Microsoft Phone Data Manager Beta - General Topics

I do not know if this is posted already (did not find anything with search), but MS has made a new tool which can back-up files (music, video, pictures) and contacts from your phone to your pc.
Some info:
Microsoft® Phone Data Manager Beta is an application that is designed to take away the worry of losing data on your phone - specifically contacts, music, pictures and videos. It does that by synchronizing your phone contacts with Microsoft's Windows Live Contacts store in the cloud, or by helping you download files from the phone to your local computer.
http://specials.msn.co.in/sp08/msphonedatamanager/whatis_it.asp
Tested and working with my HTC Touch (Elfin)

Related

Touch Pro/Fuze Desktop manager software

I've been on a blackberry for many years and the Bold isn't thrilling me, so I'm thinking of making the jump to the Touch Pro/Fuze on AT&T when it is released. I've never used a HTC or WM device.
I've seen many reviews and demos of the handset on youtube, but what I haven't seen anywhere is a demo/description of the desktop program to sync the handset with a PC.
I use outlook, so I shouldn't have a problem with email, contacts, etc., but what about word, excel or pdf document transfer? What about music, photo and video transfer? What about video conversion?
Can anybody running the Touch Pro in Europe (or running a European version in the US) give a basic rundown of the desktop software for syncing?
Thx.
Well if you're using it with a Microsoft Exchange server, you can have direct push and it's essentially the same thing as a blackberry. the only caveat is that you need to have access to your company's Outlook Web Access (OWA) website - basically a website that would let you get your email in a web browser.
I've been using it for a few days now and it works flawlessly. I synced all my data using USB and then chose what i wanted transferred over the air and from then on I only connect when i'm in the office to charge and it syncs via usb rather than over the air at that time.
You'd need to have a data package through the wireless carrier tho so you don't get charged outrageous data fees.
Blackberry Connect also works great ont the TP if your work is using a Blackberry server.
Activesync and BB Connect will work for my outlook stuff (email, tasks, calendar, contacts, etc.), but what about syncing pictures, videos, music, or data from 3rd party apps (password keeper, etc)?
For example, on my Blackberry, I sync via desktop manager and each time any photos or videos I have taken are synced to my PC. Also, I back up the phone periodically through desktop manager so that I can restore if something happens or I need to do a hard reset or am upgrading the OS, etc.
Also, the desktop manager contains a Roxio program to manage media, and Blackberry offers Mediasync to manage music through iTunes.
Does the TP have similar software?
Activesync for XP and Windows Mobile Device Center for Vista do what you want and must be installed for the phone to sync.
try installing windows mobile device centre. you should have it already on you pc if you are running windows 7. if not, download it for free from microsoft

Microsoft Skybox website now up(-ish)

This is the OTA sync solution (files, calendar, contacts) Microsoft has developed for WinMo6 phones. The website is here:
https://www.getskybox.com
It does not replace Windows Live, but acts as a supplement to it.
For some reason the certificate is invalid accoridng to Firefox, so I did a screencapture of the information page here:
Edit: Sod it, here is the text off the website.
More information about Microsoft® My Phone
* Back up phone information to a password-protected web site Microsoft My Phone syncs information on your mobile phone to a storage space on a web site hosted by Microsoft. If your phone is lost or stolen, or if you upgrade to a new phone, you can easily restore the contacts, calendar appointments, photos, and other information that you stored on My Phone to a compatible new or replacement phone. Most phones that run the Windows Mobile 6 operating system are compatible with My Phone service.
* Access and update your contacts and appointments on the web Microsoft My Phone enables you to view and manage phone information by using a web browser. In your web account, you can add, edit, and delete contacts and calendar appointments, and the changes will appear on your phone the next time that you sync.
* Share photos with friends and family Microsoft My Phone makes it easy to view photos on your computer that were taken with your camera phone. From your web account, you can save photos to your computer or can e-mail them to family and friends.
* How much does the Microsoft My Phone service cost? Microsoft does not charge a fee for the My Phone service at this time. But the data plan you have with your mobile operator may require you to pay data-transfer charges when you use the service. If you are unsure of your plan coverage, please contact your mobile operator.
* How do I create a Microsoft My Phone account? You can download the Microsoft My Phone application by browsing to http://www.getskybox.com/install on your mobile phone. When you browse to this site from select countries, you will be asked for your phone number to receive a text message which will contain the link for downloading the application. The first time that you run the Microsoft My Phone application on your phone after downloading it, you will be asked to sign in using your Windows Live™ ID (or sign up for a Windows Live ID if you do not already have one).
* What information can I back up on Microsoft My Phone? The first time that you run the My Phone application on your mobile phone, you will be asked to accept or change the recommended settings. Recommended settings will synchronize contacts, calendar appointments, tasks, photos, videos, text messages, music, and documents between your phone and your My Phone web account. However:
o If you have an active connection with Microsoft Exchange server (which is frequently used for corporate e-mail), My Phone will not synchronize your contacts, calendar appointments, or tasks.
o If you have Windows Live installed on your phone, it will synchronize your Windows Live contacts with the Windows Live web site, and My Phone will synchronize your other contacts to your account on the My Phone web site.
o If you have an external memory card and selected My Phone's recommended settings, information on the external memory card will not be synchronized.
o If you store contacts on the SIM card provided by your mobile operator, My Phone will not synchronize these contacts.
o If you have any documents stored outside the My Documents folder on your phone, My Phone will not synchronize these documents.
* How much data can I back up? Your Microsoft My Phone account gives you 200 MB of free storage on the Microsoft My Phone web site. If a synchronization would result in exceeding this limit, you will receive an error message on your phone and your account on the My Phone web site will only include information received prior to reaching this limit. Any files in excess of this limit will not be saved.
* Does Microsoft My Phone back up my phone information automatically? If you accept the recommended settings, Microsoft My Phone will automatically synchronize information between your mobile phone and your Microsoft My Phone web account once per day between 11:00 P.M. and 5:00 A.M., except when your phone cannot connect to your default data network - for example, when your phone is turned off, out of range, or roaming. You can also back up your data manually at any time by selecting Sync in the Microsoft My Phone application on your phone.
* Will Microsoft My Phone work on my mobile phone? Currently, Microsoft My Phone works only on phones that run the Windows Mobile 6+ operating system. This includes phones from many different manufacturers and mobile operators. To check which version of Windows Mobile your phone is using, click Start > Settings > About on your phone.
* What if I've already lost my mobile phone? If you lost your mobile phone before you began using the Microsoft My Phone service (for instance, if you installed the software but did not perform a sync operation), you cannot use Microsoft My Phone to restore the information that you lost. But if you used My Phone on your old mobile phone, download and install Microsoft My Phone on your new mobile phone (as described in How do I create a Microsoft My Phone account?) and sign in to the Microsoft My Phone application on your phone using the same Windows Live ID that you previously used. Then, by synchronizing manually or waiting for the next automatic synchronization, all information that you backed up to your Microsoft My Phone web account will be restored to the new phone.
Disclaimer: Use of Microsoft My Phone is subject to the terms of use provided with the service, including limitations on liability and no guarantee of error free operation. Although this web page is intended to provide additional general information about the service, Microsoft expressly disclaims provision of any additional user right or Microsoft obligation. A copy of the Terms of Use can be found here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
404 Error
Cert was invaild in PIE as well. clicking on the install link returns a 404 error
The cert is invalid period (for all browsers)
The security certificate doesn't match the domain.
Furthermore, the website seems to be experiencing technical difficulties.
I definetly want in on the beta.
I have no problems with this site
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/myphone/myphone.aspx
not working for me
here @ work
Silentd said:
I have no problems with this site
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/myphone/myphone.aspx
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and it turns out that you just give away your privacy once again .... and that of your contacts
Dirk
Soo...how is Skybox much different than Dashwire so far?
I was really hoping to see some true Live Calendar sync, but it looks like the WL suite is still separate.
http://www.dashwire.com/
whats wrong with just using an Exchange server?
Monty,
Not everyone has Exchange unfortunately....
Why? There are free servers available.
Because you can only have 1 activesync connection at the same time.
I already sync my mail & calendar with my work exchange server and would like to sync my contacts & calendar with myphone or another comparable service.
I prefer exchange activesync in combination with livemesh - the only thing I don't get back-ups of are my sms messages (shrug).
Livemesh is just so more useful to me.
i just want to grumble a little about Microsoft's rather piecemeal way of sorting out OTA sync data. I use Windows Live Mobile, but this does not allow calendar sync, so I am forced to use Google Sync and Google calendar. I use Live Mesh to sync all my other files. Now MyPhone comes along, and I am finding it very hard to imagine why I would ever want to use this program at all. The only thing it may be useful for is putting the cabs for WLM, Google Sync and Live Mesh on it so that new phones which come with MyPhone preinstalled will be able to download and run the programs.
Why can't Windows Live Mobile come preinstalled with all phones and be a more full-featured service?
Star-Lite said:
Because you can only have 1 activesync connection at the same time.
I already sync my mail & calendar with my work exchange server and would like to sync my contacts & calendar with myphone or another comparable service.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I must correct myself here, myphone is useless if you already have an activesync connection in place.
If you do, myphone cannot sync your calendar, tasks and contacts (even if your not syncing them via activesync at all).
It is not really direct-push like sync as well. The smallest possible automatic sync interval is once per day.
I cannot really find any use to sync my phones images, music etc with myphone. It's waaay faster to just put them on the sd-card directly via a card reader...
ZSX said:
The only thing it may be useful for is putting the cabs for WLM, Google Sync and Live Mesh
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, but Live Mesh could do this anyway, as long as you install after a hard reset/new phone.
ZSX said:
Why can't Windows Live Mobile come preinstalled with all phones and be a more full-featured service?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here here, but I'm sure it's to do with the Anti-Trust lawsuit from a decade ago. If only they could have a default link to it within WinMob.
ZSX said:
i just want to grumble a little about Microsoft's rather piecemeal way of sorting out OTA sync data. I use Windows Live Mobile, but this does not allow calendar sync, so I am forced to use Google Sync and Google calendar. I use Live Mesh to sync all my other files. Now MyPhone comes along, and I am finding it very hard to imagine why I would ever want to use this program at all. The only thing it may be useful for is putting the cabs for WLM, Google Sync and Live Mesh on it so that new phones which come with MyPhone preinstalled will be able to download and run the programs.
Why can't Windows Live Mobile come preinstalled with all phones and be a more full-featured service?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed, moreover, you can select individual folders with live mesh to sync, mymobile only allows to select the the whole storage card! which puts you straight over the 200mb limit.
Microsoft needs to get a grip, there is a whole range of products that overlap in functionality but don't work together....
Skybox - My Phone - Windows Live
Well, with all our grumbling, it looks like Microsoft is listening and is hoping to more tightly integrate My Phone with Windows Live. I just wonder how long it will take and whether it will be ready by the time 7 rolls round.
Tighter integration with Windows Live services: Window Live suite of services provides a fantastic user experience around Contacts, Calendar, Photos and other user needs. We too are big fans and ardent users of these services and it is natural for you all to ask for tighter integration so that all of your personal data is consolidated in one single view. The initial goal for My Phone service was to test the concept and validate that we are solving a real problem for the users. Now that we have a resounding vote of confidence for the service our future plans are moving in this direction.
Support synchronizing additional data: Your phone is a very personal device for lot of us. For some of us it is akin to having all of life in your hands and it is not fun thinking about losing all of this information. We have tried to support syncing the most frequently used data types keeping in mind the current and future trends but at the same time we have room for growth in this area for syncing additional information. There has also been active discussion around providing flexibility to select folders and files from the phone for syncing it with the service and also providing the option to sync Contacts, Calendar and Tasks even though they are managed by Exchange/ActiveSync.
Suggestions on improving the experience on the My Phone Web Site: There have also been number of suggestions on further improving the overall usability of the web site along with the phone application. These are being evaluated on case by case basis and we will be taking those into account for future updates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
More here:
http://myphoneteam.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!500D40C76E07BE24!184.entry

[Q] Backup contacts, calendar and files from WM5

I have an XDA Argon running WM5. It has on it all my contacts, calendar etc. plus lots of Excel, Notes and other files. It used to synchronise with my notebook PC, but now whenever I connect it to the notebook either the notebook overwrites the data in the mobile, or vice versa. I have not therefore dared to synchonise it for over a year now, so both devices now have a lot of differences. Also I suspect the root of the problem is that somehow the timestamps (or whatever Mobile Device Center uses to control its sync process) have got messed up.
How do I, without risk of losing any data either in my mobile or in my notebook, get the two re-synchronised?
Either I need to back up both sets of data to somewhere I can restore from before trying to sync, or I need a sync process that will never delete or overwrite anything without asking for permission first. So far I've failed to find either solution. I can back up the files from the mobile to an SD card, but I can't find out how to back up the calendar and contacts. Is there a web service that will do it (without connecting to the PC)? Or can I create a new Outlook account and copy the mobile items to it in some way (without the risk that the PC writes the empty Outlook account into the mobile thus deleting everything)?
Hope someone can suggest a safe way out of this mess...
Thanks - Rowan.

WP7 Mango + Skydrive Office

Hi folks,
my first post here, to date I just read in the background.
However I just hacked the Mango update to my Optimus 7 and I have a question considering Skydrive + Mango.
I sync all my documents between my workstation, my laptop and skydrive synced storage.
However I cannot access the synced storage via my WP7, only the standard folders. Is there a way to sync my documents folder to standard skydrive as well?
Thx in advance for your help.
Kind regards,
dahlai
I can access mine. Office -> SkyDrive -> My Documents
Yeah, but this folder is empty...
The data only gets synced between my two computers and Skydrive synced storage, which does not appear on WP7. So, how can I sync the data to the "real" skydrive.
Or am I missing an important point here`?
anyone here, who could help me?
Now I mounted my Skydrive as a loval drive, syncing tools like Syncback however cannot synchronize data with the drive -.-
You're mixing up two things: SkyDrive and SkyDrive synced storage.
SkyDrive is the online service that gives you 25GB to store your stuff. This is the place to where you can directly upload your photos from WP7 for example.
The other thing is Live Mesh. Live Mesh allows you to sync files between several PCs and "SkyDrive synced storage". This is useful if you have two PC and you want to sync files between them, but you don't have them turned on at the same time. Live Mesh only offers 5GB of storage and you cannot access it from WP7.
You can see your Documents in skydrive here: http://skydrive.com
Only things that you upload there can be viewed and edited on your WP7.
Yes I know that. However on first sight I thought that there had to be an option that live mesh could also sync to skydrive.
I now know that this is not possible. (Cannot find any reason for that though)
So I now have the problem, that my documents on both PCs are kept in sync via live mesh, which also syncs to the 5gb of synced storage. Now with Mango on my phone and the ability to access/edit documents from skydrive, the only logical conclusion for me is to keep those files in sync with my PCs as well.
As of yet there seemingly isn´t any solution to it.
One can mount skydrive as a local drive, but you cannot sync files with it, even though one can drag and drop....
Any thoughts?
Missing workflow microsoft ???
Me too, Microsoft are missing the point here (or are we ?) You want to sync your docs between computers and have them open quickly/locally...but also want these same docs available on the web and WP7. Hope this gets resolved in a later beta of Mango...
So far, your only solution would be to browse your sync'd folder through the browser on the phone.
Merge them
They should just merge the 2 features together and allow any skydrive folder to be synced.
prjkthack said:
So far, your only solution would be to browse your sync'd folder through the browser on the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and that only works if you switch the browser to full mode (not mobile)
Hmm, really hope this gets resolved, at latest with the final Mango release.
Otherwise the whole skydrive does not really make a lot of sense, being integrated into the Office Hub
followed this guide and mine works.
http://www.ampercent.com/access-open-sync-skydrive-windows-explorer/6724/
This is exactly the kind of thing that make me mad about microsoft... its sooo damn frustrating sometimes.
WHY on earth have this nice LIVE mesh feature, where you keep all of your pcs docs nicely synced, but then, dont have the option of seeing it in your WINDOWS phone, you need to manually upload it to ANOTHER folder in a PC (wich erase the whole purpose), and dont give me the "just download it from the browser" thing...
I love the wp7 mango beta, its one hell of a slick OS, actually im kind of a microsoft fan in general, i use PCs exclusively, office, xbox, zune HD, hotmail, live, skydrive & mesh and now WP7 (i do own an ipad though)... but why it is soo hard for them to make everything work together?? this is an important feature for me since i sometimes need to check some excel files on the go, and i need the most up to date version... So im screwed, since dropbox (which i used) its a no go in wp7 (i dont mind, since its not MSFT fault), but mesh (a msft service) its useless in their phone, even in the ipad i have access to it via iSMEStorage...
Music/video streaming is nice and all, but this feature seems to me even easier to implement, they can even disable the editing/uploading functionality, i believe most of us can do with a viewer only...
...end of rant...

WT? Why does apple get better sync opptions than Windows

With the Connector for MAC users they can directly drop and drag files via browser, transfer ringtones and all kinds of stuff that is either not possible or a pain with Zune. WT? is wrong with Microsoft and why are they favoring Apple?
Below are some features of the latest build of Connector:
Features:
• Full sync and import support for Apple Aperture software
• Drag and drop import of files from Browse Device
• Ringtone transfer support (for phones running Windows Phone 7.5 or later)
I've even heard rumors that you can Sync your Email contacts directly via USB
I have never used mac but..
If these things are true then screw MS. they don't even care about they own OS. lol
but, You can sync ringtones thru zone (Difficult, yes), and for drag and drop import there are some apps there in marketplace
Email contacts also can be done via Internet in phone
So, you don't lose anything important in windows.
Anywat, syncing is still waay too stupid in WP7. Why the hell should you email yourself a PDF, Doc, ppt to view them in your phone when you are using Windows? (Considering Mac gives a support to this)
Have you ever actually used itunes? It's a nightmare on a windows pc. They don't cater to them at all.
When i got my titan it only took me an hour to get everything on the new phone. Plugged it into Zune, drug over all pictures videos and songs. All contacts automatically came from my hotmail, facebook, twitter, and exchange. and downloaded re-installer which is free to bring my apps in via wifi. All work documents and onenote are on skydrive so nothing lost. Who emails? Just sync them to skydrive. Only thing that i didn't get was call / sms history, and saved game points. who cares about that anyway.
Last time i used itunes, my wife thought she was backing up and apparently never was. Nothing ever saved to the pc. Now this was with a 3gs about 2 years ago but still. I think Windows phone has the upperhand. Why do you think apple has icloud now? Itunes has become an afterthought.
For ringtones use Free Ringtones app or other ringtones app from the markplace.
Not arguing that sky dirve is a nice feature and a good thing to have but what about giving us the opption to sync directly? What is wrong with that? Yeah I've used iTunes before and it is a pain; that's why I bought a Windows Phone, I was so use to the simple way of just droping and draging of files on my Windows Mobile Phone and then Microsoft went and created Zune wich by the way doesn't allow back ups (only when upgrading) I have to use cab sender with a dummy xap to trick Zune into creating my back up.

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