Any Android Specialists on here?

[Jkulin]

I have been slowly getting cheesed off with Apples products due to the way their updates are rolled out, I have 8 Apple products in our home and when Apple roll out a new update you have to download the complete update to each phone instead of downloading it in iTunes once and then farming it out.

So I have been looking very closely at the New Galaxy phone, but I also needed a new Tablet as well, so I thought I would try things out on the tablet and if it all looked good then go and buy a phone.

I bought yesterday a 2 week old Samsung S3 Tablet 32GB Wifi & 4G, I figured that I could have a play, see how it syncs everything from my Office Workstation and take it from there.

Installed and got everything from the tablet end working fine, then thought, its about time I synced my contacts and calendar and then do my music....how very wrong one can be.

All of my calendar, notes, tasks etc are stored within my Outlook 2016 .pst file, although we have a server I don't use MS Exchange as it would be overkill of resources.

It transpires after an hours telephone conversation with Samsung support that you cannot sync on as an as and when needed status to the Tablet, their suggestion was that every time I made a calendar or contact change that I back up to one note and then restore to the tablet/phone.

Although I have a Google account, syncing to that would entail a similar operation.

Are Samsung right in their reply or is there a way of doing a sync on a daily or half daily basis?

I have checked out the Kies App but that doesn't work and it suggests you download Smart Switch, which the provided link reports no such file.

So as I am not mystic Meg, and a bit ****** off with having wasted my time and money, does anyone have any suggestions before I put it back up for sale?

Thanks for any ideas.

 

[Wanderer]

I use an old Mac mini with Server on it and enroll all my apple devices onto it, then it pulls it down the once and pushes to the devices. I have a paid dev account, not sure it’s needed but it’s cheap enough anyway.

 

[mjheathcote]

I'm no pro, but we have a house full of apple phones and tablets and myself android.
Agree the apple updates are a pain, and it is a pain with our BT home hub with the apple devices too, never a problem with android.
Regarding outlook, through business and android phones sync has been through either exchange or outlook 365. I think if you have neither you are stuffed!
Saying that, the same using apple too... So how do you sync with apple and outlook presently?

 

[Jkulin]

Hi Mike,

I have a server but don't need exchange as there is only 3 of us.

For our apple devices to connect we just tell iTunes to sync with outlook and that's it, it just works perfectly, but there is no other interface with Android to sync with outlook, so I fear I am stuffed Mike.

A long time ago when we had HTC's they had a program that you launched and that intereacted with outlook but it would appear that Android are missing the boat!

 

[Jkulin]

I use an old Mac mini with Server on it and enroll all my apple devices onto it, then it pulls it down the once and pushes to the devices. I have a paid dev account, not sure it’s needed but it’s cheap enough anyway.

Unfortunately another server is not an option thanks.

 

[spkennyuk]

These might help you John. Im no expert either.

1.Go to Settings, Mail, Contacts, Calendars and tap Add Account. Use the options to add Google and Outlook.com accounts. Accept the offer to sync calendars and that's it. Events added to Google Calendar, Outlook.com Calendar or Outlook if it's synced with Outlook.com, automatically appear in the iOS Calendar app.

Option 2.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...16-on-an/6d388ed1-9cc4-4af9-8eff-ba2b5c39bbeb

 

[Jkulin]

Wish it was that simple but these domains and my email address are not outlook email addresses, similarly these are not iOS claendars, they are .pst calendars from an Outlook Storage file

 

[MarkMas]

I'm not sure I have properly understood how your "calendar, notes, tasks etc are stored within my Outlook 2016 .pst file" if you don't have an outlook email address, but anyway, I use an application called Nine on my android phone for email, tasks and calendars and that syncs with my outlook data in some magical way. It seems to work well (there is also an IoS beta version which is very buggy), with a responsive (although occasionally dimwitted) helpdesk. Presumably it works on tablets too.

Before I used Nine, I used a sync program called Companionlink, which was also pretty good at glueing together the outlook data and the Google applications..

http://www.9folders.com/
https://www.companionlink.com/

 

[CatmanV2]

I suspect what's going on here is that Jkulin's email is using Outlook as his client in good old fashioned POP3 mode.

Outlook polls the incoming mail server, grabs any unread messages, downloads them to his local machine and then deletes them from the incoming server.

The email part of this problem is probably quite trivial to solve. Most domain hosting accounts now offer IMAP as a mail protocol. Change that, re-configure outlook to use IMAP and then all your other devices will be able to see the same emails, with folders, statuses and everything else across any and all devices so configured. (This is what I do, but actually I store all my email 'locally' at home, and run an IMAP server from there.

This is not going to solve the calendars and so on issue though. Simply Outlook and PST (**** I thought they were deprecated anyway!) is not really (at all) designed as anything other than a storage container. Not for real (or indeed any) time synchronisation across multiple devices.

I suspect your only real solution to this problem is to migrate away from using Outlook as a local storage client and set up a cloud based note / contacts / calendar service and hook all your devices to that.

C

 

[Jkulin]

Thanks Mark & Chris,

Indeed all of my main email addresses are POP3 and on my phone/tablet/laptop I use IMAP.

The problem is not my email as that is just a configuration and setup decision between POP3 and IMAP, so that doesn't worry me in the slightest.

The issue is my contacts and calendars, we are freight forwarders so it is absolutely essential that the details are update to date or it could be very costly for us with a container held at the port.

Personally I hate cloud based/monthly payment software, I have just had to switch to Adobe CC 2018 software @ £49/month and it is clunky and slow and I have very fast Broadband. There always is a pause when loading/creating a pdf or opening PS.

We are only a small company, so a sever for our records is all that is required and I don't have the knowledge or desire to setup and maintain an exchange server as that would be an overkill.

Apple served my needs admirably with regards to syncing, I just hoped that Samsung would have been better equipped to do so via the Android platform.

I'm old school, and if I can't backup and see my stored files then I worry, so backing up locally is for me my preferred option as I have heard so many stories of data getting corrupted and then being without whilst the host company restores, I just wouldn't sleep at night.

So it look like I will have to stay with Apple :-(

 

[MarkMas]

So it look like I will have to stay with Apple :-(

...or use Nine (free) ... or CompanionLink ($14.95 per quarter)
...or if you are desperate to avoid the Cloud, you could look at AkrutoSync - I have not used it, but it might do the job.

 

[Jkulin]

Thanks Mark, but as I said I don't like subscription software or indeed having to pay for something that should work out of the box for such a major player in the phone/tablet market.

 

[CatmanV2]

To be fair, it's not that it should work out of the box. Your use case is so corner it is positively vanishing. You're trying to use Outlook for something it's not meant to do.....

Apple appear to have coded a workaround, though god knows why

C

 

[MarkMas]

Thanks Mark, but as I said I don't like subscription software or indeed having to pay for something that should work out of the box for such a major player in the phone/tablet market.

Yeah, I don't like paying for anything either - it is annoying that everything isn't fully functional and free. But sometimes I'm willing to pay a modest cost or use a workaround to get what I actually want.

 

[GeoffCapes]

I use Outlook on my Mac, and sync everything onto iPhone and Mini iPad.
Used with Microsoft One Drive I get everything on my Mac anywhere in the world on any device.

 

[Jkulin]

Mark, I'm talking about PC's and Android, not Macs & Apple, I'm trying to get away from Apple.

 

[GeoffCapes]

Mark, I'm talking about PC's and Android, not Macs & Apple, I'm trying to get away from Apple.

Don't do it. Apple is so much better than Microsoft. Every Microsoft update slowly kills your computer.
I went through a laptop every two years, the last one lasted only 18 months until one update froze my laptop, and it never recovered.
Had my Mac 3 years now and not had a single problem.

 

[Jkulin]

I have never had a problem that I can't sort with a PC and some of my business software won't run on a Mac or indeed a number of my Astrophotography software won't either even in emulation.

What really pishes me off with apple are that they refuse to put a SD Card into either their phone or tablet so you have to pay £100's more for storage or pay for their cloud monthly and you still have the frustration on individual downloads for updates.

Anyway, the problem is solved now as it sold on eBay for what I paid for it less eBay & PayPal fees.

Thanks for everyone's input.

 

[conaero]

iCloud is 79p a month for 40gb from memory, its the best solution. Also you can get a similar with Google Drive for free.

The SD thing with Apple is because they operate a closed end to end ecosystem. Ok, its a bit of a pain but the end to end control does have its merits.

Even Trev, my coder here in the office who was for years anti apple has now conceded and now runs Apple with the MacBook, iPhone X and an iPad Pro...he has conceded that it is better and personally I never thought I would see the day.

I am still on my iPhone 6 plus which I refuse to replace as its still brilliant 4 years on. The iMac I hammer every day for the past 5 years is also perfect as is all the other Apple products I run. I have Macs that I use as door stops from the late 90's and early 2000's that still boot and run today. My kids have my old office iMacs that must be 15 years old that they use daily.

They are expensive but in life, you get what you pay for.

 

[Jkulin]

Matt, I don't want to use the cloud for storing information let alone pay for it, in addition we use .pst files for our contacts and calendars which can off course be backed up but not hosted remotely they have to be local.

And as I have mentioned some of the software we use for shipping and for my astronomy will not run on Macs even in emulation.

My PC's run perfectly, and they sync with Apple iPads, Phones etc. perfectly, it was as I have said Android that was causing the problem not apple and I wnated to move away from apple but can't now.