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[APP][2.2+/3.0+/4.0+] Simple Notes and Tasks, Outlook direct Local Sync

It synchronizes notes, tasks, contacts, and calendar with Microsoft Outlook 2007 or greater (for Android 2.2 or greater) and also files and directories via WiFi.
Android market link
Android application consists of:
Notes application
Tasks application
Application for managing categories
Task widget 4x1
Task widget 2x2
Sync facilities and configuration screens
This software development is now forked in 2 versions - 2.x and 3.x. 3.x version (tablets) has modified UI - holographic theme. It is multi apk, so correct version is automatically downloaded from Android Market.
This application is real freeware - i.e. is free of charge and without advertising.
Send me please as private message what device and what ROM are you using and if it works or not, I will update list here, thanks.

Some screens

Would somebody be willing to test gingerbread calendar synchronizaton, I looked at source code and it looks the same but I would like to test that it is working correctly.

Is Outlook required?

Yes, Outlook 2007 or 2010.

Moved it to market.

OndrejP said:
Moved it to market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, where?

cz.psencik.simple

Q: is there a Due Today fildter (overdue + due today)?
A: Will do
Q: Can I filter by category?
A: No, maybe will do.
Q: Can I sync calendar in a specific date frame only (now it syncs all calendar items) ?
A: No
Q: Can I not sync completed tasks?
A: No, similar features were present millions years ago when devices had limited memory, I want to have everything in phone. You can move those tasks to different folder/archive in Outlook now.
Q: Contacts don't show after sync.
A: What phone, you must enable Local Sync account in Contacts application (open Contacts, Menu, Display options, check Local Sync All Contacts) - btw it is described in "manual"
Could this thread be moved to different forum where new users can post?

OndrejP said:
Q: is there a Due Today fildter (overdue + due today)?
A: Will do
Q: Can I filter by category?
A: No, maybe will do.
Q: Can I sync calendar in a specific date frame only (now it syncs all calendar items) ?
A: No
Q: Can I not sync completed tasks?
A: No, similar features were present millions years ago when devices had limited memory, I want to have everything in phone. You can move those tasks to different folder/archive in Outlook now.
Q: Contacts don't show after sync.
A: What phone, you must enable Local Sync account in Contacts application (open Contacts, Menu, Display options, check Local Sync All Contacts) - btw it is described in "manual"
Could this thread be moved to different forum where new users can post?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Ondřej,
Thanks a lot for your answers. This really helped. Also do you think it may be a good enhancement if the app can sort tasks by two fields? (for example by Due Date and then by Priority)
Thanks,
Sergey

Demeurg said:
Also do you think it may be a good enhancement if the app can sort tasks by two fields? (for example by Due Date and then by Priority)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Sergey, I think it may be a good enhancement. Will do it likely.

great,i love it ! does it have italian language ?

i also loved it! =)

thanks,
unfortunatelly I do not speak Italian, so there is no Italian language. I can post language files somewhere and you can translate it for yourself.
I relased update with some of Sergey's requirements.

Wow!!
I regret I haven't found it before - testing it right now and it looks really very impressive.
I also have installed AutoSync Account Activator.
I'll be syncing Calendar and Contacts via corporate push through Email.apk (with fixed 60mA drain in no-data/flight mode) - but was missing Notes.
And it's convenient to have your Simple Note and Task apps - both are cool!
In short, your solution deserves much more publicity!! Everything seems to work OK, but some questions for explanation:
* the PC Local Sync app - does it have to be running? or is it just to provide info. Pressing X seems to kill it, but the process seem to remain active.
* BTW, I see more than 1 LocalSync.exe process, is this correct? or is it due to running again PC Local Sync after closing it with X?
* the pairing is defined by IP number. what happens if my notebook is automatically assigned another IP number on next boot - do I have to adjust the address manually? will the app know it is actually the same pairing, or will it try to define a new one (all settings again)? could it be searched by name in the local pool 192.168.x.x?
cheers,

1. PC Local Sync app - if you shuthdown in via X it should shutddown (after while), if not it is bug - you can kill it with task manager.
2. You should not see more local sync processes, it means that something is hung (kill with task manager). Note - if you minimize app it is in tray, still running.
I will take a look at desktop application to improve this :/ It is masively multithreaded so some thread is probably hanging (however I did not have experience this much, is it WiFi or Usb sync?)
3. If computer changes IP address (you can use hostname too), you can change it by pressing button with link icon in that pair configuration - so settings will be kept.
If you delete pairing all sync data are removed indeed and you do not want that because it would have to resynchronize (can take hours if you have tens of thousands items in Outlook).

Thanks for clarifications.
re: PC LocalSync
Seems like all is good, X closes the app and also process. Minimizing puts it in tray. Just running it twice produces 2 processes ...
It seems the app does not need to run for syncing - is it just for info and monitoring? or does it have to run in order to sync items?
(If it is needed it'd be better if X just minimized it, to avoid closing by accident ...)
1 minor issue is that I have 2 Outlook profiles set up for manual selection at start-up - if I start Localsync before starting Outlook, it tries to start Outlook but your initial LocalSync logo hangs on top of the profile selection blocking it (can't be moved)
re: changing IP (this is a nuisance)
I guess you mean running Localsync on my HD2, then pressing adress/machine name at the top, then second icon at the bottom, next to Save, then edit address and re-pair? still not too convenient.
Trying to use hostname I get Error: UnknownHostException: <hostname>. What am I missing? Hope we can resolve this, I'd be very happy ...
BTW, tested USB sync and all is well, but I would prefer to keep it as option for syncing outside my home network only, I'm constantly on Wifi at home.
cheers,

PC application is important, it is server which exposes Outlook to android. Do not start it multiple times, it does not matter because it starts on other port, but it is not useful.
I did not test app with mutliple profiles, I will have to improve it in this area to avoid data loss (if you sync one profile, switch profile, sync then you will probably loose data).
In order to use host name, you must configure DHCP/DNS in your routers, I tried it now and it works with name then. I am using also fixed ip addresses for particular devices (where possible).

many thanks, forgot about my router config . I assigned a fixed IP to my notebook and all should be well - I should have automatic synchronization of my notes, tasks and files whenever I'm at home.
Outlook profiles is not a big issue for me, as the only difference between them are additional private mail accounts (which cause some problems while at work), data is the same. Still, you may make preparations for more sophisticated users...
So the only minor issues you can think of improving are:
* allow changing Outlook profiles if PC LocalSync starts before Outloook,
* make it more difficult to close PC LocalSync inadvertently (X minimizing not closing; separate Exit)
As mentioned, I'm push syncing Calendar and Contacts via Email.apk, and not using Tasks much - so can't help testing them.
But once again congratulations on very good apps - I'll be recommending them!!
One problem is the thread title is not mentioning local Outlook synchronization at all, so people might be missing it - I would say Note and Task apps (both very nice) are rather in addition ... unless you depend on Market exposure ...
thanks,

Thanks, I updated title. The app original name was Simple Sync but I discovered that this name is trademarked so I renamed it to Local Sync. And originally it did not have so many functions as it has now.
I am syncing exchange with this (calendar) because I do not like policy pushed by Exchange.
There can be only issue with Contacts, because manufacturers are doing proprietary changes in contacts app. But it should work on base Android, Htc and Samsung.

flashing too much....

Flashed miui rom today and tried logging into amazon app store.
Not realizing Amazon puts a cap on how many devices you can register.
Had to go to website to deregister 25 devices haha so for you flashers out there don't panic like I did that I could not login.

You sir, are a crack flasher.

Sort of on this topic if it comes up for anyone else -
The same thing will happen with some Exchange servers. If for some reason you can't connect to Exchange after a bunch of flashes log into the Outlook Web Access (web interface for your email) and go into the Options and delete older entries from the Phone section. My exchange server only allows 10 connections. This was always a problem for me before, switching back and forth between ROMs after performing full wipes. Now that I have my daily I rarely have to format /data so it's not so much an issue anymore

Duplicate Tasks in Calendar

So the tasks app on the One S syncs with Google Tasks. You can also choose to have Google Tasks show up on your calendar. My problem is every task I enter shows up twice in the calendar. I have tried all different settings in the tasks and calendar apps. This includes hiding all calendars except tasks, and they still show twice.
I'm at a loss as to what is happening. I checked Google Tasks online and there are no duplicates. Is anybody else experiencing this?

I am also having this problem.
I haven't found a fix for it yet, but if I do I will make sure to post back here.

Same problem to me.
The only workaround I found was installing another PIM software (Jorte) and setting Tasks in Jorte only to local. But in this way they are not synchronized with anything.
I don't understand why HTC Sync or HTC Sync Manager synchronizes only calendar and contacts with Outlook and not tasks, this sounds crazy.

Same here
I have the same problem with my HTC one S. I'm contacting HTC, as this appears to be a bug in Sense. Both the duplicate entries appear to be originating as Tasks. When I try to delete one of the duplicates from calendar, both get deleted. Also, this appears to be a problem only with Gtasks; Exchange and Hotmail tasks work fine. Workaround for now is defaulting all new (non work related) tasks as Local. Just installed an update from HTC yesterday and the problem is still there.

Same issue
I have the same issue with on my HTC One S (stock ROM). I'm also hoping this gets resolved quickly.
There isn't a fix for it by tweaking the settings, but I find it strange that for the google account, I can check 2 different calendars.
One is named [my gmail address] and the other is named "Task". Under my gmail address are no appointments, "Task" does contain them.
I have found a temporary fix though for deleting duplicates, you just clear the phone's temporary data (not a factory reset). You can do this under [settings] > [storage] and tap "make more space" under both internal and phone storage. I don't know exactly which one contains the data. *Update* This only seems to work first time round...
This fix implies that the cause of the problem lies in the phone internally. From my intermediate knowledge of programming I suspect that every edit of a task (including creation of it) for google accounts is stored on the phone seperately as a file that doesn't equal (in programmatic terms) the others. Therefore, the calendar will hold every local "version" of the task + the one on google's servers.
As for resorting to alternative market apps, I haven't found any task app that easily lets me set a reminder on any date and time I wish. It's always the same day or the day before at most. The best I've seen is a very limited list of options that goes as far back as a week. Other problems include missing priority settings for tasks or it doesn't sync with HTC's native tasks or calendar app.

Actually I found, that one can only clear data of single process. I don't know its exact english name, because on my system is displayed in polish ("Pamięć kalendarza"), but it should be sth, like "calendar memory".
After clearing its data and opening calendar app, the list of available calendars was empty, but after a while (and clicking refresh, and clicking refresh in Tasks app) the list populated with calendars from google account and with those internal from the phone. And items from the google tasks calendar weren't duplicated any more. At least until they are edited again in Tasks app.
BTW, has anything changed in this topic? Is there any solution for this problem?

Phone will not sync with Google Contacts

HI. I'm guessing this has been discussed before, but I can't find a good answer to my problem. I got the Galaxy S7 on April 1, and my Contacts have failed to sync ever since. I have 1,141 contacts in Google. Currently, only 169 of them appear on my phone, and I lose contacts on my phone... daily. I have tried everything on the phone itself, followed the advice on several advice forums, removed Gmail, undid and redid sync settings multiple 100 times... cleared cache, blah, blah, blah... and after visiting the AT&T store yesterday for help, things are only worse. Contacts that I've had in various phones and synced back/forth for nearly 20 years have disappeared. I have some faith because everybody still exists in Google on my laptop and I've gotta believe there's a way to get them to appear on my phone. But... this is driving me crazy! Please help!

I had a similar problem the other day, after a strange bug that mixed up all my contacts numbers, I tried syncing and it refused, only way I could get it to sync was to manually delete all contacts on the phone
Problem then was when it synced, it synced Phone > Gmail, so it deleted all my Gmail contacts too, luckily I had exported them all to .CSV first
Imported them back into Gmail, and the phone then synced properly
So first of all, if you are going to try this, Export your Gmail contacts from contacts.google.com first because it is likely going to do the same thing as mine
Other options is to import them from gmail to outlook, and install the outlook app, that seems to sync contacts fine to the S7

Google Contact Sync Issues
So, I have exported all in Google to a CSV. However, the contacts I CAN see on my phone are not in the exported file (this is so F*&ked up)... I exported them to the SIM, but... do you supposed I can import them from the SIM to Contacts, if I delete all Contacts from the phone now?
I wonder if there's a conflict between Samsung Cloud storage and Google?
What do I do next?

Sounds like contacts you have added since the sync failed, have only been stored on he phone
If you long press one of you contacts on the phone, the hit the "Select all" button at the top left, you should see a "Share" option on the top right
Share it to your email, it'll generate a .VCF file that you should be able to import back in once things are sorted

Google v Samsung Cloud
I was able to restore 1271 contacts (more than show in Google on the desktop) by changing a setting in the Samsung Cloud app: see 2 screenshots, below. I've literally been battling this for 7 months now; canNOT believe I did it just now. There's a battle between the clouds; seems like something Samsung should resolve. Grrr.

pbparker13 said:
I was able to restore 1271 contacts (more than show in Google on the desktop) by changing a setting in the Samsung Cloud app: see 2 screenshots, below. I've literally been battling this for 7 months now; canNOT believe I did it just now. There's a battle between the clouds; seems like something Samsung should resolve. Grrr.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pleased you got it sorted, I disabled the Samsung cloud sync completely and still had no luck so I guess it was a different problem for me
Anyway, always good to have an Exported backup of your contacts for when things go wrong

Disable standard Android 11 Contacts Provider and replace with alternate Contacts Provider?

With Android 11, Google seems to have taken yet another step in the "making Android increasingly painful to use" direction by disabling the ability for device-only contacts to be available via the standard Contacts Provider. Because of this, I have to use Google-stored contacts on my Android 11 device in order for these contacts to be available to my apps. Otherwise, my apps don't see any contacts.
I have a rooted Android 11 device, and I'm hoping that there is some way that I could disable the standard Contacts Provider service and that I could then install an alternate, custom Contacts Provider service which knows how to access device-only contacts, and which knows how to make these contacts available to all apps that need contacts ... and which never will try to store my contacts on any of Google's servers nor anywhere else in the cloud.
Is it possible to disable Android's standard Contacts Provider service? And does such a 3rd-party Contacts Provider service exist?
Thank you in advance for any thoughts and suggestions.

Well, I think I found a solution to the issue that I'm trying to solve. And it doesn't require any new Contacts Provider service to be installed, after all.
First of all, I made sure that contacts syncing is turned off.
Next, I installed the "True Phone" contacts and phone manager app from the play store and made it my default phone app.
Then, I used that program to make a local backup of my contacts, which is one of its capabilities.
Following that, I froze the Contacts app, but I kept the Contacts Storage app active. I checked the permissions for the Contacts Storage app, and I see now that it has no network-related permssions. So apparently, it just looks at the local contacts database, and some other piece of software is what actually syncs Google's cloud-based contacts data with the local database. And by turning off contacts sync-ing, it seems like I have indeed disabled that process.
Then, I went from my desktop computer to http://contacts.google.com with the same login credentials that are associated with my Android device. I then permanently deleted all of the contacts there.
(I rebooted my Android device between each of these steps and also after the final step.)
Now, my SMS and phone apps still see the contacts info in my local database. And I can manage the local contacts backup and restore via that True Phone app.
There are probably other phone/contacts apps which also could be used for this. But True Phone works well enough for me.
So ... it turns out that no OS surgery is needed to mess with the contacts nor to install an alternate Contacts Provider service.

PS: And I now have learned something. I was asking about a "Contacts Provider service", but I now realize that the standard Contacts Storage app itself seems to be the "Contacts Provider".
And because I found out that this app does not even have network permissions, it seems clear that this app simply gets contacts from the locally stored sqlite contacts database, and therefore, I don't need to replace this app with anything else.
And so all I needed to do was disable contacts sync-ing, because that is what would sync contacts between Google's cloud and the local contacts database.

How long were you playing with it to get to this point? Fun times...
Cloud apps can be little terrors, the only one I use is Gmail. It's never been breached by malware in over 15 years. Lol, Outlook not so much so.

blackhawk said:
How long were you playing with it to get to this point? Fun times...
Cloud apps can be little terrors, the only one I use is Gmail. It's never been breached by malware in over 15 years. Lol, Outlook not so much so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It took me around a day of on-and-off playing around sessions to figure this all out ... with some input from a few other helpful souls.
I agree about cloud-based services. I don't even use gmail. I run my own email server, so I use that to manage all my email accounts. I manage my own web servers and my own DNS servers, as well.
It's more work for me to manage those things, but I don't mind, and I actually enjoy that work, most of the time.