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Outlook 2007 Gmail Sync Issues
Guys,
First off, I'd like to say that I'm a fan of your effort (and style) and hope you get the bugs worked out... but, that having been said, I'm having some non-trivial issues.
I'm trying to sync contacts between Outlook and Gmail. No joy. Here's my setup:
* Outlook 2007
* Win XP SP3
* Soocial Sync client v 0.9.86
This is what I've done:
* backed up Gmail & Outlook contacts
* wiped Gmail contacts
* installed Soocial client on XP
* connected Outlook (2152 contacts) to Soocial - only 1535 made it over
* connected Soocial to Gmail - 1536! made it over (why the difference?)
* changed a few contacts in Gmail
- added "Other" phone number
- added Contact to a Gmail group
* synced Gmail & Soocial
* synced Soocial & Outlook
* bad things happened...
Here are my issues:
* Outlook Notes: now have "\n" in place of a newline/carriage return
* Outlook Notes: now very, very truncated - much information has been lost/removed
* Outlook Notes: any formatting has been completely stripped
* Outlook Events: Birthday & Anniversary dates have been deleted from Outlook Calendar (I found them in the Deleted Items)
* Outlook Categories: all previous Categories have been removed - only Gmail Group/Category remains
* Gmail Group: multiple, identical, and repeated Groups/Categories have been created within Gmail (have seen this behavior in other Soocial issue posts... I thought this was fixed?)
* Google Talk/Gmail Chat: yes, my contacts have vanished and need to be re-invited (you already know about this issue)
So, as you can see, it's not working as hoped, and now my contacts (both Gmail and Outlook) are a mess. (Please note, that only a handful of these contacts have had pictures.)
I am very tempted to uninstall Soocial, wipe both Gmail and Outlook, and restore from my backups. I'd really like to use your service, but am wary of losing information within the Notes and would like to avoid the extra work of trying to address the issues I now find in both Gmail and Outlook.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
Thanks in advance,
Jonathan
First off, I'd like to say that I'm a fan of your effort (and style) and hope you get the bugs worked out... but, that having been said, I'm having some non-trivial issues.
I'm trying to sync contacts between Outlook and Gmail. No joy. Here's my setup:
* Outlook 2007
* Win XP SP3
* Soocial Sync client v 0.9.86
This is what I've done:
* backed up Gmail & Outlook contacts
* wiped Gmail contacts
* installed Soocial client on XP
* connected Outlook (2152 contacts) to Soocial - only 1535 made it over
* connected Soocial to Gmail - 1536! made it over (why the difference?)
* changed a few contacts in Gmail
- added "Other" phone number
- added Contact to a Gmail group
* synced Gmail & Soocial
* synced Soocial & Outlook
* bad things happened...
Here are my issues:
* Outlook Notes: now have "\n" in place of a newline/carriage return
* Outlook Notes: now very, very truncated - much information has been lost/removed
* Outlook Notes: any formatting has been completely stripped
* Outlook Events: Birthday & Anniversary dates have been deleted from Outlook Calendar (I found them in the Deleted Items)
* Outlook Categories: all previous Categories have been removed - only Gmail Group/Category remains
* Gmail Group: multiple, identical, and repeated Groups/Categories have been created within Gmail (have seen this behavior in other Soocial issue posts... I thought this was fixed?)
* Google Talk/Gmail Chat: yes, my contacts have vanished and need to be re-invited (you already know about this issue)
So, as you can see, it's not working as hoped, and now my contacts (both Gmail and Outlook) are a mess. (Please note, that only a handful of these contacts have had pictures.)
I am very tempted to uninstall Soocial, wipe both Gmail and Outlook, and restore from my backups. I'd really like to use your service, but am wary of losing information within the Notes and would like to avoid the extra work of trying to address the issues I now find in both Gmail and Outlook.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
Thanks in advance,
Jonathan
I’m frustrated
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Inappropriate?Wow Jonathan,
lots of issues for you. Not nice. Seems like you are using this way more intensive than other users so far. (Or you are the only one bothered to give us this information.)
- Because of your post we did just discover that the Gmail sync has a bug that mangles the Notes. We are looking in to that right now.
- Also we found out that adding a birth date to Outlook and saving the contact submits it to the Outlook agenda. Sending a contact with a birthday does not seem to do that. We are looking to see if we are able to change that in the next version.
- Indeed in Outlook 2007 syncing with Soocial seems to actually delete all the entries from the agenda.
- We do not sync other "special" dates with the current version. Not sure if we will in the future.
- With the Categories, can you send us some contact names that it has happened to? I would like to see if what happened there. I could not reproduce that with my Outlook.
- The Gtalk info is not fully under our control. We changed the way we are syncing and were assuming it was solved. But we will look in to that too.
Thanks so much for you detailed report. -
Inappropriate?Bart,
Thanks for the response. I appreciate the candor regarding the bugs you found.
Is there another, less public, email address I could use to send you the contact names? I'd prefer to maintain their privacy. Thanks.
Also, please note, another side effect of the Outlook / Gmail sync was that all of the Home & Business Phone Numbers in Outlook were doubled. (i.e. the Home Phone was copied to Home Phone 2)
Finally, while reviewing and fixing the corrupted contacts, I noticed that in addition to the Notes secion being mangled, the Work Address apprears to have been impacted as well:
* the Street, City, and State values were placed in the Street field
* the City and State values were swapped & the new State/old City value was doubled (i.e Baltimore, MD became MD, Baltimore Baltimore)
* the new City, State, and Zip fields were blank
* the Country/Region field was populated with the Zip and the old Street value (bookended by two "\n")
I hope this helps in your troubleshooting. Please let me know your alternate contact email. (I've previously sent an email to support at soocial dot com from my personal email referencing this issue's subject.)
Regards,
Jonathan
I’m waiting to see what happens.
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This solves the problem
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You can use the support e-mail address to communicate with us directly! -
Inappropriate?I've had this issue as well plus another issue. If I have two different email addresses in Email and Email 2, they end up being set the same (Email = Email 2) after the sync. I've also found instances of Phone numbers being added again as a '2' field (i.e., Home phone becomes Home and Home 2). -
Inappropriate?Hey Guys,
We are currently fixing a lot of bugs in the Outlook client. It will be a lot better. Release is expected within a few weeks. -
Inappropriate?Bart,
Long time; no speak... how is the new Outlook client coming along? Very curious.
Thanks in advance,
Jonathan
I’m waiting to see what happens.
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Inappropriate?Taking longer than expected. We have decided to change more stuff to make the client even more future proof and even more reliable. Thanks for asking and your patience. We'll keep you posted.1 Comment Add a comment
This solves the problem
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Bart,
Just checking in... any word on the new Outlook client? Still curious.
Thanks again,
Jonathan -
Inappropriate?There seems to be no real alternative than google sync to me. Wating a long time for a program that works correctly. As you might understand, you don't want a program that removes or duplicates important appointments or contacts. To back up it every now and then just because some program kills your info shouldn't be nescessary, right?
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This solves the problem
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Agree Frank,
That is why we rather have you wait longer so we can solve things properly, than releasing a half backed update that still doesn't get the syncing right. It will be worth the waiting! -
Bart, I really hope so... you guys have a huge opportunity here to snatch up all the former Plaxo users who are/have been looking for a new solution. Moreover, if you can also manage to solidify syncing with Macs, then you'd have a fantastic offering!
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AssJack,
We did release a new version. It is better but does have issues still. What issue do you have with OSX? -
Bart,
I did not realize that there was a new Outlook client. I had used v0.9.86 previously. I see that v0.9.104 is now available. Is it substantially more stable? Is there a changelog I can review? I’ve read the Known Issues section at <http://www.soocial.com/connections/ou...>. Are there any other ongoing complications not mentioned there?
Regarding your OSX client, I have never used it but have reviewed the open issues in Get Satisfaction. I am currently syncing with Gmail via the functionality built into Address Book / iTunes. I would prefer a solution that is more “on-demand” and does not necessitate connecting my iPod. I would/will consider your OSX client once it becomes a bit more stable.
Previously, I used Plaxo for a full Outlook <-> Plaxo <-> Mac <-> Gmail sync solution. However, after Plaxo was acquired by Comcast, their business model changed and subsequently orphaned Outlook. I am hoping that Soocial can fill the void and unify my contact synchronization needs (and move me from a linear sync path to a spoke & hub model).
Best regards...
EMPLOYEE
