Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Sync options with Symbian Belle

I've always wanted to be able to sync my Phone's Calendar & Tasks/to-do's with Google, Windows Live, or Yahoo calendars. I finally did it! . . . To varying degrees . . .


So, as of 26th Mar '12: Symbian Belle is the latest update to the Symbian Operating System.  In addition there recently has been some Microsoft downloads (Lync, Broadcast, Doc Connect, & Microsoft Ap.......) I'm running all this on a Nokia C06-01 (though the Nokia phone model should not matter).

I run a PC on Win7 with connections via Mail to "Windows Live Mail" where I have access to it's Calendar & contacts by other household PC's as well. I also connect to Google & Yahoo where I not only have access to their mail, but, also their Calendars.  Well, here's the set up for each & my results. Sync'ing:


To Windows Live Mail ( a subset of hotmail). 
Select:
  • Menu - Mail - New Mailbox - Exchange Active Sync
  • Mail Address: (your Live mail address) .......
  • Password: (your Live mail password) ….....
  • User Name: same as address
  • Domain: blank
"Connecting to server"
  • Server Address: m.hotmail.com
  • Select what to sync - Contacts, Calendar, Tasks
    • Task doesn't is not supported in live mail, but, is supported in calendar.live.com; Contacts left alone as Sync'ing Contacts can lead to ball of wax twixt phone & Nokia Suite (No wonder there's a warning!) & Calendar works as advertised
    • NB: Again, If using Calendar.live.com (upon which Live based) Tasks ARE available for sync'ing
"Creating new mailbox" . . . mailbox displayed
  • On Phone's Calendar:
    • Create new event
    • Calendar: Exchange ActiveSync
    • Sync: Any of settings (Private, Public, Default) okay
      • 28 Mar '12: Only Public worked today
    • Rest as per normal
  • Further items on phone as result of mailbox creation
    • Menu - Mail - Settings - Personal Information Manager - Applications
    To select/fine tune sync options for Mail, contacts, To-do items & refine conflict actions
    • Menu - Mail - Settings - Select the newly created mailbox to provide three options
      • Mailbox info - name, password, etc, out of office, signature
      • What to Sync - Sync mails, remove after . . .
      • When to sync - days, start time, frequency
        • NB: This is critical. It caused a lot of grief as I was doing a lot of work on the weekend when sync was not running!
  • To delete: Press & hold Mailbox; Select delete, & all entries related to Exchange Active Sync mailbox are deleted on the Phone only
  • Note:
    • Not only is Task sync possible, but, full two way sync is supported as well (ie: deletion/addition on one is reflected on the other)
    • 27th Mar '12: For some unknown reason today's items (phone &/or "Live Sync" Calendar)  DID NOT sync
    • 28th Mar '12: Lo and behold a perfect two way sync of Calendar & To-do today!
    • 29th Mar '12: O me, O my . . what have I done?  There was no sync earlier today.  As I explored a reason why - I lost all my 28th Mar sync'd data! Yikes! Interesting enough the Mailbox is still there as is the Personal Information Manager.  Also I was not able to determine how to do a Manual Sync.  So, back to the Web!
    • 30th Mar '12:  Beats me . . . but all was back - including new Windows Live Tasks!  Think it best to leave it to sort itself out. (ie: If it works leave it alone!)
    • 29th Apr '12: Hmm, did get a one way sync from 'Live' to the Phone only after 'mucking' around with various options.  (I was unable to duplicate the sync thereafter tho' I tried several times.)  So, it seems the sync will only occur (despite auto settings) through a manual trigger - and it is only a one-way sync.
To Google.com/Calendar:
Select:
  • Menu - Mail - New Mailbox - Exchange Active Sync
  • Mail Address: (Your Google Address).......
  • Password:(Your Google password) ….....
  • User Name: same as address
  • Domain: blank
"Connecting to server"
  • Server Address: m.google.com
  • Select what to sync - Contacts, Calendar, Tasks
    • Task doesn't work; Contacts left alone as Sync'ing Contacts can lead to ball of wax (mainly duplicates) twixt phone & Nokia Suite (No wonder there's a warning!)
    • Note that an event in Google without a time can double as a Task/To-do item.
"Creating new mailbox" . . . mailbox displayed
  • On Phone's Calendar:
    • Create new event
    • Calendar: Exchange ActiveSync
    • Sync: Any of settings (Private, Public, Default) okay
    • Rest as per normal
  • Further item on phone as result of mailbox creation
    • Menu - Mail - Settings - Personal Information Manager - Applications
    To select/fine tune sync options for Mail, contacts, To-do items & refine conflict actions
    • Menu - Mail - Settings - Select the newly created mailbox to provide three options
      • Mailbox info - name, password, etc, out of office, signature
      • What to Sync - Sync mails, remove after . . .
      • When to sync - days, start time, frequency
        • NB: This is critical. It caused a lot of grief as I was doing a lot of work on the weekend when sync time was not running!
  • To delete: Press & hold Mailbox; Select delete, & all entries related to Exchange Active Sync mailbox are deleted on the Phone only
  • Note:
    • While 'pure' Task sync is not possible there is a workaround.
    • Full two way sync of Calendar items is supported (ie: deletion/addition on one is reflected on the other)
To calendar.yahoo.com (UNSUCCESSFUL)
Select:
  • Menu - Mail - New Mailbox - Exchange Active Sync
  • Mail Address: (Your Yahoo address).......
  • Password: (Your Yahoo password) ….....
  • User Name: same as address
  • Domain: blank (or m.yahoo.com?)
    • Tried both
"Connecting to server"
  • Server Address: m.yahoo.com
  • Select what to sync - Contacts, Calendar, Tasks
    • Calendar; Contacts left alone as Sync'ing Contacts can lead to ball of wax (mainly duplicates) twixt phone & Nokia Suite (No wonder there's a warning!); & to-do
"Creating new mailbox" . . . mailbox displayed
"Connection error try again later"
Left it at that & deleted Mailbox
  • To delete: Press & hold Mailbox; Select delete, & all entries related to Exchange Active Sync mailbox are deleted on the Phone only


Conclusion
As I use the Mail program that came with Win 7 daily it was natural to use the Calendar tied to it - and then the tie-in "Live" for the other PC's (from the setup addresses, obviously a HotMail based program).  It was a delight to discover I could not only sync the Calendar, but, the Tasks/To-do's by going to calendar.live.com.  SOLD!  My choice option.
29th Apr '12: Although a choice option, its' behavior, as noted earlier, leaves much to be desired. At the moment, without reliable sync it is of limited use.

Google was a close second.  I just couldn't resolve Task/to-do sync.
10th Jun '12:  Turns out Google doesn't do Tasks.  But, oh my, does Calendar sync!  Like a charm!  I'm now using Google & living without tasks tho' as noted earlier there is a workaround (leave out item's time)

Yahoo bears further investigation.

Looking at the options you will note there is a similarity twixt all of the set ups. Hopefully, if you've a different Mail program than the ones I've covered you can use the set up info here to make your own sync twixt phone & program.

Good Luck - and good Fun!






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