Android contacts and calendar sync with Outlook desktop

Forums › Android › Android contacts and calendar sync with Outlook desktop

MartinGZ

376 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 128

Subscriber

#196249 24-May-2016 16:34

Yes, I still use Outlook as part of MS Office on my PC, and no, I'm not about to change. Well I could be persuaded, but that would be waaay off topic.

For a few years I've been syncing the PC Outlook contacts, calendar, tasks & notes to my Android phones using the combination of DejaOffice and CompanionLink. This solution is OKish, but adding and editing contacts is pretty cumbersome as you cannot do this directly in the phone Contacts app, similarly with Calendar. You have to switch to the Deja app, and if you say dial from the Deja app is uses the native phone app and the link between two gets pretty tedious after a while and prone to error.

Yesterday by accident I came across AkrutoSync which is a PC program that allows the sync to occur by adding a new MS Exchange Account to the phone and then sync over wifi or the web. Threw the 7 day trial on last nite and although I had a few problems with the setup (possibly down to the zillion variants of Android), the Akruto email support was superb and soon sorted the issues out. It also helps to have a basic understanding of how the accounts sync with the phone apps (my knowledge being at the bottom end of that scale).

After things were up and running, it is really nice to see the edits on the phone appearing on the PC a few minutes later. My setup is with wifi, but there is also a way to do it remotely - good for road warriors.

Has anyone used any other software that provides a good sync with phone and Outlook? I want to be able to change & enter things directly in the native phone apps, not constantly switching between native and third party apps. It must also be easy for someone who is not a GZ user to use :-) I'm not looking for cloud based systems (the MS Outlook app is in use on another system, but currently is is rubbish - no editing on the phone, no tasks or calendars. It might be OK in 5 years.)

Not particularly relevant, but I'm using the LG G4 with Android 6.0, PC is Win7.

Nokia 6110, 6210, 6234, Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1, Huawei Ideos X5 (Windows Mobile), Samsung Galaxy SIII, LG G4, OnePlus 5, iPhone Xs Max (briefly), S21 Ultra. And I thought I hadn't had many phones - but the first one around 1997.

bradstewart

4338 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 166

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1558810 24-May-2016 16:43

You could use something like what is described here:

http://www.howtogeek.com/202090/how-to-automatically-sync-contacts-between-outlook-and-gmail/
http://www.howtogeek.com/225489/how-to-sync-your-google-calendar-with-outlook/

These will sync your contacts/calendar to your Google account which will then keep them updated on your phone and allow your to natively edit them (this assumes you have a Google account on your Android device). Also means you won't need any additional apps on your phone.

Google used to have their own excellent tool for this but killed it off some years ago unfortunately.

Mattnzl

282 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 70

#1558819 24-May-2016 17:01

I've used MyPhoneExplorer for ages to sync desktop outlook over USB to Android: http://www.fjsoft.at/en/

Can apparently do over wifi too, but I've always used USB so phone charges at same time.

kiwifidget

"Cookie"
3640 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1969

Lifetime subscriber

#1558851 24-May-2016 18:11

Mattnzl:
I've used MyPhoneExplorer for ages to sync desktop outlook over USB to Android: http://www.fjsoft.at/en/

Can apparently do over wifi too, but I've always used USB so phone charges at same time.

I use this solution too. I do mine over WiFi, it works very well.

Delete cookies?! Are you insane?!

michelangelonz

125 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 40

#1558884 24-May-2016 19:20

I use outlook.com. I have outlook desktop which can sync with an outlook.com account as if it were connecting to an exchange server. I use Nine https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ninefolders.hd3&hl=en on my android phone which can do calendar, contacts tasks and notes all synced with my outlook.com account.

Cheers

Michael

MartinGZ

376 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 128

Subscriber

#1559369 25-May-2016 13:46

Thanks I'll look at all these in the next week. Think I'll setup a dummy account to do this though.

Security. With all these apps (my current ones included) how do we know they are secure and not nicking login details etc? I always search for issues on any such apps, but rarely come up with much.

nzgeek

619 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 52

#1559457 25-May-2016 16:38

I second the suggestion to use Outlook.com for contacts and calendar sync. Make a backup of your .pst files for safety, then move the contacts and calendar entries into the online account.

I wouldn't recommend Gmail for this purpose. Outlook 2013 doesn't play all that nice with Google Calendar. I haven't tried 2016, which may be a little better.

You shouldn't need any special app on the phone. Once I'd added the account to the Gmail app, my contact and calendar entries just started syncing. You can even switch email to manual sync if you're only using the account for calendar and contacts.

Lenovo

Shop now for Lenovo laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 9996

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#1559464 25-May-2016 16:53

Move your email to a hosted Exchange solution or outlook.com and you'll wish you'd done it years ago. If you want sync, it really is the best solution.

MartinGZ

376 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 128

Subscriber

#1584739 2-Jul-2016 18:00

In the end I lived with AkrutoSync and paid for the software as I only run it on one PC. It just works - set and forget. Impressed with their support.

But some feedback on the other ideas - thanks everyone.

MyPhoneExplorer - Went to download it but gave up when presented with 2 pages of huge download buttons to crapware, finally spotting the small download link for the software itself. Just not interested when people do that - there must be an easier way to earn money for software.

Google/Gmail sync. I read this was dead and didn’t realise a fork was still going. I could have looked at this but decided not to as AkrutoSync was working well.

Nine- will bear this one in mind for future use. Still undecided about the security of all this info going through 3rd parties (that includes AkrutoSync).

Outlook.com - In my view the android version is not mature enough to use - cannot edit or add new entries on phone. No Calendar, No Tasks??? Not even a hint from MS these will be added. Also got to be careful about it not merging contact databases – bit of a minefield that one. I have put some in the family on it though, but it's not fit for purpose for me.

hosted exchange server – Don’t deny there are advantages of cloud based stuff and had considered the full port of the home office business to Office 365, but with only a couple of years to retirement, decided it wasn't worth it & was overkill for a few static web pages. Despite MS saying migration is easy peasy, it is not and I would have to employ someone to do it - would never recover the costs. Will consider it when I retire as Office 365 Home is reasonably priced. I have a nice outlook.com email address.

andrew027

1286 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 557

#1600018 28-Jul-2016 09:21

I thought I'd jump onto the end of this existing thread... I recently asked a question about whether people thought it was worth maintinaing two calendars (e.g. Google and Outlook). I don't think anybody actually answered that question, but a couple of people did suggest various ways/apps that might do the job.

So I started playing around with Outlook last night, trying to enter appointments in the calendar on my Android phone and Windows 10 notebook and have them synch between devices. All in all I found it a very frustrating experience. Maybe it's because I have an Android phone instead of a Windows one. Maybe it's because my email address is an @xtra.co.nz (Yahoo) one. But I find it strange that synching Outlook on these devices is not something Office365 can do "out of the box".

- I have a Microsoft account.
- I have Office365.
- I have Outlook on my notebook and on my Android phone.
- I use the same email address for my Microsoft account and for Outlook on both devices.
- If someone else sends an Outlook meeting request to my email address it appears in the Outlook calendar on both devices.
- But if I create an appointment in Outlook myself, it only appears on the device I created it on.

At one point last night I contacted Microsoft tech support via live chat. The guy initially told me it couldn't be done because the email address I was using was "not a Microsoft email address". Later he said that he had discovered the email address was associated with my Microsoft account and Outlook.com so it could be done. He then took control of the notebook and set up a new email account in Outlook.com using (if memory serves me correct, and it might not as it was almost 1:00am by this time) Exchange Active Sync and m.hotmail.com. He said this would work, but it didn't (which surprised him, but not me by that stage).