How to sync Android to Outlook on a windows PC

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PolicyGuy

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#239764 2-Aug-2018 21:01

After running my life for the last decade on an employer-provided phone which links back to Exchange/Outlook by an MDM, I'm about to retire and have to do it for myself for the first time - hence the 'noob' question.

So, I have a shiny new Nokia 6.1 and a PC running Outlook (Office 2016, local install, no cloudy stuff at all).

Outlook has all my appointments and contacts (also my email of course - going back to 1995).
How do I get my calendar and contacts to sync from the PC to the phone?
I would really much rather not trust this stuff to Google or Microsoft's cloud, so a reasonably direct sync method would be best.

I really don't care about the email - I can look at it via webmail.
What I need is appointments and contacts from the PC kept up-to-date on the phone. Bidirectional sync would be nice, but I can live without it.

Thanks

Soon-to-be retired

timmmay

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#2067163 2-Aug-2018 21:08

You don't sync your phone with your PC, you have things live in the cloud and sync both your devices with them. Device to device sync went out with the 90s.

No doubt there is hosted exchange, and M365 probably has something for consumers. I find Outlook Mobile frustrating, buggy, and limited. It gets into weird loops when you do things like edit meetings too quickly, you can't set calendar item visibility, there's lots of little things. But it's fine for a quick look at mail and calendar on the go.

I'd export everything to some standard format then import into your Google account. Put your calendar in Google Calendar, and your email in Gmail. Use the Android Calendar app and the Android Gmail app.

scuwp

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#2067165 2-Aug-2018 21:21

Really need to get over your fear of cloud based hosting. It really is the only way to fly nowadays. Get yourself a Gmail account and set up a Google Calendar and then you can choose whatever app you like to access and use it. Outlook mobile I quite like and for calendar I use and really like Calendars 5 by Readdle. At the end of the day cloud based email and data can be accessed from anywhere at anytime.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

MartinGZ

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#2067415 3-Aug-2018 12:14

I was in a similar situation. I am now fully cloud based, but for several years it was not worth moving domains, multiple email accounts etc, so stuck with local sync.

For local sync I used DejaOffice (with CompanionLink), and it worked fine. It’s a solid piece of software, but be careful as it uses USA defaults for phone number synchronisation - if you don’t select the correct options it will screw up all your phone numbers. Do one-way sync PC-phone first before you try 2 way as this allows you to check the phone numbers.

I now fully use cloud email and would not go back to local sync. I chose Office365 (family) over Google apps, mainly on privacy grounds. Given the relatively small yearly cost the cost/free thing didn’t really come into it. I gave a big cheer when Google announced that they would no longer be scanning emails for advertising this year, but then it got the thumbs down. What I didn’t realise is that Google also allowed third parties similar access and the last time I checked on this they have refused to deny that those permissions have not been withdrawn.

There are those that are not concerned about email privacy, but I am, without being paranoid about it. An awful lot can be gleaned – the bank you are with, user names, password resets etc etc.

On this vein, the Android apps are a minefield – where do you draw the line? At some stage you have to give secure details to the app and at some point you need to trust what they are doing. Many, such as BlueMail, hold your emails on their server and sync between say Outlook cloud and your phone. Personally, that is not a situation I’m particularly happy with. This is a free app – so where do they make their money?

I settled on Nine Folders for Android which only syncs between your phone and the cloud service, and you must pay for the app. It is a very sophisticated app and I only scratch the surface of what it provides. In many ways it is overkill.

The only good thing about MS Outlook Android, is the focused in box. They really lost the plot in the app development and my advice is to look elsewhere. It’s miles better that it used to be, so if you can live with it, it will get the job done.

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.