Tour sync options?

[Stu_Tour]

I'm getting a new BB Tour very soon (though Verizon) and am trying to figure out what sync options are best for me. My goal is to get sync my new Tour with the calendar in Outlook 2003. I have both POP3 email and a Gmail account that I rarely use.
I've tried to the two way sync (Google calandar with my Outlook 2003 calenadar) but after syncing, Google gives me an error and won't let me save changes to the Google calendar. This might have to do with me having too many calendar entries (over 10,000)?

My friend has his Outlook program syncing with Google that then syncs with his BB. It works for him, but I cannot even get Google to sync with Outlook!

Please advise.
Thanks,

Stu

[Stu_Tour]

I was hoping that someone could give me some advise on this issue :(

[Dubdub]

Outlook is probably the way to go. Email doesn't sync using BIS (which is what I presume you will use).

You will need to load and configure Desktop Manager and use the data cable that comes with the device to sync contacts, calendar, tasks and memos. I use Google calendar sync which is set up for 2 way sync with the laptop and BB and one way (google to PC) on my work desktop, home desktop and wife's PC. Works great with very few issues (an occasional dupe).

And in response to your last post, a little use of the SEARCH function goes a long way. You probably didn't get a response since you could find out the info from searching and readign the FAQ.

[Stu_Tour]

Sorry if my reply seemed to have a complaining tone. It was not my intention.

I have spent a hours combing this site and others to try and determine the best approach before my BB arrives. I have been an avid Palm user since their inception but have always hated the requirement for manual syncing. "Oops, I forgot to sync!"
I thought I was on the right track syncing Outlook with Gmail (using gmail sync). I was then simply going to link my BB to Gmail and have it do the work of keeping my calendar in Outlook and my BB all synced.

At first, I was thrilled to see all my appointments successfully moved to my G calendar but then was totally frustrated to get the dreaded "Unable to save event. You have reached the limit for the number of events you can edit." error. This is apparently a huge annoyance to many. Hopefully Google will fix this.

Then I read about how Gmail or BB will delete old calendar items. This isn't good!

As far as email goes, things don't look much better. I hoped to redirect my POP mail after it went through my Cloudmark spam filter in Outlook 2003. I quickly found out that I cannot redirect mail unless I have an exchange server set up. Instead, I guess I will just pull the POP directly off my server (spam and all) and add a spam filter to my BB. I have had public email addresses for 13 years now and would receive about 200 spams messages a day if it wasn't for Cloudmark. After 1 year, my Cloudmark spam folder has 56,000 messages in it!

I guess I have to wait and see what works best for me once my BB arrives. I'm the type that likes to figure this stuff out ahead of time.
Again, any suggestions on how to best set this up would be appreciated.

Thanks, Stu

[djm2]

If I was in your shoes, I would investigate the possibility of implementing spam filtering at the ISP so that most of the spam is caught there before it ever gets to Outlook. If done correctly at the ISP, you could access the email directly through BIS and avoid any redirecting.

As for the desire to get over the air sync, you might be a good candidate for hosted exchange/BES. In fact, that might take care of your spam issues as well.

[takeshi]

As far as email goes, things don't look much better. I hoped to redirect my POP mail after it went through my Cloudmark spam filter in Outlook 2003. I quickly found out that I cannot redirect mail unless I have an exchange server set up.
That's not quite it. The "problem" you're running into is that BIS does not interact with Outlook for email. I say "problem" because you really don't want BIS relying on your PC for mail delivery. BIS connects directly to the mail server. Any desktop solutions that you have for spam aren't going to keep spam off your BB. Spam filters need to be either on the mail server or before the mail server.

Even with BES you'd need to filter spam on the server or before the server. I use the latter approach but my BES hosting provider offers such a service. BES by itself doesn't do any spam filtering nor would it allow you to utilize a desktop spam filter such as Cloudmark.

At first, I was thrilled to see all my appointments successfully moved to my G calendar but then was totally frustrated to get the dreaded "Unable to save event. You have reached the limit for the number of events you can edit." error. This is apparently a huge annoyance to many. Hopefully Google will fix this.
Well, you have a few options:


Sync via USB and hope that Google allows for more calendar items in the future
Clean up your calendar so you can use Google sync
Look into hosted BES for wireless sync

[Stu_Tour]

I have a hosting plan for my wesites (and POP email) that has a server side spam filter. I will play with it and see how well it works.

So, the Blackberry software will play well with my Outlook Calendar? I have read that BB will sometime delete older events. I rather this not happen. I certainly don't want it deleting old stuff within Outlook!

I'll be sure to read through the FAQ and stickys once I get the unit.
Thanks again for your thoughts.

Stu

[djm2]

Regarding deleting older events, I have my BB set to keep calender events for 60 days, and then archive out of Outlook after 6 months have passed. That has seemed to work fine without deleting old events.

As a side note, I would have to believe that you're hauling around an awful lot of archival material that you'll rarely need -- but want to have archived -- by keeping 10,000 events in Outlook. Doesn't that make your Outlook.pst file HUGE? I'd think about setting some rational auto archiving policies.

[Stu_Tour]

I don't frankly know the size of my .pst file. That sounds like kind of a personal question.;-)

Thanks for the suggestion. I am manually archiving now and will see if Google canendar will work for me. I now only have about 7,000 items!

[djm2]

I know that $$ is always an issue, but consider looking into that hosted exchange solution as well. I don't use it -- I've got a BPS server running here -- but I suspect that (hosted exchange) would be more stable than the Google apps. Add to that the fact that I am not a fan of giving Google access to too much of my data because I don't want to feed their advertising monkey, and...

[usblues1965]

I'm taking the plunge with google calendar myself. We don't have Outlook set up at work for me to sync my BB with yet. I needed a canendar I could add events to and my contacts with. I need a free option as money is very tight at the moment. I got it all set up and ran the sync last night, being the first full day of use, do far so good. LOL!

[Stu_Tour]

Yes, the archiving allowed the Google Canandear to function. I've read that some don't even install the BB software on their comuters and instead just load google apps and set up the email on their phones. What is the advantage of having the BB software on my computer. Should I install it or not?

Thanks.

[usblues1965]

Yes, the archiving allowed the Google Canandear to function. I've read that some don't even install the BB software on their comuters and instead just load google apps and set up the email on their phones. What is the advantage of having the BB software on my computer. Should I install it or not?

Thanks.

I would imagine so your Google calendar, BB calendar, and Outlook Calendar will contain the same information and be synced together without you having to manually input the info into your pc. Tho you could have Google sync to the BB then using your data cable, sync your BB to outlook and not have to install google sync onto your PC.

[Stu_Tour]

I will definitly sync to just to Google. This will hopefully keep me syncronized all the way around.

How about the BB software, should I install it? Are there any settings or updates for the BB that are only available through the software and usb linkage?

[MidnightDraven]

you mean desktop manager?
yes you use it to upgrade the OS.
you can also use it to backup the device
(recommended)
and sync with outlook etc.

[Stu_Tour]

Will do! I'll also be sure to thoughrally read your FAQ section including the sticky about how to set up a new BB.

Thanks!

[usblues1965]

Yes you need desktop manager, it not only backs up your adress book, which I know with google is in two ther places, but it updates the software when needed, you use it to add or remove applications. Its just darn handy to have..LOL!