[classact]

I'm running an Exchange account through the Hub on my PRIV (email, contacts, calendar, etc).

With all prior BB devices (I've owned all BB flagship devices), calendar alarms created on the desktop in Outlook not only gave me an audible notification on the phone but even took over my screen and I couldn't do anything else until I snoozed it or handled it in some other manner.

With the PRIV, it seems all I get is the white star in the red circle at the top right of the Calendar icon on the phone.

This is hardly an "alarm."

I'm going to miss a lot of appointments this way.

I don't see any way to modify this behavior in Calendar > Settings. (All I have available there is "Notificaitons > Show Notifictions" and it's On.)

[blackberryroughrider]

i use my local BlackBerry Calendar app every day to add appointments and daily things i have to do and it works perfectly for myself - i do not sync my calendar with any gmail, outlook, or whatever - it's all just local and it works flawlessly to alert me when it has to

not sure if that helps you out since you're using some infrastructure that i am not using

i also do nothing special with the settings of the BlackBerry Calendar app - i just add my appointments when i have to add them and the default settings alert me 15 minutes before each calendar item as well as at the specified appointment times

[classact]

i use my local BlackBerry Calendar app every day to add appointments and daily things i have to do and it works perfectly for myself - i do not sync my calendar with any gmail, outlook, or whatever - it's all just local and it works flawlessly to alert me when it has to

not sure if that helps you out since you're using some infrastructure i am not

Thanks... but no it doesn't help me.

[blackberryroughrider]

Thanks... but no it doesn't help me.

lol, my bad, hope you can get the answers you need! i am positive you'll find something

maybe BlackBerry Priv support in your area can help?

http://ca.blackberry.com/support/sma...V/welcome.html

http://us.blackberry.com/support/sma...V/welcome.html

http://uk.blackberry.com/support/sma...V/welcome.html

but you might just get the right answer here first, hopefully, since this forum seems to be the go to spot - best of luck to you

[Ecm]

I'm running an Exchange account through the Hub on my PRIV (email, contacts, calendar, etc).

With all prior BB devices (I've owned all BB flagship devices), calendar alarms created on the desktop in Outlook not only gave me an audible notification on the phone but even took over my screen and I couldn't do anything else until I snoozed it or handled it in some other manner.

With the PRIV, it seems all I get is the white star in the red circle at the top right of the Calendar icon on the phone.

This is hardly an "alarm."

I'm going to miss a lot of appointments this way.

I don't see any way to modify this behavior in Calendar > Settings. (All I have available there is "Notificaitons > Show Notifictions" and it's On.)

The "persistent" notification popup is indeed missing from the BB Calendar app. It's been raised as an issue and may be addressed in an update. In the meantime, I'd suggest looking at the app "Business Calendar". I've been using it for a while and it's great. It provides that persistent notification. It also allows adding more than one notification per event. For instance, I'll set one for a week ou and a day out for family birthdays, so I'll remember to get the present. It also has a wide range of widgets available. The free version is very good; the paid version is even better.

[classact]

lol, my bad, hope you can get the answers you need! i am positive you'll find something

maybe BlackBerry Priv support in your area can help?

Welcome - Canada

Welcome - United States

Welcome - United Kingdom

but you might just get the right answer here first, hopefully, since this forum seems to be the go to spot - best of luck to you

Thank you very much for your effort, my friend!

I think you'll prove to be right that this forum is probably going to be my best hope of useful solutions in this case (and it seems it will take creativity, which can often be found here).

[classact]

The "persistent" notification popup is indeed missing from the BB Calendar app. It's been raised as an issue and may be addressed in an update. In the meantime, I'd suggest looking at the app "Business Calendar". I've been using it for a while and it's great. It provides that persistent notification. It also allows adding more than one notification per event. For instance, I'll set one for a week ou and a day out for family birthdays, so I'll remember to get the present. It also has a wide range of widgets available. The free version is very good; the paid version is even better.

Thank you for this advice.

I'm not just looking for a "persistent" notification, but an actual alarm-time notification like we used to have with BB10 -- audible and snoozable.

After all, in Outlook and WebMail, it's called an "alarm."

The first, main question that comes to mind, as I'm sure you anticipated, is: Will Business Calendar work in conjunction with my existing Exchange/Hub/Outlook calendar (which syncs with my Outlook desktop clients, my Exchange server, and the phone)?

If so, is it entirely, 100% safe in terms of not introducing even the slightest risk of corrupting the data and syncing at the Exchange-server end?

I'll look into it, and meanwhile I welcome any further insight you might have along those lines.

Thanks again!

[classact]

Well, the description for version 2 of their free version (which they indicate can be overlayed onto the Pro version 1, for I assume ad-free Pro 2?) says:

"uses Android calendar sync which allows synchronization e.g. with Google Calendar and Exchange"

I'll email them for more info. Seems like a winner if it plays nicely with Exchange.

Thanks again!

[classact]

This looks interesting, too (and isn't called into question with reviews about v2 and ads and bugs like with BC):

aCalendar+

Their website looks pretty good, too, except in the FAQ it has minimal reassurance that it will work well with Exchange and suggests contacting Microsoft.

[classact]

Business Calendar does look pretty "professional" too, and their website has an admirable attempt at being clear about setting up Exchange:

https://appgenix.uservoice.com/knowl...ith-google-out

[FF22]

The "persistent" notification popup is indeed missing from the BB Calendar app. It's been raised as an issue and may be addressed in an update. In the meantime, I'd suggest looking at the app "Business Calendar". I've been using it for a while and it's great. It provides that persistent notification. It also allows adding more than one notification per event. For instance, I'll set one for a week ou and a day out for family birthdays, so I'll remember to get the present. It also has a wide range of widgets available. The free version is very good; the paid version is even better.

Who is the developer? I see a few with similar names. Thanks.

[gizmo21]

This looks interesting, too (and isn't called into question with reviews about v2 and ads and bugs like with BC):

aCalendar+

Their website looks pretty good, too, except in the FAQ it has minimal reassurance that it will work well with Exchange and suggests contacting Microsoft.

I have paid version of aCalendar+ and I can confirm company Exchange Accounts (2010) are working parallel to bb hub/calendar.

I'm using it parallel to BB Calendar atm because:
* Notification gives a time-variable snooze option (http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe.../#post12397612)
* I'm able to change the calendar account after having created an event the calendar (http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe.../#post12241307)

If you have questions on it - feel free to ask.

[gizmo21]

aCalendar+ vs. BlackBerry Calendar notification



snooze window apears after pressing "zzZ"

[lamnguyen2020]

The notifications are present in the calendar. But the calendar has a problem reading existing / exchange events. I've had this problem as well, and have been late to a ton of meetings.

For me, my solution was exporting all of my reoccurring calendar events that I had from Gmail and manually entered them into my outlook account. Now I get an audible alert, and visual notifications.

One thing that I haven't been able to fix are my reoccurring WebEx meetings. They pass by without any notifications whatsoever.

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

[classact]

I have paid version of aCalendar+ and I can confirm company Exchange Accounts (2010) are working parallel to bb hub/calendar.

I'm using it parallel to BB Calendar atm because:
* Notification gives a time-variable snooze option (http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe.../#post12397612)
* I'm able to change the calendar account after having created an event the calendar (http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe.../#post12241307)

If you have questions on it - feel free to ask.

What does it mean "I'm able to change the calendar account after having created an event?", please. That sounds like extra work if you have to to it every time.

Thanks!

[classact]

Who is the developer? I see a few with similar names. Thanks.

I'm pretty sure he's referring to this: BusinessCalendar

(That's the only one with the name "Business Calendar" that has tons of positive reviews and downloads as far as I can see.)

[classact]

The notifications are present in the calendar. But the calendar has a problem reading existing / exchange events. I've had this problem as well, and have been late to a ton of meetings.

For me, my solution was exporting all of my reoccurring calendar events that I had from Gmail and manually entered them into my outlook account. Now I get an audible alert, and visual notifications.

One thing that I haven't been able to fix are my reoccurring WebEx meetings. They pass by without any notifications whatsoever.

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

How did manually entering your recurring events in Outlook give you audible alerts and visual notifications? That's my whole issue. I create appointments (plain appointments) in my Outlook 2010 client on the desktop with an alarm set (which, again, syncs through Exchange and then the Hub), and all I get as a notification on the phone is the star in the Calendar icon on the home screen.

[lamnguyen2020]

I don't know the logic on why it works. I truly believe the calendar app is not handling existing calendar events properly as NONE of the existing appointments (recurring or not) that are on my gmail calendar ever notifies me or even have the calendar icon with a spark in the notification bar. Frustrated, I factory reset a few times trying to get it to work since I could not find a solution that worked. After testing at least a half dozen times, and seeing only new events were giving me any type of notification, I decided to delete one of my existing reoccurring appointments and add it to my outlook email (I did this through the calendar app itself, not from Outlook or Outlook.com). voila! my alarm went off at 5minutes before my appointment just as I had set it. Picked up my phone and I had to dismiss the notification bar in order to stop the alarm.
Then I went through the whole process with all my reoccurring events, added them one by one in outlook, deleted them in gmail.

[classact]

I emailed tech support for both Business Calendar and aCalendar+ to ask about syncing with an Exchange account that's synced in the Calendar in the Hub on the PRIV.

That was 24 hour ago. I did not receive a reply from aCalendar+ as yet, but I received the following reply from Business Calendar. Note the very interesting section I highlighted in yellow. I'm anxious to try this, and would love reassurance that it's impossible for it to in any way compromise the integrity of the data (including sync information) on my Exchange server.

===================

Hi,

thanks for the message. If the reminders can be synchronised at all ( note that Exchange Sync is limited to various categories), it should work as intended.

All you need to do is to download the app and (if needed) add the account for sync. I assume the latter will not be necessary as you already set up your account. The data should automatically sync to BC.


FYI:
It's already possible to sync our app with an Exchange-server and/or Microsoft Outlook. This is an Android OS system function!

To sync with an Exchange-server please add the Exchange-account to your system settings. Therefore please open the Android system settings -> Accounts and sync -> Add account -> Microsoft Exchange/Active Sync -> type in your log-in data and proceed. Please make sure that the sync of calendars is activated.

If you want to sync with Outlook over an USB-cable/WLAN/Bluetooth you will need a sync-software like the one that comes with your device. I recommend the free sync-software "MyPhoneExplorer" from FJ Software Development which is far better than anything from the device manufacturers!

Please remember that our app only uses the internal synchronization functionalities of the Android OS to sync with something. Therefore the Business Calendar has no own sync abilities.


About the task sync: Currently it is only possible to sync tasks with Google.
We might consider implementing our own sycn to sync tasks also with other provides. However, since this is a very complicated feature it may still take some time until we can implement it.


Greetings,
Dominika Obacz from Business Calendar Support

===================

It's too bad that isn't all clearer. I actually find it very confusing. I certainly have no idea what the text before the highlighted section and the text after the highlighted sections means in light of the text in the highlighted section. If it connects directly to Exchange, then it syncs directly -- I would think! Meaning the text before the highlighted section is irrelevant and the text after the highlighted section is, um, incorrect?

I'm reluctant to dive into something so important since it syncs to the essential data on my Exchange server when I'm getting such unclear communication from tech support after writing a pretty clear inquiry via email.

I'm not sure how I'm going to proceed from here. I guess I could just "try it" but, man oh man would I like reassurance it can't hurt the data or the sync data on my Exchange server no matter what.

[gizmo21]

What does it mean "I'm able to change the calendar account after having created an event?", please. That sounds like extra work if you have to to it every time.

Thanks!

Did you read the post I but in brackets after my text?
Try doing this with BlackBerry Calendar:
Create event with your standard google calendar put in location, notes, notification an time..., then you think "oh no I took the wrong calendar, it should be in my work cal so that my colleagues can see the event". Now try "change the calendar account the event belongs to" (e.g. to anothe gcal account or a sub calendar or to exchange cal account) by editing the event in BlackBerry Calendar. Not possible atm (cause BlackBerry does have a local cal account atm where those events can be put intermediately), so the only way to do is is to delete the whole event and create a new one in the correct calendar account.

That's one reason I have acal+ installed atm.

[gizmo21]

I emailed tech support for both Business Calendar and aCalendar+ to ask about syncing with an Exchange account that's synced in the Calendar in the Hub on the PRIV.

That was 24 hour ago. I did not receive a reply from aCalendar+ as yet, but I received the following reply from Business Calendar. Note the very interesting section I highlighted in yellow. I'm anxious to try this, and would love reassurance that it's impossible for it to in any way compromise the integrity of the data (including sync information) on my Exchange server.

===================

Hi,

thanks for the message. If the reminders can be synchronised at all ( note that Exchange Sync is limited to various categories), it should work as intended.

All you need to do is to download the app and (if needed) add the account for sync. I assume the latter will not be necessary as you already set up your account. The data should automatically sync to BC.


FYI:
It's already possible to sync our app with an Exchange-server and/or Microsoft Outlook. This is an Android OS system function!

To sync with an Exchange-server please add the Exchange-account to your system settings. Therefore please open the Android system settings -> Accounts and sync -> Add account -> Microsoft Exchange/Active Sync -> type in your log-in data and proceed. Please make sure that the sync of calendars is activated.

If you want to sync with Outlook over an USB-cable/WLAN/Bluetooth you will need a sync-software like the one that comes with your device. I recommend the free sync-software "MyPhoneExplorer" from FJ Software Development which is far better than anything from the device manufacturers!

Please remember that our app only uses the internal synchronization functionalities of the Android OS to sync with something. Therefore the Business Calendar has no own sync abilities.


About the task sync: Currently it is only possible to sync tasks with Google.
We might consider implementing our own sycn to sync tasks also with other provides. However, since this is a very complicated feature it may still take some time until we can implement it.


Greetings,
Dominika Obacz from Business Calendar Support

===================

It's too bad that isn't all clearer. I actually find it very confusing. I certainly have no idea what the text before the highlighted section and the text after the highlighted sections means in light of the text in the highlighted section. If it connects directly to Exchange, then it syncs directly -- I would think! Meaning the text before the highlighted section is irrelevant and the text after the highlighted section is, um, incorrect?

I'm reluctant to dive into something so important since it syncs to the essential data on my Exchange server when I'm getting such unclear communication from tech support after writing a pretty clear inquiry via email.

I'm not sure how I'm going to proceed from here. I guess I could just "try it" but, man oh man would I like reassurance it can't hurt the data or the sync data on my Exchange server no matter what.

So they are talking about 2 different things here you think is one.

1. Exchange Server syncing via Active Sync Exchange account. This is possible as the server data is put in the OS accounts. Which on a desktop PC of cause uses also Outlook (but this is not needed).

2. STANDALONE LOCAL PC ONLY outlook users need to use a desktop sync solution and the recommendation (MyPhoneExplorer) they give is a good solution I've been using for years with many different phones from back in those SonyEricsson dumbphone times over Nexus devices, but haven't tested it with PRIV so far. But if you use an real exchange Server, forget about 2. (besides you want to use MyPhoneExplorer as local PC backup solution).

[classact]

gizmo21, I hugely appreciate your attempts to help me but I think we're talking about different things.

1. I'm not planning on use Google mail in any way at any time (not even for testing).

2. I fully understood that she was referring to three entirely different approaches in her email, and I understood what those approaches were.

My email to them with my original questions made it reasonably clear what I’m doing now, what my goals are, and what my questions were. Here’s what I had originally emailed to them:

------------

I want to maybe use BC Pro with an Exchange account under the BlackBerry Hub on the BlackBerry PRIV.

I do most of my Calendar editing on the desktop in Outlook 2010, and am on Exchange 2010 server. (Soon I’ll migrate both of those to 2013, but I’m in no rush unless I have a good reason to.)

The main problem I have with the native BlackBerry/Hub calendar is that when I create an appointment in Outlook and set an Alarm with it, the PRIV isn’t alerting me when the alarm time hits. All I get is a star (white asterisk in red circle on the home-screen Calendar icon). This is apparently a known issue.

I’m assuming your app will give me a far more aggressive notification, including an audible alarm and snoozing, correct?

Will your app work well with the current installation configuration I have with the Exchange account being under the Hub?

If so, how do I set it up, please?

And what’s the best way to have the most current version and have all the paid features? Buy and install what in what sequence? (I’ve never installed any free or paid version of your software before.)

(Note that I do not use Google’s calendar or have it syncing in any way, and I don’t intend to.)

Thanks!

------------

I acknowledge that in my question to them I failed to consider the possibility that they can sync directly to Exchange. Nonetheless, the response I got is still very confusing.

My points in saying her response was very unclear were:

A. If it can work directly with Exchange like I currently do with the Calendar in the Hub, and if that's the "proper" way to do it (as one could reasonably assume it is), why would I bother considering the other two approaches she discussed?

B. If it can work directly with Exchange, then her comment in the latter part of her email that says it cannot sync with the server and only uses internal Android capabilities is extremely misleading. Of course it uses the OS to do major feats like "sync" with Exchange (the use of "ActiveSync" comes to mind in this context as well), but to say it only uses internal sync functionalities and has no sync abilities of its own goes right back to implying that it works only as was discussed in the top of her email, interacting locally only, and that it does not, in fact, have the ability to sync directly with Exchange as she clearly said is does.

Be that as it may, I understand that directly syncing BC with Exchange is apparently possible. And one would assume that would be the ideal way to implement their app in my case.

Just the same, I feel extremely lacking in having guidance in what the implications of that are -- in terms of, for instance, whether my Hub and Productivity Tab will still interact in the same way as they do now, and whether the Calendar I currently have in the Hub will (and should) continue to be active and syncing with the server and can be used interchangeably at any time with BC without any possible issues.

And of course I don’t feel I even remotely have reassurance that letting it sync directly with the Exchange server cannot possibly cause any corruption with the data (or of the "sync data"!) on the server!

(By the way, she did not answer the last part of my question at all, which was “What’s the best way to get the current version of Pro installed?” There is a ton of debate and confusion on the web about this issue. They only have an older version of paid Pro, and they have a new version of the free app. Nobody seems clear on whether a new user should first install the old Pro and install the new free version over that, or vice versa, or what. I’ve read the instructions on their site and in forums and none of it makes that issue clear at all.)

It's one thing to trust Google or BlackBerry with a calendar app that syncs with the Exchange server directly, but a $4.99 third-party app where the tech support has limited command of English and where I can barely get answers that are understandable to the questions I asked is a very different story.

(NOTE: I have no intention whatsoever of disparaging someone who doesn’t speak or read-write English very well. Quite the contrary! I enormously respect people who learn a second language, let alone conduct business in it! I only speak one language, so they’re clearly way ahead of me in that regard.)

If we can’t be even remotely clear in discussing the core issues, that has me concerned about letting it interact intimately with the data and the “sync data” on my server. I have a lot of things in my Calendar, including many regulatory, financial, and contractual obligations that need to be met – I run a business (which is why I have only ever used BlackBerry, and why I’m considering “Business Calendar”). I need to know this will work and not cause issues that just can’t be fixed. As good as Exchange is, it’s possible for the data in Exchange to get corrupted. I would be in a devastating situation if that happened to me.

[DetritalGeo]

I know exactly what you mean. I am in grad school right now while continuing my business and meetings and tasks are ALL entered into the sync'd calendars (outlook in this case.)

there is no way I can remember everything so I relied on the BB10 reminders and notifications. The task generation by flagged message was a huge time saver and much less messy than the awkward snooze function on Priv.

The BB10 notifications were loud, persistent and effective. So far the BlackBerry solution is very passive due to the core notifications panel in Android. Until they implement a more mature reminder/alarm structure I went back to my Leap.

It's just better for message, appointment and deadline management.

Sorry I cannot solve the Priv concerns, sometimes throwing more random 3rd party apps just doesn't get the job done.

Posted via CB10

[FF22]

The "persistent" notification popup is indeed missing from the BB Calendar app. It's been raised as an issue and may be addressed in an update. In the meantime, I'd suggest looking at the app "Business Calendar". I've been using it for a while and it's great. It provides that persistent notification. It also allows adding more than one notification per event. For instance, I'll set one for a week ou and a day out for family birthdays, so I'll remember to get the present. It also has a wide range of widgets available. The free version is very good; the paid version is even better.

I'm back with further inquiry about BUSINESS CALENDAR.

I have it (or a version?) downloaded but I don't see any alerts or notices. It has made copies or uses my google/native Priv calendar. The events I schedule show up in it but I don't get any particular NOTICES that I see and nothing is PERSISTENT.

Maybe I've set it up wrong or have the wrong version. I really want to turn on or return to my device and see my doc appt or today's bbq showing front and center and not as a small splat (asterisk) in the narrow status line at the top.

Appreciate any help as to version and settings?

Thanks in advance.

[theMite7401]

Our company no longer allows us to use EAS, so I had to find another solution. I am using gSyncit to sync my Outlook calendar to my gmail. I get audible notifications and the standard on-screen (not the take-over-the-screen kind). The free version worked well enough that I ponied up for the paid version (a tad expensive, but worth it to me to get the notifications you are talking about.)

gSyncit is an Outlook add-in and is schedulable to run as often as you like. The only complaint I have is that it confirms any deletions before they are removed from the gmail calendar.

Notifications, in this instance, are from the calendar app, not the Hub.