[FBA]

I don't get all the fuss. Outlook syncs OTA via the cloud...so who cares if wired USB sync works now or not? If you're an enterprise and you're using Exchange, you have sync even if you don't have a BES, so you're not affected. If you're a company using Outlook, but not Exchange server, you can push anything you want to the cloud, as there's likely no IT policy to prevent one from doing that. If you're a private individual, you can do this via Outlook.com. BlackBerry is about wirelessly delivering the goods...not USB syncing. 99% of those of you whining about it here regrading data mining...are you sure you've protected yourself against cyber threats that can and will steal your data right off your PC or home network? I bet not. Those of you threatening to leave the BlackBerry world because you can't sync via USB...leave. Go buy an Android and deal with the same issue there.

It's not a priority for BBRY, for good reason. Get with the program and stop being such babies.

[jayd97006]

"It's not a priority for BBRY, for good reason. Get with the program and stop being such babies."

Wow. Let's all go home and forget the topic. FBA has decided that this issue is not important.

Are you the reincarnation of the "decider"? I don't understand why it's so important to you to marginalize other people's needs and wants because you don't share them. The last time I saw this attitude, Steve Jobs was telling us what we wanted because he knew better than we did.

IMHO, Blackberry should hear what long-time users are saying about their new OS, good and bad. I too want a Z10, but I too want a fix for this issue. Now stop being a baby and contribute to a forum in which you are interested in a positive manner instead of dismissing 150 comments and 4777 views, most of which don't seem to agree with you..

[calicocat2010]

I did this at two different times. First I opened up an Outlook.com account and figured out how to export my Contacts to Outlook.com which then synched them to my Z10. Yesterday I installed the Hotmail Connector into Microsoft Outlook 2010. When I read the details I should be able to export my Outlook 2010 Calendar but could not get it to synch. So instead I have both Calendars (the Outlook 2010 one I have always had and the Outlook.com one) on my Outlook 2010. I then dragged across / copied and pasted my calendar items to the outlook.com calendar which then synched them to my phone. Not a perfect solution but at least I know what is happening for the next few weeks.

From this point forward I will just update the new outlook.com calendar that I have on my Outlook 2010 as I know it will synch with my phone and know changes to my phone will synch back to outlook.com. Now I need to see if it works both ways for any changes to my Contacts.

Ok so when you say outlook.com calendar You mean their calendar ON their website, and Not the Desktop Application? You had both the Desktop Application And the Website open to do the copy and paste? Sorry, I have to have descriptions/labels when people say something to me, otherwise, I get very confused.

[b320]

Ok so when you say outlook.com calendar You mean their calendar ON their website, and Not the Desktop Application? You had both the Desktop Application And the Website open to do the copy and paste? Sorry, I have to have descriptions/labels when people say something to me, otherwise, I get very confused.

No, you can't copy-and-paste between Microsoft Outlook and Outlook.com, the supported scenario is for you to retype all your entries whenever you want to add, change or delete an appointment.

No, no, just kidding.

Microsoft provides a free Outlook add-on that will give you automatic sync between Microsoft Outlook on the desktop and Outlook.com on the web. Please follow these instructions from Microsoft on how to do that: How to configure Outlook to connect to an outlook.com email account

[Omnitech]

But is it not illegally by foip standards for a company to host personal information of an individual on a server that resides outside of Canada? without written consent? that would make all these work around technical illegal.

No, not "all" workarounds are illegal, even if whatever organization we are discussing is legally mandated to prohibit foreign data storage. There are lots of Canadian MS Exchange hosting companies, for example.

And I'd like to know which companies or organizations are leaving all their users to fend for themselves and muck around with data that is security-critical, all coming up with their own individual solutions for email backup etc, rather than having their I.T. dept handle such critical functions. Sounds rather irresponsible to me. I certainly would never run an I.T. operation like that, doubly-so if the organization was under some legal mandate to maintain data security/confidentiality.

And what is the big fuzz about Blackberry "having" to include an extra feature such as USB sync? I doubt you think including this feature would negatively affect the overall performance of the phone.

I have pointed this out many times now, there are so many threads on it I don't know if my POV ever got fully fleshed out in this particular thread yet.

In a nutshell:

• It's not easy to do
• Blackberry's history with this feature has not exactly been stellar (lots of bugs and issues in the past)
• Only one other smartphone vendor appears to offer it, and that platform has a lot of other strikes against it. (Apple)
• Outlook may be going the way of the dodo-bird anyway.
• The number of users desiring this feature is likely very low (<10%, maybe <1% of the userbase), thus Blackberry might want to deploy thinly-stretched resources elsewhere.

[Omnitech]

I will not discuss our infrastructure in a forum.
We do not access any data that is not inside our control.
I am quite familiar with the definition of the cloud.
We never store nor access any of our data on the internet.

I wasn't asking for you to discuss network specifics of your employer, really was a general point.

Because the way I see it, if an organization has smartphones that users can surf the web on without being filtered through the organizations VPN etc, it's already a security liability if those smartphones also have confidential organizational functions.

Rhetorical questions: Needing USB Outlook sync suggests to me that BES is not in use there, which doesn't make much sense to me in a locked-down environment, because that implies (to me) that users are on BIS? BIS isn't secure. Perhaps a VPN is in use then? And if not on BES, what is Outlook connecting to, and why isn't that server already backing-up the data on the server side? Are all the Outlook instances on a secure internal network and smartphone users only do offline email?

Once again, not asking you to share details, just explaining why the need for USB-tethered sync doesn't make a lot of sense to me in an organization like that. I could definitely be missing something in my thinking.

[Jerry A]

Too many problems with it, or some just don't trust it. Some companies won't allow it.

Personally, I don't want my nearly 300 contacts out in the "cloud" where it could be data mined.

No need. They're on your phone and being data-mined. At least if you're in North America and using any carrier. Seriously, don't any of you read the fine print on just what access to your data the telecom's allow themselves?

And stop thinking that your ISP email isn't "cloud" email - it is. Check out that TOS and you'll see similar language to Google/Yahoo!/etc...

Ugh.

[Omnitech]

No need. They're on your phone and being data-mined. At least if you're in North America and using any carrier. Seriously, don't any of you read the fine print on just what access to your data the telecom's allow themselves?

And stop thinking that your ISP email isn't "cloud" email - it is. Check out that TOS and you'll see similar language to Google/Yahoo!/etc...

Well just to give credit where credit is due, there are certainly many commercial email providers who have a higher standard of security/confidentiality than the well-known crappy freebie services whose business-model revolves around monetizing personal information and/or in-service advertising.

Problem is, people want something for nothing. There's an old saying in I.T, but which applies in many other spheres.: Performance, Reliability, Price: pick any TWO.

[Omnitech]

This discussion seems develpoing a strong angle about data storage in the cloud, which is nothing else than third party storage as we know.
Among others, it has been already discussed here: http://forums.crackberry.com/showthread.php?p=7554999

What I thought about Matt Honan's experience at the time and what I continue to think is that he was largely responsible for that because he was stupid in how he handled his data and login credentials.

[bbfan1040]

I am a California CPA (Certified Public Accountant). California state law clearly requires I keep ALL client information confidential.
Medical Federal laws require that all medical information be kept confidential.
We aren't talking about personal preferences.
If confidentiality didn't matter, I could use Apple or Android phones.
Companion Link will soon solve the Outlook problem for me.
Blackberry understands the problem. They are security experts!

[qbnkelt]

I wasn't asking for you to discuss network specifics of your employer, really was a general point.

Because the way I see it, if an organization has smartphones that users can surf the web on without being filtered through the organizations VPN etc, it's already a security liability if those smartphones also have confidential organizational functions.

Rhetorical questions: Needing USB Outlook sync suggests to me that BES is not in use there, which doesn't make much sense to me in a locked-down environment, because that implies (to me) that users are on BIS? BIS isn't secure. Perhaps a VPN is in use then? And if not on BES, what is Outlook connecting to, and why isn't that server already backing-up the data on the server side? Are all the Outlook instances on a secure internal network and smartphone users only do offline email?

Once again, not asking you to share details, just explaining why the need for USB-tethered sync doesn't make a lot of sense to me in an organization like that. I could definitely be missing something in my thinking.

You might have missed it. We are on the strictest configurations of BES.
And you are making assumptions that don't apply and I will not correct.

[Dave Duggan]

Problem is, people want something for nothing. There's an old saying in I.T, but which applies in many other spheres.: Performance, Reliability, Price: pick any TWO.

Im not asking for something for nothing.. i would be more that happy with a paid option from BB.

[Dave Duggan]

No, not "all" workarounds are illegal, even if whatever organization we are discussing is legally mandated to prohibit foreign data storage. There are lots of Canadian MS Exchange hosting companies, for example.

And I'd like to know which companies or organizations are leaving all their users to fend for themselves and muck around with data that is security-critical, all coming up with their own individual solutions for email backup etc, rather than having their I.T. dept handle such critical functions. Sounds rather irresponsible to me. I certainly would never run an I.T. operation like that, doubly-so if the organization was under some legal mandate to maintain data security/confidentiality.





I have pointed this out many times now, there are so many threads on it I don't know if my POV ever got fully fleshed out in this particular thread yet.

In a nutshell:

• It's not easy to do
• Blackberry's history with this feature has not exactly been stellar (lots of bugs and issues in the past)
• Only one other smartphone vendor appears to offer it, and that platform has a lot of other strikes against it. (Apple)
• Outlook may be going the way of the dodo-bird anyway.
• The number of users desiring this feature is likely very low (<10%, maybe <1% of the userbase), thus Blackberry might want to deploy thinly-stretched resources elsewhere.

I had to think for a while but im afraid you are really out of touch with reality. No your right, not all workarounds are illigal. But you say it yourself "WorkAround" why on earth would you need a work around. There are various reasons why people do things different ways. Some may be they don't know how to do it another way . But many are the fact for that the person, business, corporations, home based business. Have found a successful way they deal with there needs for their business and we are not here to change there mind. Maybe financially they don't want to remote host or setup exchange. And **** they didn't have to because they could always PIM. OUTLOOK.COM is a workaround and by no means is a good one at that.
Now your outlook is going way of the doto? Really how about you tell those millions of people who run outlook 2000 or 2003 still. how about the millions of people useing windows XP. should they have not made link XP Compatible because only 10 % of people use it? Common man. If they end outlook that is still min of 3 years away since they released a new office with it 2 weeks ago. then it will take another 10 years for people to actually stop using it.

now if your high number of 10% is right (im going to go with way higher since i am actually out every day seeing people using this feature) RIM or BB can nill afford to loose 10% because of such a dumb reason. This is and should be nothing for them to fix. The objective should be to hang onto the userbase u have and grow from users you can take away. because simply put loosing outlook usb connector will not make anyone want to purchase your product but it will make them leave your product, and if you had usb sync you may actually attract a couple apple users that only use the Iphone because it has outlook syncing (i know some)

needless to say i cant disagree more with every single point in your post.

[ctfish]

I don't have this issue - but I found this well written article to help with the problem:

How to sync Outlook information with Blackberry Z10 | Geek Squad

I hope this helps.

Best regards,

ctfish

[cgk]

I can accept people don't want to store their data in the cloud - that's all fine - but i'm a bit baffled by the same group using workarounds to store their data in outlook.com? If you have gone that far, you are already storing your data in the cloud so why not just take the final step and get rid of desktop sync?

[shabbs]

I can accept people don't want to store their data in the cloud - that's all fine - but i'm a bit baffled by the same group using workarounds to store their data in outlook.com? If you have gone that far, you are already storing your data in the cloud so why not just take the final step and get rid of desktop sync?

The people that refuse to/can't store their info in "the cloud" are not setting up outlook.com workarounds. They'll most likely wait for BlackBerry to fix their Link program or sink money into CompanionLink when it can do the job.

Personally, I was weary/adverse to using outlook.com initially but am warming up to it as I test it out.

Let's not lump everyone in the same bucket as each have their own tolerances/requirements/restrictions.

[Rooster99]

Funny how you specifically mention major historical problems with Desktop Manager and syncing.... but turn around and beg to have Desktop Manager syncing... ... Perhaps if you actually posted on BlackBerry's own support forum, you'd be more likely to get an official response. Do you ever go there? ... And to the people who claim they will "abandon Blackberry" - where are you going to go to get this functionality, as well as the other Blackberry advantages? Nowhere, really. ...

1) I provided examples of known issues RIM was silent on - have no idea what your point is regarding the fact they just happened to be with DM. Yes, I want it to work, and if there are problems with anything I think the organization behind the product or service should be open about them.

2) Yes, I visit blackberry.com. If you go through this thread you will see I posted links to threads there on this topic.

3) Apple, Android and Windows Phone each have their own value proposition. If Blackberry can do something important the others can't, it may be enough to keep my in the Blackberry camp. Take that advantage away and the value proposition of another phone may attract me to it. Not tough to understand.

Overall, not sure what your post was about but since you called me out I thought I should respond.

- R.

[Omnitech]

I had to think for a while but im afraid you are really out of touch with reality. No your right, not all workarounds are illigal. But you say it yourself "WorkAround" why on earth would you need a work around.

I did not "say it myself" - I was directly quoting you. (just correcting your misspelling of "work around" to "workaround")

There are various reasons why people do things different ways.

I also have lots of experience dealing with people who stick to certain ways of doing things out of sheer habit and momentum, even when most of the available alternatives accomplish their objectives better.

I'm not saying that applies to everyone that wants USB sync - I used to be one of those people myself, but RIM's Desktop Manager bugs and failures combined with a changing email marketplace have caused me to evolve my thinking on that. But I still am fairly sure that a pretty large percentage of people demanding USB sync would probably be better served by some other option but just don't want to change, and refuse to investigate the actual details of other options due to that.

[kfh227]

BBRY needs a public liaison on this forum!

[ssbtech]

But I still am fairly sure that a pretty large percentage of people demanding USB sync would probably be better served by some other option but just don't want to change, and refuse to investigate the actual details of other options due to that.

Some other option... such as what exactly?

Not only do online mail/calendar/contacts hosts such as Google Gmail/Google Drive have pathetic privacy policies, there's no guarantee that the service will stick around in a particular form. They're free to alter the service in any way they feel, including removing features, discontinue service and change their privacy policies at will.

We have an issue here where people have come to rely on a couple of key BlackBerry features - BIS and Outlook desktop sync. Now that these features have been removed, people are left to fend for themselves and find a solution that may or may not work well for those particular users. What happens when these free services either disappear or are altered and no longer support the calendar/contacts on the phone?

When I sync my 9800 with Outlook I am 100% self reliant and in control of my own data. The same can't be said for cloud services, especially free ones.


Sometimes people want to stick with "certain ways of doing things" because it works well with little hassle.

I'll give you my personal frustration with the loss of BIS email: A message arrives on my phone. I read it, delete it from only the phone and download it with Outlook on my desktop when I get home so it can 1) be filed automatically into whatever folder I want it in and 2) I can reply to it and refer back to it at any time in the future. Because that email is something I don't need to reply to on my phone or even have on my phone ever again, I have a desire to remove it from my phone entirely to keep my phone free of clutter.

With BIS, this is such an easy workflow. Without BIS, anything that's deleted from the phone is also removed from the server and not available for downloading at home with Outlook. While some posters here snarkily comment "why delete it from your phone if you want it available later?" my response is "because that's the workflow that works for me". If you want a hundred messages cluttering your phone, go ahead. I don't work that way.

Similarly, if I download a message on my phone and do want to keep it on my phone, downloading it at home removes it from the server and thus renders it inaccessible on the phone. While this approach may work for some people, it doesn't fit the workflow that I'm comfortable with.

This isn't about me not wanting to adapt to new technology, it's about me not wanting to change my workflow simply because someone else says I should do it differently.

[cgk]

Ah.. workflow:

xkcd: Workflow

[mset]

I assume you mean via USB cable. You have read about secure sync through this program wirelessly:

Sync BB10 with Outlook Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Notes -- CompanionLink Software

Okay, I'll just ask, even though this is probably a stupid question. I've seen some folks saying 'I'm not going to spend $50 for software to do what I need done', which I can understand. My question is - if this firm CompanionLink can make a program to do what everyone wants done, why couldn't Blackberry?

[cgk]

Okay, I'll just ask, even though this is probably a stupid question. I've seen some folks saying 'I'm not going to spend $50 for software to do what I need done', which I can understand. My question is - if this firm CompanionLink can make a program to do what everyone wants done, why couldn't Blackberry?

Not a priority? They have numbers that tell them it's not a priority for the majority of customers? The customers who use desktop sync are not the sorts of customers they want to attract (in the first wave at least)?

Could be any number of reasons. When PalmOS went the way of the dodo, IR connections went with it to much howling and wailing.

[calicocat2010]

Okay, I'll just ask, even though this is probably a stupid question. I've seen some folks saying 'I'm not going to spend $50 for software to do what I need done', which I can understand. My question is - if this firm CompanionLink can make a program to do what everyone wants done, why couldn't Blackberry?

Because BlackBerry wants us to get use to the cloud because it's the new standard for file storage...for some people. I'm Not one of those.

[mset]

Not a priority? They have numbers that tell them it's not a priority for the majority of customers? The customers who use desktop sync are not the sorts of customers they want to attract (in the first wave at least)?

Could be any number of reasons. When PalmOS went the way of the dodo, IR connections went with it to much howling and wailing.

Hmmm, I guess that could be it. I read one post here that seemed to suggest that there are vast numbers of people out there who would need this functionality but of course, that could just be the grumbling of one of the few who actually do. Still, if a third-party firm can run something up to fit the bill, BBRY couldn't have thrown a few programmers at the job?

To me, there's this trade-off between thinking 'A company like BBRY couldn't possibly make such a huge miscalculation - they must, as you say, have internal numbers which show that they didn't need to prioritize this', and the other side of it, which is that they seemed to have been capable of making some pretty big errors in the past, especially when it comes to rolling stuff out that wasn't ready for Prime Time.

Disclaimer - I'm a huge BBRY fan whose first smartphone was a World Edition, and who was only forced off the platform 2 years back. I'm reading these threads a lot and just waiting to see how things shake out with the Z10.