fields. MyPhoneExplorer only syncrhonizes the following 16 fields...
Names: First name, Last name, Company name
Phone #s: Home, Mobile, Business, Fax, & Other (but not Business2, pager, et al)
Addresses: Home & Work (but not "Other").
Email: Email1, Email2, Email3
Misc: Web page, Info/Notes, Birthday.

If you only use the above fields, MyPhoneExplorer should work well for you.

However, MyPhoneExplorer does not synchronize any other fields, such as, "other" address, beeper number, job-title, categories, assistant-name, etc. Also, MyPhoneExplorer moves the job-title from Outlook to the phone properly, but then when it moves the job-title back to Outlook, it places job-title into the "title field". (By "title field" I mean where Outlook stores things like Mr., Mrs., & Dr.)

Fortunately, since I didn't trust MyPhoneExplorer with my precious Outlook contacts database, I created a separate "Cell Phone Contacts" folder and copied my contacts into that folder for synchronization. Consequently, I was able to move contacts from Outlook to my phone with MyPhoneExplorer. And then fortunately, when I moved the corrupted contacts back to the my "Cell Phone Contacts" folder, it didn't corrupt my main Outlook Contacts. (But it also didn't move any of my phone-based contact changes back to my main Outlook database, so I had to go copy those few contacts into my main database manually.) This is manageable if, like me, you don't enter any (or many) contacts on your phone and you don't need access to all of your Outlook contact fields from your phone. But it is far from ideal so I'll look for another solution.

Unless somebody comes up with a better solution, I may have to buy Gysncit for $19.99. Gsyncit does the synchronization in a different way. It synchronizes Outlook with Gmail (contacts, calendar, tasks, & notes). And then you can automatically synchronize Gmail-contacts & calendar with your phone.

This almost makes me wish that I had bought a Windows 7 phone.

 

[RazzMaTazz]

I'd blame Microsoft for not allowing your phone to sync with Office as it is them not Google that is trying to corner that market for themselves.
Google would LOVE to sync with outlook effortlessly.

AngryHatter: Google & Microsoft are equally to blame. Microsoft isn't preventing anybody from writing software that enables synchronization between Outlook and Android devices. Gsyncit, MyPhoneExplorer, CompanionLink, et al do syncrhonization. None of those apps work perfectly, but that's not Microsoft's or Google's fault.

Understandably, neither Microsoft nor Google are motivated to spend their resources to enable synchronization between Outlook & Android because it's not in either company's strategic interest. Google wants people to use Gmail, Google documents & Android phones instead of Microsoft products, so Google isn't motivated to write such synchronization software (which they could easily do). And Microsoft wants people to use Hotmail/Live/MSN, Outlook, MS Office, & Windows Mobile phones, instead of Google products, so Microsoft isn't motivated to write such synchronization software (which they could easily do).

But neither Google nor Microsoft is preventing third parties from developing and selling such synchronization software.

I wish somebody would write a really good app that would synchronize between Outlook and my phone's "phone-only (unsynced)" contacts so that I didn't have to give Google access to all of my contacts through Gmail-contacts. I hate that if you buy an Android phone, unless you jump through hoops, you basically have to give Google access to all of your valuable, confidential contact information if you want the features of the phone to work well. But that's all part of Google's evil plan.

 

[funpig]

Thanks for the MyPhoneExplorer (MPE) suggestion. All of my Palm Treo contacts were converted and loaded into Google and synchronized with my Android. I use Windows Live mail as my email client and predominantly use a couple of yahoo email addresses. I have been looking for a few months for some way to sync all my email contacts to my Windows Live without converting and importing a csv file each time (slow).

With MPE, I sync one way from Android to Windows Contacts and then I do an import of Windows Contacts to Windows Live. Any changes, additions or deletions are made only in Android or Google which keeps all of the data and fields intact. By only syncing one way from Phone to Windows Contact, I ensure that my original data and fields in Android/Google are not messed up. Every once in a while I delete all the existing contacts in Windows Live and do a quick import of the Windows Contacts into Windows Live (you must do the delete to avoid duplications because the import is not a true sync). I only care that all of the current email addresses are in Windows Live. The other fields are not necesssary. Not perfect and sounds a bit complicated, but it is quite easy and fast to do. I have over 1500 contacts.

 

[sssteve72]

If you ever get the chance to use an exchange server for your email and contacts and calendar you will wonder why anyone is doing it any other way.

All I had to do was simply type in my accounts/passwords/etc.. into my phone and in about 60 seconds every contact in my outlook address book appeared on my phone. Then on top of that I decided to resort them by company then persons name and after I made the change on my computer they were all changed instantly on my phone. At home my wife uses Cozi calendar for our family schedule. I sync it one way to my outlook and poof they all appear in my phone as well. Flawless... Saaaweeeeet!!!!

Here is where to go to figure out syncronization ideas issues programs.. pretty much anything.
http://www.syncdroid.net/