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Justakiwi
Premium Member
join:2004-11-24
New Zealand

Justakiwi

Premium Member

[Other] Best way to sync between PC and Windows phone

Hi, and Happy New Year

I'm hoping somebody here can help me. I currently use Thunderbird on my Win 8 PC, and the default email app on my Windows 8.1 phone. In order to get them to sync email and calendar I've had to set up a workaround because I want to use the email address provided by my ISP. What I've done is have all my ISP email forwarded to my GMAIL account, which is then pulled down by Thunderbird on the PC, or the email app on the phone. For the most part this works reasonably OK, but there are a few little annoyances. If I delete email from my PC, this is not reflected on the phone - I have to delete from there separately. There are also sometimes a few glitches in the calendar sync which means sometimes appointments are not showing up on both devices.

Anyway, to cut a long story short - is there a better way to do this/set this up? I realise that if I dumped my ISP email address and just used Windows Live Mail, it would probably solve my problem. But I really don't want to do that. I prefer having a more formal looking ISP email for things like job applications - I just think it's a better "look." I am however willing to go back to Outlook on the PC if that would make things easier than Thunderbird.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

sivran
Vive Vivaldi
Premium Member
join:2003-09-15
Irving, TX

sivran

Premium Member

Use IMAP instead of POP in Thunderbird/Windows mail. GMail works either way.

SoonerAl
MVM
join:2002-07-23
Norman, OK

1 edit

SoonerAl to Justakiwi

MVM

to Justakiwi
Not a pertinent reply...

digitalfutur
Sees More Than Shown
Premium Member
join:2000-07-15
GTA

digitalfutur to Justakiwi

Premium Member

to Justakiwi
Use outlook.com for all your email, including your ISP email addreses. You can also connect gmail and other webmail accounts to outlook.com.

The obvious advantage, is that you'll have cross-platform syncing and can access all your email within the browser or Windows 8 / Phone Outlook.com app. And if msn.com is your home page, all the online MS apps are accessible from the top of page, so are Facebook and Twitter.

»windows.microsoft.com/en ··· op-email

For backup, use a PC based app such as Outlook to sync with the webmail version, which will download all the email to a local .ost file.

I did all of this a few months ago. It's so convenient to access all my email accounts from anywhere.

Justakiwi
Premium Member
join:2004-11-24
New Zealand

Justakiwi

Premium Member

So if you create a calendar appointment/reminder on your phone, does that show up in your outlook.com calendar?

When you say backup using Outlook on the PC - why is there no way to do all this from Outlook itself (rather than web based)? I just have an aversion to web based email - I prefer using a local client like Thunderbird so I can have email, calendar and tasks all in the one place.

I'll have a closer look at this - I think I did try the Outlook.com app on my phone when I first got it, and didn't like the interface. From what I remember it had very few options for configuration and/or creating folders.

Thanks for the help
Justakiwi

Justakiwi to sivran

Premium Member

to sivran
That's what I've already done. The calendar syncing works fine from PC to phone, but it's really glitchy the other way round.
Justakiwi

1 edit

Justakiwi to digitalfutur

Premium Member

to digitalfutur
OK, I've had a look at this but I'm confused. Outlook.com appears to be Hotmail reinvented? There doesn't seem to be a way for me to set that account up on my phone using my ISP email server details (I want my email to send via that, not via Outlook.com's server). This doesn't make sense to me. I can't believe MS didn't make an easier way for people to use their ISP for email, Outlook (or Windows Live) on their PC, and "something" on their Windows phone.

Maybe I'm just having a blonde moment but this all seems ridiculously hard to set up.

NB: I made a mistake in my first post. Running Win 7 on the PC - not sure whether this makes a difference or not.
b_p_smith
Premium Member
join:2002-02-13
Merrickville, ON

b_p_smith

Premium Member

It's "difficult" because there are a lot of anti-spam initiatives in place amongst various e-mail services, and when you're dealing with multiple providers (like you're trying to), things can get sticky.
So while there are some tricks to "use" your desired e-mail address via Outlook.com (or gmail.com), it's a bit fiddly and *could* yield undesirable results.

I'd take a step back and rethink your strategy though. You say you like your ISP address because it's more formal-looking. I'd say that may not be the case, since @isp.com is no more formal than @outlook.com. It's the part before the @ that's your first concern.
Since the general consensus is to *avoid* using your ISP's mail address whenever possible, in case you decide to change ISPs, you may be better off trying to set up an all-new formal-looking-address@gmail.com or @outlook.com. I don't believe that employers are going to fault the @outlook.com or @gmail.com part, while they may raise an eyebrow at "fuzzyweiner@anything.com".

But, to sync mail across multiple devices, you need to avoid POP. IMAP is your best choice unless you're lucky to have access to something that supports ActiveSync (ie. Exchange). IMAP keeps the mail on the server, while POP sucks down local copies separately to each device, which is a pain to sync.

seaman
Premium Member
join:2000-12-08
Seattle, WA

seaman to Justakiwi

Premium Member

to Justakiwi
If you like W8P (as I do) I would suggest looking into compatible services such as-
Exchange Online
»products.office.com/en-u ··· ne-plans
Office 365

Justakiwi
Premium Member
join:2004-11-24
New Zealand

Justakiwi to b_p_smith

Premium Member

to b_p_smith
OK, the more I look into this the more I think you are right. So ... I've created an Outlook.com email address and have added this account to Windows Live Mail on my PC. That works fine. But when it comes to setting things up on my phone I'm puzzled again. Under settings->email + accounts I have options to "add account", "Microsoft account" or "Google account." There is no option there for "Outlook account." Are Microsoft and Outlook accounts one in the same thing? If so the problem I now have is that the Microsoft account was set up using my ISP email address, and I can't see any way to change this. There also doesn't seem to be a way to delete the Microsoft account on the phone and start over.

When I activated this on my phone (set it to sync etc) it created an Outlook.com tile on my start screen but it pulled down all the mail from my ISP address, which is not what I want. I can't figure out how to change the email address to the one I created at Outlook. com (which is an Outlook.com address as you suggested).

What the heck am I doing wrong? I blame MS for confusing me with so many freaking names which may or may not all be the same thing (Windows Live, Outlook. com, Microsoft account- what the heck is the difference?)

Frustrated.
b_p_smith
Premium Member
join:2002-02-13
Merrickville, ON

b_p_smith

Premium Member

What Windows Phone do you have? On WP 8.1 when I go to add an account, the list includes "Outlook.com". Mind you I'm running a very recent build. In your case, if you have fewer options, the one you want for your new address is "Windows Live", because that encompasses Outlook.com.

On Windows devices (including Windows 8), the term "Microsoft Account" is the main one your device is registered to for the purposes of accessing Windows Store. You don't want to mess with that.

Justakiwi
Premium Member
join:2004-11-24
New Zealand

Justakiwi

Premium Member

I have a Samsung Ativ S which has just recently received the 8.1 update. I don't have any Outlook.com or Windows Live options in settings ->email + accounts. Only Microsoft Account and Google Account.

I had a live chat with a MS rep tonight. He initially wasn't much help and gave me the usual "reset your phone" bullshit (used to be "reformat your computer" now it's "reset your phone.") Anyway, he suggested I delete the Outlook.com account I created today - which I've done. Told me to then go into my Windows Live account and create an alias Outlook.com address, and then make that address the primary address. He said once that takes affect, which might take up to 48 hours, it should sync with my phone and the MS account on my phone should then be associated with the new Outlook.com primary email address. Once that's done, I should then be able to get my mail synching properly between PC and phone. Fingers crossed.

I have no idea how the heck I then get the calendars to sync - there was no option for "calendar" under the MS Account settings on the phone so this may still all turn out to be a complete waste of time.
b_p_smith
Premium Member
join:2002-02-13
Merrickville, ON

b_p_smith

Premium Member

Yeah, the alias approach might do the trick. It's been a while since I've played with that, but as I recall the default is that you'll have one Inbox, but mail sent to any of the alias addresses will end up in that one Inbox.

You may be able to set up a second account on the phone, pointing to your ISP address (basically, a duplicate) and only set that one to sync the calendar.
I don't know why the ability to sync the calendar with the Microsoft account went away with WP8. That's a curious limitation.

mastsethi
join:2012-05-26

mastsethi to Justakiwi

Member

to Justakiwi
The problem with gmail is that it syncs only once in 30 mins. You don't want to miss an urgent mail.

seaman
Premium Member
join:2000-12-08
Seattle, WA

seaman to Justakiwi

Premium Member

to Justakiwi
said by Justakiwi:

I have no idea how the heck I then get the calendars to sync - there was no option for "calendar" under the MS Account settings on the phone so this may still all turn out to be a complete waste of time.

Correct

Justakiwi
Premium Member
join:2004-11-24
New Zealand

Justakiwi to SoonerAl

Premium Member

to SoonerAl
What?????
Justakiwi

Justakiwi to seaman

Premium Member

to seaman
Starting to remember why I dumped Windows and ran Linux for many years.

In this day and age it's ridiculous that MS can't provide a workable solution for home users to sync email AND calendar between their PC and their phone. I actually love my Windows phone (much to my surprise) but this is just freaking stupid.

SoonerAl
MVM
join:2002-07-23
Norman, OK

SoonerAl to Justakiwi

MVM

to Justakiwi
When I had my Nokia Lumia 520 Windows Phone and Outlook 2010 on my laptop I used AkrutoSync ($$$) to sync my calendar and contacts. It was a manual process but it worked. This was with my Cox email account...

»www.akruto.com

Some folks used the Hotmail Connector (FREE) to sync their Windows Phones with Outlook on their PCs...

»frommypocket.pocketprime ··· #more-61

»www.microsoft.com/en-us/ ··· id=24677

As always YMMV...

I have since moved on to two (2) iPhones and use iCloud to sync our Outlook 2010 calendars and contacts between the iPhones, an iPad, a Win 7 desktop and a Win 8.1 laptop. Still with my Cox email account.

Justakiwi
Premium Member
join:2004-11-24
New Zealand

Justakiwi

Premium Member

OK, having spent way too many hours trying to figure out a way to do this, I've given up. Microsoft just doesn't seem to understand (or perhaps they just don't care) what people need or want. When Windows Phone came out I was really skeptical because to be honest, I'm not a great fan of Windows on desktop, but as I said earlier, I was pleasantly surprised and absolutely love my Windows Phone. Better than I did my previous Android phones. Windows 8.1 has made it even better. BUT, until MS figures out a user friendly one for everyday home users to integrate their various Windows devices, these kinds of things are just going to continue to be incredibly frustrating. It should be possible for me to run "hypothetical app" on both my PC and my phone so that I can access email, calendar, contacts and tasks on either device, and sync between them. I'm no geek, but in this day and age surely this is possible.

Anyway, until that day comes (I suspect pigs will fly before it happens) I will go back to the workaround I was using before. It's not perfect but it works a hell of a lot better than anything MS can come up with.

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions and input. I appreciate it.
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