A few months ago I grew tired of maintaining my own email server and
moved everything to Google Apps. Recently, I’ve been using the webmail
interface instead of Outlook. The thing I missed, however, was all of
my contacts. It’s easy enough to import my Outlook contacts, but I
wanted something smoother and more automated. GooSync seems to be my answer.
I keep my calendar and all of my contacts on my work PC in Outlook.
(I’d love to separate my work and personal data, but maintaining such a
thing is too much work.) Using the Nokia PC Suite application, I sync
Outlook with my N95. This works very well. (Kudos to Nokia). Then I
just use GooSync to sync my N95 with Google.
I know there are ways to sync my work Outlook directly with Google,
but it would be another app to install on my work PC. Plus, I gotta
sync with my N95 anyways and that is more important. The other thing is
that Google Contacts and Calendar is more more limited in the data
fields it has, so there can be issues syncing Outlook with it directly.
The way I do it (Outlook -> N95 -> Google), if things get messed
up with Google, I can always just force update everything from Outlook
to the N95, and start all over.
GooSync is free if you only want to sync your Calendar. To sync your
contacts, you gotta pay �19.95 ($US39) for 12 months. It’s a little
pricey, so we’ll see if I use it enough to renew next year. The pay
server gets you other benefits, but contacts is probably the main
reason you’d upgrade.
Set up
I was somewhat confused on how to set the darn thing up. When you
register, you are given the option of automatically configuring over
the air, but I’m kinda stupid and didn’t know how to enter my phone
number using the international dialing format. I ended up never getting
the auto-config msg. Oh yeah, I should mention that when you register
for the pay service, there is an option with “configuration credits.”
Basically, they’ll give you one freebie when you first register, but
you gotta pay for future automatic configuration (SMS) messages. I
didn’t select this option.
It’s easy enough to manually set it up on your N95 and it involves
the built-in Sync application. It’s in the Tools folder. Just create a
new sync profile and set things up as follows:
- Applications:
- Contacts:
- � Include in sync: Yes
- � Remote database: Contacts
- � Synchronisation type: whatever you want
- Calendar:
- � Include in sync: Yes
- � Remote database: Calendar
- � Synchronisation type: whatever you want
- Connection Settings:
- � Host address: http://sync.goosync.com/
- � Username: your goosync username
- � Password: your goosync password
- � I left everything else at their default settings
Note: The Sync type is the direction of the changes, so “To server” means changes on the phone go to the server, but changes on the server don’t go to the phone.
Make sure you authenticate the Calendar and Contacts on your GooSync
account. If you haven’t, there will be links in those areas on your
GooSync account with instructions.
Once everything is set up, you just run (i.e., syncronize) the GooSync profile you created in the N95 Sync app.