I am posting this for people like me who wish to sync Outlook contacts, appointments, tasks, and memos with Android and don't want to use the cloud. If you are not interested in paying $49 for software, stop reading because I am going to recommend CompanionLinkand it costs $49.
First the situation: I graduated from PalmPilot to handspring to Treo to Blackberry and finally to Android (photon 4g). I was used to syncing with USB so I amassed 8,000 appts, 2500 contacts, 300 tasks, and 8 memoes. Some of my information is very confidential so I do not want it in the cloud. I need all of my appointments as I frequently need to determine how often I worked with someone and when, etc.
With a lot of help from these forums, I found a spreadsheet (SyncDroid.net) purporting to list all 42 software solutions for syncing outlook with Android. There were only about 4 that would sync via usb and include tasks and memoes. money was no object for me, just results. I determined that there was no "perfect" solution but that Companionlink appeared to be the most likely candidate.
The software will sync over a dozen different databases from Outlook to other CRMs like goldmine and it will sync to Android, IOS, BB, and many others. Companionlink has developed its own device software called DejaOffice which has Deja contacts, tasks, appts, expense, memoes, etc. They developed their own so they could give it away free (and it is free, you only pay for the PC based sync software companionlink).
Full disclosure: I have no vested interest in Companionlink (and had never heard of them two weeks ago) but i am a fanboy (ignoring their weaknesses and praising their strengths). Nonetheless for me they are the perfect solution.
I really like the DejaOffice software. It is VERY buggy but they are working on it constantly and releasing updates a number of times a month. Right now it is working bug free for me but it wasn't doing that a week ago. It is very powerful and they are working on adding features (and have recently added features). They seem very committed to the product and taking over the market (which I like as I felt long before Palm committed suicide they had lost that commitment and thus stopped updating the software years ago). The sync process is slightly convoluted but once I learned it, it works well. It seems a little slower than my Palm and BB syncs but even with my 11K records it only takes a few minutes (much longer for the initial 2 syncs of course).
As I say the device software is free. You can try companionlink (fully featured) for a trial period (I think 15 days) and I recommend you do that as I did. It took me 10 days before I had it working to the point I wanted to keep it (I will try to help with what I have learned so you may not have to work as hard to get it going). One of the best features is that after you sync with the device's dejaoffice software it will sync with Androids contacts and calendar. This is important because if you want your caller ID to work and to call up someone's picture it needs to be in the android database. Companionlink is developing its own dialer app but until that comes out this works perfectly.
Their tech support has been extremely helpful and has gone out of their way to get info from me to make sure my problems were solved. After my problem WAS solved they still pestered me to send in a log file so they could verify that the problem I had was one they were fixing (it was). The devs and tech support seem to have a close relationship. Fifteen years of dealing with customer service for sync software tells me these guys really care.
I know others will disagree with my wanting to avoid the cloud and some will tout other sync software. i believe to replicate the Palm/Blackberry experience I had to go with COmpanionlink. I also believe they will continue to improve their product faster than most competitors but that is really conjecture on my part.
Here are the steps I recommend if you want to copy my process. This applies only to someone using Outlook on PC with an android phone. Some of the things I learned make me suspect that certain Android phones may have individual hiccups with this so don't hesitate to call customer service if you get stuck (I am also glad to help but most of what I know is posted here).
Steps:
(1) On the companionlink home page select Outlook and Android and Push GO and it will take you to the correct version of the software. You can then select USB sync, wifi sync, Google sync, or Companionlink hosted server sync (I think they are all the same software, they are just showing how each one works). You can upgade to the pro version but that is not necessary unless you are syncing multiple computers or multiple phones (Or ACT! with advanced features). Take the free trial and install the software.
(2) Its been a couple of weeks so I don't remember the details but I think it will walk you through getting the DejaOffice software for your device. If not, it is free in the android market. https://market.android.com/details?id=com.companionlink.clusbsync
(3) Backup outlook. I learned to do this years ago because some software would delete all of my outlook entries (so far this one has not caused me any problems that required a backup but I will NEVER trust sync software far enough to skip this step). If you don't know how to backup outlook just look for your current outlook.pst file and copy it to a safe place.
(4) Connect the phone in Charge Only mode to the PC using USB (this is the convoluted part but I think they are working on it)
(5) Configure DejaOffice for 'Manual Sync' (Settings . . . sync settings . . . manual sync mode checked)
(6) Make sure companionlink setup is open on your PC (it needs to be open for the sync to work right I think). Go through the one time setup (do you want a two way sync, or a one way, etc).
(7) Tap sync in the application. This is done on the phone. They previously had it working where you could select this on the computer but the latest android update caused that not to work.
(8) When prompted, close DejaOffice. Then, drag the notification bar down on your device & tap to choose Mass Storage (this will mount the SD card)
(9)The synchronization will start on the PC (Companionlink must be open for this to happen)
(10)When the PC sync finishes, pull down the notification bar & tap to unmount the SD card.
(11) Reopen DejaOffice - you should see the synchronization running there.
(12) when you are done and have disconnected the phone look at the record count on the companionlink software on the PC. It should be very close to your record count in outlook. Mine was not exact because it didn't sync distribution list contacts and it had a pretty good duplicate checker.
(13) I would also spot check my DejaContacts and Deja Calendar.
(14) On the device go to the dejaoffice home screen and press "read android data". This will sync DejaOffice with the android databases (I don't use the android databases but the dialer app does).
(15) If you want an icon for deja contacts or any other app within dejaoffice, go to the home screen and select shortcuts. whichever shortcuts you pick will be placed on your home screen and then you can move them wherever you want.
The problems I had were in the sync process and these steps solved those problems. The other big problem I had was the DejaContacts software got stuck on categories and would only show contacts from one category. This is a true bug but they have either fixed it or are fixing it. If it happens to you, this is the solution they gave me and the problem has not come back for me:
-Shut down the phone and leave it off for a few moments, then restart.
-After restarting, open DejaOffice from the Applications list - if you have icons from DejaContacts or DejaCalendar on your home screen, avoid opening it from there this time.
-tap on the Category icon to launch the application there. 'All Categories' and 'No Category' should return and this solves the problem.
I hope this is helpful. I will stay subscribed to this thread if anyone needs help. There are other solutions out their (some free) if you don't need USB and tasks. This one from RazzMaTazz seems to work well for people:Sync
Dave
First the situation: I graduated from PalmPilot to handspring to Treo to Blackberry and finally to Android (photon 4g). I was used to syncing with USB so I amassed 8,000 appts, 2500 contacts, 300 tasks, and 8 memoes. Some of my information is very confidential so I do not want it in the cloud. I need all of my appointments as I frequently need to determine how often I worked with someone and when, etc.
With a lot of help from these forums, I found a spreadsheet (SyncDroid.net) purporting to list all 42 software solutions for syncing outlook with Android. There were only about 4 that would sync via usb and include tasks and memoes. money was no object for me, just results. I determined that there was no "perfect" solution but that Companionlink appeared to be the most likely candidate.
The software will sync over a dozen different databases from Outlook to other CRMs like goldmine and it will sync to Android, IOS, BB, and many others. Companionlink has developed its own device software called DejaOffice which has Deja contacts, tasks, appts, expense, memoes, etc. They developed their own so they could give it away free (and it is free, you only pay for the PC based sync software companionlink).
Full disclosure: I have no vested interest in Companionlink (and had never heard of them two weeks ago) but i am a fanboy (ignoring their weaknesses and praising their strengths). Nonetheless for me they are the perfect solution.
I really like the DejaOffice software. It is VERY buggy but they are working on it constantly and releasing updates a number of times a month. Right now it is working bug free for me but it wasn't doing that a week ago. It is very powerful and they are working on adding features (and have recently added features). They seem very committed to the product and taking over the market (which I like as I felt long before Palm committed suicide they had lost that commitment and thus stopped updating the software years ago). The sync process is slightly convoluted but once I learned it, it works well. It seems a little slower than my Palm and BB syncs but even with my 11K records it only takes a few minutes (much longer for the initial 2 syncs of course).
As I say the device software is free. You can try companionlink (fully featured) for a trial period (I think 15 days) and I recommend you do that as I did. It took me 10 days before I had it working to the point I wanted to keep it (I will try to help with what I have learned so you may not have to work as hard to get it going). One of the best features is that after you sync with the device's dejaoffice software it will sync with Androids contacts and calendar. This is important because if you want your caller ID to work and to call up someone's picture it needs to be in the android database. Companionlink is developing its own dialer app but until that comes out this works perfectly.
Their tech support has been extremely helpful and has gone out of their way to get info from me to make sure my problems were solved. After my problem WAS solved they still pestered me to send in a log file so they could verify that the problem I had was one they were fixing (it was). The devs and tech support seem to have a close relationship. Fifteen years of dealing with customer service for sync software tells me these guys really care.
I know others will disagree with my wanting to avoid the cloud and some will tout other sync software. i believe to replicate the Palm/Blackberry experience I had to go with COmpanionlink. I also believe they will continue to improve their product faster than most competitors but that is really conjecture on my part.
Here are the steps I recommend if you want to copy my process. This applies only to someone using Outlook on PC with an android phone. Some of the things I learned make me suspect that certain Android phones may have individual hiccups with this so don't hesitate to call customer service if you get stuck (I am also glad to help but most of what I know is posted here).
Steps:
(1) On the companionlink home page select Outlook and Android and Push GO and it will take you to the correct version of the software. You can then select USB sync, wifi sync, Google sync, or Companionlink hosted server sync (I think they are all the same software, they are just showing how each one works). You can upgade to the pro version but that is not necessary unless you are syncing multiple computers or multiple phones (Or ACT! with advanced features). Take the free trial and install the software.
(2) Its been a couple of weeks so I don't remember the details but I think it will walk you through getting the DejaOffice software for your device. If not, it is free in the android market. https://market.android.com/details?id=com.companionlink.clusbsync
(3) Backup outlook. I learned to do this years ago because some software would delete all of my outlook entries (so far this one has not caused me any problems that required a backup but I will NEVER trust sync software far enough to skip this step). If you don't know how to backup outlook just look for your current outlook.pst file and copy it to a safe place.
(4) Connect the phone in Charge Only mode to the PC using USB (this is the convoluted part but I think they are working on it)
(5) Configure DejaOffice for 'Manual Sync' (Settings . . . sync settings . . . manual sync mode checked)
(6) Make sure companionlink setup is open on your PC (it needs to be open for the sync to work right I think). Go through the one time setup (do you want a two way sync, or a one way, etc).
(7) Tap sync in the application. This is done on the phone. They previously had it working where you could select this on the computer but the latest android update caused that not to work.
(8) When prompted, close DejaOffice. Then, drag the notification bar down on your device & tap to choose Mass Storage (this will mount the SD card)
(9)The synchronization will start on the PC (Companionlink must be open for this to happen)
(10)When the PC sync finishes, pull down the notification bar & tap to unmount the SD card.
(11) Reopen DejaOffice - you should see the synchronization running there.
(12) when you are done and have disconnected the phone look at the record count on the companionlink software on the PC. It should be very close to your record count in outlook. Mine was not exact because it didn't sync distribution list contacts and it had a pretty good duplicate checker.
(13) I would also spot check my DejaContacts and Deja Calendar.
(14) On the device go to the dejaoffice home screen and press "read android data". This will sync DejaOffice with the android databases (I don't use the android databases but the dialer app does).
(15) If you want an icon for deja contacts or any other app within dejaoffice, go to the home screen and select shortcuts. whichever shortcuts you pick will be placed on your home screen and then you can move them wherever you want.
The problems I had were in the sync process and these steps solved those problems. The other big problem I had was the DejaContacts software got stuck on categories and would only show contacts from one category. This is a true bug but they have either fixed it or are fixing it. If it happens to you, this is the solution they gave me and the problem has not come back for me:
-Shut down the phone and leave it off for a few moments, then restart.
-After restarting, open DejaOffice from the Applications list - if you have icons from DejaContacts or DejaCalendar on your home screen, avoid opening it from there this time.
-tap on the Category icon to launch the application there. 'All Categories' and 'No Category' should return and this solves the problem.
I hope this is helpful. I will stay subscribed to this thread if anyone needs help. There are other solutions out their (some free) if you don't need USB and tasks. This one from RazzMaTazz seems to work well for people:Sync
Dave
