Help Syncing Outlook Calender - tearing my hair out, please help!

[carajp]

It HAS worked now and then, apparently randomly... When using Kies, although it takes ages and ages it usually appears to work. (Not always - sometimes it stops at 0% and just stays there). However, when I look at my phone, new appointments haven't been transferred to the phone.

I tried using MyFileExplorer, as it was recommended. This successfully imported my Contacts, hung for ages on importing my Calendar and then threw up an error message saying my phone wasn't responding.

From this (two pieces of software failing to properly access phone schedule), I assume the problem is with My Calendar on the phone in some way. But I'm utterly stumped what the problem might be. I've had the phone one week. In that time, I *have* successfully synced two or three times. What is different on those occasions, I just can't comprehend. Many other times, it just hangs at 40%, 72% or other random figures.

By the way, is there any way to tell Outlook to let Kies have permanent access? At the moment, I'm always warned and can only give access in 10 minute chunks. Please help! I really need to be able to syncronise my calendars.

 

[carajp]

I forgot to mention I am using Outlook 2003

 

[Geronymous]

If you are just trying to synchronize your calendar from your Outlook on your PC (so not directly from a server), the best you can do is use Google Calendar Sync (Sync with Microsoft Outlook - Google Calendar Help) to synchronize your Outlook Calendar with Google Calendar, and then you access Google Calendar instead of Outlook Calendar on your SGS2.

Works a treat for me! (and forget about Kies ... useless except for ROM upgrades)

Hope this helps ...

 

[carajp]

Since I posted, I have found out how to sync it throught Google calendar. So it's now arguably a major pain rather than an actual deal-breaker.

But it's bloody maddening!! And much easier to sync contacts, notes & calendar just in the one place. If it would only work.

 

[greggebhardt]

I downloaded Kies and it syncs my SG2 perfectly with Outlook. Contacts, calendar, notes and tasks. Samsung Kies, the latest version has all the drivers for your SG2.

It makes it easy

 

[greggebhardt]

If you are just trying to synchronize your calendar from your Outlook on your PC (so not directly from a server), the best you can do is use Google Calendar Sync (Sync with Microsoft Outlook - Google Calendar Help) to synchronize your Outlook Calendar with Google Calendar, and then you access Google Calendar instead of Outlook Calendar on your SGS2.

Works a treat for me! (and forget about Kies ... useless except for ROM upgrades)

Hope this helps ...

How do you figure Kies is useless. The latest version works perfectly and you do not need to screw arounf with Google sync.

 

[carajp]

Well, I have the latest version of Kies (only got my phone last week). And as mentioned, it works *sometimes*.

I deleted 'My Calendar'. Nearly 3900 events!! Wtf? That's probably more than I've had in my whole life. So something hadn't been "syncing" correctly. Having done that, it *did* sync successfully. I selected a time period as well, to make sure it wasn't a whole load of stuff.

Kies' performance has been so random though, it's very hard to trust. I know I'm not the only one having problems, as Google soon tells you. Still, I suppose I now have my Google calendar as a fall-back if it goes pear-shaped again.

 

[RanRuobin]

switching from Nokia N8 (which is really a good phone) to Android Galaxy s2 drives me crazy.
Syncing with Kies is more than gambling with your precious business data.
Be careful. However, now I know how good the NOKIA sync really worked.
But the only constant thing in life is change: so, I have to find a way to sync my data on my new nice S2 with my server.
Does anyone know (even if I have to pay for the software) a really reliable software to manage ALL DATA from an ANDROID Galaxy S2 ( Files, pics, music calendar, memos)
All options and edit functions in KIES are simply lousy!!!!
thanks and greetings from China, Sichuan

 

[greggebhardt]

Maybe as Android phones take off SOMEONE will write a better piece of software to integrate with. This should not be hard and it should be foolproof.

Again, Blackberry does it so elegantly, many could learn from them!

 

[carajp]

Grrr... I worked around the calendar problem by setting up an Outlook -> Google Calendar -> Phone link.

But now it's not syncing contacts properly. Most of my contacts are duplicated (and linked, so each name shows just once when browsing contacts on my phone), cos I uploaded my Outlook file to Gmail. But I can't keep them synced - you have to be a commercial user to run the software. So when I change something on a phone contact, I always have to do it twice - on the Google one, and on the one that syncs with Outlook. I can live with that (though it's annoying). Trouble is, the changes don't sync. Outlook still has the old information and I'm having to manually enter it. Kies claims to have synced. But it's lying.

I love this phone. But this syncing issue is absolutely bloody primitive compared to my iPhone. Sorry, but I need my contacts & calendar on OUTLOOK not Gmail!

 

[Snazzy]

Touchdown by NitroDesk. Try the free version in the market and buy the full version once you fall in love. Touchdown does Exchange right.

 

[Deleted User]

Couldn't you just use auto-sync on your phone and do it over wifi/3g/H+?

 

[carajp]

I'm not really following you macca? It doesn't matter how I sync my phone with Kies, the contacts aren't being updated.

Snazzy, thanks for your suggestion. Unfortunately Nitrodesk seems to require that Exchange is being used. I'm just a single user wanting to sync with my desktop Outlook, which is the heart of all my personal organisation!

I've stumbled across something called gSyncit, which seems to sync *all* of your Outlook calender/contacts/tasks to Google. If that works ok, then my phone can just sync with my Google account and the problem will be worked around (and Kies can be consigned to the Great Recycle Bin in the sky!).

I'll feed back when I've had the chance to try it. It is $20 though.

 

[carajp]

Well! From hair-tearing-out frustration to Happy Bunny (at the cost of a couple of hours of my time).

I bought and installed gSyncit this morning. Took a while to sort out conflicts because, although my calendar was in step (Google do a little ap for Outlook for the calendar) my contacts were a bit chaotic.

A short diversion occurred when I messed up deleting contacts on my phone and couldn't get it to sync *at all* with Google. Having done the usual techie trick of praying to the IT Gods and pressing any button having any slight connection with the problem in question, I managed to sort that out. This was not gSyncit's fault in anyway - gSyncit runs on your PC with Outlook, not the phone. I messed up the phone.

Et voila! Now I have a perfect sync setup, just the *one* address book on my phone and everything checked and working perfectly. I also needed to get gtasks for my phone to be able to sync tasks with Google (and, via gSyncit, with Outlook). It seems the built-in Android Tasks app does not sync with Google Tasks ...go figure.

Anyway, I'm officially content! Even nicer, the sync all happens in the background without bothering me, although for the time being I have gSyncit set to notify me of every & any deletion for confirmation. Once I'm happy it's all working properly, I can uncheck that option and - hopefully - never have to think of it again.

So I can commend gSyncit to any frustrated Kies users. It's well worth the

 

[RazzMaTazz]

I use the following free method to sync Outlook calendar contacts between multiple PCs and Android devices without intalling any apps or 3rd party software.

http://androidforums.com/android-ap...id-without-3rd-party-app-exchange-server.html

 

[carajp]

Hmm, that's really interesting. Thank you. That would have worked of course. I shall squirrel the information away in case of future need.

I think my method is easier, even if it cost me