Hi everyone,
I just bought new Motorola Defy and was quite excited about the phone. Finally a smartphone that can survive a little bit rough handling. It has quite good HW and for a reasonable price. There was nothing to think about; I just had to have it! Device of my dreams!
Now the dream is turning into a little nightmare. It seems like I can only use my phone if I let it send every piece of information straight to google (and Motorola). Have you read those thousand lines long agreements telling you, that you must obey this and that while they are responsible for nothing? Did you too think: “What the hell, do I no longer have any rights?” Never mind I tried my very best to avoid this. I created a dummy gmail account (to be able to use android market), disabled as many background data as possible and did my best to have everything under control.
And now the crucial part of my story: I desperately need to use my calendar. I have everything there. I need to sync my work calendar with my mobile and when I’m out of office, I need to be able to plan anyway and then sync it all back. We MUST use Microsoft Outlook. And the most important part (which many may try to discuss about, but there is really nothing to discuss as it is just a fact): everything MUST stay just in my phone, no kind help of google storing my data who knows where.
It was quite difficult to find a free program that would be able to sync my data just from Outlook to Android and back without google. Finally I found two which seemed to be OK: MyPhoneExplorer and Android-Sync. Life was great once again! So I created a test Outlook calendar at home, filled it with some events and tried to sync it with Defy. It was working! Splendid! When I went to Calendar -> More -> My calendars, there was a calendar named “Default”. OK.
As the calendar options were bit less than I expected from it I downloaded from android market application “Calendar Snooze”. Everything was as I was used from Windows Mobile 6.1 and as I needed it to be. I was prepared to sync my real work calendar.
The horror! While playing with my new mobile exploring even more settings and abilities I saw it. Suddenly my calendar was named as my dummy google account. What? Why? What if it sent all information to google despite all my efforts? IT REALLY DID! Though I tried so hard, it was all there and I wasn’t even asked whether I want it!!! I was furious! Unbelievable! Such arrogance! I was only thanking God for my paranoia and using test calendar. You can never be paranoid enough with google obviously!
I deleted all information from google calendar, reset mobile to factory default and started to try again. No google account this time. Knowing which applications I wanted I downloaded them from every possible website except android market (thanks God for such websites!). Then I wanted to sync my calendar once more, but hidden from google’s all-seeing eye. “Surprise, surprise,” said Mr. google. It was impossible! My beloved phone kept telling me: “You must synchronize a calendar before creating a new event. You can set up a calendar using google Mail or a Corporate Sync account.” WHAT???! So I created an fake e-mail account. No, it had to be an exchange or google account! I cannot use exchange. Security policy denies that. (Again, I saw many desperate people searching for solution of same problem as I have and many wise guys saying: “Go to your IT specialists and tell them to allow that.” (or something like that) NO, it’s nonsense! They know why it’s so and no company will change their security policy, just because of one employee trying to sync his mobile. So, please no such suggestions (even well meant), it doesn’t help. Just take it as a fact, please, as I have to.)
I also tried to set google account and then cancel sync settings (an advice I saw somewhere). After creating google account I went to Settings -> Accounts -> selecting google account and there are options: “Sync Calendar”, “Sync Contacts” and “Sync gmail”. None of them can be disabled. And once created it is impossible to remove google account from my phone (except from resetting it)!!!
So here I am and I don’t know what else I can do to sync my Outlook calendar with Android’s calendar, without being scared I’ll find sensitive data in google’s greedy hands. Can anyone help me, please?
If I may humbly ask: please no questions like: “Why did you buy android phone if you don’t want to use all google applications?” I can imagine that it may be a great advantage for many of you, but I think it should be a choice, not a must. What’s more my e-book reader, music player, camera, internet browser, games, photo gallery, SMS, QuickOffice and much more works perfect even without google. (Let’s hope it will not change, but who knows if people don’t treasure their privacy and freedom… ). Also if there was same hardware with Windows Mobile I would buy it after this frustrating experience.
I’m sorry for this loooooooooooooooooooong reading, but maybe this will prevent some people from “attacking” me, just because I don’t have the same needs and preferences and opinions as them. This thread may even be much more brief and helpful without it.
Also I’m sorry if I sound offensive, it’s meant to be defensive after what I saw at many forums.
I’ll be very grateful for any constructive advice or solution. I wish you all a nice day!
www.syncdroid.net
Hello 999phonebug!
Thank you for your tip. When I was looking for the software to use for syncing, I used website you recommended. Based on information there I’ve chosen Android-Sync and MyPhoneExplorer. They really should sync my data without sending it to google. But there’s a problem: if I don’t provide information about my google account, calendar doesn't let me to create any event. When I connect phone to computer and run MyPhoneExplorer it doesn’t sync nothing. When I run Android-Sync it says: “Warning: Default calendar not found on this Android device. Please fix this issue to enable the calendar sync function.” I could just provide gmail info and create google account and it would all work fine, but then (once connected to network) it would sync with google again. Creating account, synchronizing and then deleting account in my phone is not an option too as phone won’t let me delete that account. Is there any solution for that? Something I cannot see? Thanks in advance for any advice!
You can disable calendar sync by going into the account details. That should do.
Or if you've rooted, you can altogether delete the calendar sync adapter from /system/app
I have tried to disable synchronization by changing account settings. I went to Settings -> Accounts -> selecting google account and there are options: “Sync Calendar”, “Sync Contacts” and “Sync gmail”. None of them can be disabled. Rooting the mobile is the last option for me, because I have it only 5 days now and I don’t know much about such things. Also I don’t want to lose warranty (I guess the process is irreversible, right?). But it’s good to know there’s any way how to solve this situation. If there’s nothing else, I’ll have to choose whether to loose warranty or life without being able to sync my calendar. Tough choice… Do you know whether my problem could be solved by official Android 2.2, which should be released very soon? I'm very grateful to you for trying to help me...
google-the_big_brother said:
I have tried to disable synchronization by changing account settings. I went to Settings -> Accounts -> selecting google account and there are options: “Sync Calendar”, “Sync Contacts” and “Sync gmail”. None of them can be disabled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's odd, I can deselect "Sync Calendar" in my account settings page
Im going to respond to this thread seriously in the hope that it isnt a wind up, because thats how it reads
maybe im missing something but the only way to wirelessly sync a calendar to your phone is to have your calendar on a server such as exchange, yahoo, google etc.
there are some apps you can pay for which will sync with any calendar but I have looked into them. they are available in the market, but seeing as you dont like this it may be an issue
Sorry, I know im going to sound like a pigheaded troll which I always try to avoid being but in your own words...
"Why did you buy android phone if you don’t want to use all google applications?"
Its a google phone, its made by google and its based around their services. Why not get a windows 7 phone and its likely your problems are solved, even my old nokia n95 would sync with outlook without a google account. You could even try HP (palm), blackberry or good old symbian. Its like youve got a deep hatred for google and then for some unknown reason gone and bought the ONLY phone operating system made by them as part of some sadistic way of trying to make your own life difficult.....
honestly I would consider selling, yes its a tough little phone but there are cases to toughen the weaker ones.
I use MyPhoneExplorer to sync over USB, it works well. The phone will not auto sync with the Google calender unless you go into the 'MyCalenders' option and then it will start syncing.
Hi everyone and thanks for replies...
Stunno, according to what you say, it seems, that this could be ROM dependent problem. Info about my phone:
System version: Blur_version.2.51.1.MB525.Retail.en.DE
Firmware version: 2.1-update1
Basdeband version EPU93ST2_U_03.0A.01
Kernel version: 2.6.29
Build number: JRDNEM_U3_2.51.1
Maybe updating to official Android 2.2 (once released) would solve the problem. (?)
Diggedy, I don't need to find an application for syncing. Adnroid-Sync and MyPhoneExplorer seem to be OK. But the problem is that calendar won't let me work unless I create an account. It cannot be exchange and when it's google, it sends all my events to google calendar which I don't want it to. And as for the google Android phone: This is the only phone that has everything I need from it. You are right about protective cases, but if I can have mobile (smartphone to be correct) which is so well made so it can defy D) dust and water, I prefer such phone. And except this google issue, there is absolutely nothing I could charge the phone with. And the last reason: I don't want to give up so easily, especially now when it seems this problem can be solved. Anyway, thanks for your reply and for being nice to me even though our opinions differ.
SimboXXX, my phone tries to sync as soon as I connect to wi-fi (Edge and others are disabled). It's strange how same model can act differently. Maybe it again depends on ROM version etc.
Don't know about an upgrade, your phone is a newer version than mine, I'm only on firmware 2.21 on a sim free UK phone, completely stock.
Sent from my MB525 using Tapatalk
stunno said:
Don't know about an upgrade, your phone is a newer version than mine, I'm only on firmware 2.21 on a sim free UK phone, completely stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm afraid I don't understand you. My firmware is 2.1-update1, yours is 2.21 so your phone is a newer version, right? But never mind, I guess I found something useful there: supportforums.motorola.com/thread/43287. I'm gonna try that...
would this be useful
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.dreamstep.wYahoo_Calendar&feature=search_result
you can sync outlook to almost anything so that side of it wouldnt be an issue
or try
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.companionlink.clusbsync&feature=search_result
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.vecal.vcorganizer&feature=search_result
Here is my recent progress: I obeyed the advice from website mentioned at my previous post. You can find there: “Put the "Power control" widget (in Downloaded Widgets) on the screen and it has a button to en/disable sync. Enabling sync in the widget brings the check boxes back.” So I enabled sync in the widget and than went to Settings -> Accounts -> selecting google account and there were options: “Sync Calendar”, “Sync Contacts” and “Sync gmail” each with checkbox to enable or disable! Hurray!!!
Then I unchecked all those checkboxes to make sure nothing is going to by synchronized and started testing. I created some events in my calendar. Then I disabled and enabled sync button at the Power control widget. It didn't affect the account settings, all checkboxes remained unchecked. I also restarted phone and turned wi-fi on. Then I checked google calendar, and no events were there.
Then I installed calendar snooze to extend calendar functions. I enabled and disabled sync button few times at the Power widget and turned wi-fi on and off few times. And all my events appeared in the google calendar! So I suspect application “calendar snooze” for being responsible for the background sync... Unfortunately I cannot be sure. Checkboxes for “Sync Calendar”, “Sync Contacts” and “Sync gmail” at the google account settings remain unchecked. When I saw all my events synchronized I changed some at my phone and again started enabling and disabling sync button (at the Power widget) and wi-fi and the phone itself too. But no change as for those events at my google calendar (meens no synchronization took place so far). I guess I'll have to test it all again.
However at least I know about the magical sync button at the Power widget.
out of curiosity, why do you not trust google with your calendar information?
It’s not just about me not trusting google. I have company sensitive data in my calendar. No company will entrust its data to any third party.
Anyway, even if I didn’t have such data in my calendar, I would follow my golden rule which is: “Minimize your electronic foot-print!” If I don’t need that information uploaded on the web, why would I let google have it? My privacy means very much to me. That’s the reason why I never yielded to facebook, twitter and other madness, willingly spreading tons of information about myself and why at the great days of cloud computing I’ll have all my data stored and encrypted on my hdd. I’m sure I sound extremely paranoid to many people, but such paranoia never cost me anything, it can only pay.
Even though I’m not so naïve to think I can protect my privacy from everyone and every company. My mobile operator and even google knows abou me more, than I like. Isn’t that scary???
From the man who has tried it all. Here we go
You can most definately disable Google sync (calendar, contacts, email) in accounts. No need for rooting. If this is not available to you then I guess something is wrong.
I do NOT use Motoblur as I do not want my personal information on the internet.
I do use google sync for calendar, email and contacts as follows:
Calendar - full sync as this is my personal calendar and the information here isnt something that I need to keep secure
eMail - same as above
Contacts: for each contact type Android will create an identity - e.g. google contact (and that will be PER google account you have - you can multiple google accounts and for each account you can chose what you want to sync from settings > accounts
I chose to sync my google contacts for my main google account as this basically holds only people's email addresses. In addition to this android will also create a Liteadress book category. When adding a contact in google (online via internet) it automaticlaly syncs to android if sync is enabled in settings > accounts. If you creat an account ON the android phone itself you chose which of the android accounts category that entry should go in (you can chose for it to go to just Liteaddress book or one of the google accounts or all google accounts or liteadrress book and google accounts). If you chose for it to go ONLY in liteaddressbook then it will NOT sync to google even if you have contacts sync on in settings > accounts. Example as follows:
Google account 1
google account 2
Liteaddress book
In settings > accounts I have contact sync enabled for google 1, calendar sync enabled for google 1, mail sync enabled for google 1 and 2. In contacts, settings I chose that contacts are added to liteaddress book and google account 2
I create create a mail on android and send it - it will be syncd to which ever account i send it from
1 create a calendar entry on android - it will be syncd if i create it google 1
I create a contact entry on android - it will by linked to two caregories namely; Lite address book (this will stay on the phone) and google 2. Since google 2 is set NOT to sync contacts it will not send this contact to the internet.
I create a contact entry on android but this time tell the phone to create it in Lite address book and google account 1 - the information will be sent to google account 1 on the internet
I create an entry on adroid but tell it to creat it in liteaddress book - it will stay on the phone
end of example
For outlook sync I use a product called touchdown - the best you can buy and ive tried a few. this however requires to sync via exchange which I beleive you dont want to do. However, since your reason for not using exchange is because your company says the information must stay on the phone (unless im mistaken) then you need not worry. Touchdown works independently of Android sync. Everything you sync via touchdown will stay on the phone - its a completely independent applicaiton and VERY use to use and extremely flexible. You DO have the option to copy (auto or manuall) your contacts, downloaded from exchange via touchdown) to your phone. These contacts will be in a seprate cateogry and as such will not sync to google.
Does the above solve your problem or are you looking to sync ONLY to outlook without using Exchange? there is an option for that too which I can go in to but since above post is long enough already I wont bother with it unless you specifically ask.
NOTE: just to clarify, it IS possible to keep all your info on your phone - just a matter of working the best way to achieve this. You WONT need to root your phone for this.
Hi jean001luc, thanks for your reply.
I’m not looking for an application for Outlook <-> Android synchronization. I found MyPhoneExplorer and Android-Sync and they both seem to be OK. However, that application touchdown seems to be very good and completely separate calendar is what I would need. Unfortunately I cannot synchronize directly with Exchange (I think it’s because all protocols except for the one needed for Outlook <-> Exchange communication are blocked) and even if I could I’m not allowed to use non-freeware program. So even if I bought touchdown, I wouldn’t be allowed to use it (again company policy which I cannot change).
But what I definitely need to know is how did all my calendar events uploaded on the internet to my google calendar despite my tries to block this action. I unchecked all checkboxes at my google account settings (checkboxes for “Sync Calendar”, “Sync Contacts” and “Sync gmail”) and it has copied anyway. But only once. Since then no changes were synchronized… It’s very odd and it makes me angry because obviously I don’t have it under control even though I try so hard.
google-the_big_brother said:
Hi jean001luc, thanks for your reply.
I’m not looking for an application for Outlook <-> Android synchronization. I found MyPhoneExplorer and Android-Sync and they both seem to be OK. However, that application touchdown seems to be very good and completely separate calendar is what I would need. Unfortunately I cannot synchronize directly with Exchange (I think it’s because all protocols except for the one needed for Outlook <-> Exchange communication are blocked) and even if I could I’m not allowed to use non-freeware program. So even if I bought touchdown, I wouldn’t be allowed to use it (again company policy which I cannot change).
But what I definitely need to know is how did all my calendar events uploaded on the internet to my google calendar despite my tries to block this action. I unchecked all checkboxes at my google account settings (checkboxes for “Sync Calendar”, “Sync Contacts” and “Sync gmail”) and it has copied anyway. But only once. Since then no changes were synchronized… It’s very odd and it makes me angry because obviously I don’t have it under control even though I try so hard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depends when you stopped the sync. It's possible that you synchronised your calendar wth outlook and then terminated the sync option for google?
OR, you created the google account after the outlook sync? When the google account is created the default option is to sync everything and this sync can take place fairly quickly. So, is it possible that sync took place before you had the option to disable google sync. I cant see any other way calendar would have synchronised.
Going forward though you can test by editing your calendar to make sure it doesnt sync by creating entried on the phone (after unchcking the sync option in settings > accounts).
Not sure how Android sync works but there are syns applications which RELY on google sync - e.g. when you do your outlook sync it will send the data to google and then the phone downloads it from google to complete the sync. If Android sync uses that then it explains why your data is on google.
Quite suprised your company doesnt allow paid application to be used. Its normally the other way round - most corporates do not allow free apps as they have limited support and possibly full of bugs.
You could always try Missing Sync to sync with Outlook, although I have had problems with synchronisning contacts with this software as it wont sync contacts that are created or edited on the android...this is a known problem with product but the company isnt doing anything to fix it...ive supplied them with all the information they need but they are too busy doingn other things - even though they acknowledge there is a problem.
As an aside, are you aware you can chose to display different google calendars within the calendar app on android? this way you can have multiple calendars but only display/sync the one you want - sync of course wont take place for a specific calendar unless settings > account sync is enabled
Well the thing is I first filled all information to connect my phone to my google account (in my phone), immediately after that disabled all three checkboxes for synchronization, then created some fake events in my phone calendar, did some turning on and off (wi-fi, sync button on the Power widget and even the phone). Meanwhile I was checking internet google calendar if synchronization took place. Negative. Then I installed calendar snooze, did some turning on and off few times and it was all there! But since then no changes done in my mobile synced to my google calendar. But in whole process I never synced my phone with Outlook, I was just using phone calendar and did all changes there… I’ll have to do all this once again and check whether sync didn’t take place just after installing calendar snooze.
jean001luc said:
As an aside, are you aware you can chose to display different google calendars within the calendar app on android? this way you can have multiple calendars but only display/sync the one you want - sync of course wont take place for a specific calendar unless settings > account sync is enabled
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess you mean more calendars created in one google account, right? So I could create one more calendar in my google account, leave it empty and then display it in my android calendar app and if something would try to sync it would be this empty calendar. Then when I would like to see my real calendar or sync it with outlook I would just unchecked that fake one and checked the real one. Did I get your point? But it seems quite too complicated and fiddly.
I've only skipped through your thread & much of what's mentioned I've never used so don't fully understand it but if you still get the problem where the google calendar is still syncing even though the sync checkbox is disabled you can disable wifi/data access for the google calendar sync by using Droidwall BUT you would need to be rooted for that. Without going through the thread again I can't remember if you didn't want to root the phone.
*edit - having re-read a couple of your posts I'm not sure if my post is what you are after.
Earlier today I decided to try out an alternative version of Email.apk, so I backed up the original version of that file, installed the newer version...which proceeded to FC...and then rebooted and restored the original version. Now I can't seem to access information on my corporate Exchange server which was my only account in Email (I also have a Gmail account, but I use the Gmail app for that).
I've tried clearing settings for Email, Calendar (and storage), Contacts (and storage), and Google Services Framework, deleting and recreating the account repeatedly, rebooting after each attempt, etc., but still no luck. Basically it lets me add the account after successfully connecting to the Exchange server, but then it doesn't download email and it doesn't see any calendars or contacts. I know the problem isn't with the Exchange server because all of my other clients (Outlook, OWA, iPhone, etc.) still work fine.
It seems as if there's some kind of cruft floating around from before that's not quite enough to allow Email to work properly, but enough to keep it from properly recreating the account. Is there a particular app database I need to clear/flush in order to recreate this account?
Thanks much for any help!!!
A little research led me to this issue with Android 2.3.3 that seems to be similar if not the same:
https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=15356
Looks like it's been fixed in 2.3.4. Assuming that the patch in the middle of that thread is the actual fix, it doesn't look like it should be that hard to integrate into CM7, though I've never done a build of Android/CM7 so I don't know enough to comment. Any thoughts?
So I searched the forums for any solution to this problem but to no avail. I have a tf300t that is unlocked, rooted and updated to 4.2.1. Up until recently everything was fine until I realised that my google calendar no longer syncs. Neither does the default asus calendar. I have tried many things but nothing has worked. I've tried uninstalling calendar, removing google account, readding but nothing has worked. I think the problem started when I tried to use ASUS sync with it on my laptop (the calendar and contacts was greyed out on the asus pc sync software). Any suggestions as to how to correct this? I really would like my calendar to be working again. Now I'm considering just doing a clean install again to get this thing to work.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
When you go to Settings, select Google under Accounts, and select your Google account, is there a check mark next to Calendar? If so, is there some kind of error message? It's possible that when you set up the ASUS sync software, it just set your sync settings to no longer sync your calendar and contacts with Google since it assumes you'll be doing that with the ASUS software instead.
Otherwise, if there's an error, it could be conflicting with the ASUS software in some way. In that case, you could try clearing the data from, and disabling, the ASUS apps, clear data from Google Calendar and People, and resync. I know that when I used MIUI on my Evo 4G, if you used the built-in MIUI Backup app to restore contact info, it conflicted with Google's contact sync. That could be happening here, too.
Putting the ILLA in KILLA since 1985
Hi everyone,
i received my mate 8 (NXT-AL-10) with google play store installed. everything seem to be working well but i noticed in the phone settings/Apps that some google service apps are missing (google services framework, google account manager, google backup transport , google partner set up and many more...).
so my questions are:
- what is google services framework for? do i need it?
- what is google account manager for? do i need it too?
and what about the others? backup transport, partner set up.. are they all needed ?
can someone provide a list of all google apps and services that are installed and needed as it is on the international version?
thanks very much for helping
Hi.... Download the google installer from the Internet.. Type google installer in google.com
hi
so now i am having this problem
sync calendar (not syncing)
sync docs (not syncing)
sync drive (not syncing)
sync contacts (sync is currently experiencing problems)
does anyone has the same problem?
any fix available?
thanks
FANTOMAS0uk said:
hi
so now i am having this problem
sync calendar (not syncing)
sync docs (not syncing)
sync drive (not syncing)
sync contacts (sync is currently experiencing problems)
does anyone has the same problem?
any fix available?
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think all these things are marshmallow permission issues
Go into settings, permission manager, select apps and add permissions to contact sync and calendar
Martyn
hi Martyn,
thanks for that.. i did all this but the problem persist. it looks like the problem is the doze as it is for notifications. it doesn't sync automatically every time. sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.