1. anon3969612's Avatar
    Hey all...

    After much frustration, rebooting, editing & messing about... I have finally got Outlook To 2-way sync with my Z10. Consistently, with adding calendar & contact info either on the phone or my desktop Outlook 2007 and have them properly 2 way sync in a short amount of time as they should through BB Link.

    Also separately tested and confirmed this works on my brother's Q10 and Outlook 2010 on his office PC.

    Notes: Both Z10 & Q10 on OS 10.2.1.1925 or higher.
    I did this on two Windows 7 Pro machines, no idea how this works with Macs.


    Step 1. Ensure your Outlook contacts are set up and not duplicated. It helps to format them by Full Name only, do not enter a Company Name as this shows up with two lines in the contact list, which looks fine on the Z10 but is unreadable on the Q10. File as first and last so it is the same as the Full name. IMPORTANT:If you omit the Full Name field, you will wind up with a bunch of duplicate blank name contacts on the phone.

    edit: the following is completely optional, you can set the rest of the contact fields in Outlook any way you like. I have multiple land line voice numbers for many of my business contacts and like to group them under one company contact rather than separate contact entries for each number. Entering voice only numbers in the phone number fields in Outlook results in an additional entry on the handset for texting, regardless if I want it or not. This method eliminates the automatic text entry. The numbers and email addresses in the Notes field are clickable links on the phone contact card that launch the appropriate app. Long press the phone number brings up text copy and share options.

    I enter all phone/fax contact data in the Notes box, not in the Phone number fields. You can fill out the phone fields, but I personally hate how this clutters up the contact card on the phone with all the call fax & text fields.

    Like So:



    Once the Outlook contacts are set up, they are ready to be transferred to the OS10 device.

    Step 2. Prepare the BB handset. Remove all local contacts from the device. If you're starting with a fresh phone... no worries. However if you have local contacts, they have to go for this to work... these are what mess up and give duplicates. You can try with the Settings->Accounts->...more->Clear Local Contacts however I never had any luck with this, both on my Z10 and on my brother's Q10. I had to tediously go through and remove them from the contacts manually. Not fun. If you have a current BB Link account with your PC, delete it in the Settings->Accounts screen. Reboot the phone, ensure the local contacts are gone.

    In Settings->Accounts if there is an existing bblink account, remove it.

    Couple of config settings on the phone:

    In the Contacts app, I set my display as such:



    Step 3. Download and install the latest version of BB Link. Version 1.2.3.23 is the latest one I got last week. Set up the Contacts/Calendar sync to the Outlook directories.
    Plug in the phone and have it initialize in Link. Set up the Contacts/Calendar section to 1 Way Sync from computer to device for both:



    At this time, we will only sync the calendar, not the contacts Uncheck the Contacts box from the sync screen. Hit the Sync Contacts/Calendar Button.

    If the force is with you, Calendar will sync. This will take some time if you have a lot of Outlook entries. I managed to get this done in under 15 minutes. Now you should have a bblink account on the Phone under Settings->Accounts:



    Go to the Set Defaults button on the bottom and ensure the Calendar is set to bblink. This will ensure any new calendar entries on the phone are put in the correct account for syncing to Outlook.

    Back in Link: Now check the Contacts checkbox and hit the Sync Contacts/Calendar button. This will take a while however, once they are transferred, subsequent Syncing goes much quicker.

    Your Contacts should now be populated. In the Contacts app, you should now have your PC name as one of the Contact Groups in the bottom left corner. As a test, once I had transferred the contacts for the first time, I made a new contact in Outlook and did another sync. This only took a few minutes and it transferred fine.

    Now, set your Link settings to 2 Way Sync for both Contacts & Calendar. In the Conflict Resolution setting for Contacts, choose Notify me when there are conflicts. For Calendar, I chose the All Entries for Device Sync Period. Hit the Sync Contacts/Calendar button again. This time, it will take another eternity, and in both cases, my Z10 and my brother's q10, it gave a huge list of conflicts between device and Outlook, which consisted of the device having a bunch of hash crapola appended to the correct contact data. However, this is solved by choosing 'Use my Outlook data' and apply this to all conflicts.

    The worst is over. If all has gone according to plan, you now have set up a conduit for Contacts & Calendar between the device and Outlook. Subsequent syncs will be quicker and best of all, properly 2-way. New contacts and calendar events are updated from either direction.

    Based on the above contact card setup in Outlook, the device contacts look like this:





    Further Notes:

    - I do not link Facebook, Twitter or anything else to the Contacts list... no advice for any problems from that side.
    - Tried the Outlook.com account sync method, however if you have more than a couple of hundred contacts it chokes and can't export the file. I have 900 contacts, my brother has 1200.
    - No warranties express or implied... if you lose data, not my fault, sorry

    If everything works, you will soon be seeing this:



    Cheers,
    Last edited by vorpalz; 04-18-14 at 09:13 AM. Reason: Clarification of an optional preference
    anon(5818411) and creowano like this.
    04-15-14 02:58 PM
  2. anon(5818411)'s Avatar
    awesome post man, you should put this in "Tips & Tricks" sub forum :P
    04-15-14 03:34 PM
  3. PatrickMJS's Avatar
    How to: Render your Contacts data useless for phone calls and texting

    Hey all...
    I enter all phone/fax contact data in the Notes box, not in the Phone number fields. You can fill out the phone fields, but I personally hate how this clutters up the contact card on the phone with all the call fax & text fields.
    Once I read this sentence, I stopped reading. You have to be kidding.

    That's not clutter, my friend, that's a fast handy way to call/text/message your contact using the "flow". concept.



    Posted via CB10
    04-16-14 09:57 AM
  4. anon3969612's Avatar
    Chuckle... you don't have to do it that way... and it doesn't change the syncing process I outlined.
    It's just my preference. It is a much better way to organize a business contact with multiple contact phone numbers by name than this:



    You launch the phone numbers and e-mail by tapping on them the same from the links in the notes box. They launch exactly the same as the standard method, and they are better organized by name. Long press them and you can choose to call, text, send files, copy the number... flow flow flow.... It's not faster when you have multiple phone numbers and names for a business contact as it doesn't let you say who they are, just 'Work' 'Home 'Mobile'... I can't assign names to different numbers. Also, I haven't found a way to not have it add a Text field for every phone number I list. I hate this. Every phone number entered is duplicated in a Text field. Many of which are land lines in offices and I certainly don't need a string of Text Number fields for every voice number I enter. Clutter.

    I have most of my multiple phone number business contacts set up this way, personal contacts set up with the standard method. You can set them up any way you like.

    You stopped reading because of an optional preference? hoooookay...
    Last edited by vorpalz; 04-16-14 at 02:44 PM.
    04-16-14 01:55 PM
  5. GeoATL's Avatar
    That sounds like a lot of "work-around" that still does not map and sync fields where they should go.
    Let me suggest Companionlink (Sync calendar, contacts, tasks and notes to Android, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry - CompanionLink), a software for you PC that allows custom mapping for sync. Cpmpanionlink Pro costs $50.00- one time. I use it with Act! but it works with Outlook and most CRM software. To use with Blackberry, you will also have to download DejaHub from BB World (free). I sync with USB cable to my Lenovo Thinkpad but could sync via Bluetooth. It works great. In my case I have around 2,000 contacts on the PC but only sync a defined group of 400 or so to my Q10. I have been using Companionlink since Palm Pilot. They have been around for a long time and are constantly updating the software. It's great and only syncs Native Contacts from BB and not FB, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other info there for you to see.
    Last edited by GeoATL; 04-16-14 at 02:49 PM. Reason: spelling
    04-16-14 02:48 PM
  6. anon3969612's Avatar
    Actually, it maps exactly if you do it the conventional way. If you enter all the Name Data, it will sync it all but you get very busy headers on the device for each contact. If you omit the Full Name in Outlook, it will not come up correctly on the device... that is the only gotcha I found with this system.

    Also, I ran Companion Link for a couple of weeks under the trial license , but because of the local contacts thing, I still got numerous duplicated contacts. This is the only way I've found to get the 2-way sync to work and update to Outlook without creating duplicates. It sync'd quickly, however.
    04-16-14 03:16 PM

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