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TimGriff6 · ‎20-11-2014

Since the recent update to HTC Sync Manager, my Outlook contacts folder has become corrupted. Most of the contacts (but not all) have lost their postal addresses. The postal addresses still show up on the phone but do not sync over. Also, on the phone, most of the addresses now appear under 2 headings (eg Home & Other) as identical copies when previously they were single entries.
Has anyone else noticed this?

I can't work out whether it is an HTC sync problem or an Outlook problem. When I was using the old version of HTC sync, I know that it wouldn't talk to Outlook 2013 and I had to use 2010 but up until now, I haven't had problems with Sync Manager & 2013 and I can't see any other areas where it isn't working.

I may remove Sync Manager but wanted to check here and the HTC forums first.

hrym · ‎25-11-2014

@Nabs wrote:
@hrym wrote:
As I said, I don''t let anything sync with Outlook. When I add a contact, I export it as a vcard and import it into Gmail. However, I always have to edit the new contact in Gmail and correct the field names as it never picks them up correctly from what Outlook has passed it.
@hrym the OP is not using Gmail, they are using Outlook.

But syncing with Gmail, I assume, this being an Android device? If it's not Gmail and the contacts are being stored on the phone, it looks as though the issue of the file structure or record layout is the same.

Nabs · ‎25-11-2014

@hrym wrote:

@Nabs wrote:

@hrym wrote:

As I said, I don''t let anything sync with Outlook. When I add a contact, I export it as a vcard and import it into Gmail. However, I always have to edit the new contact in Gmail and correct the field names as it never picks them up correctly from what Outlook has passed it.

@hrym the OP is not using Gmail, they are using Outlook.

But syncing with Gmail, I assume, this being an Android device? If it's not Gmail and the contacts are being stored on the phone, it looks as though the issue of the file structure or record layout is the same.

Gmail was never mentioned until you brought it up. I think we need to take Google/Gmail completely out of the picture here, it's irrelevant!

@TimGriff6 wrote:
However, I wonder why someone has to 'fix' it when it isn't broken because that is so often really irritating.

I completely understand that thought however (and i'm sticking up for software devs here), just because it is working fine for some users doesn't necessarilly mean it's not 'broken' for others. A chaneg may have been made to fix issues or, as you eluded to earlier, add support for a new version of a third party application. Unfortunately changes can oftne break things that were working before, I've done it myself, it's just a lot more annoying when it makes it out to the customer rather than being picked up by the internal testing team.

hrym · ‎25-11-2014

I do think, though, that we have to accept that Google comes into the equation somewhere, this being an Android device. On the rare occasions I import from Gmail to Outlook via a vcard, I always get prompted to check the address format, which points to formatting differences. I also wonder whether HTC Sync has been updated to accomodate something in a more recent version of Outlook than the OP has? Could be a possbility?

jeffkinn · ‎25-11-2014

I don't think you have to accept that at all. I have a gmail account but do not use it for anything. Any emails that go to that account are forwarded to my normal email address that is on the hosted Exchange account and deleted. I never use the fmail app and never check it online. The address is merely a conduit to Google services such a Chrome syncing, the Play store and Google +.

I don't sync any contacts or calendar entries to gmail whatsoever.

Now I'm on an iPhone the same applies - nothing is being synced with iCloud and everything syncs with Outlook via Exchange, including notes.

hrym · ‎25-11-2014

Android saves contacts as Google contacts by default and it'll sync if you have a Google account, which you pretty much have to. You have to turn that (the way it stores and the synching) off if you don't want it to, but presumably the way Android stores them on the phone bears some relation to the way it stores them in Google, Android being a Google product?

Nabs · ‎25-11-2014

@hrym wrote:

Android saves contacts as Google contacts by default and it'll sync if you have a Google account, which you pretty much have to.

I disagree, Android stores contact information in a generic table and thus has no idicator of the type of contact that is held save for a string column that specifies the type, the value of this will be dependent on the accounts registered with the OS's account manager. At least that's the way I understand it works.

@hrym wrote:
You have to turn that (the way it stores and the synching) off if you don't want it to, but presumably the way Android stores them on the phone bears some relation to the way it stores them in Google, Android being a Google product?

When you add or import a new contact it doesn't automatically add it as a Google one, you can very easily choose where you want the contact saved and which account to assign it to. Unless you specifically tell it to add to Google it wont.

Anyway this is getting off topic, can we get back to helping TimGriff6 with his syncing issue.

@TimGriff6 who provides your outlook/email service? I'm wondering if there is a way we can get your phone set up so you don't need to sync it manually though your PC, i'm guessing it would be easier if you could have it constantly in sync?

jeffkinn · ‎25-11-2014

@hyrm I don't think any of your points are accurate but, as @Nabs says, it's off topic.

hrym · ‎25-11-2014

OK, but my devices all add new contacts as Google by default, so I'm confused now.

TimGriff6 · ‎25-11-2014

@TimGriff6 who provides your outlook/email service? I'm wondering if there is a way we can get your phone set up so you don't need to sync it manually though your PC, i'm guessing it would be easier if you could have it constantly in sync?

What I use are contacts lists and calendars on both PC & phone. On the pc they are on Outlook 2013. By using HTC sync when I charge the phone they both have matched and changes I make on either device are reflected on the other.

I run several e-mail accounts including btinternet, yahoo, gmail, live and web site. All of these are collected in Outlook except the web site ones which are collected by thunderbird. I only collect e-mail on the phone when I choose to and pick the accounts at the time, partly so that I keep data usage down and partly to avoid being distracted by constant incoming e-mail. Depending upon the situation, I may collect headers only or the full e-mails. The way that I have them set up on the phone and the pc means that deletion on the pc removes them from the servers and so I can control the amount of rubbish that comes to the phone. This works for me and so I don't think that have a need to synchronise e-mails.

I can synchronise the phone with gmail but the last time I let that work automatically, I ended up with multiple entries in both contacts and calendar. Doing it manually seems to work better and does give me a fairly reliable back up. My recent experience with HTC Sync & Outlook worries me that with any form of automatic syncing, I could get into a loop where all of the entries are deleted - if it can multiply, google can probably divide as well.

I have tried setting up the yahoo and btinternet e-mail accounts as Exchange ones (but without success) and when I have set up IMAP instead of the more regular POP accounts, the mail is really difficult to consolidate so I wonder whether I wouldn't have similar problems with Exchange.