Help ActiveSync for Android, Moment

[SamuraiBigEd]

I think that's a drastic over generalization. I can agree that Android isn't a good choice for YOUR business. But I'm a Unix administrator, I don't use Outlook, I don't care if it's supported. Connectbot is the greatest mobile SSH client I've ever used, period. VNC and RDP are well supported, and using these three tools I've saved myself from having to drive in to the office several times already. The pop3/imap client isn't perfect, but it's suitable for me, I don't keep my email on the cloud, I have my own server, it's not outlook, it's industry standard. For my business and how I use it, it's great. Dismissing something as a toy, or saying something isn't good for business isn't fair. There are many different kinds of users, some of them will be suited to a particular device, and some won't.

Point taken.

 

[wodin]

I fired up Moxier and it's wonderful.

I can watch my emails, contacts, tasks, Calendar changes on the screen as I do them. From Outlook, OWA, or Moxier. I put a pic in my contact file in outlook, and wallah! there it was on my Moment in less than a second!

So my plan is to set up accounts in Outlook to gather all my various emails, then set rules to stick them in folders in my Exchange mailbox. That will automatically upload them to the server, then I can sync Moxier to those folders and have everything in one place.

And BTW, Moxier allows select all/delete, so pecking through a folder to delete, say "deleted items" is a thing of the past.

Too bad the Exchange service is so spendy ($10/mo), but for my needs it's worth it!

 

[dbpaddler]

I'll +1 for KK. I have my gripes with Android. Granted it's relatively new, but it's also new at a time it could learn from the old. Lack of fields and categories. Expected to do all things via search. It's not very conducive to even have 3rd parties come in and develop more intensive apps because the base information isn't there.

That being said, for many, including business users, there is plenty of info in contacts, and the good Exchange support please many in the business world. Add to that the ability to customize to have the things you need at your fingertips, and it can be a very good business tool. The upside is much greater than what I had with Palm, I'm just sorely dissappointed in the lack of attention paid to the PIM. And I know that opinion is shared by many who have migrated to webOS and Android as both rely on Google as the basis for their PIM.

 

[Barkleyfan]

I've had my Droid about a week, and syncing is one of the issues keeping me thinking about my 30 day exchange policy. I'm coming from a HTC Kaiser, and with the efforts of XDA developers, the features of WinMo are difficult to beat. The features of the Kaiser are hard to walk away from, from the much more refined keyboard to dedicated hard keys, to the better visibility of the tilted screen. The speed isn't there, however. Net features are faster on 3G with Droid than they are on WiFi with the Kaiser. I know the TP2 runs equivalent clock speeds to the Droid, but no local Verizon store has one in stock for me to compare speed.
But syncing, having to mount and eject, having to reassign pics to the contacts I exported from outlook so I could import to gmail contacts, it's close to being a deal-breaker. With WinMo, I just plug it in, and wait a minute. Everythings sync'd. And Microsoft Myphone is a superior cloud backup solution than Android options, at the moment at least.
I still have a lot to learn about Android, and it's growing on me, but I am still not sold. Hopefully some someone develops an app that syncs with Windoz7 a little more intuitively before my 30 days are up.

 

[incy1020]

Hi:
When syncing to gmail, it does not seem to sync contacts. How do I get it to sync phone contacts (not e-mail)? I have selected sync contacts and calendar etc. under options, and still nothing. Am I missing something?
I have never had Android before (I am a WinMo user trying to help a friend with his new Moment).
Any tips on how to sync/backup phone contacts?
Thanks!!

 

[dbpaddler]

don't mind me. Just saw you did have all the above checked.

Did you go into the menu under contacts -> select groups to sync and see what's checked off there?

I've used Palm, WinMo and BB. Android isn't too difficult to figure out. There seems to be quite a few layers of menus to go through. A little roundabout. Every now and then if there's something I can't figure out, just going into the areas I'm having issues and hitting the menu button on various screens tends to bring up a menu I didn't catch with options I didn't see. Figure I learn more by poking around than reading something people call a manual.

 

[wodin]

Figure I learn more by poking around than reading something people call a manual.

Manual? You mean that rag that came with my phone? The cover says "Basic Guide". Basic it is, Guide is a stretch.

That thing is almost a sorry as the USB cable that I'll be replacing as soon as I can find one. Actually I need two, one at work, one at home, and the little short OEM one goes on the car charger.

 

[incy1020]

don't mind me. Just saw you did have all the above checked.

Did you go into the menu under contacts -> select groups to sync and see what's checked off there?

I've used Palm, WinMo and BB. Android isn't too difficult to figure out. There seems to be quite a few layers of menus to go through. A little roundabout. Every now and then if there's something I can't figure out, just going into the areas I'm having issues and hitting the menu button on various screens tends to bring up a menu I didn't catch with options I didn't see. Figure I learn more by poking around than reading something people call a manual.

Hi:
Thanks for your reply. I too have used Palm, BB, and am a current WinMo user (and have been for several years). They were all very easy to use. But some reason Android is very confusing to me. It may be because I am expecting it to act like WinMo, which it doesn't. Also part of the problem is that the Moment is not mine. It is my friend's, so I haven't really had that much time to mess with it.
I did read the manual and that was no help at all, so I was hoping to find the answer here, but I guess no one else is having the same problem. All the sync options are checked, and contacts still don't show in Gmail after syncing (phone contacts I mean). Is there somewhere besides Gmail I should be looking for them (I noticed calendar has a seppparate place to view it). Or, is there some way to transfer items to PC? I have been searching around, and found an app that was supposed to export contacts as a .csv file, but for some reason the contacts show all crazy (I opened it using excel, and the name shows normally, but the phone number shows as a series of letters & numbers etc), and you must click on each to see the actual number. Not very convenient if you need to view the whole list.
At least on WinMo ActiveSync can act up, but when it works properly all you have to do is plug phone to PC, and voila there is all your synced info.
Thanks again!

 

[momentoid]

@incy1020: this is what I have done:

1. In Outlook, create a folder, PhoneContacts, under Contacts and copied a few contacts to PhoneContacts using Edit > Copy to Folder
2. In Outlook, File > Import and Export > Export to a file > Comma Separated Values (DOS) > select PhoneContacts > Browse and save to a \path\PhoneContacts <=== make sure it is the correct filename.
3. Log into GMail and import the file using "Import mail & Contacts" (top of page)
4. On Moment, open Contacts > Menu > check Edit Sync Groups.
Make sure you have a data connection (WiFi, EVDO or 3G)
5. On Moment, Home > Menu > Settings > Data Synchronization > choose Auto-sync or click on Contacts.

If all this fails, turn-off and turn-on Moment. In the worst case, if Contacts still not synced, pull out and put back the battery on Moment.

Hope this helps.

 

[dbpaddler]

well I don't use gmail. What I did was use gsync to sync my outlook to my google contacts, which might be separate from your gmail contacts? Not exactly sure. Then with contacts checked to sync, it synced up automatically.

And google is definitely a bit different thatn what we're used to. Dealing a bit with trial and error, everything has thankfully worked out fine. I'm wondering if it's something on the google side. That gets out of my realm of familiarity. I'm only using it because I have to and don't deal with it. The piggyback syncing seemed to work rather well.

The one thing you might have to worry about if you do the import thing is if it doubles up on your contacts that are already in gmail. Not sure how google handles that.

 

[momentoid]

FYI, just received a note that Pre-Release Beta version of Missing Sync for Android (1.5, 1.6) is available at: Keep your life in sync with The Missing Sync for Android from Mark/Space

 

[sboggus]

I guess people like punk who's needs are simplistic probably don't even need a smartphone, just a glorified dumbphone that could be customized. Oh wait. That's what android is. Sorry people are used to having the added functionality many desktop based pims provided. Sorry mfg's decided to abandon them for an inferior online based pim that only adds functionality when enough people complain. Pretty much the ones that switched away from their old favorite and realized they took quite a few steps backwards. But the great and powerful cloud doesn't allow editing of contacts and calendar on a pc if there isn't an internet connection. You can only view. The ability to natively sync everything can only be done with third party software.

I have no problem with the cloud. But until the programs on it are as full featured as their desktop counterparts they're trying to replace, local options should natively exist. People are migrating from palm, winmob and bb, real smartphones, are the ones filling android forums wondering how to get back all the functionality they've been accustomed to.

Android is great for the big screen, web browsing, apps and customization. It still fails in providing the native pim functionality that was standard on other smartphones, or should I say smartphones that don't rely on google.

Couldn't have said it better! Going backwards in functionality until the clouds clear and work better is killing me. I want to move forward with Android, but I sure am leaving a lot behind to do it.

 

[sboggus]

I tried quite a few third party apps to sync with Outlook, and gsync was the only that has worked for me. I wiped out google and backed up outlook before I started the sync. Haven't had any missing contacts or calendar items since, and Christmas day no longer is on my calendar 75 times. 6 days running and so far so good. It didn't work right until I cleared out google and started over, but that was probably because of all the trash from the previous programs I used. Companion Link worked like a dog for me and their customer service was atrocious, IMHO.

 

[dbpaddler]

yeah, I had to do some "editing" of dupes and such, but all is well now. Still annoying. Some of my current little beefs outside of syncing...

Why can I not associate contacts with appointments without them being an attendee (something I just hate about outlook) that gets emailed about it. I've always associated my contacts with appts for tracking purposes. I don't even see anything close to a 3rd party helping out with this. Agendus, Pocket Informant and all of those 3rd party PIM's don't seem to have interest in Android as of yet. Not very helpful for a sales person. Though I will probably be one of the first persons to test a native CRM app written for Android and not web based. Nice to see a company take notice of an operating system that in the US alone is on about six handsets on three different carriers.

And it's amazing that I can't copy and paste text from the web browser. I've been doing that since the first time I could connect a Palm to the internet.

And I still can't "sync" my memos. If not for Outlook and carrying my treo pro, they'd be forever stuck in Palm Desktop. Converting to word doesn't help because it's still just a copy back and forth solution instead of syncing. Royal PITA. Forgot how much I relied on notes for quick access to important information, especially for work.

But gee, I have widgets and can find out where I parked my car in a crowded lot. Wow google, I'm so impressed...haha. Though in their defense, I could direct some of that towards Palm too.

 

[ALDowd]

Don't know if you experts all know this already. I'm a newbie (got my HTC Desire on Sunday and am a convert from WinMob - still coming to grips with some of it) - but I have been struggling with the document syncing (calendar & contacts seem ok and built-in) - but have just come across SyncToy - a free download from the Microsoft download centre (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...EE9-A7C5-98D0592D8C52&displaylang=en#filelist), which seems to to what was suggeted above - sync your documents from Windows with a "thumb-drive" - i.e. your phone!

 

[momentoid]

Don't know if you experts all know this already. I'm a newbie (got my HTC Desire on Sunday and am a convert from WinMob - still coming to grips with some of it) - but I have been struggling with the document syncing (calendar & contacts seem ok and built-in) - but have just come across SyncToy - a free download from the Microsoft download centre (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...EE9-A7C5-98D0592D8C52&displaylang=en#filelist), which seems to to what was suggeted above - sync your documents from Windows with a "thumb-drive" - i.e. your phone!

Have you tried Android DropBox, free on the Market?

 

[Deleted User]

Wow, you're already tired of the future? Local sync is out, cloud computing is in. It's the direction everything is headed, so you might want to get used to it.
That's why more and more software manufacturers are ditching installed copies in favor as software-as-a-service websites. Upgrades and bug fixes are easier and the information is less likely to be lost if it's backed up on a mega server as opposed to just your PC + Phone. My G1 can get trashed beyond all recognition, I can buy a new phone, sign into my google account and within five minutes my email and contacts are on the new phone. That's cloud computing, and it's convenience is immeasurable.

I know people get to a certain age and decide "this is it" that technology, music, art, you-name-it is at it's level of perfection and any future advances or changes are scary, unwelcome, unnecessary, and "bad". Change is the natural state of the universe, fighting it only frustrates you, as it cannot be stopped. You say PIM and local sync were better, well someone older than you wonders why you don't just use paper and pencil and walk around with a day planner, someone older than that doesn't understand why you can't get by with a watch and just remembering everything. When cloud computing is gone, and we've moved on to crystals, or implants, or whatever, someone will complain about how all this new stuff is stupid.

I'm new to this thread, but I simply had to come to dbpaddler's defense:
Punkzanyj so eloquently defended cloud computing... But dude! You can't (even though diplomatically) scold dbpaddler for refusing to accept the obsolescence of a tried and true solution in favor of the latest trend.

We're fully aware that security protocols have been implemented on cloud servers and that established backup procedures offer data redundancy in the case of some catastrophic event. However, I'm afraid that you may be unaware of the fact there does exist some information that should not be stored in the cloud.

Case in point: As a remote employee, I store corporate sensitive information in my local Outlook client, which I then sync with my smartphone for portability. I maintain 128-bit encryption on my phone and disable wireless sync'g for security, and my employer is perfectly happy with that solution. However, if I ever pumped sensitive information up to public servers in the cloud, my employer would have grounds for dismissal at best, and grounds for a lawsuit at worst.

If you peruse the forums, you'll see that the inability to (gracefully) sync a droid device with a *local Outlook* client is a sticking point for many users. And it's the only reason that I've not yet teleported to the droid universe, myself.

So, dbpaddler, I'm right there with you.

Punkzanyj, talk to the hand. ;-)

 

[mynus]

For all those wanting to sync their droid phones with Outlook (I was one of those), go to SyncDroid.net (to find multiple software apps for syncing MS Outlook)

Sync Android/Droid with Outlook/Exchange

Some are free, some are pay. . . .