Help GS4, GPE calendar sync issues

[spyder80]

Hi all,
After a botched attempt to migrate from iOS to Android on Nexus5, I have purchased a Galaxy S4, play edition.
Everything looked good for a day until I realized I cannot accept to meetings from within an email. That is when I noticed that my calendar was not synced from my outlook 2010 to my phone.
In my corporate account settings I have "sync calendar" turned on but I dont see my corporate calendar.
I looked into options for syncing my outlook calendar to google calendar and found out that the geniuses at google have disabled google sync. I found a link in some forum where people claimed that google sync still works, but apparently that is only for business or educational accounts, not for personal accounts.

All exchange sync solutions seem to lead me to third party apps that require paying (not cheap either). Why is this so complicated?

I checked with a few of my colleagues using GS4, but they have no issues as they are using the carrier version phones, not the google play edition.

Anyone know of a direct free stock solution to getting my calendars to sync?

Thanks a lot,

 

[Rukbat]

Why is this so complicated?

Because Microsoft decided that, despite the 493 different types of email server that all adhere to the same protocols, what the world needed more than anything else was one more email server - that used its own protocol.

Then - if that wasn't enough - they decided that they would add the standard protocols to their server - and also allow the email administrator to set the server up in any way he could think of, whether it made sense, worked or anything else. So every Exchange installation is a little different, and something that works perfectly on one won't work at all on another one - that has a single insignificant difference. It also means that two email clients that are almost identical may - or may not - work - fully or partially - on any given Exchange server.

If your company decided that it's too expensive to hire someone to design staircases, so you have to free-climb up the outside of the building to get to your office, not only wouldn't it have any employees, it would probably get sued by a few hundred government and private organizations.

But if it decides that the CEO wants Exchange set up like this - because he "heard" it's the best way (but wouldn't know a CPU from a disk pack), or because it makes emails look prettier on his Blackberry - and it decided that it's too expensive to hire an email admin who could actually set up a working email network using Exchange Server - you're on your own. (Use a version of Outlook at least as current as the server and it works - but Microsoft doesn't make "Outlook for Android".) And if you can't do your job efficiently until you get your phone working properly on their server setup, one that even the email gods can't fully figure out, you spend your nights and weekends working to get your phone's setup working.

People who are very good at their jobs can always find work, even in economically trying times. So they bring the phone to the email administrator at 10 AM, say "I need this working fully, properly syncing contacts both ways, syncing the calendar and allowing me to accept appointments by 2 this afternoon, or I can't do my job - and Joe, the guy whose name is on the company letterhead, you know, the one who OWNS the company? - will find out why in my resignation right after 2 PM." At 1:45, he types up his resignation, explaining why it's a waste of his time and the company's money, to pay him to do a job that the company is preventing him from doing. At 2:01, he goes to the email administrator and drops off a copy of the resignation, letting the admin know that he thought it would be kind to let the admin know why it starts hitting the fan BEFORE it starts. Then he hands in his resignation and, by the next week is working for a company that actually knows what it's doing. Or he's still working there, but the company has a competent email admin and an email system that works.

Or, alternatively, by 10:30 AM he receives an email on his phone, from the email administrator, telling him that he should now be able to accept the dummy appointment with the admin at 10:45, by using the phone. (If the admin were good enough to not worry about finding another job, the problem wouldn't have occurred in the first place.)

Life's too short to allow someone else's stupidity to give you a heart attack.

 

[spyder80]

Hi Rubkat,
I did learn a thing or two from your post, though it doesnt provide me with a direct solution. My company is not paying for my phone, so I am pretty much on my own. One could say I am a little spoilt as I was using an iPhone before and was up and running in less than 10mins (on my own, not because I wanted to make an appointment with a "genius"). The part I cannot figure out is how is iOS handling all these issues smoothly while Android is struggling?
On a separate more relevant note, you might have noticed that I got my corporate email working correctly, so my server settings are correct. In my account settings there is a very clear option to turn on or turn off calendar sync. So I am either completely mis interpreting what this "calendar sync" is, or there is a bug. If it is the former, I would love to hear from you or any android experts out here.

So if you really can help, let me know what it is about my calendar settings I need to look for in my outlook. If a stock android solution cannot handle certain protocols, and that is mentioned somewhere, point me to that link. Spare the lengthy stories because they are not helpful at all.

Thank you for taking the time to reply...