[Omnitech]

Got my Z10 On Friday (1st Feb) and traded my old 9800 Torch into the shop... having backed it up first... lot of good that did when I couldn't sync the contacts back to the new Z10!!
Have spend the weekend trying to sort it (this thread has been very helpful, thanks all) As stated by pepe68 if I had realised before purchase it would have been a dealbreaker, I wouldn't have gone for the Z10 and opted not to upgrade. Phone shop staff stated it would sync with my contacts etc and several other things which have proved to be false.

From what I can tell, BB10 will import any contacts that are on your previous Blackberry, using the new "Link" software. However I was a bit surprised that it doesn't appear to use backups created by Blackberry Desktop, but requires the old device to be connected to Link first in order to import the data. I've been trying to find a detailed owners guide for Link but have only been able to find a video tutorial so far. (Have the software but haven't installed it yet because I need to create a 'sacrificial device' to play with first)

What BB10 does not do is import data from Outlook that was NOT synced with the previous phone, or re-sync data back to Outlook from the BB10 device. People have posted links a couple of times in this thread to a product from CompanionLink that claims to do exactly that, however.

[altrax]

Device switch works fine for the Z10... I transferred contacts, calendar, email over from my 9900 perfectly using bb link.

[whitbags]

Glad it's not just me that thinks BlackBerry Link sucks donkey balls. It constantly freezes on me just trying to sync music.

Drag one song onto the z10? It does it but the link gets stuck half way and stops responding unless you click cancel.

No desktop sync with Outlook.

Grrr.

[suvo]

Device switch works fine for the Z10... I transferred contacts, calendar, email over from my 9900 perfectly using bb link.

That's just the first time right? Now if you add a contact to your Z10, how will you get it back to your PC Outlook (without using any cloud/web services)? Or even vice-versa...?

Doesn't the BB Desktop Manager recognize a Z10 at all?

[njblackberry]

BlackBerry Link has the same functionality as the lamented Microsoft Zune software.
That is not a good comparison.

[berryaddictnoza]

I have some very sensitive data in my contacts and can't lodge it in the cloud

Ian E, I'm in the same boat, I'd prefer to not hand over my contacts private info to the cloud, and I'm backing up my current BlackBerry using Outlook desktop with a USB cable.
I have a possible solution that hinges on some assumptions on how some things work, here it is;
-In current BlackBerrys, the User 1, User 2, ect fields in contacts DO NOT transfer over to Outlook, so I assume that if you set up a wireless sync with an Outlook (or any) account, these fields will not sync over, and I assume BB10 devices will have these fields. You could use these fields to enter seriously private info.
- If you are using BlackBerry protect, you can opt to not back up contacts (and this info).
-With BlackBerry Link, you can do a local backup of your BB10 device, and I assume it will back up all of your BlackBerry contact info, including the User 1, User 2, ect fields.
- As far as the usual contact info (email addresses, street addresses, phone numbers), you would have to wireless sync that info to Outlook desktop through an email provider. (personally, I wouldn't trust Google, Yahoo or Facebook with ANY info, I would use my Hotmail (Outlook mail) account for this, as I see MS slightly less smarmy than the previously named). The other option is manually adding email addresses to whatever email provider you use (yuck, time consuming).

Since I live in the USA and use Sprint, it will be a while before I get a BB10 device, hopefully BlackBerry will update BlackBerry Link to local sync with Outlook desktop by then!

If anyone knows anything about the things I assume in the above scenario, sound off!

[Ian E]

berryaddictnoza, thanks for your post... I have indeed gone down the route of outlook.com so that I can sync my basic contacts to and from...
unfortunately the other information I have to leave on my home PC, which means way more work and preparation before leaving the house etc so that I have the info and data I need for the ensuing visits. This is far from ideal. I am seriously considering purchasing a second user 9800 for use, which is not ideal as it basically means the newer Z10 I have just taken on a 2yr contract will be redundant, to a less glamourous yet far more useful (for my needs at any rate) older device. I actually see this as an epic fail by Blackberry... I have a device which can now sync wirelessly all my photos, videos etc without the need to lodge them in the 'cloud' and yet something as practical as syncing contacts with my desktop office software seems to be almost impossible without throwing caution to the wind and putting my secure data at risk. I always said Blackberrys were good for business... I have now revised my thinking.

[greggebhardt]

Guys - BB10 is in stages 1 of release. You should have known going into it the ecosystem is a baby - it needs time to grow.

Give it time

I am sorry but "Stage 1" should have a way for people to sync and bring their data to their new phone right out of the box!

What, are they saving this "feature" for later?

Really?

[littleoncape]

hi folks, i am jumping into the fray here with keen interest having started a previous thread on the same subject a month or so ago. i was really hoping that BB would have integration with Outlook right off the bat, and am really disappointed that they have left us Outlook users in the dust.
i bought a W8 phone in Nov after being told specifically by the verizon rep (my BB storm was on its last legs) that it came with desktop software and that you could do a USB sync. nothing was further from the truth. after much research (MS doesn't want you to know you cannot do this out of the box) i suffered through setting up an outlook.com account (you have to sign up for a live.com or hotmail.com email account) - ick -and then install some software to piggyback on Outlook, then rename/copy your pst file to a new one and then syn with outlook.com only and you cannot do multiple calendars. it trashed my past calendar items, was clumsy to say the least and i really didn't want a new email account ( you don't need to use it except for synching). the phone was awful, as was this process, so i returned it and decided to wait for BB10 thinking that if MS was stupid enough not to provide Outlook backup to their own customers, that BB would come to the rescue.
everyone i know has an iphone and i have stubbornly stuck up for BB all these years. guess what? an iphone syncs with outlook cal, contacts, etc. through itunes. my daughter set it up in about 5 mins with her phone last year! she keeps telling me to get an iphone and after all these years of holding out (not a jobs or apple fan), i might just do that. on top of no Outlook sync, the reviews on BB10 are mixed, the camera is inferior, the map function stinks, and as CNET said, it's not one thing that they don't like about the new Z10 but so many that it is like a thousand paper cuts. that is what i thought about the HTC W8 phone that i returned.
if anyone out there has an convincing arguements for an Outlook user to give the Z10 a try i am willing to listen. But it is not looking good for me to stay a loyal RIM fan.

[SFWriter]

Yes it will sync with outlook.com perfectly, wireless and automatically. All you have to do is put your outlook.com email address and password into the z10 when you first turn it on and the rest will be like magic! Now in order to get all of your contacts and calendars also synced to outlook.com, so they in turn sync to your phone you will need to make sure your outlook 2007 is also connected to outlook.com using active sync (since you have to manually export your contacts it must not be, because that would have happened automatically) In order to do that just follow the steps here How to configure Outlook to connect to an outlook.com email account and voila.. your outlook 2007, your outlook.com and your z10 will always be in sync for email, contacts and calendars.. no need to sync it manually, not need for the desktop manager software and no need for a usb cable.. if you ad an appointment to your phone calendar it will show up on your computer within minutes.

Great... Thanks for the heads up as I was about to ask that same question.

That said, I am adding my voice to those that lament the fact this seems like a step backward for what was a functional and useful feature.

[berryaddictnoza]

hi folks, i am jumping into the fray here with keen interest having started a previous thread on the same subject a month or so ago.

Hey littleonecape, I'm the guy that was on your last post. Unfortunately, here we are dealing with the Outlook desktop sync again Again, I have a workaround (posted above) that depends on quite a few assumptions, if true, will work for me. Sorry to hear you may have to resort to an iPhone

[Omnitech]

As mentioned previously, there is a 3rd-party product in BB World from a company called Companion Link that claims to sync BB10 to Outlook. (and many other things)

As far as the future in general: I would be extremely surprised if Blackberry adds a "desktop PIM sync" feature back into their software tool. The industry has all moved away from that sort of thing, RIM/Blackberry really seems to be the last hold-out. If we're going to go down that road I'll just state that if I had MY wish, Blackberry would have an app that worked just like the old Palm Desktop, which I MUCH preferred to syncing with Outlook. (Using Outlook at all entails a lot of kicking-and-screaming from me, and I'm still avoiding truly learning it.)

So I personally gave up Palm Desktop when I first switched to Blackberry, and now I can't say it comes as a big surprise that that solution is probably going to go away as well. So those of us who wish to continue to have a "desktop sync" architecture can use a 3rd-party product like CompanionLink, or if data security/confidentiality is an issue, there are tons of hosted email providers that can be used on a SaaS basis without having to setup your own BES server (ie ExchangeMyMail, 123Together, Intermedia, etc.), and many of those providers offer security/privacy guarantees/SLAs too.

[berryaddictnoza]

Omnitech; yep, I noted that link to Companion Link, THANKS! I may end up using it.
littleonecape; Hey, have you thought about getting one of the current BlackBerrys using OS7? They are pretty nice devices, and they sync to Outlook desktop.

[zeyadkt]

Hi,
Just Got BB10 very disappointed with the following:
First you must download a link from BB website that does not download so you must find an alternate, then the BIG SHOCKER!!
1. YOU CANT SYNC OUTLOOK!!!
2. CLI (Call Line Identification) doesn�t work so if you have more than 500 contacts you don�t know who is calling !!!!!!!!!!
3. No SKYPE / NO Whatsapp / No Tango / No Viber

[zeyadkt]

hi folks, i am jumping into the fray here with keen interest having started a previous thread on the same subject a month or so ago. i was really hoping that BB would have integration with Outlook right off the bat, and am really disappointed that they have left us Outlook users in the dust.
i bought a W8 phone in Nov after being told specifically by the verizon rep (my BB storm was on its last legs) that it came with desktop software and that you could do a USB sync. nothing was further from the truth. after much research (MS doesn't want you to know you cannot do this out of the box) i suffered through setting up an outlook.com account (you have to sign up for a live.com or hotmail.com email account) - ick -and then install some software to piggyback on Outlook, then rename/copy your pst file to a new one and then syn with outlook.com only and you cannot do multiple calendars. it trashed my past calendar items, was clumsy to say the least and i really didn't want a new email account ( you don't need to use it except for synching). the phone was awful, as was this process, so i returned it and decided to wait for BB10 thinking that if MS was stupid enough not to provide Outlook backup to their own customers, that BB would come to the rescue.
everyone i know has an iphone and i have stubbornly stuck up for BB all these years. guess what? an iphone syncs with outlook cal, contacts, etc. through itunes. my daughter set it up in about 5 mins with her phone last year! she keeps telling me to get an iphone and after all these years of holding out (not a jobs or apple fan), i might just do that. on top of no Outlook sync, the reviews on BB10 are mixed, the camera is inferior, the map function stinks, and as CNET said, it's not one thing that they don't like about the new Z10 but so many that it is like a thousand paper cuts. that is what i thought about the HTC W8 phone that i returned.
if anyone out there has an convincing arguements for an Outlook user to give the Z10 a try i am willing to listen. But it is not looking good for me to stay a loyal RIM fan.

[John Clark]

Hi,
Just Got BB10 very disappointed with the following:
First you must download a link from BB website that does not download so you must find an alternate, then the BIG SHOCKER!!
1. YOU CANT SYNC OUTLOOK!!!
2. CLI (Call Line Identification) doesn’t work so if you have more than 500 contacts you don’t know who is calling !!!!!!!!!!
3. No SKYPE / NO Whatsapp / No Tango / No Viber

1. Nope. And from what I've heard there is little intention to support wired sync. I don't know why. You're not alone.

2. I've never tried more than 500 callers so can't help too much on that one.

3. Skype is coming, Whatsapp is coming. Haven't heard about Tango and Viber. I know Viber was on BB7 and the Viber folks are active on the RIM support forums so I'd assume it's coming too but I haven't asked them.

[MattUK]

I've not tried to sync with Outlook since I've moved across to a Macbook now, actually I've not looked if I can back it up from that either.. I should do that.

As a side note, reading above the you can't even do it with Windows Phone 8 is a real surprise.. just adds to the list of failures from Microsoft in launching that phone. I would love to know who the millions of people who are buying Nokia Lumia Phones every day (according to the UK advert), maybe they forgot to mention the millions of people who are also returning the devices the next day.

[Omnitech]

1. Nope. And from what I've heard there is little intention to support wired sync. I don't know why. You're not alone.

Actually I may have just realized a KEY reason why RIM/Blackberry is no longer doing Outlook sync.

I believe the mechanism that Blackberry Desktop used to sync with Outlook was what Microsoft called "ActiveSync". (This is a wired/desktop sync protocol, not the same as "Exchange Active Sync" which Blackberry just started natively supporting with BB10.)

ActiveSync has been around since the Windows CE days, and when Windows Vista came out, ActiveSync was replaced by "Windows Mobile Device Center".

The thing is: ActiveSync was used by a number of 3rd-parties, like RIM, Palm, Symbian, etc.. but WMDC is "Windows Only".

So it seems to me that Microsoft may have actually pulled the rug out from underneath RIM/Blackberry wrt to the sync engine that RIM/Blackberry had been using in Blackberry Desktop for so long.

[greggebhardt]

Found this software to allow BB10 and outlook syncing
Sync BB10 with Outlook Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Notes -- CompanionLink Software
It costs about $50 but might do the job
I currently have 2 BB 9800 which share contacts and calendar via desktop sync

Companion Link!?

Really?

[purpledog10]

Yes it will sync with outlook.com perfectly, wireless and automatically. All you have to do is put your outlook.com email address and password into the z10 when you first turn it on and the rest will be like magic!

Now in order to get all of your contacts and calendars also synced to outlook.com, so they in turn sync to your phone you will need to make sure your outlook 2007 is also connected to outlook.com using active sync (since you have to manually export your contacts it must not be, because that would have happened automatically) In order to do that just follow the steps here How to configure Outlook to connect to an outlook.com email account

and voila.. your outlook 2007, your outlook.com and your z10 will always be in sync for email, contacts and calendars.. no need to sync it manually, not need for the desktop manager software and no need for a usb cable.. if you ad an appointment to your phone calendar it will show up on your computer within minutes.

I'm sorry, but it just isn't that easy! There's got to be more to it because my calendar and contacts are not syncing with my hotmail. I just reinstalled the outlook connector to try it again, but entries made in Outlook on my computer are not being synced to the outlook.com account. Syncing the web-based hotmail account to the BB is the easy part, it's getting the info off my computer and onto the website account which is the hard part!

[GoLeafsGo44]

I just got mine today and while I think I can live without syncing moving forward, when I did the device switch from my Torch 9800 to the Z10 through BB Link none of my contact information moved over, it said a bunch of data was moved but if I go to my contacts the only thing I see are my Facebook and Twitter contacts. PLEASE HELP! Oh and my BBM wouldn't update either, saying there was a server error, however this just fixed itself.

[Droidophobe]

As far as the future in general: I would be extremely surprised if Blackberry adds a "desktop PIM sync" feature back into their software tool. The industry has all moved away from that sort of thing, RIM/Blackberry really seems to be the last hold-out. If we're going to go down that road I'll just state that if I had MY wish, Blackberry would have an app that worked just like the old Palm Desktop, which I MUCH preferred to syncing with Outlook. (Using Outlook at all entails a lot of kicking-and-screaming from me, and I'm still avoiding truly learning it.)

So I personally gave up Palm Desktop when I first switched to Blackberry, and now I can't say it comes as a big surprise that that solution is probably going to go away as well. So those of us who wish to continue to have a "desktop sync" architecture can use a 3rd-party product like CompanionLink, or if data security/confidentiality is an issue, there are tons of hosted email providers that can be used on a SaaS basis without having to setup your own BES server (ie ExchangeMyMail, 123Together, Intermedia, etc.), and many of those providers offer security/privacy guarantees/SLAs too.

I also thought the Palm Desktop was outstanding. It allowed you to sync all your organizer info seamlessly between your PC and your Palm Pilot. Too bad Smartphones turned PDA's into dinosaurs.

Why should I have to pay for something that Blackberry had as a standard?! We should be able to at least sync our local Calendar, Contacts from our desktop as not all want to upload personal & private information in cyberspace (ie: Cloud space).

PS. This will be a dealbreaker for some! I am a real BB Fan & Power user of BB, but I must say that I'm re-considering my reservation for the Z10 and the overall other shortcomings of BB10.

I completely agree with this. I need a way to sync the organizer data on my BB to my laptop. If I can't do it, then that's a dealbreaker, and I have no choice but to spend even more money, switch carriers, and get an iPhone.

The underlying problem here is that some of us need a PDA more than a phone. Phones are easy to come by. A good PDA that works with your PC (or tablet) is not, particularly if you don't want to put all your personal information, and that of all your contacts, out on the cloud.

[CyberchickK]

[QUOTE=Droidophobe;7938569]I also thought the Palm Desktop was outstanding. It allowed you to sync all your organizer info seamlessly between your PC and your Palm Pilot. Too bad Smartphones turned PDA's into dinosaurs.

I hear that. I also loved the Palm setup. This whole thread has me leery about jumping on the BB10 Bandwagon now. I currently own a BB 9650 that syncs fine with my Outlook 2010. I actually use the Memo and ToDo categories. I also use Outlook every day (except for email). (The Palm calendar was much simpler, but there you go.)

I work with a PC and enter data into Outlook every day. I wouldn't want any of my personal data in a cloud. I don't care if its wireless or wired, but this new OS has to sync with something I can use on my PC. It is certainly one of the reasons I haven't gotten an iPhone; they only sync well with Macs. With Outlook I always have a backup of contacts, calendar, etc. I'm not going to work off my phone when I'm in front of a computer. And YES I hear you guys that it could be coming, but from the sounds of this thread, it also may not.

Per Companion Link: I have used that in the past to sync my BB with the Palm Calendar and found it frustrating to use. In the end it failed me and I had to move to Outlook. I will not be purchasing it again for a fix.

Frankly, I own a smartphone to make calls, check email, keep a list of what I need to get done, find out the movie times, check the weather and update my Facebook/Twitter. I play a few games, don't care to watch movies (even if I had the Z10) on it, and really wouldn't mind holding on to my old BB if the damn browser worked. Looking up stuff on the net sucks on the 9650.

This type of user isn't everybody, but I have been syncing to some type of desktop application for some time now and I'm sure there are others. I appreciate other apps, such as Splash ID, that provide a desktop app. It's just plain easier to use/see/manage data on a large computer screen.

Ah well. We shall see what we shall see. I was hankering for that Q10.

[NewfieCheesehead]

I just sync my outlook calender, and z10 calender to my google calender. Everything then syncs with each other perfectly.

[Mikey_T]

Based on Companionlink's website their software syncs Outlook data to their own App on your phone; NOT to the native contacts, calendar and notes app in BB10.