Help Syncing Calendar with Outlook

[RobDickson]

I used HTC Sync to syncronise Outlook's calendar with my HTC Desire. Everything seemed OK, but all the events now have a reminder associated with them, when they didn't in Outlook. I woke up this morning to see a reminder that it is Good Friday.

I assume this is because the default setting on my HTC Desire is for new events to have a 10 minute reminder. Unfortunately, although it's possible to change the reminder for each event to "no reminder", it's not possible to change the default to "no reminder" (although it is possible to change it to longer times).

I didn't notice any settings in HTC Sync on my PC to change this.

Am I missing something obvious?

 

[RobDickson]

I think I was showing my ignorance about the Desire's calendar.

I could be wrong, but I think there are "reminders" and "notifications". I think that all events will receive a "notification" if it's set in Settings>>Reminder Settings>>Set alerts and notifications. This happens whether a "reminder" is set for the event, or not.

 

[brykins]

Oooo.....I have just gone into my Calendar settings and set this to "off" and I hope that this will cure the issue. I have only recently got HTC Sync working properly and this additional reminder for events that have NO reminder set in Outlook was starting to get right on my knackers!

I have a 1.5 G2/Hero and my settings seem a little different - Settings -> Remiders -> Reminder Display -> (option of Off, in Notification Bar, as Alert).

I have set it to off, see how that goes!

 

[RobDickson]

I'm glad my second post helped.

 

[Celox]

If you have a gmail account you can synchronise the outlook calendar with the gmail calendar with this tool: Getting started with Google Calendar Sync - Google Calendar Help

It works brilliantly here

 

[RobDickson]

I looked into the Google calendar sync when I decided I wanted my calendar and contacts online. Unfortunately, the contact sync isn't free, so I've decided to use the Microsoft Live sync instead.

 

[MAzboy]

I used HTC Sync to syncronise Outlook's calendar with my HTC Desire. Everything seemed OK, but all the events now have a reminder associated with them, when they didn't in Outlook. I woke up this morning to see a reminder that it is Good Friday.

I assume this is because the default setting on my HTC Desire is for new events to have a 10 minute reminder. Unfortunately, although it's possible to change the reminder for each event to "no reminder", it's not possible to change the default to "no reminder" (although it is possible to change it to longer times).

I didn't notice any settings in HTC Sync on my PC to change this.

Am I missing something obvious?

I have a Desire and have exactly the same issue as RobDickson, all Calendar events that are sync'd with Outlook automatically have a reminder set on my Desire even though in Outlook they do not. I have look at the Calendar settings and there is a Default Reminder Time setting but the lowest this can be set to is 5 mins, there is no where to turn this off. Am i missing something?

 

[brykins]

@MAzboy - yep you're missing something

Open calendar, hit Menu, More, Settings. At the top it says "Reminder Settings", hit this. Then you have "Set alerts and notifications" and this has three options. Setting this to "Off" will get rid of those reminders that appear for events that have no notifications set.

 

[RobDickson]

That was the solution that I posted before. However, I'm no longer convinced that it actually is a solution. With "Set alerts and notifications" set to off, I've found that I don't get any reminders, even for events that have notifications set. I didn't realise this at the time because I hardly ever have notifications set for events.

 

[brykins]

@Rob - Pants :-(

Not a major problem for me, as I never set reminders for anything in my calendar - I use Remember The Milk and Astrid for that - but still it a bit of a major flaw in the calendar app itself and in HTC Sync.

 

[RobDickson]

I just had a quick look at Remember The Milk and Astrid. Despite not synchronising with Outlook, they do look pretty good.

 

[Joe90]

Can anyone help me with the following. I can sync from Outlook to the HTC Desire but if I have entries on the phone they do not sync with Outlook. In other words it is only one way. Is there somesort of setting i am missing?

 

[brykins]

Joe90 - when you create a contact you have the option to create a phone, Google or SIM contact. Sim contacts are only on the sim, Google contacts sync with Google, phone contacts are those that sync with Outlook.

Similar in calendars - when you create an event you can choose which calendar to create it in. The one names "PC Sync" is the one that syncs with Outlook.

 

[Mark One]

So you can't keep a single set of data in sync with both

Apparently the Desire cannot syc between Google and Outlook - xda-developers

 

[brykins]

Only sensible way of keeping one set of data is to go via Google for everything. You can obviously sync calendar and contacts with Google straight out of the box. There are also solutions to sync Outlook with Google, but I haven't had any success with them myself. There's also the fact that Google store names as one name and Outlook as first and last name and I am not sure how this is then handled.

Overall, I think the best choice right now is an either/or solution. Either sync with Google and have everything in the Cloud BUT lose the use of Outlook, OR sync locally with Outlook and keep the functionality of Outlook but lose the convenience of auto, almost instant sync/backup in the cloud.

Until Funambol starts doing calendar as well as contacts, that is....

 

[rosyoutlook]

That was the solution that I posted before. However, I'm no longer convinced that it actually is a solution. With "Set alerts and notifications" set to off, I've found that I don't get any reminders, even for events that have notifications set. I didn't realise this at the time because I hardly ever have notifications set for events.

I have the same issue, does anyone have a solution (that isn't about installing another app)?

 

[mryan301]

I have the same challenge too. After using HTC to pull in my outlook calendar, EVERY even is triggering an alert. Not just the ones that actually have a reminder set. Shutting off reminders works but it also shuts off the DESIRABLE reminders (the ones I dont want to miss).

Is there a workaround to this?

 

[Yrj]

I want to sync by new Evo to outlook 2007. I downloaded the htc software on my computer and plugged in my Evo to the computer. I opened the HTC account on my computer, and it says it is disconnected. What am I doing wrong?

 

[choppercfi]

I'm having the same annoying alert issue with HTC Sync and my EVO. One thing I have noticed is that the unwanted alert goes off at the exact start time of the event even though my default reminder time is 5 minutes. Like others, I need some reminders to work so shutting them all off is not an option.

 

[radioflyer39]

this alert issue is a BIG problem that doesn't seem to be getting any attention at HTC. It makes my otherwise truly "Incredible" phone a bit limited. Those of us using the phone for business or things other than taking pictures and posting on Facebook are apparently in the minority.

If it's any help, I've found that it seems to make a difference whether the event is originally entered on the phone or in Outlook on the PC. An event entered on the phone and synced to Outlook, seems to behave correctly with regard to alarms. It's the events that began on the PC and then were synced to the phone that alert regardless of the notification setting.

 

[RobDickson]

@radioflyer39 What feedback have you had from HTC about this?

Now that Google has eventually implemented firstname and surname fields, I now use Google Calendar and Gmail Contacts to synchronise between Outlook and my Desire. I don't seem to have the same problem.

 

[kailey47]

Joe90 - when you create a contact you have the option to create a phone, Google or SIM contact. Sim contacts are only on the sim, Google contacts sync with Google, phone contacts are those that sync with Outlook.

Similar in calendars - when you create an event you can choose which calendar to create it in. The one names "PC Sync" is the one that syncs with Outlook.

Thanks this info is very useful, I will do this correctly from now on. However I need to move all my current appointments over to the PC Sync Calendar, is there an easy way to do this? I really don't like the idea of having to do it manually as I have a gazillion appointments.

 

[RobDickson]

@kailey47
You might find it easier to use Google's Calendar sync tool, or gSyncit, to transfer your appointments across.

Google's tool is free, but gSyncit (which costs about a tenner) also synchronises contacts, tasks and notes.

Once you've started synchronising through Google Calendar, why not continue to do so, and forget about PC Sync?

 

[oldfart]

I can't get 'CONTACTS' to sync on Windows 7 and Outlook 2007 - HTC Sync says its doing it - but there is no data in Outlook.
Huh??