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2 thoughts on “CompanionLink v4 is better than ever before!”

1. Anonymous says:

   May 24, 2011 at 06:13

   Sync Saga Continues #Outlook Sync PIM Data to #Android http://bit.ly/lkiIG3@googleapps @msftnews [@companionlink FAIL]Fruitlessly, I have invested a considerable amount of time and distraction to trying perform a basic task on an Android, the synchronization of Outlook PIM data to the Phone’s database. There is nothing unusual or new about this operation. The first time I was able to do a complete sync of Outlook data was back in 1998 between Outlook and Yahoo Mail, and Outlook and WindowsCE. I have since been able to sync between Outlook and various mobile devices such as Blackberry, Palm (Tungsten, Handspring, & Treo series), Nokia phones, and Sony-Ericson.It seems this is a bridge too far with today’s so-called “smart phones”.

2. SixFiveGuy says:

   June 21, 2012 at 11:47

   For those who just want the summary: if you need to sync Microsoft Outlook on your
   PC with your android smartphone, save yourself some money and a lot of grief by
   using Android-Sync instead of CompanionLink.

   I’ve been syncing Outlook
   with various handheld devices for about 20 years. I’m syncing 600 contacts,
   4,000 calendar events, and several hundred tasks. I have a lot of notes, but I use
   Evernote for those, since Evernote’s capabilities are far superior to Outlook’s,
   and it provides automatic syncing among various devices.

   I had been using Windows Mobile for my smartphones,
   since those phones come with free, reliable syncing software. But last year I
   finally switched to an android phone –Motorola’s Droid Razr Maxx.

   I’ve found that the android OS is much superior to
   Windows Mobile, but there is that lingering problem of how to sync Outlook with
   the android. I read many reviews, and CompanionLink (with its companion
   DejaOffice) was often mentioned as the best available product, although at a
   steep cost ($49.95).

   I shelled out the $49.95 for CompanionLink, and
   would have been happy to pay that if it had worked well. I’ve now spent four
   frustrating months trying to get it to work reliably and accurately, and have
   mostly given up because of the variety and persistence of the problems. Here
   are some of the problems I’ve had:

   ·       
   -Messages asking
   if I want to delete anywhere from hundreds to thousands of calendar items in
   Outlook, even though no calendar changes had been made on the android or in
   Outlook.

   ·       
   -Very strange,
   seemingly random, changes made to contacts, such as one person’s e-mail being replaced
   with that of another person.

   ·       
   -Repeated
   messages that CompanionLink and DejaOffice are using different Wi-Fi device
   names, even though the names had been working fine, and no changes had been made.
   (And when this happened, a check of the names on the PC and the android always
   showed them to be the same.)

   -·       
   Strangely, this
   message complaining about different Wi-Fi device names would come up frequently
   even when I was trying to use a USB connection, with no Wi-Fi involvement.

   I like to read a lot of
   reviews before buying a new product, and I hadn’t been able to find a solid
   recommendation for any syncing software other than CompanionLink. But while recently
   searching again for an alternative, I was surprised to come across a product
   called Android-Sync, which I assume is new. I was skeptical, since I couldn’t find
   any reviews. But since I was desperate, and since they offer a “60-day
   no-questions-asked money-back guarantee” for $29.95, I decided to give it
   a try. I’ve only been using the product for about a week, but at this point I’m
   very glad I spent the money.

   Android-Sync is much easier to set up and use
   (partly because it has fewer options – e.g., you can’t sync with Wi-Fi), it
   syncs faster, and I’ve yet to find any errors in the syncing. I’m using an
   optional feature that causes it to sync automatically whenever the android is
   connected to the PC with a USB cable. CompanionLink claims to have such a USB capability,
   but it often failed to work, even after I changed my USB connection mode, which
   Android-Sync does not require.

   I’ve found that Android-Sync works well for syncing
   with the native android calendar, contacts, and tasks applications. I much
   prefer Business Calendar to the native android calendar, and fortunately that
   works smoothly, since Business Calendar automatically syncs with the native
   calendar. So I’m getting good two-way syncing between Business Calendar and
   Outlook using Android-Sync.

   I’m happy with the android’s native contacts manager
   (and my contact categories in Outlook are syncing nicely with groups on the
   android), but I do find that the task manager in DejaOffice is superior to the
   native task app that Android-Sync uses. Because of that, I’m continuing to use
   CompanionLink, but now only for syncing tasks. With that much smaller job, it
   has (to my surprise) been working well for the past week, via Wi-Fi. Of course,
   if I had known ahead of time, I would never have paid $50 for a program that’s
   only capable of reliably syncing tasks.

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