Using Google Mobile Sync as an alternative to Activesync/WMDC

[Originally written: Tue, Sep 29 2009, Updated today, Tue, Sep 28 2010]

Google's recent addition of push GMail support to their mobile sync product makes this a good time to revisit using Google as an alternative to desktop syncing, or even Hosted Exchange. Google uses Exchange Activesync as the underlying technology for their mobile sync, meaning Windows Mobile users do not need to add any software to their devices. They simply enter the server settings provided by Google, their GMail account credentials, and then they can be syncing their device with GMail, GMail Contact and Google Calendar all over the air, and all for free.

If you're primarily a GMail/GCal user, this might be all you need. If, like me, you're an "Outlookaholic," then the importance of Google sync is its ability to act as an intermediary between Outlook on your PC(s) and your Windows Mobile device(s) keeping them synced constantly over the air, without ever having to sync physically via Activesync or WMDC ever again, much like Microsoft Exchange allows.

The next step is getting your PC's Outlook installation to sync with Google, so that the PCs and mobiles can each sync to each other via Google. Google has thoughtfully provided an Outlook plug-in to sync Google Calendar with Outlook, but so far has left GMail Contacts sync to third-parties. Three options I'm aware of are the open source GO Contacts Sync, the commercial ($40 US) CompanionLink, and the subscription-based ($10 US/year KiGoo.

Now, just a friendly warning to anyone ready to try the convenience of wireless syncing: backup your current Contacts and Calendar! Messing around with sync can result in duplicate entries or missing items, so you want a safe copy tucked away somewhere!

The best way to switch to a new sync method, whether it be Google Sync, Funambol (my personal favorite), or Exchange, is to perform one final good sync with Activesync/WMDC to insure your data is up to date, then delete the sync relationship between the PC and the device by unchecking "Contacts" and "Calendar" in the sync settings. This will erase the Contacts and Calendar info from the device, but not Outlook on the desktop. (Don't panic- this clearing of the data from the device is what prevents duplicates from being created in a moment!)

Install the various plug-ins on the PC to sync the Outlook Contacts/Calendar data with Google. Go into GMail/GCal's web interfaces to insure the data has indeed synced. Just because I'm the nervous sort, I add one "test" contact and event each both in Outlook and in Google and resync to see if the test data added in each one syncs to the other. This "proves" two-way sync is working, and it's safe to proceed. Don't delete them just yet!

Now, you add the Google sync server settings in Activesync on the device, and sync. All of your contacts and calendar items should come flying down via the internet from Google, including the four pieces of test data we added earlier. Delete a couple of them, and change a couple and resync, checking to see if the deletions and changes propagate to the desktop through Google. (You can initiate a manual sync on the desktop rather than hang around and wait for the next scheduled sync at the interval you selected at installation!) Once the deletions and changes have synced through, you can delete the remaining test data on the desktop, resync, and beam in delight when they are automagically removed from the device a few moments later (if you have the device's sync schedule set to "As Items Arrive") or when you initiate the next sync.

Now you have the push-email and continuous syncing of Exchange without the monthly fee for Hosted Exchange service, or the hassle and expense of setting up your own Exchange server.

[Update: As of August 30th, 2010, Microsoft now uses EAS for Live/Hotmail. The server is "m.hotmail.com," with your full email address as username. The "Domain" in Activesync's server settings must be left blank, which, unfortunately, means this won't work on WM5 or earlier devices like Google's EAS implementation does.]