Cloud Sync Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, Memo, on BB10 - Without Funambol?

**captain_tinker** · 01-28-2013, 02:33 PM

Hey folks,
I'm not sure if I'm alone in this or not, but it sure seems like it. I am looking forward to using BB10, but in order for me to do so, I need to make sure it can do one specific, albeit unusual task. This is something that I've managed to do for several years now quite successfully starting on my Bold 9000, 9700, and now Torch 9810. I use an application called Funambol OneMediaHub. I've seen a few people on here use it, but it doesn't get mentioned often, so it must not be too popular. In any case, I use my account there to sync my phone's calendar, contacts, memos, and tasks to their "cloud" server. It keeps a copy there, and is updated each time I make a change. I have agents for this application on my phone, my computer, my wife's phone and my wife's computer, as well as another wifi only 9700 device I keep in my room. The application keeps the contacts, the calendar, etc synchronized across each of these devices. I do this because whenever my wife adds a calendar entry, or updates one of our friends' phone numbers or email address in the contacts, that it is then automatically sent to my phone, my computer, etc. It's been a fantastic setup, and has been extremely useful to us the past few years. So, being the proactive kind of guy I am, I contacted Funambol to find out if they were going to release a version for BB10, as its been just awesome. I was floored when I found out that they have no plans to release a version for BB10!

Topic: Is Funambol going to be available on BB10? « OneMediaHub Help Center

So, at this point, I'm really in a pickle, because that is really the only thing standing in the way of me going BB10.

So, what other options are there/will there be, once BB10 is released? Funambol worked well because it did not change any information as it synced. I think I tried using a Google Calendar once, and I think Google's contacts too, but I remember it failed a lot of times, and also made changes and dropped information. Don't know if it still does that, but at the time it did. It was just a pain to use if I remember correctly. It also doesn't seem to work on my Playbook either, so I've pretty much abandoned Google's calendar sync method. What else is out there that would do this same sort of thing? IS there even anything else that is remotely similar, or am I up a creek here?

capT

**calicocat2010** · 01-28-2013, 02:45 PM

Remember App is baked in and will do what you need for BlackBerry 10. Look up Remember app on this site.

**BBMak** · 01-28-2013, 03:22 PM

never heard of this Funambol app. Its a shame cuz it would have come in handy. I was using soocial to sync contacts and toodledo for tasks and calendar. I think you will have alternatives for bb10 though.

Sent from my BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps using Tapatalk 2

**melander** · 01-28-2013, 03:36 PM

captain_tinker, you are right in that funambol is not very popular though what it serves is a treasure. During the days of moving out of desktop syncing and when PDAs began to be able to connect to the internet, I sought out and built my own server using funambol so that I could use multiple clients to do the auto over-the-air sync. I never heard of Remember App til now but it looks like it is tasks only. The beauty of funambol is that if there exists a client created by the funambol folks, including palm OS, WebOS, Win CE, WinMO, Older BB OS, desktop clients, Outlook connectors, etc, you can sync all the same data across devices. Exchange Active sync got pretty popular , and so now you have the PlayBook OS and BB10 that can sync natively to an EAS server or to google for calendar, contacts and email.

If funambol does not have an external connector to google or hotmail there aren't many thing you could do except connect your BB10 to an EAS (if available), which would mean your older BB devices that don't support EAS natively would need AstraSync or Notifysync which are not free and open security holes.

**captain_tinker** · 01-28-2013, 03:48 PM

I also used my own funambol server for a while. Now I just use the free cloud storage. It's not much data that I put up, so it's fine and I don't have to be my own sysadmin. As for Exchange Active Sync, don't you need an Exchange server? I don't have one of those for myself... If I did, that would certainly solve the problem. How to get one of these without purchasing Exchange, Windows Server, and some server hardware... and then becoming an instant Windows Administrator, and an Exchange Administrator? I'm thinking that's just too much work. I tried to look up this "Remember" app, and so far, the information is very nebulous, full of marketing-speak. In other words, to a technical person, it's all gibberish that doesn't mean anything. Show me how it works, then I will understand.

**jonty12** · 01-28-2013, 03:59 PM

You could create a family gmail account that all stakeholders have acces to (you, your wife, anyone else). Use that for your calendar/contacts. You both can make changes to both and they'll sync with your phone. You can still have your individual email accounts and not use the calendar/contacts on those ones.

**captain_tinker** · 01-28-2013, 04:02 PM

I could try that again, but if I remember the last time I did that, it was a real fiasco and broke a lot of things. I'll look into it though and see what I can do. If this ends up being my only option, I may have to do that.

**melander** · 01-28-2013, 04:03 PM

Yep, I was still editing my post when I wanted to insert use EAS (if available). Like I use my work's EAS to sync my Playbook right now. The cost for Exchange is too great if you had to do it on your own. There are free or lower cost alternatives to EAS like Zimbra, but that is just caldav/imap/carddav wrapped up in a nice package, plus it would not solve the issue you would face with the older BB clients that could not connect natively.

**D.Vader** · 01-28-2013, 04:50 PM

I wouldn't take that FAQ as gospel. There are a lot of vendors considering going to BB10, but they just haven't made the leap.

If there is an Android version of the device, that may be able to be ported to BB10 by the community.

**captain_tinker** · 01-28-2013, 05:08 PM

actually, I have ported the funambol .apk over to a .bar file, and installed it on the playbook. It runs, it can be configured etc, but it does NOT actually interface with the native calendar, contacts, etc. At least not on the Playbook. I got it to work a long time ago using an android native calendar app that was ported over, and then also with an android native contacts app, but for some reason it stopped working after a while. I am assuming it will likely be the same with a ported app on BB10, it probably won't interface with the native BB10 calendar etc. And that FAQ was actually me asking the developers themselves if they would support it. I do hope they change their minds, especially if BB10 really does become a big deal.

**heading4tomorrow** · 04-09-2013, 02:58 PM

How do you get more than 500MB? That's a very limited storage!

**mushroom_daddy** · 04-23-2013, 08:09 AM

Originally Posted by captain_tinker

Hey folks,
I I use an application called Funambol OneMediaHub.....
capT

Did you make any progress with this? As another Onemediahub user I'd be looking achieve similar sync capabilities before moving from my Bold9900 to a BB10 device.

See additional thread discussion here: Sync Contacts and Calendar with Onemediahub

**skynny70** · 04-23-2013, 09:42 AM

I used OneMediaSync on my last three BB devices and loved it. I have not found anything similar to it now that I have the Z10.

I now have gone the Google route and it has seemed to work fine for me thus far. I did prefer the One Media product though as it did seem more reliable.

**heading4tomorrow** · 04-23-2013, 02:08 PM

Originally Posted by skynny70

I used OneMediaSync on my last three BB devices and loved it. I have not found anything similar to it now that I have the Z10.

I now have gone the Google route and it has seemed to work fine for me thus far. I did prefer the One Media product though as it did seem more reliable.

On your older devices did OneMediaSync work automatically without having to manually sync?

**mushroom_daddy** · 04-24-2013, 07:39 AM

Originally Posted by heading4tomorrow

On your older devices did OneMediaSync work automatically without having to manually sync?

It's an automatic sync on my Bold9900 - always when using WiFi, but does occasionally request confirmation when roaming (via network & BIS) to approve data usage

**skynny70** · 04-24-2013, 08:32 AM

Originally Posted by heading4tomorrow

On your older devices did OneMediaSync work automatically without having to manually sync?

Yes it works automatically without having to manually sync. I got tired of using a USB cable to sync my calendar and contacts. I think I had the Outlook plugin set to sync every 30 minutes and the BB Device App set to sync either every 8 or 12 hours.

**captain_tinker** · 04-24-2013, 10:33 AM

Originally Posted by mushroom_daddy

Did you make any progress with this? As another Onemediahub user I'd be looking achieve similar sync capabilities before moving from my Bold9900 to a BB10 device.

See additional thread discussion here: Sync Contacts and Calendar with Onemediahub

Unfortunately OneMediaHub is never going to be a reality for BB10 according to their developers. I was finally able to figure out a way to do it all with Google, but it won't work completely on the 9810 the way I've been doing it with OneMediaHub, because of the BIS. I haven't gotten the Z10, but I've heard reports of it working that way with others, so I guess just go with Google. Outlook.com I guess works that way as well, but again, not with BIS on the 9810. So unfortunately, once I move off of the 9810, I will have to use something other than the OMH. Owell.

**heading4tomorrow** · 04-24-2013, 12:31 PM

Originally Posted by skynny70

Yes it works automatically without having to manually sync. I got tired of using a USB cable to sync my calendar and contacts. I think I had the Outlook plugin set to sync every 30 minutes and the BB Device App set to sync either every 8 or 12 hours.

Thanks, I realized it is a scheduled sync not "automatic sync" like whenever there is a change to a file, or when you take a picture, it won't sync until the next scheduled sync. I just found the schedule info in settings, and set it to 4 hrs for pictures. I don't sync contacts or any of the other stuff since I use BES. I just use Videos, Documents, Pictures. Works nicely. I just wish we could get more space, or someone made an app that automatically syncs these things with Dropbox space..