• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Help Can I sync my Droid X with Outlook?

Outlaw71

Outlaw71

Android Expert
I've never tried this myself because I'm not an Outlook user. But my exwife just got herself an X and was asking me how she could do this. So I wanted to create a thread for her to find so she could learn how it's done. If it's already been discussed at great lengths just throw up the link to it and she can follow that. Thanks in advance!
 
Yes, just go to Settings > Accounts & Sync > Add account. It will take you through the steps. I just had to add my exchange account for a new job I got. You can also sync your calendar with your gmail calendar on your device. At least I was able to.
 
Btros said:
Yes, just go to Settings > Accounts & Sync > Add account. It will take you through the steps. I just had to add my exchange account for a new job I got. You can also sync your calendar with your gmail calendar on your device. At least I was able to.
Click to expand...

That isn't exactly what I *think* the OP is asking. What you describe is syncing with an exchange server. I think he wants to sync with the Outlook, the desktop application. If you use Outlook only as an exchange client, there is no difference (and syncing to the server would work a lot better).

I think a lot of people use Outlook's calendar completely locally. I understand one solution is to download some Windows application that syncs outlook's calendar to gmail's. Then you add your gmail account to your phone and you're in business. A quick Google search should be able to explain it better than I am.
 
Outlaw
So to clarify, your ex-wife wants to sync her DX with outlook, but doesn't have an exchange acccount that she can leverage?
 
I need to sync my DX to Outlook. I ran on Palm for 11 years, and eventually converted to Outlook from Palm Desktop, and now my calendar, contacts, notes, and tasks are invaluable to me. The only application I found was Deja Office. It has worked really well for me. They have a 14 day trial that you can download it to your phone from the Android Marketplace, set it up on your PC http://www.dejaoffice.com/ , and run back ups to determine how well it's working. It will cost $39.99 after the trial, which I thought was somewhat expensive, but I really did need the ability, so it was worth it to me.

There are other less costly options, but nothing out there will sync all four items at once: calendar, contacts, tasks, and notes.
 
redifrogger said:
Outlaw
So to clarify, your ex-wife wants to sync her DX with outlook, but doesn't have an exchange acccount that she can leverage?
Click to expand...

Ummmm.... lol, like I said I'm not an Outlook user, so I don't really know. What is Exchange? Are you guys saying if she has Exchange then it's a simple in-phone set up procedure? If so, it is easy to get Exchange? Or is that like a corporate thing?
 
Outlaw71 said:
Ummmm.... lol, like I said I'm not an Outlook user, so I don't really know. What is Exchange? Are you guys saying if she has Exchange then it's a simple in-phone set up procedure? If so, it is easy to get Exchange? Or is that like a corporate thing?
Click to expand...
Exchange is a corporate mail server. It is probably one of MS best products. Most companies either run MS Exchange, or Lotus Notes. I can't stand Notes, FWIW.

Anyway, all messages are stored on the server, and your local client (Outlook) communicates with the server to sync messages. Also allows calender, meetings, and tasks, etc. So you can put something on your calender, and other exchange users can see what time you're available, best time to set up a meeting and so on.

Droid X has Exchange support built in, because all messages communicate with the server, and the server is online all the time, it is easy to sync messages where you can see all emails you sent and recieved on both your computer and your mobile devices. Plus can see calender, etc. Technically, the protocol is called MAPI (not to be confused by IMAP).

But if she's just using Outlook as a local client to download email through POP, then you have to sync everything. I use Outlook myself in this scenerio and for the family. This created tons of problems as you can't see messages until you physically hook up to the computer and sync. I instead decided to find an IMAP mail server, where that server would keep all email in the "cloud", and then use Outlook to connect to the IMAP server to keep everything in sync. So what free IMAP servers are there? Didn't need to look any further than Gmail, which also syncs perfectly with Android phones. WIN!

Unfortunately, only Outlook 2010 has decent IMAP support. Can't use any other version, like v2007 or v2003. Thunderbird also works well, but never cared for it.

This configuration works great. Syncs all emails and calenders, doesn't change current email addresses, and lets you download multiple accounts into one (which can automatically be tagged with labels for organization).

In Gmail settings, enable IMAP access. In accounts and import, set up POP accounts to download messages from all your email accounts. Configure Outlook to IMAP, download messages from Gmail. Configure Outlook to use online (Gmail) calender.

So here's my attempt to show what I'm talking about:

Email acct 1----POP-----\
Email acct 2----POP------ Gmail acct----IMAP----DroidX, Outlook, Tablets, Netbooks, etc.
Email acct 3----POP-----/
 
I sync my outlook calendar using some software I downloaded (probably the one mentioned above). I sink my email by having the gmail account copy my business email address. It even lets me show replies as being sent from my business email. I'm not sure about notes and contacts.
 
There are many options available, actually. What information she wants to sync from Outlook (contacts, calendar, tasks, notes, categories, etc) will dictate what program she needs to make the sync. SyncDroid.net has a great list that breaks down the features of many of her options quite nicely.

Some, like Google Calendar Sync, are free but limited to only syncing certain parts of Outlook. If that's all you need to sync, great! Others, like our own CompanionLink for Outlook, cost but are more full featured. If you're looking for more advanced sync options, a program like ours is a good way to go. If you'd like more info on our software specifically, let me know and I'll send you a PM.


- David Z.
 
I was in the same "boat" as you Outlaw. I use Outlook 2007 and love it. I didn't want to give it up just to have this phone. I wanted to be able to update my calendar and contacts on my phone or on my PC. Google has an app that will allow you to sync the calendar for free but not the contacts. Didn't help me. It is a known issue on Google with no ETA for a resolution.

Like nj02evette, I set up IMAP on Outlook and downloaded MyPhone Explorer through the marketplace on the DX. After installing on both my PC and phone, I can sync both ways for free. It's not a trial version and so far it's been great. Although, if you decide to try it, there is a debugging freature you have to turn off on the phone or it won't sync. I had to search for the setting to turn it off but it's easy to search online. The only other downfall (and am not sure if it's the software or the phone yet) is that when I create a new message, it creates a new contact in my address book (even though I already had one). A very small inconvenience that I have no problem dealing with. I don't want to pay Google annual fees to have business account just so I can sync.

Good luck.
 
As the ex wife, I am very grateful for his help :) Lucky to have such a thoughful "ex", my "Outlook " has definately changed, lol.
 
Hey thanks for all the help fellas. To be honest it's all greek to me, but she just found this thresd,so hopefully she'll be able to make sense of it.
 
I wasn't willing to pay the $40 for companionlink so I had to change the way I do things.
I changed all of my notes to docs and put them in Google docs which I can access using Documents to go from my phone.

At my office they don't allow our personal devices on our network and we don't have access to install software on our laptops. So I export my calendar to a file and import it into Google calendar which then syncs to my phone.

Finally for my contacts I exported them from outlook to a file, put the file on my phone's sdcard, then imported them into my phone.
 
Outlaw71 said:
Hey thanks for all the help fellas. To be honest it's all greek to me, but she just found this thresd,so hopefully she'll be able to make sense of it.
Click to expand...

Basically Outlaw, to put it all in Lamens....Exchange is where the mail is stored....Outlook is a User Interface to sort the mail and make it easier for you to use.

Another thing you can do with Outlook is set it up to ALSO be able to sort your Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, or any Calander programs you may use, that way you can just use Outlook to Organize all your mail.

If she is using Outlook, JUST to sort her other mail from Hotmail, etc...then the process is different and she will have to go through another client to set it up on her DX.

However...if she uses outlook as her MAIN source of mail and pulls all her mail from the Exchange Server, then setting it up is as easy as 1, two, III, since exchange support is build into the DX. (I love my DX)

Make sense?
 
Yes, makes sense. Like I said I don't use Outlook myself, I use Gmail and AOL mail synced to my phone normally, and it works flawlessly. But I'm sure my ex appreciates your explanation.
 
I just can't see trusting these cloud based email services -YET. Google did lose a lot emails recently. I use Outlook and keep it backed up real-time. That way I know my stuff is safe.

I do now use Google as my master Calendar and Address Book. That way my phone and desktop are always in sync. Companion Link keeps my Outlook in sync with Google. It is the app I've found that works with reliably and unattended.
 
schneidr said:
I just can't see trusting these cloud based email services -YET. Google did lose a lot emails recently. I use Outlook and keep it backed up real-time. That way I know my stuff is safe.

I do now use Google as my master Calendar and Address Book. That way my phone and desktop are always in sync. Companion Link keeps my Outlook in sync with Google. It is the app I've found that works with reliably and unattended.
Click to expand...
You can still use gmail as your mail server, and have Outlook back up the messages locally to your HD.

Best of both worlds.
 
Since we are on this subject, have you heard about being able to share a Gmail calendar? Since it is not possible to accept appointments on the phone, I was thinking of setting up a shared calendar. Anyone know if there is a setting on the phone that will allow syncing of a shared calendar?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom