Database Users

SyncMyCal & Google Calendar

I've been trying for months to reliably sync my Wizard to Google's Calendar, and I must have tried every app out there for the purpose. Today I stumbled on SyncMyCal, and I think I've found a winner.
I did have trouble with an annually recurring event, but this seems to be an issue with how Outlook formats things. At least SyncMyCal gave a useful error message, and I was able to also resolve the problem. This issue may have also been the cause of some problems I had with other applications, but none of them gave enough info to find the root cause.
The free version is limited to only three days forward and back, and doesn't autosync, but that's fair. If you want more, there is a paid version.
I don't have any connection with these guys, I just posted this to save others some of the wasted time I invested looking for a solution.
***** UPDATE: Having used this program for six weeks, I'm withdrawing my endorsement, and have deleted it from my Wizard. Although it is somewhat better than others, it is still to flaky to be reliable, deleting some events, duplicating others, and changing the times on still others.
Back to searching

I've been using GooSync for a couple of months. I don't update my events on Google--just on the PPC then sync. It was spotty with recurring events, but has gotten better lately. I also use the contacts sync one way as well. Either I or Goosync has duplicated all the entries once. There was also one time where ALL the contacts and calendar entries were wiped out! I never figured out who was at fault then. I've been using various sync software for a decade and there never seems to be a solution that works right and then keeps on working right.
I think I paid around 20 bucks for a years service. I have to say, they are getting better rapidly. I would try SyncMyCal, but the contacts sync is REALLY what I want....
What is killing my Wing is the size of the pim.vol file, 4.72 mb's and growing. I have deleted all the voice tags and only have ~10 contact photos (resized for the web with CS3, ~7-11kb each.) I pisses me off that I can't move that file to a storage card. What the hell is the use a PPC that limits how many peeps you know or do business with. That makes voice commands and photo contacts useless! I know, I know-- I should get a Tilt-- but that's just a temporary solution. Anyone know of a contacts program that stores it's data on a card?

Google Calendar Sync
5 March 2008 Google Calendar Sync allows you to sync events between Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook Calendar.
http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=89955&
You can now access your Google Calendar account from your mobile phone! Just visit mobile.google.com/calendar/ with your phone's web browser and once you're logged in, you'll see your list of upcoming events with date and time information in an easy-to-browse format.
Cheers
Tom

Not Helpful
Several major problems with the last post. First, the URL listed for sync info is garbled.
Second, it only works if you have a Widoze desktop. I'm running Linux.
Finally, using the mobile web interface doesn't allow you to edit or delete events, so it's of very limited use.

klausner said:
First, the URL listed for sync info is garbled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
URL link fixed - thanks for pointing this out. Note the Bboard truncates the display but now the link works. If not, try a search:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Google+Calendar+Sync
klausner said:
Second, it only works if you have a Widoze desktop. I'm running Linux.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree but none of the posts mention Linux. In fact the first post mentions "issue with how Outlook formats things"
klausner said:
Finally, using the mobile web interface doesn't allow you to edit or delete events, so it's of very limited use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The mobile web interface does allow you to ADD events and has a bandwith friendly view of the next few appointments. Nobody in xda-developers forum had mentioned either mobile.google.com/calendar or indeed the new Google Calendar Sync before me.
klausner said:
Several major problems with the last post.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think these are "major" problems or warrant a rating of "Not Helpful". I shared the pain of the first two posters who "must have tried every app out there" that "duplicated" or "wiped out!" all the entries . Like them, I "just posted this to save others some of the wasted time I invested looking for a solution."
Cheers
Tom

manila 2.1 facebook links backup ?

Im using the new Energy rom, 06/08. I set up all the links in facebook to my contacts, but as most of you know the energy ROM gets updated often. Im a flash junkie, so I follow them.
Is there any way I can export the links, it took me about an hour to link them up and im not going to do that every week or so.
Thanks for your time.

Anthony2oo5 said:
Im using the new Energy rom, 06/08. I set up all the links in facebook to my contacts, but as most of you know the energy ROM gets updated often. Im a flash junkie, so I follow them.
Is there any way I can export the links, it took me about an hour to link them up and im not going to do that every week or so.
Thanks for your time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use SPB backup. The only thing is everytime I restore my contacts It restores every contact twice and I have to go through and erase them. Pim backup backs up contacts but I dont know how to carry over the facebook links.

Yea I know how to backup my contacts. Infact they sync to outlook. I just dont want to have to restore the facebook links everytime.
Thanks for your reply

this would be very helpful for me also. i too am an energy rom user & would luv to know how to backup the facebook links. dscottjr81 can you verify SPBbackup does work for this?? i also wonder if Sprite Backup would work? i know PIMbackup does not carry over the facebook integration.
anyone?

maybe the facebook stuff is in the facebook.vol in your root directory? \facebook.vol
just try it

facebook.vol is for the facebook application produced by microsoft.

you use the link your contacts in the manila contacts page, right?
I have nothing else of facebook installed, and have the \FacebookInfo.vol on my phone, so I think thats one of the files for the "manila facebook" ..
but here is another solution: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=538513

Il back that file up and restore it see if it works. Il also use your link in the event it dosnt work.
Thanks very much.

I have over 75+ facebook links in my phone, so having to do them all again would of been very troublesome for me. I did however figure out how to backup all of the links and current PIM information for your phone.
Backing up and Restoring the ENTIRE PIM(Calendar, Contacts, Tasks) and the Facebookinfo Vol file is the only way to get your Links back intact.
Before you do this, you should do the following things to prepare for the restore. If you have an active sync partnership with a computer allready, in your active sync settings on the PPC for that connection, set you sync conflict mode to "Keep items on my device". This will prevent dupes from appearing in outlook on your PC as well as on your phone. If your synced with an Exchange server or google mobile, unfortunately the Exchange connector lacks this feature. You'll just have to manually De-Dupe those.. Sorry.
When all of this is done, Download and Install Total Commander (Google it). Open total commander and in the root of your device, rename the "pim.vol" and "facebookinfo.vol" files (If they exist. If not, then fill out your personal card and link atleast one facebook contact). Once these are renamed, copy your old pim.vol and facebookinfo.vol files into the root, and soft reset. You should now have all your contacts, tasks, calendar entry's, and facebook links.
Edit: I just checked my gmail account after doing this method (Which is being synced via the exchange connector) and I only found a few dupes which may of been left over. Post your experience if you do this as well.

Try using microsoft my phone, looking at the details it has synced to my account it saves the fb links as a note, ive not reflashed the phone since i got all my links connected, i only got the phone yesterday and am trying out my 1st rom since moving over from the Kaiser. Loving the diamond compared to my old trusty heavy Kaiser.
I have always used Microsoft my phone for backing up, i like the sync my location as if i ever loose of get my phone stolen at the press of a button it will tell me where it is

langers1 said:
Try using microsoft my phone, looking at the details it has synced to my account it saves the fb links as a note, ive not reflashed the phone since i got all my links connected, i only got the phone yesterday and am trying out my 1st rom since moving over from the Kaiser. Loving the diamond compared to my old trusty heavy Kaiser.
I have always used Microsoft my phone for backing up, i like the sync my location as if i ever loose of get my phone stolen at the press of a button it will tell me where it is
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My phone does not backup/restore facebook links. I'm not sure if it is even aware that manila creates them. Where did you see this in details? The sync details in my phone is very basic and doesn't say anything that detailed. When I look at the sync settings in the latest version of my phone, it doesn't even give an option to backup notes, and there is no mention of notes in the online profile either. Where did you see this?

Upgraded ROM - 'People' still there??!

Hi,
Very confused about what happened during a ROM upgrade..
I went from 1.43 to 1.48, immediately following which I did a hard reset (perhaps not strictly necessary however commonly believed to be best practise when flashing ROMs).
HD2 started up, did it's initialization customisations, asked for my provider etc. I then went through and configured my connection with my Exchange Server and all my data sync'd up - all normal so far.
So now I had a fresh install, just with my Exchange data on (contacts / calendar / email etc). Definitely a clean install (just to emphasis the point!) as obviously my app shortcuts weren't there from the home screen, my weather cities of choice weren't there but instead the default, etc etc etc. All as expected.
BUT..
I flicked to the People (contacts) section of Sense (the second tab by default) and to my surprise there were the six faces of the people I had configured previously!! They were in the wrong order (no logic to the new order) but yup they were there!! VERY STRANGE!!
The only thing I can think of is either a) such configuration is stored on the storage card (which obviously isn't wiped during ROM upgrade) or b) it is somehow stored and sync'd back in the individual Outlook contact records themselves (unlikely I'm thinking..).
Any comments??! Even if just to confirm? Or am I going completely mad!!

Same here - very random - my photos and music have been juggled around too...

SimonW500 said:
Hi,
it is somehow stored and sync'd back in the individual Outlook contact records themselves (unlikely I'm thinking..).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is this^
When you add in a contact to favourites in sense and sync back to exchange, you will notice that your contact has been added to a category called "HTC Favourite".
Check Outlook on a PC to see the categories your contacts are assigned to.

Thanks for the quick reply and confirmation - good to know I'm not going mad!
So can someone explain how this is done? ie. kept on storage card / sync'd back to Exchange / AN Other?
I'm particularly concerned if it is sync'd back to Exchange, as until now I often try quite a few Windows Mobile devices and enter in my Exchange details etc on the assumption that nothing that particular device does is actually kept once I wipe the phone.

Audio Oblivion said:
It is this^
When you add in a contact to favourites in sense and sync back to exchange, you will notice that your contact has been added to a category called "HTC Favourite".
Check Outlook on a PC to see the categories your contacts are assigned to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow - another amazing quick response!!
Excellent - thanks for the info - well spotted! Now despite my above comment I can live with this more than happily, actually see it as a useful feature!
Thanks again.

Moving People around?
Following on from the above (loosely!)..
Is there an easy way to move the ordering of these shortcuts around?
Being the picky individual that I am (!) I have them in a certain order, which effectively means that even though the right people are 'remembered' I still have to delete and create them all again to put them in the right order.
Thanks again..

Your photo and Music are located on your SD card. SD card is not impacted by either HARD RESET or Memory Flashing.
You favorties contacts are part of a group... And this informations is stored in the contact information on your Exchange server (like if you've put them in a group named "Restaurants" "Best Friends", etc. But it's not storing their positions; If you flash hard reset multiple times, it will always put them in the same position. (Sync order? Older first? By phone number? no idea right now)
For the other informations (shortcuts) it's not saved either on your SD card, MyPhone account nor Exchange server... no way to get them back automatically..

Kridek said:
Your photo and Music are located on your SD card. SD card is not impacted by either HARD RESET or Memory Flashing.
You favorties contacts are part of a group... And this informations is stored in the contact information on your Exchange server (like if you've put them in a group named "Restaurants" "Best Friends", etc. But it's not storing their positions; If you flash hard reset multiple times, it will always put them in the same position. (Sync order? Older first? By phone number? no idea right now)
For the other informations (shortcuts) it's not saved either on your SD card, MyPhone account nor Exchange server... no way to get them back automatically..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good summary - spot on!
It seems with this little integration of Outlook groups, and the use of MyPhone, re-flashing roms or hard resets are getting slightly more "user friendly". I realise there a 3rd party apps to do this (and more) however to me half the beauty of doing such a flash/reset is to NOT carry things over other than pure data (ie. not config)..

People
The faces images info is stored in the pim.vol but whatever you used to reinstall contacts(Exchange?) has sorted them in the wrong order.
I use a method which comes from doing countless rom upgrades.
I used sashimi but realised all it was doing was copying and restoring the pim.vol
Don't use PIM backup as going back & forth from backup and restore seems to lead to corrupted pim.vol files. I know you haven't done that but just a warning.
The way to get a mirror restore, is to copy the pim.vol file in the root folder(device\) before reinstalling to your sd card or pc, then copy back over the empty pim.vol after reinstalling. You can't do it in the device explorer or in activesync but with resco explorer or fexploreext you can. I avoid activesync so I don't get either duplicates or wiped out contact/calendar info. This may seem laborious but after hundreds of rom flashes it has value in being quick and safe. I have 450+ contacts I have accumulated in 7 years of owning PPC/WM's and always have a plethora of calendar items which I can not afford to lose or have corrupted.
If you want to backup sms's you can use PIM Backup.
Maybe you would find it easier to use MS Myphone. I have avoided it so can't give a review.

Pure data
Pure data is great, but once there are uc(user customisation) compliant Leo roms, there will be available, a beautiful way of reconstructing about 80% of all settings, applications and shortcuts. It restores all one's customisation in pristine order, with only the new rom's updated functions.
SimonW500 said:
Good summary - spot on!
It seems with this little integration of Outlook groups, and the use of MyPhone, re-flashing roms or hard resets are getting slightly more "user friendly". I realise there a 3rd party apps to do this (and more) however to me half the beauty of doing such a flash/reset is to NOT carry things over other than pure data (ie. not config)..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Xaddict said:
The faces images info is stored in the pim.vol but whatever you used to reinstall contacts(Exchange?) has sorted them in the wrong order.
I use a method which comes from doing countless rom upgrades.
I used sashimi but realised all it was doing was copying and restoring the pim.vol
Don't use PIM backup as going back & forth from backup and restore seems to lead to corrupted pim.vol files. I know you haven't done that but just a warning.
The way to get a mirror restore, is to copy the pim.vol file in the root folder(device\) before reinstalling to your sd card or pc, then copy back over the empty pim.vol after reinstalling. You can't do it in the device explorer or in activesync but with resco explorer or fexploreext you can. I avoid activesync so I don't get either duplicates or wiped out contact/calendar info. This may seem laborious but after hundreds of rom flashes it has value in being quick and safe. I have 450+ contacts I have accumulated in 7 years of owning PPC/WM's and always have a plethora of calendar items which I can not afford to lose or have corrupted.
If you want to backup sms's you can use PIM Backup.
Maybe you would find it easier to use MS Myphone. I have avoided it so can't give a review.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good tip with with pim.vol file..
For what it's worth, I too have a similar amount of valuable contact and calendar data, however to date I'm pleased to report no amount of heavy ActiveSync (direct Exchange Server connection) abuse has caused any serious issues.

Activesync issues
There's always a first time, and 2nd and so on...
p.s. I'm not sure I want to flash roms the way I did on my HD,
but when I was doing it, activesync gave me a lot of problems.
SimonW500 said:
Good tip with with pim.vol file..
For what it's worth, I too have a similar amount of valuable contact and calendar data, however to date I'm pleased to report no amount of heavy ActiveSync (direct Exchange Server connection) abuse has caused any serious issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Xaddict said:
There's always a first time, and 2nd and so on...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL - very true! For this reason I try to take a copy of all my contacts within Outlook at least once a month; both protects me from any wayward devices as well as any modifications I may make and then regret (change of numbers, deletions etc!).

I love this feature
usually , one had to reconfigure all the favorite contacts after a hard reset.
Now, when syncing with Exchange, like said above, your favorites will be restored with pictures and all. Great
Never had them pop back in in the wrong order though.

lucid said:
usually , one had to reconfigure all the favorite contacts after a hard reset.
Now, when syncing with Exchange, like said above, your favorites will be restored with pictures and all. Great
Never had them pop back in in the wrong order though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, I upgraded from HD to HD2, as soon as i sync with exchange i got my favs back in the correct order with all my emails , text messages etc etc.

Facebook associations.

The only thing that prevents me from flashing my phone to a different ROM is that i lose all the Facebook associations for my contacts. Having a lot of contacts this is a real pain to reassign them all.
Wondering if theres anyway this can be restored or backed up to Microsoft Myphone or other backup programs.

i use google sync, and it keeps them.

outlook saves the association just fine. Its just a tag in the notes field.

This really annoys me too. I use myphone to sync and that doesn't appear to keep facebook associations and I can't really be bothered to use Outlook or google.

tomallen35 said:
This really annoys me too. I use myphone to sync and that doesn't appear to keep facebook associations and I can't really be bothered to use Outlook or google.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no myphone keeps those links just fine. i flashed to another rom and everything was still linked.
also, when you look into the contacts on the myphone site there is something added in the notes field, there the link is stored.
for example i see stuff like
Code:
<sn>id:xxxxxxxxx/friendof:xxxxxxxxxxx</sn><HTCData><!-- Please do not modify -->
<Facebook>id:xxxxxxxxx/friendof:xxxxxxxxxx</Facebook>
</HTCData>

tomallen35 said:
This really annoys me too. I use myphone to sync and that doesn't appear to keep facebook associations and I can't really be bothered to use Outlook or google.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
don't forget the associations won't start tutti work until you link the "me"contact card to your facebook after flashing.

jamieeeee said:
no myphone keeps those links just fine. i flashed to another rom and everything was still linked.
also, when you look into the contacts on the myphone site there is something added in the notes field, there the link is stored.
for example i see stuff like
Code:
<sn>id:xxxxxxxxx/friendof:xxxxxxxxxxx</sn><HTCData><!-- Please do not modify -->
<Facebook>id:xxxxxxxxx/friendof:xxxxxxxxxx</Facebook>
</HTCData>
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting.... My contacts have the sn tag but don't seem to have the facebook tag for some reason. Is there something I need to do on the phone or on myphone to get it to pull this?
This is what I'm currently seeing in the other information/notes field for a contact that i've linked to facebook:
<sn>id:xxxxxxxxx/friendof:xxxxxxxxx</sn><FDMID>xxxxxxxxx</FDMID>
I'm running the 1.66.405.2 official UK ROM without any real tweaks to anything else.

Add Facebook contact photos to outlook contact photos

I am currently trying to add the contact photos from my facebook friends as offline outlook contact photos.
I a friend would cancel his account his photo would be gone and I wouldn't have any contact photo stored for his contact.
Is there a possibility to make the facebook photo the real offline contact photo? I knew it was possible with the Touch Pro 2 and I hope it is possible with the HD2 too.
Anyone would be so kind to point me in the right direction?
Thanks in advance,
sky

So I assume no one has a solution to this...

Use Fonebook.
facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2442338999

SPB mobile Shell has a function for this (although not automated, you'll have to do it for each person seperately)
booksync can do it automatically

donSjon said:
SPB mobile Shell has a function for this (although not automated, you'll have to do it for each person seperately)
booksync can do it automatically
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you both
Fonebook doesn't seem to be the right program for me, because I do not sync with Outlook but with Microsoft My Phone and Booksync doesn't start and gives me an error.
I will try again with another ROM soon, perhaps something is missing in the one I am using.

AFAIK it is NOT possible by default in any HD2 rom, even manually. It is only possible through desktop sync apps, so I've seen anyways. Sorry I can't name any since the last time I did it was a yr+ ago!

skycamefalling said:
Thank you both
Fonebook doesn't seem to be the right program for me, because I do not sync with Outlook but with Microsoft My Phone and Booksync doesn't start and gives me an error.
I will try again with another ROM soon, perhaps something is missing in the one I am using.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty sure Fonebook can do this! (I wrote it so I should know )
If I understand your problem correctly you want to set an outlook contacts profile photo to their facebook profile. You can achieve that this way:
If you start it, then click "Exclude All", then find your friend and untick "Don't Synchronise Friend". Now go into Settings and untick everything but contact picture. Click save then hit "Sync Contacts" it should work!
However - if you are just doing this for one contact then it would be far less work to simply save the photo out from facebook, then add the contact photo in Outlook?!

The thing is: I do not have Outlook.
I just have all my contacts on the phone and on Microsoft "My Phone".
Now I have around 50 facebook-friends whose contact pictures I don't wanna lose even if they decide to leave facebook.
When I edit a contact in the phone I can chose between "Outlook photo" or "Facebook photo". But there are contacts I do not have an Outlook photo for, only a Facebook photo. So it would be fine to save the temporary Facebook photo as a permanent Outlook photo.
I will try Fonebook if you say it can do this but I just realised that the latest is a Trial version.
Doesn't matter, I will try and report back
Ross.Dargan said:
Pretty sure Fonebook can do this! (I wrote it so I should know )
If I understand your problem correctly you want to set an outlook contacts profile photo to their facebook profile. You can achieve that this way:
If you start it, then click "Exclude All", then find your friend and untick "Don't Synchronise Friend". Now go into Settings and untick everything but contact picture. Click save then hit "Sync Contacts" it should work!
However - if you are just doing this for one contact then it would be far less work to simply save the photo out from facebook, then add the contact photo in Outlook?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

skycamefalling said:
The thing is: I do not have Outlook.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My bad, Outlook is a requirement for Fonebook.
P.S. the trial is fully featured so it would have worked, but as I said Outlook is a requirement!
Thanks
Ross

skycamefalling said:
I have around 50 facebook-friends whose contact pictures I don't wanna lose even if they decide to leave facebook.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wha?? I've never had any facebook contact close his account/leave facebook since I use it...
I'd just don't care, if one day one actually did close his account, which isn't very likely, I'd certainly find another photo...