Database Info

[Q] Prevent cloud storage of contacts and calendar?

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?"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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?
Click to expand...
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...
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk

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

ClickCal

I've been working on this app for some time. I'm aware of the risks in using non-public API parts eg. Android calendar, but I needed the app features myself and so did many of my friends. So I've published it as a free app on Android market and it's been well received, but every now and then I get another error message. As I don't have any information on the phone or OS in question it's really hard to figure out what could be wrong. I typically test apps on 3 phones that I have readily available (HTC Hero, LG Optimus, SE X10 Mini Pro) and with Android 2.1 & 2.2. It would be great to hear if this app works as it should on your phones and if it breaks where/how it happens.

Your app looks quite useful.
Here's a clickable market link.
Do you mind adding some screenshots to your original post so we can get a better picture (pun intended)?
Edit: In case you don't add pics yourself, I've attached three from your market entry.
Edit 2: Here's the market description (for the lazy)
Android Market Description said:
ClickCal is a perfect blog tool, personal, family and work calendar app that allows you to create events and tasks by taking photos and/or via voice recording. No typing is required to create an event. Snap a photo of a document and save - your event is ready. Use your phones built-in camera to scan your paper invitation, dentist appointment note, screen of an e-mail/web page and your event is ready. You can record a voice message to add to the event as well. Optionally you can select event type, choose the calendar, set date and time, and if you really want to type you can add a description and location.
Adds an icon that allows to quick add an event from the desktop.
Syncs with Google calendar. Note: event images and audio can not be viewed in other calendar applications as they do not support this feature.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

The background of creating this app is that I got really tired of trying to manage our kitchen bulletin board. Full of paper docs of kids school stuff,sports events & other activities and naturally no sync with phone or other calendars. Typing in the info sounded like a nightmare. So I was thinking how I could get those digitalized easily. ClickCal solves that problem. Later a friend asked how she could handle taking notes of customer meetings while driving back from the meeting. I proposed adding an audio recording feature to ClickCal. Next feature coming up is being able to log the GPS/Wlan -based location with the event.
But I've been having some issues with sporadic error reports coming in - and I can't reproduce the errors as the app works fully on my 3 phones.

I installed it to my epic 4g but will not open, say that i need to setup my google account (which i have) on my phone before using Clickcal???????

Oh, and as a side note, I have featured this nice app on the XDA home page.

I'm getting error messages a couple of times per week. Previously they were usually caused by Motorola having a different calendar provider address. Took me a while to figure out that they changed it back to the standard one when they moved from 2.1->2.2. That was finally solved with ClickCal version 1.6.2.
Samsung with 2.2.1 not working is news to me. The error message is probably caused by the app not finding Samsung's calendar provider. Haven't been able to test on 2.2.1 yet. So there's clearly more to the story. App testing is really the biggest issue with Android - many phones with variable screens and OS-versions.
Thanks for the testing. One step ahead.

Just got an idea: some phones like Samsungs come with the manufacturers own calendar app. They might not be 100% compatible with the Google Android calendar.
Was the test with the pre-installed Samsung calendar or the Google standard one?

Thanks - but a little bit too soon I'm still trying to figure a couple of reported issues.

HTC Thunderbolt, 2.2 Stock
downloaded, installed, opened-- "No Calendars Available. No google calendars were found on your phone. you need to setup your google account on your phone before using ClickCal". application then closes. can't get past that text box.
i have at least 8 Google Calendars & have been using this phone since launch day 3 weeks ago, so my gmail account is setup on the phone successfully & all calendars can be viewed on the phone through the stock Calendar app.
Dev, please fix--i'm pretty curious about this app & its capabilities.

Ok, thx for the feedback. Will work on this over the weekend. I was wondering that the retention rate was pretty low for an app I consider useful. Not wondering anymore if it doesn't even start up on some phones...
Anyway, I'm happy I found this site - without it I'd still be deep in the woods.
If you need note taking with the camera and/or audio recordings, but without the calendaring part I've also published ClickNote on android market. Based on the same principles, but no calendar. I haven't had any issues with ClickNote so far from any users.

The Samsung calendar
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App

I'm getting the no google calendar message then its exiting too.
On sony Ericsson x10.
Sent from my wolf 2.2 X10i using XDA App

Ugh - Sony Ericsson as well. I've actually developed this app for the SE X10 Mini Pro.
Ok, but based on the feedback on this board and a little more research I think I've discovered the problem. It's due to the manufacturers eg. built-in calendar which is not 100% compatible with the standard Android calendar. Now I can finally fix this issue. I'll develop a check for the calendars on the phone to test that they function correctly with ClickCal. On some phones it will probably mean that ClickCal will only work with the Google calendars.

Here is the logcat from my xperia x10. Hope it helps.

Finally got it! Thx for the X10 logcat output you sent. It showed that ClickCal was considering your phone as having Android 2.1.
Since the calendar provider is different (calendar vs. com.android.calendar) between 2.1 and 2.2 I'm doing a check on the OS version of the phone. Well my nice version string match was against "2.1". I think 2.2.1 might also match this

Just published version ClickCal 1.7 on Android market. Several fixes, but most importantly should work with Androdi 2.2.1 and hopefully Samsung stock calendar setup.

spfoo said:
Just published version ClickCal 1.7 on Android market. Several fixes, but most importantly should work with Androdi 2.2.1 and hopefully Samsung stock calendar setup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't have time to test it fully at the moment but i have installed the update and it recognises the google calendar and appears to work properly. I'll test it over the weekend fully hopefully.
Thanks for your quick response.

Ok i have tested it now ... i have a couple of things.
It only shows the main calendar that i have on my phone, not my holidays or birthdays calendar (these are both listed on the dropdown list at the top) it just doesn't pick up any appointments from them.
Is there a way to get it to add and appointment by long pressing at the correct time? I can't get used to having to go to the top and click new event.
Also can you get it to swipe left and right for next/previous day in the day view and not just the monthly view?
Also i know this is minor but can you move the save button to the bottom of the page? Or change its colour slightly? It is really hard to see.
Other than that i really like the app.
THanks

indesisiv said:
Ok i have tested it now ... i have a couple of things.
It only shows the main calendar that i have on my phone, not my holidays or birthdays calendar (these are both listed on the dropdown list at the top) it just doesn't pick up any appointments from them.
Is there a way to get it to add and appointment by long pressing at the correct time? I can't get used to having to go to the top and click new event.
Also can you get it to swipe left and right for next/previous day in the day view and not just the monthly view?
Also i know this is minor but can you move the save button to the bottom of the page? Or change its colour slightly? It is really hard to see.
Other than that i really like the app.
THanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are those holiday/birthday calendars internal phone calendars or google calendars? If you can do a few selections on these calendars and send me the logcat I can check what's happening.
Long-click to add event is a good idea - was thinking to enable long-click from the monthly view eg long click on a day to add event. But it's trivial to add to the day/agenda views as well. It may be hard to hit the exact right time though - the rows are narrow when there are no events on them.
Swiping to move days back/forward on day view is in the plans.
The Save button is on the bottom on some phones, but not all. Depends on screen sizes. I tried to optimize the view for the smallest screen eg the X10 Mini Pro. Perhaps a good idea would be to make the button full width and change the color?
Thx for the feedback. Will look into those items for the next release. Priority on the missing calendar data.

I have one google account with multiple calendars.
I can see the calendars etc but it only give info from one.
I tried to swap between them here. (logcat added)
Hope this helps

Noob's question on HTC Sense - Sorry if it seems dumb!

I just got my Sensation after jumping from the "magick Kingdom of Apple (tm)" and an old iPhone 3G.
I'm so pleased with the Sensation, the screen is amazing and so responsive but - since I'm used to Apple's - "My way or the Highway" approach, some of the freedom has me totally confused.
On the 3G there was one mail app - I see I now have GMail and HTC Mail and that's before I go near the Market.
I had a simple contact app but now I'm pushed towards HTC People which is flooding in my facebook contacts and their posts when mostly I just want folks names and numbers to phone or txt them. If I want facebook I'm happy to start a Facebook app, other than that I really can't be ar$ed reading the piles of crap that too many "friends" are putting on.
I read that I will have some things sync'ing via Google "automatically" and the phone keeps pestering me to sign up for an HTC Sense account while online forums are saying don't have a Sense account running as it will eat up your battery...
Maybe if HTC provided a manual with more than 10 miniature pages to start explaining all this!!!!
Can someone please explain in noob friendly English what is the best combination of general apps / syncing to get mail, contacts, SMS and calendar working so that they are automatically backed up but without trying to sync every 10 mins and running the battery down quicker than my car drinks petrol (which is pretty damn fast!). I don't care if its the HTC apps or Google Apps, I just one to be running one mail client, 1 calendar etc and be able to get all that data back should I need to.
I'm not a complete idiot by the way, I ran the 3G JB'd and unlocked for 3 years through every update Apple put out and I am here because I will root and load a custom rom eventually, but I'd like to learn my way about before doing anything too adventurous.
Anyone offer me any advice or point me to a website offering a class in "HTC Sense 101".
Thanks
BelfastLad

I second this question, starting new on a sensation this week and.... somehow my facebook wants to link with my HTC facebook.... wtf? Didn't realize the sense account was wasting my battery... should I disable it?... Basic configuration theory regarding all this Sense stuff would be useful... thanks.

BelfastLad said:
I just got my Sensation after jumping from the "magick Kingdom of Apple (tm)" and an old iPhone 3G.
I'm so pleased with the Sensation, the screen is amazing and so responsive but - since I'm used to Apple's - "My way or the Highway" approach, some of the freedom has me totally confused.
On the 3G there was one mail app - I see I now have GMail and HTC Mail and that's before I go near the Market.
I had a simple contact app but now I'm pushed towards HTC People which is flooding in my facebook contacts and their posts when mostly I just want folks names and numbers to phone or txt them. If I want facebook I'm happy to start a Facebook app, other than that I really can't be ar$ed reading the piles of crap that too many "friends" are putting on.
I read that I will have some things sync'ing via Google "automatically" and the phone keeps pestering me to sign up for an HTC Sense account while online forums are saying don't have a Sense account running as it will eat up your battery...
Maybe if HTC provided a manual with more than 10 miniature pages to start explaining all this!!!!
Can someone please explain in noob friendly English what is the best combination of general apps / syncing to get mail, contacts, SMS and calendar working so that they are automatically backed up but without trying to sync every 10 mins and running the battery down quicker than my car drinks petrol (which is pretty damn fast!). I don't care if its the HTC apps or Google Apps, I just one to be running one mail client, 1 calendar etc and be able to get all that data back should I need to.
I'm not a complete idiot by the way, I ran the 3G JB'd and unlocked for 3 years through every update Apple put out and I am here because I will root and load a custom rom eventually, but I'd like to learn my way about before doing anything too adventurous.
Anyone offer me any advice or point me to a website offering a class in "HTC Sense 101".
Thanks
BelfastLad
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cbutters said:
I second this question, starting new on a sensation this week and.... somehow my facebook wants to link with my HTC facebook.... wtf? Didn't realize the sense account was wasting my battery... should I disable it?... Basic configuration theory regarding all this Sense stuff would be useful... thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gmail is the official google app for Gmail. By default, Gmail will show your google account stuff when you first sign into google account and link it to your phone.
HTC Mail is a mail client that you can configure to show any of your emails. For example, I have my Gmail specifically for my gmail (I could funnel my hotmail and exchange account to my gmail, but I don't want to), and I use my HTC Mail specifically for my Exchange account.
Now, with Facebook. I linked my Facebook account with Facebook for HTC Sense. You don't have to do this, but if you like using Friend Stream instead of the official Android app, do this.
If you go to settings > Accounts & sync > Facebook for HTC Sense, you can sync live feed, calendar, and/or contacts.
I sync my contacts so that my Gmail contacts come up with facebook pictures.
With the official Facebook app, it'll ask you if you want to sync contacts. I choose no because it funnels ALL of your Facebook friends into your contacts account, something I don't like.
If this is all confusing, you can just go to contacts, hit menu, hit view, scroll down to options, and uncheck the Facebook so that they don't show up in your contacts.
I hope this helps. Let me know if you want more info.

Just use the gmail app for email (assuming you only use gmail) go into accounts and sync, add your google account and it will auto sync your mail, contacts and callendar. Dont worry about battery drain gmail uses push email.
Unless you want to use the htc fabeook or friend stream widgets I would avoid facebook for htc sense, just add your facebook account in accounts and sync, it will import your facebook friends into your contacts (if you want), shortly after youll get a notification about matched contacts and you can link your existing contacts with your facebook contacts, so all information (phone, email, address, facebook etc) is under a single contact. This same process can be done using your twitter account.
As for calendar there are several calendar apps on the market, I personally use Jorte calendar, it will sync with your goole calander and has some nice widget options and nice UI.
The only things I have auto syncing on my phone are google, facebook and twitter and weather. Like I said, unless you want to use the htc widgets I would avoid syncing anything "sense" related.

Thanks for the pointers so far
Thanks to the Mod who helpfully moved my thread. I'll watch that more carefully in future.
And to the guys who've posted some good helpful advice, much appreciated.
By this time next week I'm sure I'll be well sorted. The week after I'll probably be getting itchy fingers to get rooting!
Thanks for the help but I'd still echo the 2nd posters comments. A guide to initial set-up and recommended first tweaks would be great if some "expert" could ever find the time to write one.
- Any takers?????

A "quick" guide to HTC Sense
I will try to make this as simple as I can. Feel free to fill in the gaps if I miss something.
Initial Setup
It's nice of HTC to include a personalised version of that Android initial setup, but I recommend you skip through as much as you can.
- Select you language --- pretty straight forward, right?
- Transfer my stuff --- it's a really great tool if you need to use it
- Internet connection --- choose "Mobile network or Wi-Fi"; I don't know if this is the case with the Sensation, but on older HTC phones this setting actually forces the phone to get the correct settings for APNs
- Scheduled sync --- choose "Automatically sync data"; don't worry, you can turn this off later if you want too, it will just help sync your data if you add an account later in the setup
- Set up Wi-Fi network --- choose your Wi-Fi network
- Use Google location --- it's all up to you here, but it does help to let your apps know your location. I recommend you leave those on
- Tell HTC --- as you can read on the screen, Tell HTC is software that runs in the background. It's something similar to reporting errors on Windows
- Set up accounts --- you can always add accounts later, so I recommend you skip this step
Google account
As this is Android, you will have to sign in to your Google account. When you do this, your email will be synced to Gmail, your contact will show up in the People app from HTC and your calendar will be synced to the Calendar app also from HTC. You can always choose what items from your Google account you want to sync from Setting - Accounts & Sync - Google. I personally use all their services, so I leave all on.
HTC Mail app
HTC have made their own mail app so you can easily view all your account (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Exchange or other POP3 services). This is pretty useful and it works great. I only have the Hotmail and Yahoo accounts connected here, since Gmail does the rest.
HTC People app
All your contacts in one place. Nice, right? Not quite... It took me about a week to figure this one out, but I finally got it to work just right. I keep my contact on Google, you know, family, close friends, work people... and all the detailes I need are there, but when you start to use Facebook, Facebook for HTC, Tweeter, Yahoo and so on, you get all these messeges to sync your contacts. Fine, I did that, now my People app is full of "friends" I haven't spoken in years. They just lay there. And above it all you get all kinds of messages in the status bar to let you know you can "link" you contacts. A huge list if I might add . So whats the deal here?
Sure, linking your contact is useful. Say you don't have a friends email adress, but he posted it on Facebook, or his birthday, or something else. You can get them from linking his accounts and you can find all this info in his Contact Info page. Beside that, you have quick access to conversation history (txt or email), updates, gallery or call history. HTC Sense is great at that And even though Facebook and Facebook for HTC Sense target both the same service, there are a few diferences. For instance, the simple Facebook only syncs contact, while Facebook for HTC Sense syncs live feeds and calendars too for you to use on the Friend Stream app/widget or in the Calendar. The same goes for Twitter.
But when you start linking people, you see that their photo is being changed to whatever profile picture they have on Facebook, Tweeter or other services... and even their name can change too. To resolve this you just go into a persons contact info page, tap the chain icon at the top right hand corner, from there, tap the picture and choose from the list. The same for the name. Sure, you get previews of posts or text messages next to someone in the People app, but you get rid of those "stupid pictures"
Also, I found that having people actualy stored on the phone and not on Google, makes this process a little bit harder, because every time Facebook for HTC synced, contact photos changed. Very annoying.
I find it useful to sync contact from all services, what the hell, let's go crazy, but I sure don't like seing them all in the People app, so just tap the menu button, then tap View. Here you can scroll down to Options and pick what you want to be displayed. You won't lose contacts you don't pick, or the links between them, they just don't appear anymore. Jobe done.
As for creating contacts, be careful. By default, the contact type field is set to whatever category you are viewing in People. If you chose "Phone" here, the contact information will ONLY be present on your phone and it WILL NOT SYNC to other services like Gmail. I'm talking about information that you put there, not the one that is being synced. So in the end you must back them up if you plan to install a custom ROM, or you will lose them.
Accounts & sync
Don't be scared to dive deep in these settings and choose only what you want to sync. Every account has it's own settings, so be pationd.
Here I have my Google account syncing everything, Facebook is syncing contacts, Facebook for HTC Sense is also syncing everything but once a day, HTC Sense (yes, I have an account set up, and it doesn't drain the batery) has only Update when opened checked and update schedule is manual, News, Show Me and Stocks are all manualy updated too since I don't use them at all, Twitter syncs all but manual, Weather is syncing automatically every hour (not much trafic there). All these settings where mare having in mind that I have Auto-Sync enabled. Yes, I know, not so good, but the ammount of data being used is very little because it only has to do the hard job of getting all the stuff to my phone once, then it keeps track if that is up to date.
I hope I've touched every aspect and doubt that you might have had about HTC Sense. Chears.

You COULD read all the long posts above about how to get Sense working....or you could do the simple thing and just use CM7. I say rather than trying to get your feet wet with Sense, just jump straight off the deep end and S-OFF+root your phone and flash CM7. With CM7 you experience Android as it was meant to be experienced by Google. No extra nonsense, no crazy background syncing hogging your battery, just pure, silky smooth Android. Facebook just syncs your contacts with their picture and any phone numbers or email addresses listed on their facebook profile. You can also combine them with your Google contacts, so say for example you meet some girl at a bar and get her number and put it into your phone as a contact. Then later you become facebook friends with her. You can combine her facebook with the contact you already put in at the bar as one unit, and now in addition to the phone number you put in before, you now have her picture from facebook associated with her in your contacts book as well as any email addresses or other phone numbers from her facebook. This is all extremely simple and easy to do with the vanilla no-sense UI.
Not to mention the rom in general is lightning fast and smooth like warm butter It also has CPU management built in as well as tons of other features. It's the perfect combination of performance and simplicity.

to the clown above me
nobody and I mean nobody reads your damn posts,why?simply because they can't.Now stop with the annoying cyan posting

Ughhh... my eyes !
Why the awful colour ?

Macklessdaddy said:
to the clown above me
nobody and I mean nobody reads your damn posts,why?simply because they can't.Now stop with the annoying cyan posting
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
agreed. i cant even look at the screen when his post is above another im tryin to read

Having ruined my eyesight reading the cyan post above, it wasn't worth the effort. Seriously, I like Cyanogenmod as much as the next guy, but it's not answering the OP's question.
To the OP: Have you had a look on your SD card? When I got my Desire there was a proper manual on there in .pdf format. I've not checked on my Sensation because I put the SD card from my Desire into it when I upgraded. Failing that you can download it from here: http://www.htc.com/uk/help/htc-sensation/#download

Exchange Email Apps

Please post your favorite Exchange Email App, I've tried K9 and it crashes at least once an hour. The default client on my Samsung Infuse is a battery hog.
Thanks all

Touchdown is the best by far.

I really like mail droid

I currently use Enhanced Email, it's been the most stable for me so far, and has some nice options.
Things I don't like about it though:
- Not a very 'pretty' UI for tablets, phone version could use a little UI love as well
- No email threading ... seriously, this is my #1 complaint of all email apps I've tried, I can't find one that works for exchange and supports mail threading by conversation. I mean seriously, am I missing something here???
- Enhanced Email allows you to change the polling time from "Push" up to hours before checking, really nice for during the work day when I'm at my computer anyways, and set to push on weekends if needed.
So basically I'd like an app with Email threading, ability to change sync scheduling, and a nice looking tablet UI( as well as phone UI so I don't have to pay for 2 apps ).
I'd pay a pretty penny for an app with all the above( and maybe some extras like searching for words in subject and text of ALL emails, a built in calendar addition would be really nice, but not necessarily needed, a kickass, customizable email widget would be killer( needs to be very customizable as in background color/transperency, font size / color, boxes to check, etc... but again widget isn't a 'must have' )
Anyways, it seems that all the clients out there lack 'something' that has been done in others( other than threading, can't find a single one that does this ). If someone could take K-9 and modify it to do all the above, they could make some cash off it I'm sure!

Touchdown has nice features but a strange ui

Touchdown is not without serious issues. Hate the corrupt database issues. Additionally that if you have one instance of failed policy compliance it wipes the settings as well as the License Key. Also hate the fact that secondary authentication is required. Not a fan of multiple passwords on my device.
I do like the local encryption though.

Hmmm... So its sounding like I didn't miss anything, there really just isn't much out there That's a pitty for real

RubenRybnik said:
Hmmm... So its sounding like I didn't miss anything, there really just isn't much out there That's a pitty for real
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Spoiled by Google Mail app.

TheBrandonWRX said:
Spoiled by Google Mail app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Spoiled by Gmail, Thunderbird, Outlook, lol ... What a basic feature to not find it anywhere

[Q] ToDo and Calendar App

Hey guys,
I'm looking for a stable app that combines a calendar and todo list. I've tried many different things already but none of them really fit my purpose. Wunderlist does not offer any Calendar functionality besides the due date feature, the same goes for Astrid, fetchnotes doesn't even offer that last time I checked. Google calendar is somewhat close, but it doesn't give you the possibility to just drop down a note. Also, I'd like to have notes sorted in lists that I can share with other users. That's probably the most important feature.
These are my criteria, until now Wunderlist has come closest. If anyone knows a good alternative which offers calendar functionality (a monthly and weekly overview plus an agenda for example), please let me know
Thanks a lot in advance

Yorrd said:
Hey guys,
I'm looking for a stable app that combines a calendar and todo list. I've tried many different things already but none of them really fit my purpose. Wunderlist does not offer any Calendar functionality besides the due date feature, the same goes for Astrid, fetchnotes doesn't even offer that last time I checked. Google calendar is somewhat close, but it doesn't give you the possibility to just drop down a note. Also, I'd like to have notes sorted in lists that I can share with other users. That's probably the most important feature.
These are my criteria, until now Wunderlist has come closest. If anyone knows a good alternative which offers calendar functionality (a monthly and weekly overview plus an agenda for example), please let me know
Thanks a lot in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I personally use Any.do and Any.cal, which integrate nicely and can be used with your Google Calendar and Google Tasks account... But as far as I know, they don't offer everything you're asking for out of the box (at least not the shareable lists, certainly not from the app itself, but I suppose you might be able to use the Google Tasks web interface for that, at least).

GTS6310NUser said:
I personally use Any.do and Any.cal, which integrate nicely and can be used with your Google Calendar and Google Tasks account... But as far as I know, they don't offer everything you're asking for out of the box (at least not the shareable lists, certainly not from the app itself, but I suppose you might be able to use the Google Tasks web interface for that, at least).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for the delay, kinda forgot about these threads.
Well, sharable lists are pretty much my main concern and while using Google Tasks web interface is a good idea I haven't had yet, I hate using two different pieces of software for one purpose, it's to me like using a calendar and a todo app side by side. The distinction between the two (tasks and calendar events) is just too fluent in order to separate them I feel.
If anyone else has a suggestion, please go ahead and leave a reply

Does anyone have any new ideas? Maybe something changed in the meantime which I haven't noticed yet? It's sort of frustrating to always look for a better version of an app you're basically forced to use every day >.<