Which version of CL for Palm Desktop, Phone, Tablet, and Google?

[RobFreundlich]

I currently use plain vanilla CL 5 to sync Palm Desktop (4.1) and my phone (Droid X). I was recently given an iPad, and so I would like to be able to sync to that as well. And as a further requirement, I'd like to start putting some of my calendar information into Google Calendar so that my wife and I can start sharing some calendar info electronically instead of using our ever-crowded kitchen wall calendar.

I understand from reading here that turning on phone-to-Google sync is bad because if the google sync happens to start during the DJO/CL sync, DJO will be trying to hit a moving target. That makes total sense to me (although it does raise the question of why DJO doesn't just turn off the phone's syncing while it does its own sync).

Last night I tried to sync from my desktop to the new tablet and got some weird results (support ticket filed on that, just mentioning it here for completeness). After that, I had to do a purge-and-reload to get things to the phone correctly. So it's clear that the version of CL I'm running is not designed to talk to multiple devices.

The question I have here is which version of CL do I want? If I'm understanding the little information I've found correctly, CL Express and CL Pro both support "profiles", which appear to correspond to "devices" or "sync targets", and can each do multiple profiles. So it would appear that I need one of those. It would be helpful if the CL website had a nice comparison chart laying all of the various versions of CL out side by side with a list of features (which DB, which targets are supported, how many targets are supported, etc) and checkboxes for each version. But since it doesn't, can anyone here tell me which version I need?

My requirements are:

• Windows 7 64-bit capable
• PC database is Palm Desktop 4.1
• Sync target 1: Android phone. Currently Droid X, but that may change in the future
• Sync target 2: iPad or Android tablet (I may trade in the iPad for a 7" tablet - Galaxy, Kindle Fire, I'm not sure)
• Sync target 3: Google calendar. I want to be able to push some of my appointments to it and pull some of my wife's (that can be through categories or filters, or whatever)

[Thomas]

I currently use plain vanilla CL 5 to sync Palm Desktop (4.1) and my phone (Droid X). I was recently given an iPad, and so I would like to be able to sync to that as well. And as a further requirement, I'd like to start putting some of my calendar information into Google Calendar so that my wife and I can start sharing some calendar info electronically instead of using our ever-crowded kitchen wall calendar.

I understand from reading here that turning on phone-to-Google sync is bad because if the google sync happens to start during the DJO/CL sync, DJO will be trying to hit a moving target. That makes total sense to me (although it does raise the question of why DJO doesn't just turn off the phone's syncing while it does its own sync).

Last night I tried to sync from my desktop to the new tablet and got some weird results (support ticket filed on that, just mentioning it here for completeness). After that, I had to do a purge-and-reload to get things to the phone correctly. So it's clear that the version of CL I'm running is not designed to talk to multiple devices.

The question I have here is which version of CL do I want? If I'm understanding the little information I've found correctly, CL Express and CL Pro both support "profiles", which appear to correspond to "devices" or "sync targets", and can each do multiple profiles. So it would appear that I need one of those. It would be helpful if the CL website had a nice comparison chart laying all of the various versions of CL out side by side with a list of features (which DB, which targets are supported, how many targets are supported, etc) and checkboxes for each version. But since it doesn't, can anyone here tell me which version I need?

My requirements are:

• Windows 7 64-bit capable
• PC database is Palm Desktop 4.1
• Sync target 1: Android phone. Currently Droid X, but that may change in the future
• Sync target 2: iPad or Android tablet (I may trade in the iPad for a 7" tablet - Galaxy, Kindle Fire, I'm not sure)
• Sync target 3: Google calendar. I want to be able to push some of my appointments to it and pull some of my wife's (that can be through categories or filters, or whatever)

Hello Rob,

Thanks for the report. I suspect if you are syncing with CompanionLink for Palm Desktop right now. (Not Vanilla - We have lots for product names, Vanilla not being one of them.)
Express supports syncing wtih 2 device profiles. But you have to create a separate Sync profile to do this.
CompanionLink Pro allows up 5 5 separate profiles to be created. This may be your need if Sync target 3 from above is a real need now.

Glad you are clear about Google Sync needing to be turned off to Sync with DejaOffice. I will add to this that simply turning off Google Sync during a DejaOffice Sync will not work for a number of reasons. We looked at that. We are continuing to work on finding a way to allow our users to safely have Goggle Sync turned on. We are not there yet, and I will take a moment to reinforce for everyone reading this that using Google Sync with accounts that sync DejaOffice is unsafe, unstable, and will result in problems. We have tried numerous potential workarounds, and tricks. If there was a working solution we would have posted it.

http://www.companionlink.com/support/kb/Solutions#What_is_the_difference_between_CompanionLink_for_Outlook.2C_CompanionLink_for_Palm_Desktop_.26_Pimlical.2C_CompanionLink_Express.2C_CompanionLink_Professional.2C_CompanionLink_FA.2C_and_DoubleLook_Enterprise.3F

The link above should provide some clarity.
One point to clarify as well. Palm Desktop 4.1 in Windows 7 64bit environment can get a bit dicy. Your mileage may vary on that one. However it sounds like you have that working pretty well.

[RobFreundlich]

Hello Rob,
Thanks for the report. I suspect if you are syncing with CompanionLink for Palm Desktop right now. (Not Vanilla - We have lots for product names, Vanilla not being one of them.)

"CompanionLink for Palm Desktop", "Vanilla", "Tomayto", "Tomahto" ... :-)

Express supports syncing wtih 2 device profiles. But you have to create a separate Sync profile to do this.
CompanionLink Pro allows up 5 5 separate profiles to be created. This may be your need if Sync target 3 from above is a real need now.

Yup, looks like I'll need to go Pro if I want to do this all.

Glad you are clear about Google Sync needing to be turned off to Sync with DejaOffice. I will add to this that simply turning off Google Sync during a DejaOffice Sync will not work for a number of reasons. We looked at that. We are continuing to work on finding a way to allow our users to safely have Goggle Sync turned on. We are not there yet, and I will take a moment to reinforce for everyone reading this that using Google Sync with accounts that sync DejaOffice is unsafe, unstable, and will result in problems. We have tried numerous potential workarounds, and tricks. If there was a working solution we would have posted it.

Yup, I figured that was the case. As a developer, I'm curious what fails when you turn off google sync during a DJO sync, but I can totally believe there's *something* getting in the way!

http://www.companionlink.com/support..._Enterprise.3F

The link above should provide some clarity.

That's great - I'm not sure how I missed it before. One question, though - unless I'm missing something, none of the options lists syncing Palm Desktop to Google. Does that mean they all support it?

One point to clarify as well. Palm Desktop 4.1 in Windows 7 64bit environment can get a bit dicy. Your mileage may vary on that one. However it sounds like you have that working pretty well.

I think it took some tinkering when I got my 64-bit machine. I know I've got it set to run in XP/SP2 compatibility mode, but I'm not sure whether I did anything else.