Getting started on Incredible

[martinw1]

I now have a Centro and will be buying an Incredible next week. I use Outlook for everything, contacts, email, calender, notes.

Once I buy the Incredible, do I still have to set up Google acct? I do not want to use Google in synching. I want to synch directly with Outlook using Companionlink.

Can you tell me the steps I need to follow to avoid any problems. Do I install Companionlink right away and then DejaOffice?

Thanks.

Martin

[Kaena]

Hi Martin,

Welcome to the forums, and congrats on the new Incredible!

To disable Google Sync on Android, tap the home button and then the menu button, then "Settings", then "Accounts & sync". Auto-sync can be disabled altogether by unchecking "Auto-sync".

Once you've disabled Google Sync, then feel free to install DejaOffice and sync with CompanionLink.

Cheers!

[martinw1]

I assume I'll have to install Companionlink first and the DejaOffice.

Martin

[martinw1]

Does DejaOffice (companionLink) also synch the Miscellaneous fields in Contacts in Outlook?

Thanks, Martin

[martinw1]

Does anyone have an answer to the above question?

Thanks

[martinw1]

Anyone have an answer to above?

[Zoltan]

Like Martin, I am a longtime Palm user (most recently a Treo 700p) and just recently bought the HTC Incredible. I am still testing it out but have two questions/observations:

1) Why is there a limit of 1500 for contacts and 1500 for calendar events? I've never experienced any such limits on the Palm (and including use of third-party software like KeySuite from Chapura). With all the memory on these new Android devices, I don't get it.

2) I synced from Outlook to DejaOffice via Companion Link. Other than the limitation noted in #1, it seemed to go fine. However, when I go to use the phone, the contacts do not show up in the native Android phone list. How do I make this happen??

[Arch]

Martin,

I can't answer everything (I'm new to it too) but don't think it's important what order you install things. CompanionLink installs on your computer and at the same time you can be installing DejaOffice on your phone. That's what I did. It took me a couple tries at syncing, but my data was (with a couple weird exceptions) all smoothly transferred over to my new Evo. I'm sure someone with DJ will eventually get back to you, but that was my experience.

[DJOCTO]

Zoltan, welcome to the forum.

It's a great question. Here's the answer: Every time we try to put more than 2000 Contacts into the native Android Contact manager the database falls apart. Not only does it fall apart, but it causes some real damage to the data.

The native Android database is incredibly geeky. It stores phone numbers in a separate table from Contacts. Also Addresses. Not content with that, it also stores "Association" by which they mean Company. So a Contact can belong to multiple companies. Obviously designed by someone who's friends work at the bar, the band and the pizza joint!

For us to Write an Outlook record to the DejaOffice Contacts is 1 record write, and handles Contact, Company, Phones, Emails, Addresses, Custom Fields and Notes. If you sync 2000 Outlook records to DejaOffice Contacts, there are 2000 records stored.

For us to write an Outlook record to Android Contacts is 12-30 record writes. If you sync 2000 Outlook Contacts, we have to create about 30,000 contact, phone, email, association, address, custom fields and notes records to store the data.

Time the sync and see what I mean. It takes seconds to move 2000 contacts to DejaOffice database (which is done when you are connected). Then, the secondary sync is moving the data into the native database, and it just chugs. It can take as long as 30 minutes for a big database. That's because at 14 records a second, it still takes 2100 seconds to write 30,000 records.

Get it?

It will be a happy day for me when we finish integrating DejaOffice Contacts with Dialer and SMS, and we can call the native Android Contacts a lame duck. I'll even be happy if Google folks get a clue and change their DB structure to be friendlier to people with "real data". But you know, RIM never did with BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile 3 handle 12k records, but WM 5 only handles 5k records. So I think waiting for the corporate heads to figure it out is futile.

We move to the Native Apps what data will work. Our tests show 1500 contacts works great for everyone. I'm guessing the newer faster units can go higher, but we haven't tested the threshold for it. We've tested DejeOffice Contacts up to 60,000 and it is robust as heck.

Wayland Bruns, CTO

[martinw1]

So can you just use the contacts in Dejaoffice or do they have to be in the Android contact list also?

[martinw1]

Answer to above question?

[Eric]

Hi Martin! Yes, you can use just the DejaContacts; the contacts don't need to be in the Android contact list as well. To answer a question you had earlier, your Outlook contact fields (including User Fields 1-4) should sync over to your Incredible. However, if you need to sync custom fields, or want to change how the fields are syncing, you might want to try the "Field Mapping" options in CompanionLink Express (we plan to add these advanced field mapping options to CompanionLink USB in the future).

[DJOCTO]

Contacts in DejaOffice work great.

However, they aren't integrated into certain other parts of Android. For instance, and incoming call doesn't incorporate "DejaContacts". Neither does the call log on the dialer. When you launch an SMS or Email, it doesn't bring DejaOffice Contacts into the pick list.

OTOH, you CAN Dial from DejaContacts. You can SMS and Email fine from there. So it's more the incoming functions that are lacking.

We'll be working on that.

I can't wait to share our update with you all. On MY (pre-release) update, what I can do on DejaContacts is to pick a Contact and View it, then tap and hold, and create an event or task which is automatically linked to the contact. It also gets the category from the contact. It is a beautiful thing to behold. I hope to share it in just a couple days.

[Eric]

FYI, we have just added field mapping options to CompanionLink USB, so you'll be able to map your custom/miscellaneous Outlook fields to your Android. You can get the update at www.companionlink.com/support/updates.html

[martinw1]

Does that mean when I sync my misc and custom fields they will end up in dejoffice contacts?