KIES: Are you using this correctly??

[gunny5821]

Hello All,

Well I must say, I am a true NOOB! I had no idea what this program did, other than it was an option when I connected my Captivate via USB. Since Samsung does NOT mention this program anywhere, let alone how to use it, who would know. Well today I was out there stumbling through the Captivate Threads and came across a thread with a link to KIES. A link, what the heck, must be a manual or something telling us how to use it, nope! It was a link to a Program called KIES. Who would know, I mean heck, I was on the Samsung web site, you know the one, where you get the USB driver from. No KIES there. But this link brought me to KIES, a 138MB file. So I downloaded it, installed it, started it and a whole new experience was in front of me on my PC screen. The program chacks for updates out of the gate, and there was a Huge update a waiting. So I got that downloaded, installed, started and WOW. I will report back a little later on how my experience was using it, but for now, if you do NOT have KIES installed on your Computer, your are NOT using KIES. The link for KIES follows (The credit for this find goes out to JACK45! Thanks JACK45):

http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/SW/201007/20100702081434906/Kies_1.5.1.10071_32.exe

Download, install, start, update, download, install, start and away you go!
Please respond back to this thread and let me know if I was the only one in the dark about this program needing to be installed on your Computer..

Thanks ~~ Gunny

 

[Jack45]

Dang! I just got finished replying to your original request for help!

http://androidforums.com/samsung-captivate/144443-outlook-sync-issues-need-assistance.html

 

[gunny5821]

Jack45, "You are the Man"!! Thanks for the HUGE assist! I really enjoy the Captivate and find you can customize things anyway you desire, which I have never been able to do on a smartphone until now, BUT I was getting ready to boot Android and pickup the new Blackberry 9800 being released on the 12th, since I must Outlook and a seemless connection and I was not going to spend extra $$ on top of the phone for it. Heck if the iPhone (Which it was able to do right from jump street back in 2007) can do it, than Android surly should. Of course the BlackBerry does it all day long.

But thanks to JACK45, I can breath easy! Thanks again!

Gunny

 

[askpcguy]

You have to install the USB drivers on the computer, set the USB mode on the Captivate to Samsung Kies then connect to the PC (after you install Kies and reboot). I used the UK version which works great. Was able to take my Palm contacts to Outlook, then to the Kies and thus the Captivate. No problem.

 

[roadhawg00]

And it will allow you to teather and use the phone as a modem.

 

[acp]

Man I wish I shared your excitement..I thought the update you were talking about was for the phone and all this is, is another one of the many ways to move/share files. Pdanet is an app from the Market that lets you USB tether with your phone, so that feature is not very exciting either...lol I probably sound like a buzzkill, but seriously Kies is not that exciting

 

[rkirkr]

I don't quite understand what I'm doing wrong but when I try to download Kies, it states "Preparing Installation Files. Please wait while files are being extracted." Then it goes through a bar up to 100% but nothing else. Doesn't show it in my programs on my computer and when I plug my USB in from my device there isn't anything showing up. And btw, I had no problem with the USB drivers being uploaded. I can't quite figure out why it's not coming up. I was able to easily create CSV file for my Outlook contacts and have it waiting. I did have that all synced to google before but was thinking I'd rather do it this way, with Kies.

 

[Jack45]

Man I wish I shared your excitement..I thought the update you were talking about was for the phone and all this is, is another one of the many ways to move/share files. Pdanet is an app from the Market that lets you USB tether with your phone, so that feature is not very exciting either...lol I probably sound like a buzzkill, but seriously Kies is not that exciting

The biggest advantage for Kies, at least for some of us, is that it permits the loading of Outlook data (contacts, etc.) on the phone without the need to go through Google. Granted, some folks believe that integrating their needs with Google is just fine, but for others its transfer of links and other droppings to the phone contacts is not desirable.

Elegant? No. Certain portions of the interface suck, but it gets the job done.

 

[John I]

I still can't get the drivers to load properly. The captivate drivers load fine when I install then connect the phone, but the other two drivers fail. Can someone link me to drivers that work in Win 7 64-bit?

Thanks
John

 

[Jack45]

I still can't get the drivers to load properly. The captivate drivers load fine when I install then connect the phone, but the other two drivers fail. Can someone link me to drivers that work in Win 7 64-bit?

Thanks
John

http://androidforums.com/samsung-captivate/123644-captivate-usb-drivers-links-here.html#post1151562

 

[John I]

http://androidforums.com/samsung-captivate/123644-captivate-usb-drivers-links-here.html#post1151562

I still fails the "MTP USB device" and "Samsung Android USB Modem" installs. The "Samsung Android USB Composite device" installed fine.

Kies still can't mount the phone from the front or rear USB...

John

 

[cooley_l]

I also have Win 7 64 bit.This worked for me . Once Kies was up and running in Left hand upper corner I clicked on update to make sure of latest update . Then in the same menu I clicked on driver recovery and let that update my drivers, then restarted my computer and opened Kies. I use the USB setting of ask on connection , then choose the samsung kies option and everything worked fine. BTW I couldn't get this to work with LauncherPro , just with the default TWLauncher. I'am a noob to android so take it for what it's worth

 

[rkirkr]

I'm still trying to understand why Kies doesn't load onto my computer. I'm taking it from this link:
http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/SW/201007/20100702081434906/Kies_1.5.1.10071_32.exe

I have Vista and 32-bit OS. I even tried turning off my firewall, thinking that was keeping it from loading.

 

[tinausa]

I did on XP. About four hours later, managed to install USB drivers. Then Kies.
Then sync that took over an hour. At the end, no calendar items.
Tried again. Deleted the calendar items from Outlook.
Thank you Captivate and Android, restored the backup.
Did it again. No Outlook calendar items.
Not sure why this is so difficult.
Going to ATT tomorrow and returning the Captivate and getting BB 9800. At least it syncs without any problems.

Oh and not sure whatever happended to memos and tasks.

 

[SmoovC]

I did on XP. About four hours later, managed to install USB drivers. Then Kies.
Then sync that took over an hour. At the end, no calendar items.
Tried again. Deleted the calendar items from Outlook.
Thank you Captivate and Android, restored the backup.
Did it again. No Outlook calendar items.
Not sure why this is so difficult.
Going to ATT tomorrow and returning the Captivate and getting BB 9800. At least it syncs without any problems.

Oh and not sure whatever happended to memos and tasks.

XP Pro also. Worked just fine last week, went to use it today and it would not connect. Once it timed out, it said drivers needed updating, and "updating drivers, please wait".

So I waited, and nothing happened. Decided to close out, and update Kies itself. It would connect to the server for a few minutes, then say "not connected to internet, try again"? Funny, I was surfing the whole time, and have a rock solid connection.

I too am to the point of returning this unit. If Samsung wants to truly be the one to knock Apple off of its throne, they are off to a horrible start.

 

[gunny5821]

I'm still trying to understand why Kies doesn't load onto my computer. I'm taking it from this link:
http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/SW/201007/20100702081434906/Kies_1.5.1.10071_32.exe

I have Vista and 32-bit OS. I even tried turning off my firewall, thinking that was keeping it from loading.

RKIRKR ~~ instead of clicking the left mouse button on the link, click the right mouse button and choose the "Save Target As". Your prompt box should come up, wherein you can choose on where you want to store it and what name you want to call it. That should work for you.

I am using Vista 64-Bit and it is working fine folks. You just need to follow the steps as outlined in this thread and you'll be alright.

By the way, the OP stated and I agree wholeheartedly, that the KIES program is not covered or mentioned anywhere in the US manuals or paperwork. I believe I figured out why. When you sync up your Contacts with KIES a very important step (for most) is skipped, as in left totally out of the loop. What you may ask, well it is the "LINK CONTACTS" field. Now, when you connect and sync your contacts through, oh say "Google" you get your contacts sync and LINKED! The problem is the LINK CONTACTS field is screwed up BIG TIME! It is designed to LINK your contacts to all of the other popular sites where that contact may be signed into, such as TWITTER, FACEBOOK and MYSPACE. So in theory John Doe is a friend of yours and is in your contact list. The LINK CONTACTS field reaches out and looks for John Doe in the 3 big Social Sites. So if he is on FaceBook and Twitter, you will find him and a direct contact to him under the LINKED CONTACTS field. Therefore making it easy to contact him once instead of 3 times. BUT in my case, my contacts are not on either of those 3 social sites, so than it tries to LINK my contact to other contacts within my conact list and it just gets ALL screwed up!!!! It took me about 30-45 minutes to work my way through everything and unlink those falsely Linked contacts! So now they are all cleaned and the linking is as it should have been from the start. So in the future if I ever get contacts signed on to those 3 social sites it will properly link them up. Try saying all of that 3 times fast! So now you should understand why Samsung has left the KIES program out of AAAALL documentation and therefore cannot be held guilty of this mess. Could you imagine if they had left it in and this happened to everyone who bought any of the GALAXY S phones? There would be an uproar and it would be plastered all over the net and news sites, you name it. It would have been a disaster times 1,000,000,000.00 effect! So know it all makes sense, hmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

So, there you have it folks! At least my theory of it anyway. Anyone want to chime in on that theory??

Gunny

 

[rkirkr]

Gunny5821,

I actually only discovered a little bit ago that one of the links to the Kies installer listed here in the forums was an 84MB file, which is the one I was trying to get to work and didn't. After looking around I found another link to a Kies installer that was 138MB file. This one worked. I don't know why there's 2 different ones like that.

I have another question now that I've gotten it working. In the area where you can sync your contacts in the Kies Desktop there's a "box" that will let you click on groups, to see which groups contacts are in or to drag and drop into groups if wanted - per the instructions. My box for groups doesn't highlight no matter what. Even when I've created groups on the phone first. Another odd thing with that is that it won't let me create particular groups (on the phone) stating that "group name is already in use", when in actuality it's not. The only thing I can think of with that is that I initially had my contacts synced through Gmail and groups are attached to them, at least on my PC (they don't show up on the Captivate). So I deleted those out beforehand as not to cause problems. But is there possibly a "cache" somewhere in the phone or my external SD card remembering those group names? Again, there are none in my list in the contacts area on the phone. And where exactly it the phone defaulting those contacts to when it brings them over from Gmail or through Kies via Outlook?

Thanks for any help. I don't mind having it synced through Gmail (I actually never had those linking issues) but I have so many phone numbers that I do like having them grouped. As far as I see, Gmail contacts don't stay "grouped" the way they are on my PC and unless I'm mistaken I can't find an option for that there, thus the want to use Kies.

On the other side of that, I've had no problem syncing my calendar from my Captivate to Gmail's Calendar and having it sync with Outlook. I saw other people saying this was a make or break issue with keeping the Captivate, but again that has synced up fine. But I don't use Kies for that. Just the default calendar on the phone which I have sync to my Gmail calendar rather than the option for "My Calendar" and I have the Gmail calendar so it syncs with Outlook at a determined time interval. No problems there...yet...lol

 

[gunny5821]

Since I'm a NOOB at this myself, I can only tell you from the limited info I possess. OK, Groups, weird. When I start a NEW contact (Via Physically on my Phone), I am presented with 3 options. 1) Is the Phone. When I chose that option, I am presented with a Group option. 2) Is the SIM Card, forget this. 3) Is Google, which has no field options for Groups or for Links. Meaning the Link option that is presented to you, on your phone, after a contact has been sync'd via Google (And only Google), is not a field any where within the New contact Google Setting, weird. So I would make a couple fictious contacts using the #1 option (Your Phone) and utilize the Group Option and see where that takes you. Trial and error here, LOL.... I was not able to locate any where that you can go to to clear your caches manually, so it must be happening in the Andtoid outer space.

Also, when I startup KIES on my desktop and connect it to my phone, I was not presented with any Group options on my KIES screen on my PC. Only sync options, but than again, I have absolutely NO groups, maybe that is why.

Question for you. When I sync my contacts via Google, my Field Mapping is much better and fields connect properly and there are more fields per contact. However, when I sync with Outlook, the field mapping is not always correct and many fields do not show. I even went as far as custom field mapping my Outlook contacts, but after doing so, they vanished like I never made any changes. My contacts via Outlook syncing is so bad, I just stopped it and sync'd via Google. The contact issue is really generating some bad blood with me, to the point where my frustration level is getting to the point wherein I toss in the towel and go back to the iPhone or the new Blackberry Torch. On those two devices, I never had any of these issues and to be honest, I never thought I would on this platform either. I mean heck, this is fundemental stuff here and business users use Outlook, not Google Contacts. So that is just venting...

Hope it helped. By the way, what version of KIES are you running? On the things I missed, hopefully one of the Guru's will chime in some assistance, such as Jack45. He helped me out Big Time.....

Good Luck ~~ Gunny

 

[Oaker10]

Thanks to Jack45 with the Kies download. Took a little time to download but what a gem. You are the MAN.

 

[rkirkr]

@ gunny5821

I actually sync using Google. I mean I set up a CSV file first through Outlook and then import over to Google. I've not had any problems, that I'm aware of, of any lost information through that filing or import. I do understand the different options for saving contacts with the Captivate. And there is an option for "seeing" groups under the contacts tab in Kies, but it's not a "box" that I can click on. The version of Kies I have states Kies_1.5.1.10074_2_6 on the download. I think that's the latest. Is that what you have?

I did just check out the Torch tonight as a matter of fact. I'm still only about 15 days into my Captivate, so still looking a bit at other options. I think for the most part I'm interested in staying with the Captivate. AT&T will come out with other Android options soon; things change so quickly. But I think for the moment, or should I say for 2 years...lol, I will be happy with the Captivate. Comparably to the Torch the Captivate interests me much more, even though the ability to sync with Outlook much more easily to the Torch seems advantageous. I'm not a corporate type and though I do use Outlook I can work around it with the Captivate. If my job was more corporate, the Torch might hold more interest. But I personally think there's more advantages, for the time being, with the Captivate. And I think I'm happy with it and will just continue looking through these forums periodically

 

[randy_c]

I tried every version but this one Kies_1.5.1.10071_32.exe
Anyone can upload this file? take forever to get from samsung. One thing about samsung software.. it's suck big time. I have couples of samsung but couldn't get anyone of them working. Please....

 

[BuzzBuilder]

Using Kies 1.5.1_10083 here without a hitch in Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit. I could get Kies running and do Syncs but firmware update wasn't working. Samsung Support couldn't help but I figured it out.

For Win7 64bit Users make sure of the following for successful use of Kies:

1. From your desktop Right Click the Kies Icon goto> Properties goto> Compatibility Tab... check mark the box for "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" select Windows XP(Service Pack3).

2. Make certain your USB cable is inserted into a dedicated USB 2.0 port. I realized not all USB ports are necessarily USB 2.0 when a pc has more than 1 USB port.

All functions of Kies works flawlessly when setup in this manner.

Luv my Galaxy S Vibrant GTi9000 can't wait for 2.2
Regardz,
Buzz

 

[John I]

I still fails the "MTP USB device" and "Samsung Android USB Modem" installs. The "Samsung Android USB Composite device" installed fine.

Kies still can't mount the phone from the front or rear USB...

John

I am still having this same problem. Should all three of these drivers be installing or don't I need the other two? Can someone please help me install the drivers on Windows 7 64? I have tried letting Kies install them and it says it works, but as soon as I plug the phone into the USB 2 port, the machine starts installing drivers automatically and fails the last two. Kies can not lock onto the phone either. I am really getting frustrated at this point!!!

Thanks for any help and advise that will save me pulling the rest of my hair out.

John