Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Google Sync Beta - Now for S60

We love to hear user feedback and one of the most common questions we get is, "When is this coming out for my phone?" Well, for those of you who have been asking about Google Sync for mobile on your Nokia S60 smartphone, we're happy to announce that you can now synchronize your Google Contacts and Calendars with your mobile device.

Google Sync offers two-way, over-the-air contacts and calendar synchronization. This means that you can make changes to your contacts and calendar on your phone or in your desktop Google account. Since Sync uses push technology, the changes should automatically appear within minutes. And your information is constantly syncing, so it's up-to-date and securely stored within your Google account, even if you lose your phone.


Please note: Google Sync for S60 requires Nokia software to be installed on the phone. We also recommend backing up your calendar and contacts before setting up Sync. To find out more about setting up Google Sync on Nokia S60 phones, please visit our help center.

To try Google Sync, visit m.google.com/sync from your desktop.

Posted by Jon Skeet and Douglas Gresham, Software Engineers, Google Mobile

42 comments:

  1. really impressed with this - easy

    any ideas when mail and tasks are going to be supported?

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  2. FINALLY! Thank you, thank you Google. Now if you could please consider Gmail and Google Reader for native S60 support, it'd be awesome.

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  3. Not working great and multi-calendar support is vital but this is still a welcome step in the right direction.

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. So, does this do multiple calendars or not? The front page for the feature says yes, but the help section says no. Having my calendar but not my wife's is pretty useless for me. I'm currently using Nuevasync and don't want to lose functionality.

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  6. Firstly, thank-you for working on S60! Still looking forward to the day I can ditch paying for Goosync though...

    Only supports the main calendar. I have 8 calendars that need syncing.

    Tasks are missing.

    I can sync over WLAN but not over my operator (T-Mobile). I get "System error. Please try again." Could they be blocking it somehow?

    Initial results promising though, over the WLAN I got my contacts and main calendar synced both ways fine. Keep up the good work!

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  7. Thanks for the mobile sync support.

    However I have been getting "System Error. Try again later." error over the last 4 hours -- in fact it has never succeeded once. Is syncing from Australia supported? What about Google Apps FYD users?

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  8. @Scott
    I see this error often too. I did get it to work eventually. Not sure if they are still working out kinks

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  9. Jon Skeet! It is you!

    And BTW, I probably need to update my Nokia firmware, I get "Phone not supported" with an older revision of N95 8GB.

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  10. As long as it is not capable of synchronizing multiple Google Calendars, this solution is of marginal value to most people.

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  11. YAY! Thanks a lot. I hope multi-calendar synch and tasks will come soon.

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  12. It would be awesome If It could just sync an specific contact group and not all contacts saved.

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  13. BE ADVISED:

    Despite being stated on the actual NOKIA instructions page (see - http://www.google.com/mobile/nokia_smart/sync.html ),

    ...That MULTIPLE Calendar support is now possible:
    "Get calendar alerts. Using your Nokia's native calendar, you can now access multiple Google calendars, and be alerted for upcoming appointments with sound or vibration. "...This is NOT TRUE however, if the "Known Beta Limitations for Symbian" are correct: http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=147950

    ...Where it clearly warns you:

    "Google Sync allows you to sync your main account calendar to your Nokia/Symbian phone. You cannot sync multiple calendars at this time."So for those like me, that include partner's Calendar, and the kids basic version, so I know what I am meant to be doing at any given time, then despite Google now claiming that for the Symbian Beta, MULTIPLE Calendar Sync is now possible, their "Known Issues" page flies in the face of this, and said you CANNOT sync MULTIPLE Calendars yet.

    Doh to Google for the left contradicting the right...

    So for now I need to stick with the PAID FOR version of GooSync...

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  14. THANK YOU google!
    This is the number one feature I was waiting for the last couple of weeks
    I've received
    System error, try again later
    For now it doesn't work
    Hope you'll fix it
    Once again THANK U!

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  15. It looks that the server is down... I can't get it to sync in my N95...

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  16. It seems to have issues syncing all day events. If I add an all day event on my phone and then sync, Google calendar displays it on the wrong day! E.g. create an all day event for the 20th on the phone - Google displays it as the 21st. Events going from Google calendar to the phone seem to be okay.

    I suspect this is to do with the fact that Nokia represent all day events as events that run from 12am-11:59pm.

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  17. Can we have MAIL & TASKS next please google!

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  18. SOLUTION:
    I was also getting the "System Error. Try Again Later" message.

    Open MFE settings and make sure you are not also trying to sync email and tasks. Once I set those to "no" it worked just fine

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  19. First let me show appreciation for you guys finally putting some work on S60. Updates concerning Iphone or Android are fare more common on Google Mobile Blog.

    But tasks and multiple calendars are still needed to make the Google Account - S60 Device seamless.

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  20. Sweet! I have really been missing this feature. So good work guys. Together with the recently added birthday field in google contacts I now finally have a good way of keep track of these.

    Unfortunately the bug effecting all day events also seems to cause problems with the birthday in contacts. Each time it syncs, it moves the birthday forward by a day.

    Thanks again and I am looking forward to when the initial problems of this beta are sorted out

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  21. To those who want to sync multiple calendars for free, try out http://nuevasync.com/

    I've been using them for almost 5 months now. Very reliable and uses Mail For Exchange also. But when Google get their act together, gonna be switching to them.

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  22. This also works on my SonyEricsson C905, which has Exchange sync built into the software.

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  23. THANK YOU SO MUCH GOOGLE.
    The Nokia touch (5800 XM) uses the same browser as the iPhone, it would be lovely to get the iPhone optimized pages on this phone.

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  24. Im getting the "System Error. Try again later." message too...

    Last days the service was working on my nokia, but now only get that error mes.

    any idea?

    thanks in advance

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  25. Why are you targetting individual phones with specialized apps?
    Please provide full SyncML support for calendars, and then pretty much everyone can sync their mobile calendars rather than just those fortunate enough to afford high end S60 type phones.

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  26. When will Google Contacts improve its support for Contacts. I have multiple mobile numbers & emails for each contact on my phone. But after syncing, not all the details are displayed on Google.

    I have not gone through the entire list, but a few of my contacts who have multiple email accounts on the phone, only show one email id on Google. The phone types have been changed.

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  27. Yeah great start. Now only possibility for multiple calendars and than I can really use it.

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  28. Well, after thinking I had been too quick to judge badly and have had removed the application after reading some of the comments, I therefore re-installed MfE, and set my Sync Profile back up.

    Using my Wi-fi Access Point as my connection, I was then finally able to sync all 576 contacts over to my Google Contacts this time.

    I then changed the connection method to my proper Operator 3G connection.

    And then amended a couple of Contacts within Google Contacts.

    I then witnessed what everyone else has been seeing:


    "Unable to synchronise with server. Try again later".So I left it alone. And sadly it has done this constantly for the last nine or ten hours.

    So this is a total waste of time for me. I expect a Beta to have ISSUES, I do not expect a Beta to not do anything at all.

    MfE is now off my phone, and I will not be going down the Google Sync route until a LONG time after you guinea pigs confirm it actually does anything/works now...

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  29. good to hear google is not ignoring nokia and its 40+ % market share... will try later today.

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  30. Thanks Google!
    I hope an update with tasks will come.

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  31. I receive an system error since I followed the settings of the Google Sync page. This error happened after all my contacts were erased!

    I used the Google Syncml settings earlier, that worked fine. The thought of an automated sync between my contacts and calender and Nokia 5800 looked prospering to me.

    Now I face the fact that I have no contacts and even switching back to the old syncml method does not work: I keep receiving the system error message.

    Anyone an idea what can I do?

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  32. finally tried this morning... working perfectly on my 5800 for both contacts and calendar, even though, according to t google sync help pages, t S60 5th edition is not supported (http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=147949&ctx=sibling)! next step: multiple calendars + tasks sync... please. a big thank you for t development team!

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  33. Went to the m.google.com page and it is already possible to select the additional calendars there. I now have to documents there (one for my iPod touch and teh new one for the E51).

    Unfortunately it seems that indeed they cuurently only support the main calendar ... only that one is syncronised :-(

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  34. Hello there.
    Thanks for the work. No connection problems on my side, but the same all-day events bug mentioned above:
    - from Google Calendar to phone: OK
    - from phone to Google Calendar: the event appears one day earlier.

    And if it could be sync. the tasks as well, that would be perfect for me.
    Thank you again.
    Denis

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  35. Glad to see it working for so many people, but wasn't keen to install 1.8MB Exchange addon that might delete all my info.

    Since SyncML already work for contacts, why not just extend it to do calendar and bookmarks? Just one implementation, you will be able to support millions of phones, not just Nokia S60 series phone. This way, I can pick up almost any phone and sync my data to it as long as it support syncml.

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  36. Problem with the secondary address line!!

    Most phones give you "Address line 1" and "Address line 2," so you can create an entry as follows:

    Address line 1: 123 Happy Street
    Address line 2: Apartment #1

    Curiously, the second address line is called "Extension" in my N95's address book.

    This "Extension" field is not supported in this version of the software, so while street addresses sync flawlessly, I lose all of the secondary address info (Apt #, PO box, etc.).

    Can you guys please add support for this in the next version of the software?

    Thx!

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  37. Thanks also for this really needed features.
    Here everything went well as well on wifi as mobile internet.
    I can confirm the 'all day events' bug here also.

    Jan

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  38. Thanks to all for jumping in with comments! The "system error" should be resolved & we fixed the inconsistencies in messaging multiple calendar support. If you have additional feedback, bugs, or questions, please visit our help forum: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile?hl=en.

    Cheers, Robin from the Google Mobile team

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  39. Hellow, I have some problems when sync in windows mobile. If i delete a contact from Google Contacts it's deleted from my PDA, but if I delete a contact from my PDA it isn't deleted from google contacts ... Is this normal? Thanks !!

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  40. THANKS!! This is a big step in the right direction. My contacts and main calendar are syncing. Only minor problem I had was that I cannot have three words in the main name field. So I can have "peter smith" but not "peter mark smith". Well it works if I add the three words my Nokia but if I change/add a contact in gmail only the first and the last words are added on my phone. Still I can live with this limitation. Otherwise it seems to be very solid sync software. many thanks.

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  41. I have tried it, but I got disappointed because I cannot sync phone -> server only. I must sync 2-way. This is not nice, as the service is beta and I fear for my contacts.

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