Two-way sync between Droid and Google online

H

hopeful07

New member
I find both the Google Contacts and Google Calendar overwrite the contacts and events on my Droid. This seems like a poor sync setup; there needs to be a merge, or at worst some way of setting priority (I would rather, if there's a conflict, for my phone to take precedence).

I've been through the settings on my phone and cannot resolve this issue. Any ideas? Is there an app that will provide two-way sync management?

Thanks.
 
That's not how it works at all. If I add a contact or calendar event on my phone, it appears online, usually within a few seconds. If I add a contact or calender event online, it appears on my phone, usually within a few seconds. Or, at longest, whenever it next syncs.

Similarly, if I delete an event or contact in either location, that event or contact will be deleted in both places.

Are you trying to have different contacts or events on your phone and online? Because that's not possible - you should always have the same in both locations.

You say that they online contacts/events overwrite the ones on your phone... If you change something online, then the changes will appear on your phone. But the opposite is true also.
 
Thanks for the reply. You are correct in as far as you go, but you only describe some of the scenarios, and not the one that is causing the problem.

As you say, if you add a NEW contact or calendar event in either environment (phone / website) then the other location is synced fine. Plus, as you say, DELETE works fine. However, the problem is not with either of these functions ... the problem is with EDITING entries that exist on both phone and web.

Say I create a calendar event online. It is synced to my phone. Great. Then I make an edit to that entry on my phone (while traveling). Now here's the problem. At the next sync, my edit is overwritten by the original on the website. I lose a lot of important data because sync assumes that Google online takes precedence over my phone data. WRONG!

Try it and you'll see what I mean. So I need a cure for this. Can anyone help?
 
i just added an event online, edited it on my phone, verified the edit online, & added location & a comment online, which is now on my phone.

not sure what you are experiencing...
 
I just tested that too. I should have added in my original phone that if you edit a contact or entry online, or on your phone, then the edits also appear in the other location.

I wonder how this actually works though. Does it look at the last add/edit/delete time and just choose the most recent one as the one that will appear in both locations? If so then timezones and your date/time on your phone come into play.

It also may not be synching as soon as you might imagine, especially if you're going in and out of areas that have Data access. You did say "while travelling" in your example. So let's eliminate both possibilities. You said...



...so do this... Create a calender event online. Wait 30 seconds to be certain it's saved properly. In your phone hit Home -> Menu -> Settings -> Data synchronization -> Menu -> Sync now. Wait for the spinning sync icons to disappear. Your entry that you made online should now be on your phone (correct?). Now, edit it on your phone, then hit that Sync now option again and wait for it to Sync. In the your browser on your computer, hit Refresh LINK (that's just below the Search button on the website). Sometimes it takes a few seconds for everything to catch up, so if it doesn't appear the first time, wait 30 seconds and hit the refresh link again. Do your edits appear online now? If not, have your edits on your phone been incorrectly overwritten?
 
Sounds like your phone isn't synchronizing properly. Mine doesn't have this issue, but instead looks for the most recent changes.
 
Thanks all. The kind of testing suggested by @extorian is exactly how I came to the conclusion that online edits were taking priority over phone edits. I have tried a few more times in a 'controlled way' and now I'm not sure how reliable my findings are ... out of about 5 tests, 4 were ok and 1 was not. There seems to be some conditions under which syncing priority is not based on timestamp alone. Maybe there are glitches ... maybe network errors causing a sync bale out but registering that sync was complete ... I need to narrow this down. Anyway, thanks all for your interest and sorry I have nothing more conclusive to offer.
 
Hi, I am also experiencing the same problem. I know this thread is very old now but I am hoping that someone will see this and respond.

My issue is as described above. I.e. Any changes made to my contacts on my phone (other than contact image) are quickly overridden by Google. I can add a new contact on my phone and sit and watch it disappear in front of my eyes within a few seconds. What is odd, is that I can add a contact picture on the phone and it soon appears online. All changes I made online are sync'd to the phone as expected.

I have read many threads with similar issues to no avail, so please only reply if you have the same issue or have some answers. PLEASE do not, like the reply above, tell me how it should work. I know this and this is why I need some help.

Thank you.

Handset: Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro
O/S: Android 1.6
 
Check that the time on your phone and the time on your google account are the same. I used to have my phone set 5 minutes ahead (it made me less likely to be late ), and that seemed to cause some issues. Also, try turning off auto-sync, make changes on your phone, wait 5 minutes, then manually sync, see if that works
 
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