I'm done syncing with Outlook!

[Hook]

I know, there are all these Android users out there who are shaking their heads wondering why I would want to.

People who have followed my explorations, however, who may be surprised by this news.

I am done with syncing Outlook with my handheld. Outlook has become an archive which I can update by passing vcf files if need be. After another week-end of cleaning up mucked up contacts in all three places (Gmail, phone and Outlook), I'm waving the white flag.

This all kind of started with Symbian. I liked the idea of OTA syncing, at least as a backup. I tried both OVI (a disaster)and Google and Google at least seemed to be reliable-- until I added Outlook to the equation. PC Sync for Symbian actually did USB syncing of Outlook very well, better than Palm Desktop, but whenever I tried to get Outlook sync and various methods of syncing with Google to play nicely together, so that I had exactly the same info in Outlook, on handheld and in the web in Google, it always ended up being a mess.

So now I go to Android which is optimized for Google OTA syncing (no surprise there). It is fast, it is reliable and it is very easy. In fact, I love it. However, I stubbornly held on to the desire to do syncing, preferably by USB, but OTA would be OK, with Outlook. Companion Link has an app for that which is supposed to do either or both, but just as before, every time I add Outlook and Google together into the mix things go screwy.

I think it comes down to basic incompatibilities in file records and their handling between Google and Outlook. I don't know if the Companion Link layer also contributes to the problem. Neither MS nor Google are particularly motivated to fix these things. For example, one problem I have seen over and over again since Symbian is the tendency for duplication of contacts when all that has happened is a change in a field. I am sick of fighting with it. USB sync is no longer that important to me and I have in fact other means of backing up local copies as I will explain below.

My current PIMS on Android are:

Calendar -Default App - Dreadful, but works ok and syncs with Google Calendar. Haven't found anything better, but WEbIS is developing Pocket Informant for Android which will sync with Google and I actually like Google Calendar and can use it on my desktop. Also, I'm not a heavy calendar user to begin with since my work Calendar has to remain separate and has to be on my locked down BB and a secure server at work.

Contacts -Default APP - I actually think this app is ok, does what it needs to do, integrates with phone and messaging. This is my "main" PIM.I got over not having categories with Symbian. Backs up and restores .vcf files from SD card which can also be imported into Outlook.

Tasks - Tasks Pro (paid version) - excellent and simple task list program with reminders which can export and import to the SD card for backup. I really like this app. I tend to only use task reminders on my handheld anyway, to remind me of things when I am out in the world. I don't actually use to-do lists, just reminders.

Notes - 3Banana Notes- Excellent Evernotes-like app except it not only syncs with web, it keeps notes locally, no signal needed, and exports to SD card.

Everything syncs OTA except Tasks (don't need them to) and everything but the Calendar exports to SD for backup. Reliable. Stable.

Obviously, email is Gmail, but I actually don't use my phone for email.

Outlook is now pretty much a maintained archive, though it remains a hedge against getting locked into any one handheld platform (the original reason I went to it rather than use Palm Desktop). I can see myself using Google Calendar, Gmail Contacts and 3Banana in my browser more and more on my desktop. The idea of being able to pick up a new Android device in 2 years and have all my data reliably restored in 30 seconds after logging onto my Google account is everything I ever wated from hotsync, but rarely got. I have sync, backup, and data reliabity. I have OTA availability anywhere I have a signal. Waiting until I have a signal when I have to is no different than waiting until I was near my computer with a USB cord, except that I usually have a shorter wait. I'm happy. I love this system.

Things change. I am adapting in the direction that makes things easier for me. Not a prescription for anyone else.

[jigwashere]

I've been frustrated syncing with Google Contacts, Outlook, and my TP2. Here's a recent article from Lifehacker that might offer some insight: The Complete Guide to Fixing Google Contacts

[Hook]

I've been frustrated syncing with Google Contacts, Outlook, and my TP2. Here's a recent article from Lifehacker that might offer some insight: The Complete Guide to Fixing Google Contacts

Great guide-- I've stumbled on most of those tricks in my many adventures and am now using them. Trying to involve Outlook just adds another layer of translation, which, if Google contacts were better, wouldn't matter but it exaggerates the problems.

Outlook does give you an easier nuclear option. Export Contacts to CSV. Delete all Gmail Contacts. Import CSV and... oh, never mind about Bob.

[Antoine Wright]

Slowly but notably, you are becoming quite mobile-centric. Interesting...

[Hook]

Slowly but notably, you are becoming quite mobile-centric. Interesting...

Yes and no. Yes, since I started out about as non-mobile as you could get. No in the sense that this is all still about data management and having data avaiable in multiple places when needed. The scheme still has to work with heavy periods of limited or no connectivity and is not in the least context driven. However I am making use of mobile options to, hopefully, enhance the ease of access to my data for whatever use I want to put it to.

Still curmudgeon networking (as opposed to social networking)

[jigwashere]

Yes and no. Yes, since I started out about as non-mobile as you could get. No in the sense that this is all still about data management and having data avaiable in multiple places when needed. The scheme still has to work with heavy periods of limited or no connectivity and is not in the least context driven. However I am making use of mobile options to, hopefully, enhance the ease of access to my data for whatever use I want to put it to.

Still curmudgeon networking (as opposed to social networking)

Curmudgeon networking = meeting in a bar for drinks. Right? I'm on board with that!

[hal]

I have also tried basic sync with Outlook and Google. Again a notable failure. What I have concluded is that in PIM, Outlook is much evolved ahead of other options, whether local or clouded. Outlook may not be the Kindgom Come for many, but what it does good, it does it better that any other option in its own category. Which quoting you, Hook, again does not turn into a prescription for anybody.

Google PIM apps have a basic vcf format that by no means is intended to match the enriched format of the Outlook elements. An Outlook vCard (Contacts) can have a lot of standardized fields, and as many custom fields as the user wishes to incorporate. Besides, I noticed that duplications issue (measured above triplications in my experience). That is due to the fact that a vcf enabled program assigns a sorta serial number to a given entry, and a mismatch in it turns the entry in two. I reckon Outlook and Google don't handle this feature in the same manner, and I blame Google for the issue, cause Outlook can sync to a lot of other things and the issue doesn't surface.

Google services are currently in a state of fair functionality, and what we shall expect from them in the immediate future are two things: one, a keep-it-simple functionality; and two, integration (promised all across the Google portfolio). But, as of interoperation, or furthermore, integration, with non-Google products, I reckon many things are not gonna happen. Outlook is anything but a keep-it-simple product. It is full of features nobody else is willing to support. There has been two substantial integrations processes occurring with Outlook: one, inbounds integration; Outlook entries within its own applications have been mixed and threaded deeper with time. Second: outbounds integration: there's a gazillion of add-ons and complements that can be bolted on top of Outlook to work with this or that product (Skype, TextAloud, LinkedIn, etc.^2). I notice it's easier that somebody creates an add-on that offers Outlook-based interoperation, than interoperation based on two way talk (as in sync).

[Hook]

Part of it is, as my work has become more and more compartmentalized from my personal life, forced by work-- everything is locked down, encrypted, access with smart card only-- I have less and less need for Outlook's powerful features except at work. A contact-- I just need to have someone's phone numbers, address and email(s), and I need to be able to access those from phone, email or SMS. I don't need to know what category they are in, I know who the people in my personal life are and where they fit in.

Google and the Android apps do me just fine. I am no longer motivated to put up with all the frustration.

The zen is back.

[Antoine Wright]

Part of it is, as my work has become more and more compartmentalized from my personal life, forced by work-- everything is locked down, encrypted, access with smart card only-- I have less and less need for Outlook's powerful features except at work. A contact-- I just need to have someone's phone numbers, address and email(s), and I need to be able to access those from phone, email or SMS. I don't need to know what category they are in, I know who the people in my personal life are and where they fit in.

The zen is back.

This was one of the lessons in moving from Palm OS to Symbian that was at first hard, and then easy. And ended up snowballing several other decisions, especially the side of looking for ports of certain PIM apps.

In respect to contacts, depending on your need, you will usually know where they fit. And if you get that segmented work/personal thing going - my situation is at times similar to Hook's - then you find it a lot easier on the personal side to not so much have them grouped by category, as much as you just need to be able to search for the contact (or contacts) you need and then managing any actions from there.

I only wish that filtering worked better on all mobile OSes, in respect to how they can handle metadata. For example, I'd love to have a collection of work contacts, but those contacts are grouped because they have a similar email address - and my mobile is smart enough to recognize that connection between them. That kind of smart filtering would be great.

[hal]

Part of it is, as my work has become more and more compartmentalized from my personal life, forced by work-- everything is locked down, encrypted, access with smart card only-- I have less and less need for Outlook's powerful features except at work. A contact-- I just need to have someone's phone numbers, address and email(s), and I need to be able to access those from phone, email or SMS. I don't need to know what category they are in, I know who the people in my personal life are and where they fit in.

Google and the Android apps do me just fine. I am no longer motivated to put up with all the frustration.

The zen is back.

In a way, your occupational condition is something to be jealous about: you ain't got many choices left, and the corporation issues you a working device for it. Come to think of it, that is one approach I've tried to achieve on my own path; I mean, not that all work-related data is gridlocked, handcuffed and padlocked, but rather kept in a distinctive "zone" of my PIM. OK, your condition is mostly heaved by security and stability, not quite personal considerations, but my point is that such approach may certainly nurture the occupational affairs without allowing the personal affairs to step in the way.

For most of my professional life, I have worked in the private sector, so I am on the side where it's up to each one of us to define, organize and prioritize. Sometimes with not much success. Maybe the public sector can sound opressive from the outside, but when one is faced with a garble of business cards in the desk, and all the resources around to build a server-held PIM, the orderly fashions of the public sector don't sound that much Orwell-esque. I understand why Outlook is fading in your needs. Yet, it's far the day when I can see myself in a similar position. Think I'm still looking for my zen.

This was one of the lessons in moving from Palm OS to Symbian that was at first hard, and then easy. And ended up snowballing several other decisions, especially the side of looking for ports of certain PIM apps.

In respect to contacts, depending on your need, you will usually know where they fit. And if you get that segmented work/personal thing going - my situation is at times similar to Hook's - then you find it a lot easier on the personal side to not so much have them grouped by category, as much as you just need to be able to search for the contact (or contacts) you need and then managing any actions from there.

I only wish that filtering worked better on all mobile OSes, in respect to how they can handle metadata. For example, I'd love to have a collection of work contacts, but those contacts are grouped because they have a similar email address - and my mobile is smart enough to recognize that connection between them. That kind of smart filtering would be great.

For most of the examples, my Palm OS devices can do a good search. But it's actually a given number of habits that allow this platform to deliver good searches in my hands. One, ever since the paper binder planners era, I used to append my contacts entries with key words (kinda tags), a habit that I still practice currently, in the times of digital PIM. Second, some contacts deserved a cloned entry under a function/service (i.e., car shops). A search can be as easy as using one of those tags. Of course, the Palm search thingy won't use two tags at a time, but a combination of digital capability and personal habits can ease life quite a lot.

I understand, AW, that you don't sort your data. You just depend on the little search engine in your device(s). Well, I for one find it very hard to adopt that habit and stop sorting my data (different strokes for different folks). But again, I reckon search instead of sort is better when the interests covered by the user span far too many options.