android-outlook sync added strange calendar and users

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sophocles
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jul 17, 2013 1:31 am

android-outlook sync added strange calendar and users

Post by sophocles »

I have just installed android-outlook sync. i now have hundreds of "contacts" in my outlook contact list - names only, with no phones, emails, or addresses. also, my phone calendar has 6 entries for XXXX family library (i have masked the family name here, but it's 6 instances of the same family name) and one for a YYYY community (ditto, YYYY). any clues?
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 660
Joined: Mon Jan 03, 2005 5:21 pm

Re: android-outlook sync added strange calendar and users

Post by admin »

Do these contacts have all the information on your phone? I mean all the fields besides the Name one are filled in?
With regards to the phone calender - are those calenders located under the Outlook-Android Sync account? If yes, they should correspond to the categories you have Appointments in Outlook. Thanks.
sophocles
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jul 17, 2013 1:31 am

Re: android-outlook sync added strange calendar and users

Post by sophocles »

Apologies in advance if i have missed something here.

Regarding contact lists:

In google on my PC, i have a contact list of 185 people in My Contacts. These are current contacts as well as contacts from my former employment and former city – i have never bothered to delete them. But i recognize them all. On my PC Outlook before i ran outlook-android, i had about 100-125 current contacts.

After running outlook-android sync, the outlook desktop has something like 1000 (yes!) entries. This include the same 125 “real” contacts. In addition there are several hundred entries showing just unfamiliar names, without any address or phone details.

On the phone, there is a “phonebook” with 283 entries – it looks the same as the PC google list (some contacts have multiple phone numbers); this group seems to be legitimate.

Also on the phone is a listing under the label “google” with 862 entries. These names are the same as the unidentified ones on my outlook; that the names on my phone also have email info associated with them. They are NOT in my PC google "my contacts".

However, there is a group called "other contacts" in desktop google, with 667 names (and the group name is in red). this seems to be the exact same list of strange names - most of these have a name and email; a few are just names; a few are just emails. there are a handful of names that i recognize in this group. i am *certain* that the vast majority of these were not in my outlook before i ran android-outlook yesterday.

Regarding calendar: my phone calendar listing has a dropdown for multiple calendars. In addition to the calendar entry for PC sync, there are six entry points for a calendar called “Bossen Family Library” and one for “Monsein Community Court”; these items have the android-outlook sync icon in front of them. While these calendars don’t seem to have any data associated with them, it is clearly a problem.

Oh, the phone was brand new, so i didn’t inherig any contacts or calendar items from a previous owner.

Any help would be welcomed!
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 660
Joined: Mon Jan 03, 2005 5:21 pm

Re: android-outlook sync added strange calendar and users

Post by admin »

Thanks very much for the detailed description. Am I right assuming you synchronize your Google contacts with the phone? In this case we could say the Google phone book equaled the one in your phone at the initial stage?
If yes, then it could be that the Other group in Google contained all the people you ever contacted via email and you did have it on your phone. Why wasn't it visible - not sure, there's a setting on the phone not to show contacts without a phone number, for example.
With regards to calendars - could you please check if there's categories with similar names in Outlook?
sophocles
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jul 17, 2013 1:31 am

Re: android-outlook sync added strange calendar and users

Post by sophocles »

I've found an explanation about the calendar. I was in a building with a donated library and a donated meeting space... and a quick google search turned up those two family names in the same town as the building. None of these were in my Outlook; the phone captured this information without my help (other than bringing the phone into the space!)

Further, a chat with HTC revealed that the android spec requires (their words) that the phone capture calendars wherever it is, and that the calendars cannot be deleted. HTC though it was weird, but apparently had no choice in the matter. Google may not be evil, but they may still be the Borg! So, the calendar issue is easily resolved – just uncheck “all” calendars and check just my personal calendar on my phone.

Now, for the contacts. The phone is new (as of 19th July). I generally do not use gmail to send messages, although as previously mentioned gmail does hold an older version of my Outlook contact list, generated before a household move and a need to change ISP and its captive email service. (I used gmail while relocating and living in a hotel, but much prefer Outlook.) That said, I do not recall ever seeing the 600-odd unknown names before 48 hours ago. These are not even casual acquaintances, they are total unknowns. Also, I did not deliberately sync my phone with google contacts; this seems to be the result of android phones taking control of my life. All i ever really wanted to do was to sync the phone with outlook, but the gmail/google calendar/google contacts sync is apparently unavoidable, and probably took place without my knowledge and certainly without my permission.

I did have the good fortune of saving a 2003-vintage ipaq that had been my carry-along organizer until last week; it holds likely 99% of my contacts in Outlook format (the ipaq was basically Office lite, with pocket word, excel and outlook). So i plan to wipe the contacts list in Outlook, and then sync the handheld to outlook; this should restore the contacts. Meanwhile, i have wiped my entire gmail contact list after saving a copy on my PC, so gmail should not recontaminate my phone, nor my Outlook again.

So, the mystery of who these “other” contacts were shall remain a mystery, but i should be able to go on with my normal life shortly.

Thanks!
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 660
Joined: Mon Jan 03, 2005 5:21 pm

Re: android-outlook sync added strange calendar and users

Post by admin »

Thanks. BTW there's no need to sync your contacts and appointments with Google if you don't want to. You can visit Settings in the Outlook-Android app and choose where Contacts will be synchronized to. One of the options is your phone's memory, which isn't synchronized with online services if not set otherwise in the system settings.
The same is with the events. They're placed under the Outlook-Android Sync account which is only used by our app and is not synchronized with any cloud services.
sophocles
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jul 17, 2013 1:31 am

Re: android-outlook sync added strange calendar and users

Post by sophocles »

the saga draws to an end. while i will never know the source of all the bizarre contacts, i ultimately wiped the phone and restored my desktop contacts from a pst that i had saved. this pst was also damaged; a second level help desk person fixed the pst file, and i was back on line with HTC's USB sync. so i have (for now) eliminated android-outlook sync as redundant. as for my wife's PC, there were some dregs of her first attempted installation in the USB drivers, which required a more detailed removal; until that was done, her HTC sync manager kept crashing. that is now resolved. the final wrinkle is that we kept getting messages that the device drivers were not properly installed - every time we reattached a phone to a pc. *that* turned out to be Verizon's way of conning people into buying their cloud storage!
many thanks for your help and support, and best wishes.
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