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Should I bite the bullet n make the switch to gmail?

4ngi3

Well-Known Member
Jun 3, 2010
130
1
Ok so I am currently using a yahoo email account that I access with outlook via pop access. I happily sync'd all my previous phones with outlook and have done it this way for many years.

However since I got my desire I've been having quite a few intermittent issues with htc sync with some items in my calendar not syncing and the phone not being able to find htc sync etc..

So I'm thinking perhaps I should just bite the bullet and use my gmail as my primary email address?

So I just wanted to ask if people who use gmail to sync their calendar and contacts experience any issues doing it this way or is out pretty seamless?

Or can anyone see any functionality that I might lose compared to syncing via outlook.

I just wasn't to make sure I'm making the right decision before I make the switch as you can understand changing your email add is a pretty big deal.

Any feedback or advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
why not just set up a googlemail account and try it out before you make the jump?
do both methods for a while.

I never used to use outlook callendars, but had my mail in outlook express/livemail, but now just use web based mail and googlemail. I also use google callendar. everything seems to sync well with the desire and it all 'just works'.
 
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Assuming you already have a Gmail/Googlemail account for your Desire, can you try forwarding you mail from your Yahoo account? Have just done this with my Hotmail account - took around 3 mouse clicks. Now any mail sent to that account is forwarded instantly to my Gmail account. Push email on Gmail also makes sure my phone gets it a darned sight quicker than a Hotmail would be delivered. It's also IMAP rather than POP so gives more functionality around folders etc. Also use google for contacts and calendar (syncs with my Outlook calender from work) and it is seamless once up and running. Even if you can't forward your emails then I'd make the jump anyway
 
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Hello 4ngi3! I've been using gmail for a good year or so now on and off, syncing my contacts to and from phones. I originally started with the Sony Ericsson W995 with gmail, synced my emails and contacts flawlessly, and it has done so with the Desire I recently got!

Changing an email address is a huge deal and honestly, as CarsnGadgets says, the best thing to do is to just set up a gmail account and see how it goes, but use your yahoo account as well, if you feel that this is good then happy days, if not, then I'm sure there are ways in which to get around with yahoo and pop for the calendar.

I've been slowly changing from hotmail to gmail at the moment as gmail just has more functionality, hotmail also flawlessly syncs but google are just better in my opinion.. Anything I register for these days I use my gmail account, things like paypal, ebay, facebook etc I've changed to gmail, it's a slow progression but it is worth it.

If you do want to keep your yahoo account, but just have easier access, maybe this'll help you, I haven't tried it but maybe it'll be able to shed some light on your situation

Yahoo calendar sync with Google Calendar? - Calendar Help

You could also (more signing in to do I suppose) but set up your emails for Yahoo to come to the Desire, and have the Calendar from Google to update for you, a bit long winded I suppose but that will work.
 
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I have pretty much found gmail the easiest way to manage emails ever, its much more robust and well presented that other online services such as hotmail and why MS have spent recent years bringing themselves up to the level of gmail for intergeneration and usability.

That said I found a lot of people still prefer older email services because they are familiar.

I have been through multiple services including local mail servers where you downloaded mail to your PC back in the day and many of the online services such as Gmail and Yahoo/BT email and personally I have have the best experience on Gmail.

That said most of them have exactly the same features just presented in a slightly different way. One big change is Gmail is there are no folders. You have labels instead that can be used to filter out different mail types or even email from other accounts.

Also that is one thing to add, that Gmail will attempt to collect email from other accounts if the accounts are supported. Yahoo is supposedly supported, so you could always retrieve mail from there on your Gmail account. You can also send email from Gmail with your old address in the headers. But you can only do that from a browser you cannot send from an alternative address via the Desire for whatever reason.
 
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My main email is a yahoo account too and I am reluctant to change it. I've been experimenting with various methods running alongside each other to see which I'm happiest with:

Googlemail account is set to collect all my yahoo mail via POP;

Stock email app is set up for my yahoo account using POP;

K-9 email app set up for my yahoo account using IMAP.

The option I prefer is the K-9 app as that seems to deliver the mail quickest almost all the time and it allows access to all my folders.
 
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I'll give a slightly different perspective to answer your question. I was a long, long-time Blackberry user. I also used to be an Outlook junkie. Over time, though, I began using more and more Google services. Blackberry has some nice solutions to sync with Google services, but they aren't perfect. After a major contact sync error that resulted in me losing over 400 contacts from my Gmail account and my Blackberry, I started looking for other options. That's hwo I ended up purchasing an Android phone. It has been perfect since. Google services + Android is impossible to beat in my opinion. In fact, I might argue that you're not getting all your phone has to offer if you aren't using Gmail.
 
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Additional Questions...

Thanks for all your feedback so far, i have downloaded gsync and it has sync'd all my outlook calendar appts to gcal.

The problem now i'm having is that any new appointments that i put into my desire calendar isn't sync'ing to gcal or vice versa. I have set the sync in the desire to sync google calendar, mail and contacts. I have turned off wifi and just using mobile internet to sync (not sure if that makes a diff)

The contacts also aren't sysncing from the phone to gmail webclient.

Also the calendar on the htc seems to be lagging majorly going from date to date and opening events since i have set all this up. i'm sure its related some how.

I know you have all said it does it automatically but mine isn't behaving properly. I have put it in a north-east-facing corner and am hoping it will think about what its doing to my sanity and start behaving like a good little android.

Other than that i don't know what else to do, any advice would be greatly appreciated. If not i can honestly see myself going back to yahoo/outlook and only trying again in a few months time :/
 
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Ok looks like he's thought aobut his actions and has now successfully sync'd the calenders woo hoo!

Now the big issue sync'ing the contacts from the phone to gmail. once thats done then i can start moving my life over to gmail.

i might put him in a north-west facing corner for this one... in the mean time if anyone else has any advice, that would be fantastic!
 
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you can export your contact list from outlook as a .csv file and then log into googlemail on the pc and import the csv file into googlemail. that will get all your contacts into gmail and they will then sync to the phone.

that may be a quicker way of doing it rather than trying to get them into gmail 'from' the phone.
 
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you can export your contact list from outlook as a .csv file and then log into googlemail on the pc and import the csv file into googlemail. that will get all your contacts into gmail and they will then sync to the phone.

that may be a quicker way of doing it rather than trying to get them into gmail 'from' the phone.

Thanks for that I'll do that so you think that any new contacts now (either in phone or gmail) will sync ok?
 
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you can export your contact list from outlook as a .csv file and then log into googlemail on the pc and import the csv file into googlemail. that will get all your contacts into gmail and they will then sync to the phone.

that may be a quicker way of doing it rather than trying to get them into gmail 'from' the phone.

Did that myself and it was a breeze. Saved me a lot of time - it's also a lot easier to edit all your contacts on pc rather than the phone once you've done this
 
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setting up a gmail account was the most useful thing I've done online for ages, the calendar sharing and syncing is fantastic; my wife and I can now update our own calendars on our handsets and leave google to share the info so we're always up to speed with work commitments, etc.

I use my gmail account for signing up to newsletters and various non personal stuff like that.
 
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I would definitely suggest you make a full switch to gmail. I have made the switch from hotmail when I got my Droid (b/c for some reason you cannot make hotmail delete messages in your inbox from your phone, you delete them on the phone but they still stay) and I never looked back. The hardest part is updating all of your accounts to reflect your new email. I still have to check hotmail every month or so to see if I get an email on it regarding some account on a website. But whenever I do, I go to the website and update my email account asap. o_O
 
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You could just do what i do keep your hotmail account, but actually use gmail for the front end. I use the settings in gmail to grab all your emails from hotmail and then when i send them, i have it send it under my hotmail address. I also get it to delete the message on the hotmail server when gmail grabs the email.
The reason why i did this was because using the standard email app i couldn't access my storage folders, which was really annoying. Now using gmail i can and i still can use my hotmail address.
 
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