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From their homepage:
4SmartPhone is experiencing technical difficulties. This is causing inflated loads on some of the machines, as a result making our website unresponsive.
Our technical personnel are diligently working towards resolving this issue. Due to these issues, the 4SmartPhone website will be temporarily unavailable.
We are well aware of the situation and so we ask you to not send an email to support. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. We will keep all of you updated as often as we can.
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Both the Outlook Web Service, the normal Exchange Service, and the Push Mail Service have all been unavailable for over 48 hours and I'm starting to wonder if they're going to be coming back at all.
AND --- this is the second time this has happened within 2 months.
Drat.
Dwimmerlaik said:
From their homepage:
Both the Outlook Web Service, the normal Exchange Service, and the Push Mail Service have all been unavailable for over 48 hours and I'm starting to wonder if they're going to be coming back at all.
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Click to collapse
I stupidly thought that my device was having problems so I removed the 4smarphone settings (which removed all my email/contacts/tasks/calendar entries from my PDA)... Got home and found out OWA and Outlook sync didn't work either. So I'm stuck!
This is pretty bad... they haven't answered my support email and the website notice - simply stating only the 'website' only is down - is highly unprofessional.
I wonder whether it has anything to do with their recent upgrade to Exchange 2007?
It looks like the service is back online as of 5:00 PM Pacific. I received the following in an email message:
Dear 4SmartPhone Customer,
Over the past two days we have experienced a rather serious crash on one of our Exchange Servers.
We are very sorry for any inconvenience this problem has caused you, but we are pleased to report that we have fixed the problem and taken all steps to ensure it will not happen again. Here are some things you will notice in the next few days:
1) Although it is now possible to connect to your mailbox again, it will only contain your new emails.
2) You can now send and receive emails.
3) Within the next few days, we will bring all original emails back on the Server.
4) Pro & Enterprise Clients can use their local copy in Offline Mode, and you must switch to connected mode to send & receive email. We will send a link to help you understand in a following email.
5) In addition, we are taking the following steps concerning the current Exchange 2003 servers: 4SmartPhone is rolling out more reliable Exchange 2007 on a brand new architecture; The fact that Exchange 2007 is more robust and combined with the new architecture, any failure are less likely, simpler and faster to recover from should we have to.
4SmartPhone sincerely appreciates your business. To demontrate our appreciation, your patronage, patience and trust in our service, we would like to extend a free month's service to you. We will automatically add the free month onto your contract. If you have any additional questions, please email us at [email protected] ,
Thank you.
4SmartPhone IT staff.
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I've been able to access new mail in my mailbox since around 5:00 PM Pacific, but all of my old mail is missing (as they indicated in thier message). I suspect it'll get populated from backups over the next day or so.
Not only is all the old mail missing, EVERYTHING is missing, CONTACTS, CALENDAR, MAIL.
EVERYTHING!
Anyone got there data back already? I still haven't and I am starting to get worried.
I haven't either.
If you access your accout via Outlook, then you probably already have a backup of your data in your OST file (file used by Outlook to store a local "cached" copy of your mailbox). I've been considering just exporting all of the data from my OST file into a PST file and then importing it into the new mailbox; however, I'm concerned that doing so may complicate the data migration 4Smartphone already has planned since the current mailbox is really only a "temporary" one.
Any Exchange experts want to comment??
Oh my gosh that sound horrible! 48 hours plus down! I have given 4smartphone.net a couple of trials in the past but always ended up going with other services, mainly due to the lack of a control panel with some extra user settings at 4smartphone.
Thank goodness I did not sign up!
Although I have used a fair few Exchange services I am definitely not an expert. This is critical stuff and I would not want to give incorrect advice. But to attempt a little reassurance, 4smartphone state in their FAQ that they run a full real-time "mirror" back-up of all data, plus an additional daily tape backup for long term protection.
It is almost certain that ALL data will be restored to your accounts, but they are a big company and with a lot of data. If they were down for 2 days this could take several more (at least) to fix and fully restore everything.
Also, most email servers keep attempting delivery for about 2 days, so messages that could not get through should still arrive... hopefully. Worst case they will bounce back to the sender with a message saying they couldn't be delivered so people know there was a outage and will hopefully resend.
Once you have data back I would suggest looking at other services... and I would try and pick one that specifies they have co-location if possible i.e Datacenter 1 is in Phoenix, Datacenter 2 mirrors everything in Norway or where ever.
I have used 1 and 1. I would not call them "good" and customer support is extremely weak. But they do have servers in the US, the UK and Germany. It would be quite hard for them to lose all their systems as they are just so huge. But I am sure there are much better services. I guess another reason I might pick 1 and 1 over 4smartphone is 1 and 1 let you have Outlook right away and it doesn't interfere with your right to cancel if you are dissatisfied. They also bill in just 3 month blocks. 4smartphone make you pay for the full year before you get Outlook. Many handhelds still only come with Outlook 2002 so many people really need at least the 03 version or it is not possible to check out the account properly (You have to have 03 at least to fully use the features of Exchange)
Take this is a reminder to have your own independent back up stategies. For example, I do not have my various domains registered with the same companies that do my hosting... I have an account with a domain reg company seperately. That way, if the hosting crashes, I can quickly set up another account elsewhere and point my DNS records at the new nameservers.
I also do not use Exhange as my primary account. My email accounts are hosted elsewhere and forward to Exchange for Direct Push. So I just have it for Push and as an archive. I have everything on my PC too.
Actually, I go one step further, I don't actually use Outlook for email (other than Push. It is probably a great email client at this point, but it has not always had a stellar history. I prefer Thunderbird. That's just me.
I also always retain offline data on my local PC and back it up every day or so (if only by dragging a copy of outlook.ost to another folder and dating it).
I also use a back up program on my handheld and use it daily.
If my Exchange hosting crashed with a total loss, all I would lose is the ability to use direct push temporarily. I would not lose a grain of data.
End of the day, there is only one person who really truly cares about your data and can take charge of protecting it.. YOU! Don't leave that solely to anyone else!
Sound like hell. Sympathies to all involved. Hope it is fully resolved very soon.
Edit: Here is the link to the list of MS Hosted Exchange Partners on their website. Might be useful to anyone considering looking at other providers:
http://www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/solutions/catalog.aspx
Thanks for you detailed answer.
Actually, I DO have a backup. A REAL backup, not just the OST file. The last few days will be missing tho. I guess I will survive.
4smartphone ain't half bad WHEN it works. And even this crash would not have been so bad, if they just had kept us informed. They have not responded to 3 mails I sent. I understand they will have been inundated with mail, but then they should just post some kind of LATEST NEWS or UPDATE or whatever on their site.
Anyway, they just sent me a mail stating that all data WILL be restored, but that it could take another 48 hours.
Thanks again.
flamingcrumb said:
It is almost certain that ALL data will be restored to your accounts, but they are a big company and with a lot of data. If they were down for 2 days this could take several more (at least) to fix and fully restore everything.
---
Take this is a reminder to have your own independent back up stategies. For example, I do not have my various domains registered with the same companies that do my hosting... I have an account with a domain reg company seperately. That way, if the hosting crashes, I can quickly set up another account elsewhere and point my DNS records at the new nameservers.
I also do not use Exhange as my primary account. My email accounts are hosted elsewhere and forward to Exchange for Direct Push. So I just have it for Push and as an archive. I have everything on my PC too.
I also always retain offline data on my local PC and back it up every day or so (if only by dragging a copy of outlook.ost to another folder and dating it).
I also use a back up program on my handheld and use it daily.
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Mail2web also down!?!?!
Last night mail2web was also down. I had experienced huge delays (of hours!!!) and some message skipping.
Something weird is going on in the mail service providers kingdom!
mail2web down as well??!! That is freaky. Is this a 2007 upgrade induced horror that is going to bite us all? Hopefully I am just being paranoid (I do tend to be!).
nispen, I do apologize if it sounded like I was wagging my finger like you didn't know to back up your stuff! Of course you do - and that wasn't what I meant. I was sincerely symphathesing and that was about the only half-constructive thing I could throw in
I completely agree that communication from the company is key. ANY service, can have a crisis, no matter how good their continency plans. If they do a really good job keeping customers in the loop when it happens it could even leave me feeling positive about them. It would be more like, "wow this is bad, but these guys do care and I can see they are really breaking a sweat to fix this and it makes me trust them to resolve a crisis... which will inevitably happen to every company sometime".
But the generic "sorry for any inconvenience " notices would tick me off. I would want to hear regular updates with more specifics. Wouldn't even matter if I didn't understand the tech jargon involved. I just want to know that hour by hour they know what they are doing and are making specific progress.
Good to hear your data is going come back. Best of luck
No worries, no fingerwagging detected!
flamingcrumb said:
nispen, I do apologize if it sounded like I was wagging my finger like you didn't know to back up your stuff! Of course you do - and that wasn't what I meant. I was sincerely symphathesing and that was about the only half-constructive thing I could throw in
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mail2web has been down since last Thur, and the outage continues, just got a reply from [email protected] saying they are still "trying" to fix the problem. So if 4smartphone is down and mail2web is down at around the same time, may be both of them have upgraded to MS Exchange 2007 at around the same time. If so, that say so much about Ex 2007 and WM5 push email, it is far from a mature and stable product.
Blackberry then has nothing to fear for the rest of this year.
For the non-Blackberry folks, IMAP IDLE is the way to go, it is fast and reliable, and almost free.
And for the less time discerning/sensitive folks, POP is the way to go. Just set the auto retrieval to every 5 min or 10 min.
Mail2web/4Smartphone vs. Blackberry vs. Idle vs...
I am also here strugling with mail2web. After my subscription, the first two weeks were ok, but then last week (or maybe in the end of the week before) it all started to fail.
The service is intermitent now. And delays of up to 3 hours are common.
I've used BB Connect but could not make it work in WM6 roms (I now there is a how-to-hack available, but I could not handle it alright). Also, I do not like much that BB Connect steals my GPRS connection and that whenever I want to use other network applications I have to disconnect from blackberry.net APN and connect to my operators'.
So I prefer to make a redirection of my work emails to another account.
That account could be an IMAP idle capable I have, but the problem is that poutlook does not handle idle and I didn't like much to have poutlook AND another client such as the good flexmail (which is a complete but also heavy app).
So I am now stuck here with not many options, except hoping that mail2web staff manages to overcome the difficulties they currently have. If the service works alright, I believe I would certainly upgrade my free subscription and begin using only mail2web as my 2nd email address...
Some very valid points being raised here which are worthy of more discussion. May I suggest we maybe think about breaking this up into separate threads though for clarity? This thread is essentially an immediate check in as to which Exchange servers are giving people grief (and it sounds like a rough ride, many sympathies to those affected).
Blackberry does seem robust, but I am not clear about it's full capabilties when used on WM devices. Be gr8 to discuss it more so I can learn!
Exchange has has some very powerful features (if it is working) but there is just as much I dislike about it! Only being able to send from one email address and frequent false positives for Spam when it's mail is received by some Linux based mail servers are among my gripes!
IMAP IDLE is cool. My experience is limited to vgsmail/ppc and Webis Flexmail. vgsmail is still sold I believe but not longer developed and I have found it very incomapatible with my more recent devices. I also bought Flexmail but found it very buggy at the time. To be fair it is being actively developed still further and supported and is sure to get better - may have done so already. I have also found that there seems to be slightly different deployments of IMAP IDLE and not all servers appear to give equal results... that is all way beyond my technical grasp though.
Then again there are also Exchange alternatives (not sure how they do on push) like - I might have these names wrong, Zimbra, Open X-change (or something like that. Plus there is SyncML and Funambol ( I know I have that spelled wrong.. someone please help me!).
What do you good people think! Should we maybe split this into threads (or even make use of existing ones and share the links around so we all know where to look?). I would really like to be able to review the options, but it would also be good to keep this forum fasirly organized and readable!
hey guys from universal forum!
had started this service out to TYTN users and figured i should spread the news around to some of the other boards. if you guys are looking for push email, please get in touch here's what i posted in the tytn forum:
I'm now offering exchange mailboxes to users (subscription based service). right now i see two, one by austindkelly in the wizard forum (he's disappeared for over a month and looks like he doens't offer his service any more) and one by denial in the kaiser section ($5/month). I thought I'd offer up a similar service starting with the hermes group (cheaper of course) with a few extra tidbits of joy...
- supports iphone exchange services, saves a heck of money over apple's mobileme service!
- outlook web access (with the advanced interface)
- 1gb quota
- both SSL as well as standard port options
- *IMAP access* - you don't even need outlook, syncs flawlessly with your phone.
- *MAPI* outlook access - hook up your outlook on your PC to sync with my service which in turn syncs with your phone. no plugging in ever needed!
- alias included (get your own email)
- changing your password through outlook web access (one-way non-reversible encryption).
I figured it's a bit of an overkill having my own exchange server that's serving a single account (i.e. mine). so why not open it up!
Price is $10 for 3 months, $19 for 6 months.
Please PM me if you're interested... I'll probably set up your account within 12 hours (probably less).
And yes, will give you unused credit money back etc etc if you're unsatisfied for whatever reason. I'm really not in this for the money, it's more to utilize something I spent hours building up, plus to cover the costs of my internet / server hardware.
And, as usual, if you need any files hosted for xda-developers just let me know, i'm already hosting over 40 ROM images and serving 5-6gb/day in ROMs from the wiki!
cheers!
free accounts:
will provide 10 rotating free accounts at any given time for test purposes, will base it off of usage. so if you use the free account, i'll keep it up indefinitely, if not then account will be removed after 14 days and given to the next person in line.
Free accounts do not have MAPI access, have 50mb storage, have no aliases either.
Depending on utilization I may increase this 10 free account limit.
few people are asking about synching from multiple sources...
from my understanding i can only give you one alias for your accounts, which means you can't select your "from." however you're free to forward as many accounts as you wish to the account i create for you, but you can only send from one "alias."
another multi-synching thing people are asking is whether you can sync calendar with your desktop and email with my service. sure!! its best that way in fact - that's what i do. i have my outlook on my desktop which has my calendar, contacts, and only sync my email via push on exchange to my server... you can even take this a step further and set up IMAP access so what you see in your email client is the same as what you'll see in your pocket outlook... if you delete from your desktop, whoosh it disappears from your PDA too
chamelion said:
from my understanding i can only give you one alias for your accounts, which means you can't select your "from." however you're free to forward as many accounts as you wish to the account i create for you, but you can only send from one "alias."
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Click to collapse
it is possible to select "from" under exchange but a bit tricky, best way to do that is creating distribution group with desired email address, user account must be a member of this group and must have "send as" right on it; after that user can select desired mail in from field - at least under outlook; if exchange has multiple domains in recipient policies - this emails could be even from different domains
MAPI (i.e. desktop outlook) access is now enabled
still plenty of resources to use up so drop me a line if interested!
going to take the server down for about 15-20 minutes this afternoon for a quick reboot and offline backup. planning for 3:00pm GMT. please be patient, hopefully it should be done much much faster!
Quick update regarding update in the server!
I know I've had some VERY avoidable downtimes this past few months. Because this is running on a laptop it has been unplugged from the power / ethernet while its been moved.
however good news! I've just purchased a replacement - a nice server
Specs - dual core AMD 5600+ with 2 gb RAM, 820gb storage (for those attachments ).
i'll do the switchover soon as i get the machine, should hopefully take 10-15 minutes as i just need to image the drive across.
once i get the machine i'll push up the trial accounts to 15 or 20 so if you're interested i'll post here when the migration is done and you can drop me a note
cheers!
can someone who has successfully set up outlook 07 with my service PM me with the settings they've used? i need to get some instructions on my site on how to do it, and i don't use exchange 07 myself...
thanks!
chamelion said:
another multi-synching thing people are asking is whether you can sync calendar with your desktop and email with my service. sure!! its best that way in fact - that's what i do. i have my outlook on my desktop which has my calendar, contacts, and only sync my email via push on exchange to my server... you can even take this a step further and set up IMAP access so what you see in your email client is the same as what you'll see in your pocket outlook... if you delete from your desktop, whoosh it disappears from your PDA too
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Just have to tell everyone how happy I am with Chamelion.
This is by far the most honest straight up guy we have here.
And his service has been superb.
If you want activesync to work as it was designed to hit him up, his exchange service is the best!!
cyberhern said:
Just have to tell everyone how happy I am with Chamelion.
This is by far the most honest straight up guy we have here.
And his service has been superb.
If you want activesync to work as it was designed to hit him up, his exchange service is the best!!
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Click to collapse
thanks for the review
for others interested: yes it works on the iphone if you've moved to iphone, and yes i'm still taking on new people - heaps of spots available!
chamelion said:
thanks for the review
for others interested: yes it works on the iphone if you've moved to iphone, and yes i'm still taking on new people - heaps of spots available!
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Dude you are the Bomb. I hope you got my pm.
Glad your still using xda.
Hay dumb question. I may change cell service provider to t-mobile. Service change should not affect my exchange ability right?
What is ur price plan, please? and can i have a trial account?
Thank u in advance
cyberhern said:
Dude you are the Bomb. I hope you got my pm.
Glad your still using xda.
Hay dumb question. I may change cell service provider to t-mobile. Service change should not affect my exchange ability right?
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Click to collapse
changing provider has no effect, doesn't matter what service you're using to connect- long as you have internet access it works.
hbahaie said:
What is ur price plan, please? and can i have a trial account?
Thank u in advance
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hi there,
price plan is on the first post re: trial accounts i've phased those out as they're too much hassle. i do still offer money-back guarantees but need to know that people are serious about wanting the service, not just out to get another free account
chamelion said:
changing provider has no effect, doesn't matter what service you're using to connect- long as you have internet access it works.
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Click to collapse
that's. What I thought. The reason I asked is Tmobile is one of the cheaper services, just starting to deploy 3g when everyone else is testing 4g. I was just worried that the sow internet would affect my ability to sync.
I am with Verizon now. I love the broadband speeds but 2 cells for 350 each month is too much.
Rightnow Tm is the only carrier that has the touch pro2 which I love and Tm would cut my bill in half.
UPDATE Now offering Exchange 2010 accounts - fully compatible with latest outlook, html email etc!
Information and registration at https://exchange.etbox.info
Hi friends,
today is a very sad day!
I just received a mail that anounced "New Services" on nuevasync.com.
http://blog.nuevasync.com/blog/nuevasync/entry/new_services
http://www.nuevasync.com/nuevasync-personal.html
If you don't switch to the Basic 15$/yr / Premium 30$/yr Service it will stop syncing.
We have 5 days to switch to an alternative Service (web-based or installed Application).
Well i used nuevasync for syncing 9 GoogleCalendars and my Contacts to my TouchHD and everything works great.
Now I'm on a search for an alternative solution to get this job done.
I so far found ActiveGcSync. But I have to say it crashes pretty much, so it's no fun.
Do you have any other proposals?
kind regards
fwt
I'm in the same boat, just recently started using it again and was happy with it.
Not happy they have decided to stop being free (but that happens) and even worse only gave five days notice.
Not sure what to use instead... I'd pay $15 for life, but not each year.
anybody no of any alternatives, because I want to sync my contacts and multiple calendars to my windows mobile phone
The same here, I'm syncing contacts and 4 calendars at the moment. Any alternativies?
any word on alternatives?
I'm hoping this thread holds some hope:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=793683
Until then, I am using gmobilesync, doesn't do contacts but that's fine for me.
I'm currently working on an alternative service. I dont have too much time to work on it, but I have some great ideas. If anyone wants to help me, feel free to join!
xemiw said:
I'm currently working on an alternative service. I dont have too much time to work on it, but I have some great ideas. If anyone wants to help me, feel free to join!
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I've got lots of ideas too, unfortunately no capability to go anything technical to assist!
Send me a PM and let me know what you need done. I can help with some things, others I can't. I'll let you know what I can do to assist you though.
I tried gmobilesync but it double all my events. I think I will stay with normal sync described: http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=138636&topic=14299
but I will need to copy events I need to have in phone to my main calendar :/
MusX said:
I tried gmobilesync but it double all my events. I think I will stay with normal sync described: http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=138636&topic=14299
but I will need to copy events I need to have in phone to my main calendar :/
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I've never experienced doubling up (touch wood), had you already synced up?
As my main calendar is used very little compared to our shared one, I'm not going down the copying route.
grayme said:
had you already synced up?
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yes :/
there were also forecast and holidays copied to my main calendar while using it :/
Thank you for your help. I wrote a small exchange server which can synchronize my google calendar with my phone. It was easier than I thought. I dont know how much work it needs but I think I can publish it in 1-2 weeks. Meanwhile you can write your ideas here. If anyone could lend me a server for this, that would be awesome.
xemiw said:
Thank you for your help. I wrote a small exchange server which can synchronize my google calendar with my phone. It was easier than I thought. I dont know how much work it needs but I think I can publish it in 1-2 weeks. Meanwhile you can write your ideas here. If anyone could lend me a server for this, that would be awesome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, no programming capabilities, nor a server I can share.
However, some ideas:
- Ability to pick which calendars sync
- Ability to pick sync schedule (or always connected or only manually)
- Two way syncing (can't get gmobile syncing to go from WM to google), keeping to the correct calendar.
- Ability to pick one way syncing (either way required)
- Ability to pick the default calendar (for me, this is a shared family calendar, not my main google calendar).
- Ability to pick colours for each calendar (or take the same colours as set in google).
I may come up with other ideas, but that seems to be it for now. Personally I am not interested in syncing contacts or email. Contacts I want to keep separate from those I call and those I email, email works better on imap than activesync.
I just got a SNS as my first smart phone, I went through all the privacy and account settings I could find and disabled all sync options.
So imagine my amazed horror when I found that all my contacts and calendar entries (and wtf else) are being sent to mr google for access through google dot com/contacts etc
I also found you cant delete a primary gmail account once it's in there - so I cant find any way to stop this behaviour.
Is it possible to keep your contacts and calendar etc only stored local to the phone?
If not possible with stock 2.3 is there a mod like CM7 that doesnt use the google services?
Cheers!
I don't see how it's a bad thing. You never ever have worry about losing your contacts once they sync up with the mothership.
I don't you can access things like the market without a Google account either.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App
@troopstar
Yes, it is possible to use the Nexus without a Google account in its stock and root state.
Stock and root you can tap the sign-in and navigate to the skip the Google sign-in, but as stated by Zardos66 you don't get to use the Google apps. Like the market, Gmail, Google voice and talk etc without some walk around.
You can sign-in and go back to the accounts & sync and uncheck the boxes and still use the phone and just save all contacts to phone only. This way you can still have access to the Google services if you choose to do so.
If you're so worried about your data being compromised or giving in to Google. Then why did you get a Google phone in the first place if you want to cripple the so-called "Google Experience" with a "Paranoid Experience?" Get a Windows Phone or iPhone.
Like seriously, you just defeated the whole purpose of a phone powered by Android. Google Apps are there to simplify your life. It just wants a warm hug back.
If you really want to cripple your phone and not have any Google services on then flash CM7 and dont flash the gapps.
zephiK said:
If you're so worried about your data being compromised or giving in to Google. Then why did you get a Google phone in the first place if you want to cripple the so-called "Google Experience" with a "Paranoid Experience?"
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The question wasn't about "Google Experience" - the topic starter didn't want to get rid of Gapps, like GMail or Google Market. He just wanted to avoid syncing calendar and contacts to Google servers. What's wrong with that? I am getting my Nexus S in a week and I am worried about this issue too. I just don't want to sync online this kind of sensible data - I am perfectly comfortable with my offline contacts' and calendar copies on my PC and external HDD. I am backing up my cell phones from the year 2005 (always had SE, so I used MyPhoneExplorer) and I have never lost any contact, calendar entry or SMS. Hell, I have all my incoming and outgoing SMSes from 2005. I must admit that Google syncing is good for careless people who wipe their phones now and then and in doing so find themselves with no contacts, no calendar events and not even a saved backup to restore everything from. But it's not my case, do you see my point? I don't need Google to "babysit" me and offer his help in syncing my data to his servers - I back up my data very well on my own.
By the way, the "Google Experience" part in your post and your call for changing the Android phone for Winphone or iPhone was a very unpleasant and rude exaggeration. Basically, what you said was equal to saying, for example, that if you want to go the "French way" (or to have the "French experience", paraphrasing you words) you must eat frogs at the restaurant, and if you are of a different opinion and fail to do so - you are a loser. Personally, I hate frogs, but I will always go for a good french wine, so does it make my "French experience" less "french" than anybody elses? In other words, there is no need to be calling people "***holes" if their "Google Experience" doesn't match your own. It's an experience, and it differs from people to people. There is even a saying about that: "Experience may vary".
Getting back on topic, i.e. speaking of backing up in offline mode, I was wondering if you guys could gently help me by pointing at a good program that syncs Contacts and Calendar events to Microsoft Outlook 2007 (without uploading anything to Gmail). I know that the newest version of MyPhoneExplorer has the Android support, but does it work for Nexus S? If not, what other programs can do that? From what I've read so far, this issue is very crippled for Android (unlike many other OSes), but that was several months ago. Has anything changed in a positive way since then?
arbalet42 said:
The question wasn't about "Google Experience" - the topic starter didn't want to get rid of Gapps, like GMail or Google Market. He just wanted to avoid syncing calendar and contacts to Google servers. What's wrong with that? I am getting my Nexus S in a week and I am worried about this issue too. I just don't want to sync online this kind of sensible data - I am perfectly comfortable with my offline contacts' and calendar copies on my PC and external HDD. I am backing up my cell phones from the year 2005 (always had SE, so I used MyPhoneExplorer) and I have never lost any contact, calendar entry or SMS. Hell, I have all my incoming and outgoing SMSes from 2005. I must admit that Google syncing is good for careless people who wipe their phones now and then and in doing so find themselves with no contacts, no calendar events and not even a saved backup to restore everything from. But it's not my case, do you see my point? I don't need Google to "babysit" me and offer his help in syncing my data to his servers - I back up my data very well on my own.
By the way, the "Google Experience" part in your post and your call for changing the Android phone for Winphone or iPhone was a very unpleasant and rude exaggeration. Basically, what you said was equal to saying, for example, that if you want to go the "French way" (or to have the "French experience", paraphrasing you words) you must eat frogs at the restaurant, and if you are of a different opinion and fail to do so - you are a loser. Personally, I hate frogs, but I will always go for a good french wine, so does it make my "French experience" less "french" than anybody elses? In other words, there is no need to be calling people "***holes" if their "Google Experience" doesn't match your own. It's an experience, and it differs from people to people. There is even a saying about that: "Experience may vary".
Getting back on topic, i.e. speaking of backing up in offline mode, I was wondering if you guys could gently help me by pointing at a good program that syncs Contacts and Calendar events to Microsoft Outlook 2007 (without uploading anything to Gmail). I know that the newest version of MyPhoneExplorer has the Android support, but does it work for Nexus S? If not, what other programs can do that? From what I've read so far, this issue is very crippled for Android (unlike many other OSes), but that was several months ago. Has anything changed in a positive way since then?
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Click to collapse
Whoa. Didn't have to write a essay to me. Not even going to bother reading it because ur phone history and i can really care less.
If you read the ops last sentence in regards to cm7 without Google services. So was my post relevant? Yes.
If Microsoft wanted to they can create a Microsoft experience on Android with a manufacturer packaging MS apps like Bing, Bing maps, live mail etc.
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
Frankly, get used to cloud sync most os manufacturers are moving to it.
Microsoft even abandoned desktop sync for info management / backup (except for pictures and music) in Windows Phone 7. Microsoft makes the majority of their money from desktop software (like outlook) so when they say direct desktop sync is dead it really is.
atlp99 said:
Frankly, get used to cloud sync most os manufacturers are moving to it.
Microsoft even abandoned desktop sync for info management / backup (except for pictures and music) in Windows Phone 7. Microsoft makes the majority of their money from desktop software (like outlook) so when they say direct desktop sync is dead it really is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I dont get why people don't trust these companies. Like really, if they were to compromise your data or it get compromised. It would devastate the company, it would damage their reputation in the business world. Leading to investors panicing and selling etc etc.
This isn't a business lecture so I wouldn't even go in depth. Long story short, it would look bad on their part and all the trust they would of gained would be lost by consumers and investors.
Well... don't wanna sound like a jackass or something, but to be plain simple: who gives a f#@% about your personal data? I mean aside yourself. It's simply not useful for anyone else, and I seriously doubt there's an evil dude siting in a chair in a dark room at montain view, laughing maniacly cause you just synced your phone book into google servers.
For them it's just statistics, no personal info is relevant. If the guy wanna keep all his data offline cause he don't think is safe enough to leave it in a server (gmail accounts being resetd)... Than I think is a lot more likely his phone get stolen and his house burn to the ground in the same day than google losing it somehow.
But it's free world and everyone can do whatever they want, so if I'm not mistaken all you have to do is skip the login at the beginning (like when you wipe your phone) and add the account manually and uncheck all kind of sync. And just to be sure don't put a sin card on the phone or activate the internet before u set it up.
And ofc delete all info in gmail contacts.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
The funniest thing would be to learn that the OP uses Facebook...
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Nutsonfire said:
The funniest thing would be to learn that the OP uses Facebook...
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'll be sad to hear that I havent ever used Facebook
I'm surprised by the hostility of some of the responses here. I like to think I'm pro-choice / freedom to tinker - let me choose to sync to the cloud and get the so called great experience, or choose to keep things local.
Mr Google already knows my porn surfing habbits and who I email via gmail, adding my phone contacts list gives pretty much a 100% view of my 'social network'.
I'm an Aussie, and while I guess my government here could get a bunch of warrants to piece this picture together - I have faith that this isnt gonna happen as I'm not a criminal or terrorist.
While I love you yanks (what we call Americans), I dont understand your legal system, and dont like the idea of all my info being mined courtesy of Google and the Patriot Act.
Call me paranoid if you like, but deny me this choice and I call you a wanker.
I thought a premise of an open source OS like Android was the ability to customise, not be locked into stuff like this?
gratti said:
Well... don't wanna sound like a jackass or something, but to be plain simple: who gives a f#@% about your personal data? I mean aside yourself. It's simply not useful for anyone else, and I seriously doubt there's an evil dude siting in a chair in a dark room at montain view, laughing maniacly cause you just synced your phone book into google servers.
For them it's just statistics, no personal info is relevant. If the guy wanna keep all his data offline cause he don't think is safe enough to leave it in a server (gmail accounts being resetd)... Than I think is a lot more likely his phone get stolen and his house burn to the ground in the same day than google losing it somehow.
But it's free world and everyone can do whatever they want, so if I'm not mistaken all you have to do is skip the login at the beginning (like when you wipe your phone) and add the account manually and uncheck all kind of sync. And just to be sure don't put a sin card on the phone or activate the internet before u set it up.
And ofc delete all info in gmail contacts.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did skip the initial login, however I had to add an account later to use the Market.
My contacts list is not being synced with new ones I add, but I think it did a one-time sync when I added the account as all those in the phone at the time are there.
I guess I'll have to use a packet sniffer to see if new ones are being sent to google anyway (if not displayed).
Thanks for the tip about just deleting them - I'll do that and hope no future 'oops' does a reverse sync and delete them all off the phone.
zephiK said:
Whoa. Didn't have to write a essay to me. Not even going to bother reading it because ur phone history and i can really care less.
If you read the ops last sentence in regards to cm7 without Google services. So was my post relevant? Yes.
If Microsoft wanted to they can create a Microsoft experience on Android with a manufacturer packaging MS apps like Bing, Bing maps, live mail etc.
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Touchdown works great with exchange. And there is no need to use Google with it. Hope that helps.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App
gratti said:
Well... don't wanna sound like a jackass or something, but to be plain simple: who gives a f#@% about your personal data? I mean aside yourself. It's simply not useful for anyone else, and I seriously doubt there's an evil dude siting in a chair in a dark room at montain view, laughing maniacly cause you just synced your phone book into google servers.
For them it's just statistics, no personal info is relevant. If the guy wanna keep all his data offline cause he don't think is safe enough to leave it in a server (gmail accounts being resetd)... Than I think is a lot more likely his phone get stolen and his house burn to the ground in the same day than google losing it somehow.
But it's free world and everyone can do whatever they want, so if I'm not mistaken all you have to do is skip the login at the beginning (like when you wipe your phone) and add the account manually and uncheck all kind of sync. And just to be sure don't put a sin card on the phone or activate the internet before u set it up.
And ofc delete all info in gmail contacts.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't read your whole post but I'm gonna answer that first statement about evils dudes and your personal data
Your right there not going to hack your data but they will sell it to other people. In turn sell it for thousands of dollars to people looking for a marketing crowd. I'm not saying Google does this but the risk does exist. Personally I trust Google with my data but I can definitely understand if people don't trust them. Android is about an open experience which means if someone doesn't want tosync to Google theta shouldn't have too.
Am I wrong in saying this?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App
Menu -> Settings -> Accounts and Sync
As suggested though, why get a cloud phone when you don't want to use it?
thommcg said:
Menu -> Settings -> Accounts and Sync
As suggested though, why get a cloud phone when you don't want to use it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fair question.
I was expecting the latest greatest android phone, from the guys doing the android dev, and with excellent intergration to google services if I wanted to use em.
I had nfi, and it wasnt on anything in the box, that all my contacts are synced to 'the cloud'.
Sure as an option that's cool but it appears to be a lot more tightly coupled, and thats my concern.
troopstar said:
Fair question.
I was expecting the latest greatest android phone, from the guys doing the android dev, and with excellent intergration to google services if I wanted to use em.
I had nfi, and it wasnt on anything in the box, that all my contacts are synced to 'the cloud'.
Sure as an option that's cool but it appears to be a lot more tightly coupled, and thats my concern.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its not.
Go into sync the gmail then untick where it says contacts or gmail or whatever else. Viola, no more syncing of contacts with your phone. Just by default it is ticked because most people want their contacts synced I would assume but its very easy to stop it. Just follow the insturction above.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App
dsellers2 said:
I didn't read your whole post but I'm gonna answer that first statement about evils dudes and your personal data
Your right there not going to hack your data but they will sell it to other people. In turn sell it for thousands of dollars to people looking for a marketing crowd. I'm not saying Google does this but the risk does exist. Personally I trust Google with my data but I can definitely understand if people don't trust them. Android is about an open experience which means if someone doesn't want tosync to Google theta shouldn't have too.
Am I wrong in saying this?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should had read until the second paragraph. Like I said before for them it's just statistics. Like, you sync your phone book and X% of your contacts are off state or international. That info is sent, so next time you log into gmail you gonna see an offer about long distance calls. Like I said, statistics.
They are not selling your info, they are selling the statistics they collect about their userbase. And thx to that you don't pay a dime for the best mail service around, and for that matter all google services.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
troopstar said:
Fair question.
I was expecting the latest greatest android phone, from the guys doing the android dev, and with excellent intergration to google services if I wanted to use em.
I had nfi, and it wasnt on anything in the box, that all my contacts are synced to 'the cloud'.
Sure as an option that's cool but it appears to be a lot more tightly coupled, and thats my concern.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you checked about sync options inside gmail? I would not be surprised if the contacts were getting pulled from the phone, so next time you would send a mail from browser you would had your contacts ready. That's google like.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
While I'm a huge fan of Google products and services, there attitude of ignoring the masses when it comes to certain features that everyone wants/needs in the name of 'it's better' the way we designed it gets frustrating.
I'm hoping someone here knows a solution to this:
My contacts [not even the same name] keep getting merged/linked together automatically. It's happened on every Android device I've owned, and it's always happened to completely different names. I keep my contacts meticulously organized, and would never have a duplicate that would even need to be linked together. I've sent emails to Google asking how to disable it, etc. and they tell me it's a feature that everyone likes basically.
The most recent linking disaster was it linked my current girlfriend 'Lisa' with my ex-girlfriend 'Elizabeth' with TOTALLY DIFFERENT last names...WTF? So when I hit the dial button on the contact clearly labelled 'Lisa', and with her picture...I was actually calling my EX! Needless to say this led to a long argument that there was no way I could accidentally call me ex when trying to call my girlfriend, and blaming it on Google is ridiculous.
It's done this with a contact 'David', my then boss...and a contact labelled Dad...so when I tried calling work at 2AM (when I start) I actually woke up my dad in the middle of the night. There is no way of knowing when this happens unless I manually check every contact to see if there has been any merging or memorize everyone's phone number so I can see if it's really dialing the right number. It even linked my friend Charles, with Les Schwab Tire store once before.
Anyway, everything I've searched on the subject says that there should be some sort of notification asking me if I want to link/merge contacts, and to make sure to select 'NO'. I've never been notified though, and just get surprised at least once a month when my phone calls someone else, when I select a contact to dial.
Whoever knows the answer will save my life!
Thanks
JVogler said:
While I'm a huge fan of Google products and services, there attitude of ignoring the masses when it comes to certain features that everyone wants/needs in the name of 'it's better' the way we designed it gets frustrating.
I'm hoping someone here knows a solution to this:
My contacts [not even the same name] keep getting merged/linked together automatically. It's happened on every Android device I've owned, and it's always happened to completely different names. I keep my contacts meticulously organized, and would never have a duplicate that would even need to be linked together. I've sent emails to Google asking how to disable it, etc. and they tell me it's a feature that everyone likes basically.
The most recent linking disaster was it linked my current girlfriend 'Lisa' with my ex-girlfriend 'Elizabeth' with TOTALLY DIFFERENT last names...WTF? So when I hit the dial button on the contact clearly labelled 'Lisa', and with her picture...I was actually calling my EX! Needless to say this led to a long argument that there was no way I could accidentally call me ex when trying to call my girlfriend, and blaming it on Google is ridiculous.
It's done this with a contact 'David', my then boss...and a contact labelled Dad...so when I tried calling work at 2AM (when I start) I actually woke up my dad in the middle of the night. There is no way of knowing when this happens unless I manually check every contact to see if there has been any merging or memorize everyone's phone number so I can see if it's really dialing the right number. It even linked my friend Charles, with Les Schwab Tire store once before.
Anyway, everything I've searched on the subject says that there should be some sort of notification asking me if I want to link/merge contacts, and to make sure to select 'NO'. I've never been notified though, and just get surprised at least once a month when my phone calls someone else, when I select a contact to dial.
Whoever knows the answer will save my life!
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never noticed this...what version of Android are you on and what phone do you have?
In haven't seem it either...are you talking about the "merge duplicate" feature? Did you happen to leave the first or last name blank?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using xda app-developers app
electricpete1 said:
In haven't seem it either...are you talking about the "merge duplicate" feature? Did you happen to leave the first or last name blank?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's happened on my Atrix running GB, also on my Note running ICS. It's happened to 3 other people's phone I know.
I think you might be on to something...it does seem to happen most often to names where I have no last name entered. It merged 'Lisa' with no last name to "Elizabeth" with a last name. It has merged 'Dad' with quite a few different names beginning with D.
They are not merged/linked when viewing contacts on the web in gmail...they are still separate there. It just merges them on the phone only. The most recent one I can't figure out the algorithm behind thinking these were duplicates and merging them automatically was: [Lowe's] and my friend [Lana], Hit her picture from my favorites menu, and got the Lowe's Home Improvement store. Her picture was displayed on the dialing screen and everything. Had to go into contacts, choose 'un-link', and sure enough it had automatically merged to two contacts after sitting separately for years.
This isn't Google. This behaviour is of the stock contacts applications by Motorola and Samsung. Each one modifies the Google contacts app in their own way, especially with regard to linking of contacts and social networking. You'll be better off asking in your device forum to see if others are facing this issue, and contacting Motorola or Samsung about it. It doesn't happen on AOSP Android ROMs, and on pure Android devices like the Nexus line.
trenches oriedto
sashank said:
This isn't Google. This behaviour is of the stock contacts applications by Motorola and Samsung. Each one modifies the Google contacts app in their own way, especially with regard to linking of contacts and social networking. You'll be better off asking in your device forum to see if others are facing this issue, and contacting Motorola or Samsung about it. It doesn't happen on AOSP Android ROMs, and on pure Android devices like the Nexus line.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is definitely the best advice. I had this problem when I got the original Evo which was running Sense. Your phone might be trying to link similar contacts as well as facebook contacts if you've logged into the facebook app and let it sync contacts. I recommend going directly to your Google Contacts and doing a bit of organizing and cleaning. Once you have that cleaned up it will hopefully not mis-link your contacts again, even when you log into facebook or something like that.
h0phead said:
This is definitely the best advice. I had this problem when I got the original Evo which was running Sense. Your phone might be trying to link similar contacts as well as facebook contacts if you've logged into the facebook app and let it sync contacts. I recommend going directly to your Google Contacts and doing a bit of organizing and cleaning. Once you have that cleaned up it will hopefully not mis-link your contacts again, even when you log into facebook or something like that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right. I did that when I first got my phone. I named all my contacts properly (First name, Last name) so the Sense Facebook sync linked my Facebook contacts correctly. If you want to keep nicknames rather than formal names, then adding all your contacts' email addresses from Facebook will also link them correctly regardless of name. Even if your email addresses and contact names don't match with Facebook, you have an option of manually going through all your contacts and linking them (in HTC Sense). You'll only need to do that once as Sense stores an '< HTCdata >' tag in the 'Notes' field of each contact indicating which Facebook contact it is linked to, so any future sync will immediately link the contacts based on this tag. The best Facebook sync app for AOSP ROMs, HaxSync, also makes use of these tags.
Organizing your Google contacts just once in your life goes a long way.
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