Develop Bugs

Messenger / Windows Live - Contacts sooo annoying!

Fellow xda people...
I'm a ms messenger addict, well I like it anyway and I've been looking forward to using it on my vario over uk T-mobile web'n'walk...I'm running black 2.5 so now I have the "windows live" thing on my today screen and I'm signed in...
thing is, seems to work...but i CANT STAND the way it insists on putting all my MSN contacts into my contact list! Does this annoy anyone else? Anyone found any clever work arounds?
Typical of microsoft trying to integrate an app and take over the whole machine - horrible?
cheers
bb

its so annoying...almost makes me want to use a different messenger client?

using black 2.0. cannot sign windows live from yesterday until now. it said no internet connectivity but i am connected with gprs and also wifi. can surf net also. it the mobile server different from the desktop?

I'm talking about the contacts in particular....

anyone else use messenger - windows live....polluting my contacts !

I had the same problem when I first used the live messenger beta a few months back. The final version does have the "sync contacts" optionality but as you say it still syncs them and creates duplicates and rubbish!
The only work around I found was to use outlook to copy and paste all the relevant info from the original contacts details into the new contacts created by messenger and then deleting the old one. This then avoids the duplication next time you flash and set up live.

unwired4 said:
The only work around I found was to use outlook to copy and paste all the relevant info from the original contacts details into the new contacts created by messenger and then deleting the old one. This then avoids the duplication next time you flash and set up live.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That seems to work the best for me, I don't have to many contact and it wasnt that hard for me to delete them all and put them back in again - when you do this it asks what sort of contact you want - I think MS should have included a wizard that goes through your contacts when you first install them asking if you want Outlook, Contacts List and/or Messenger for each contact.
Another problem I found was everytime it synced from phone to computer, it would change my Messenger contacts, I found that if you edit the contact in Windows Messenger and make sure the name info is the same as what is one the phone has stored, it solves this problem, my contacts sync OK now.

I have the same issue, so i just reverted to using Pocket MSN...

Someone posted a workaround in the following thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=1236933&postcount=22
Don't know if it's working since I didn't have time to install Live Messenger and try it out. Can someone try it?

My Workaround ...
Yeah,
I had the exact same problem. And i have HEAPS of contacts both messenger and outlook ... and of course ... i'm ridiculously anal about having everything exactly perfect ... so i fixed my contacts and reinstalled my phone ... hah
What i found worked for me, was before syncing the first time, make sure that you have outlook contacts corresponding to the email addresses of your messenger contacts. (ie: if windows live messenger sees you have an outlook contact with the same email address, it will just attach the msn display pic etc to that contact.
- Phixx

cheers for this...infuriating !
I have now taken the route one approach...deleted all the daft MS Messenger contacts and removed Windows Live from my today screen (I would delete it if I could)....Hope I never see it again!

The best way to deal with it is to make sure all of your contacts in MS Live have contact entries in Outlook. It sucks, but once you have all of your contacts sync'd up, it's pretty cool: you can see people's online status anywhere you see their contact info on the phone.

BTW; no matter what route you take, you MUST back up your Live contacts and your Outlook contacts on your PC. Seriously. Do it now. I made the mistake of not doing that, and during one of my many reloads, I somehow managed to wipe out my entire Outlook contacts list *and* my Windows Live contact list. It was not a fun day restoring that.
Go to Contacts->Save instant messenging contacts in Windows Live on your PC.

yeah, but i don't want my instant messenger stuff anywhere near my contacts...to me it's a separate app! (or it should be) MS trying to be too clever by half.

What would be nice is if it put the messenger emails in contacts under "emails" Ie personal / business and email catogries.
It really is quite annoying when sifting through the contact list to find a phone number and having to sift through 100's of mail addresses too.
Of course I do try to use the smart dialing but they still come up.
Just having to do these work arounds every reinstall / HR e.t.c is tedious at best.

LeoBadhan said:
I have the same issue, so i just reverted to using Pocket MSN...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I want to do the same thing, only I can't find the install for pocket MSN, the only one I could find was on the MS site where you have to pay for it.. it came with my TyTN so I don't want to pay MS another €15 for it!
Can you please provide me the install file? whether it is in PM or in the thread
Thanks alot man

I quite like the way it works.. It's a little bit annoying if you have contacts who have really messed up their details online so that it can't link them to a phone contact, but other than that I really like it.
It would be nice if there was an advanced sync option where you could somehow pair orphan people on MSN to people in contacts on the phone so that it was aware they were the same person.. but I'm not gonna complain too much.

or just give you an option to turn it off.

I'm having an absolute nightmare with this!
I really like the idea in concept and want it to work.
I deleted the contacts it added to my phone adress book cos it looked messy not realising that when I sync'd with my PC it would delete them all (85) from messenger!
So I started re adding my msn contacts being careful to also have a corresponding Outlook contact and all was going well. I was getting them linked up nicely. Now all of a sudden, they've all gone again from my MSN on my PC!
I want this feature to work, I don't simply want to turn it off as some of you have done. How should I go about this?

Yes, me too.. There are nice features in Live messenger for WM, like showing display picture, voiceclip, sending files, pictures, etc, but this contacts problem is so darn annoying! I wish some wizzguy could look into a hack or solution
Greetz.

Windows live mobile lost my contacts list :S

:EDIT2:
Uppon searching means of getting them back i discovered windows live help forums and it appears alot of people have been having their contacts deleated and they can be retrived by a windows live employee adding them to your account again.
Thus i beleive this may have been coninsidence and not linked.
Thankyou anyway for reading.
:/EDIT2:
Hey, a while ago i set up msn on my phone and stupidly made it so that contacts emails where added to my adress book. This added something like 400 emauils that i really didn't want on my contacts list.
So i used a program to remove them all, this worked a charm. Now i go onto msn and i have 6 contacts on my phone, on my pc i ahve a full list. I tryed syncing to update them that didn;t work, i tryed even telling it to add emails to my addressbook to no avail.
Im a bit lost as too what to do, i cant even find windows live messenger on my remove programs list to reinstall it.
It is possible to have a contact list on windows live mobiel without having it saved onto your phone isn't it?
Thanks.
:EDIt:
now after trying sync to my pc i no longr have windows live messenger contacst either.

I think its about time I add something to the forum
Same thing happened to me, what i did was:
1. Log into messenger on your pc
2. Go to Options
3. Click on Privacy
4. Midway the screen you will see Contacts List and a button View. Click on view to see who has you on their list
5. You will see a list of all the contacts who have you and if you right click on them, you can add them to your contacts. Do this for all the contacts.
Only problem is, is that you will have to put them back into the category of your choice. But the ones who you have blocked will remain blocked
Hope this helps.
EDIT: oh and to prevent your email adds from adding to your contacts, re-setup your email address in windows live messenger on your mobile, and there should be an option of not syncing the contacts. I can't remember exactly what the option is called but its definitely there.

the_cool said:
I think its about time I add something to the forum
Same thing happened to me, what i did was:
1. Log into messenger on your pc
2. Go to Options
3. Click on Privacy
4. Midway the screen you will see Contacts List and a button View. Click on view to see who has you on their list
5. You will see a list of all the contacts who have you and if you right click on them, you can add them to your contacts. Do this for all the contacts.
Only problem is, is that you will have to put them back into the category of your choice. But the ones who you have blocked will remain blocked
Hope this helps.
EDIT: oh and to prevent your email adds from adding to your contacts, re-setup your email address in windows live messenger on your mobile, and there should be an option of not syncing the contacts. I can't remember exactly what the option is called but its definitely there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cheers mate that is alot quicker then the way windows live gave me! why the hell didn't tjhey tell me to do that!
But i also posted on the ocuk forums and some nice guy on their wrote me a lil program that takes the huge list of contacts and puts it into one file i can import in
Thanks though, if it wernt for the other guy writing me a lil program this would be a total life saver in comparison!
And yeah i wanted to reset up my email adress, the problem is it wont let me deleate it to start with...

I can help you with that too
1. Open Windows Messenger on your mobile
2. You should be on that main page which says sign in as and you can choose status. Click Cancel
3. Click Menu
4. Click Windows Live
5. Click Menu
6. Click Account Options
7. Click Switch Windows Live ID and press yes.
9. Choose Accept
10. Enter details for your account and click Next
11. Choose whether you want the search bar etc n press next
12. IMPORTANT: Uncheck "Store Windows Live contacts in you mobile phone's contact list". This will stop the contacts from going into your account again. Press Next
13. And there you go!
I don't mean to patronise you by adding every single step but for completions sake I thought I should as it can help someone in the future.
Let me know how you get on

cheers mate, not patronizing at all. Just being helpful.
Ill get back to you on how i do.

pim backup on windows 7

Hi,
I currently use PIM backup to back my entire contacts and messages (Which amount to more than 3000 + )
Once windows 7 comes would PIM backup be available for it (As there are rumours that you can only install stuff from the windows market place for win 7)
If any of the members have some inside news it would be really appreciated..
(Like if MS is planning some way to transfer data from old phone) I am not talking about windows my phone though
Thanks a lot

Basically you have to get your contacts into Windows Live or some other email provider (exchange, GMail, etc) that will allow you to sync down your contacts. 3rd party apps won't be able to do it and at least as of now Zune doesn't have that capability. But I'm curious how they'll do it for the carriers. Maybe they will have some app that does it? It's a rather common exercise for the drones that work at the carriers stores to backup/transfer contacts for people. If I'm coming from my dumbphone and picking up a WP7 phone, I want to leave that store with my phone chock full of contacts.

RustyGrom said:
Basically you have to get your contacts into Windows Live or some other email provider (exchange, GMail, etc) that will allow you to sync down your contacts. 3rd party apps won't be able to do it and at least as of now Zune doesn't have that capability. But I'm curious how they'll do it for the carriers. Maybe they will have some app that does it? It's a rather common exercise for the drones that work at the carriers stores to backup/transfer contacts for people. If I'm coming from my dumbphone and picking up a WP7 phone, I want to leave that store with my phone chock full of contacts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think contacts can be done easily (You can also use outlook)
It is the messages I was wondering about...

RustyGrom said:
Basically you have to get your contacts into Windows Live or some other email provider (exchange, GMail, etc) that will allow you to sync down your contacts. 3rd party apps won't be able to do it and at least as of now Zune doesn't have that capability. But I'm curious how they'll do it for the carriers. Maybe they will have some app that does it? It's a rather common exercise for the drones that work at the carriers stores to backup/transfer contacts for people. If I'm coming from my dumbphone and picking up a WP7 phone, I want to leave that store with my phone chock full of contacts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought the in store contact transfer was normally done via the SIM card, and is mildly limited.

shamreez said:
I think contacts can be done easily (You can also use outlook)
It is the messages I was wondering about...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have to sync it to a hosted service. There is no direct outlook sync.
l3v5y said:
I thought the in store contact transfer was normally done via the SIM card, and is mildly limited.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not all phones have SIM cards. Maybe this is a reason WP7 is GSM only right now?

shamreez said:
I think contacts can be done easily (You can also use outlook)
It is the messages I was wondering about...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think Microsoft Myphone is your best shot...

cool_dd said:
I think Microsoft Myphone is your best shot...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
I would sync to MyPhone. With that many contact most likely take a while your first time(go for WiFi ) but once done MyPhone is coming to WP7 so I am only guessing but copy you profile across?

PIM backup on windows phone 7
I backuped my contacts using PimBackup..now I am on Windows Phone 7...
can I get my PIM backup into my phone 7 ???
Vito

vitolamanna said:
I backuped my contacts using PimBackup..now I am on Windows Phone 7...
can I get my PIM backup into my phone 7 ???
Vito
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No way to directly use your PIM backup on WP7. What you can try is sync your WM 6.5 device with your windows live account using Activesync, that should put your contacts and calendar in Windows Live though I'm not 100% sure which way the sync will go but since you have a backup you should be good. Or just use Outlook if you have it, install the hotmail connector and copy your data across. Helps if you change the view to List view so you can easily select all your data. Another way for Calendar items is to export them to ical format then import them into windows live. No way to transfer SMS messages though. HTH.

Windows Live sync massacre

Ok so I used apparently easy and nice way to sync contacts and calendar
WM 6.5 -> Windows Live -> WP7 through ActiveSync on WM.
The result? All calendar entries got synced.
Contacts?
ALL EMPTY!!!!!!
Only some of them have home phone.
Nothing else. No phones, emails, address, nothing.
1500 contacts.
Solution? If this is the only result I can get, I say WindowsLive sucks big time!

P.S. contacts in Hotmail server/online are FINE

umm since when did activesync work with wp7?

rachnov55 said:
umm since when did activesync work with wp7?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
errm, again:
On WM6.5 I used ActiveSync to sync with WindowsLive.
Contacts were correctly synced with Hotmail.
Than I just synced my WP7 with my Live account.
Result is email works like it did from the beginning, Calendar fine BUT no past
Items were synced.
Contacts result is most of them is empty, and not even all are on the device.
Any clue? Currently it TOTALLY pisses me off!!!!

Make sure you've checked all boxes that need checking and then do all your editing on windows live. Do something that makes Live interact with your phone like find it and ring it.
After I made sure Live was interacting with my phone, all my contacts synced and whenever I made changes on Live, they were made on my phone too.
Hope this helps.

Okay, what BOXES you mean?

Guys I would love to know if there is any extra setting regarding this Sync.
I'm in deep **** with this. Annoying.

Ok so apparently nobody here uses WMLive.
I thought all of you do it..
Pity. Looks like "working out of the box" here is just another myth.
And the problem is touching one of the BASIC things on any phone and WP7 especially.
MS products don't speak to themsleves correctly again.
What pisses me off even more, is that People Hub has no problem with updating ************* Facebook news,
but cannot correctly sync basic contact data.
Now I see it makes multiple contacts with separate data. And some of the contacts are missing.

doministry said:
Okay, what BOXES you mean?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You've probably already done this, but, just in case...
If you go to Settings>email & accounts you will see a list of accounts you've set up already. Under each account name the content that is currently set to sync for that account is displayed. Make sure that you see "contacts" under your "Windows Live" account. If not, select that account and you'll see a box to check under "content to sync" called "contacts." Check it.

wspaw said:
You've probably already done this, but, just in case...
If you go to Settings>email & accounts you will see a list of accounts you've set up already. Under each account name the content that is currently set to sync for that account is displayed. Make sure that you see "contacts" under your "Windows Live" account. If not, select that account and you'll see a box to check under "content to sync" called "contacts." Check it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. Apparently all of the content is there.
I never selected this, it was like this by default.
When I go to this accunt setup the only box to tick/untick is email.
Calendar is synced as well as email.
I got contact names but no content. I think WHAT mistake could be possibly made.
Aaaaaaaargh!!!!!

Have you tried forcing a sync? Go into Settings -> Accounts and long press on your Windows Live account to get the context menu.

PG2G said:
Have you tried forcing a sync? Go into Settings -> Accounts and long press on your Windows Live account to get the context menu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course, I did it many times!

doministry said:
Of course, I did it many times!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How about a hard reset and just trying again?

PG2G said:
How about a hard reset and just trying again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol, hard reset the device and all the hassle to get my contacts?
Seems a bit odd to me.
I mean I'd love to know what is the eventual mistake I did and what is the workaround for this.

doministry said:
Lol, hard reset the device and all the hassle to get my contacts?
Seems a bit odd to me.
I mean I'd love to know what is the eventual mistake I did and what is the workaround for this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dunno, you've got something crazy going on. It's worth a try. I don't know if I'd consider a hard reset a hassle, a phone is pretty useless without contacts.
I've managed to sync my contacts from Windows Live twice with no issues. I doubt you made any mistakes, from Windows Live -> Windows Phone is as simple as adding that primary account.
How are you verifying that that the ActiveSync -> Windows Live worked correctly?

PG2G said:
How are you verifying that that the ActiveSync -> Windows Live worked correctly?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well because all 1500 contacts are sitting nicely on my Hotmail with all details preserved, incl. notes.
Checked it on many of them.

THIS IS A ****ING DISASTER. I have a huge disappointment with WP7 now.
Microsoft you suck big time!!
I resetted my phone.
Now the ****er is syncing endlessly all the contacts from the beginning.
My Hotmail has 2600 contacts in total but the phone does sync 5600 contacts and doesn't stop!!!
What the hell is that. What a crap!!!!!
Anybody experienced such thing? This is ridiculous!!!
I have no bloody idea what to do!!!

Currently it synced 18000 contacts.
It's the biggest crap I've ever seen on any smartphone in my life.
I start to think just the opposite about this device.

After every reset is the same!
Massacre!

This is the first time I've heard about a contacts sync issue this severe.
Maybe it's some sort of hardware issue affecting the phone's performance..
While you still have your sanity, try this...setup a new Live account and sync that to the phone. Then delete the account from the phone and try synching your primary account again.

syncing contacts ----- unbelievable

maybe its me but i find the way that the windows phone syncs with outlook to be unbelieveabley bad. this is the best that windows could do? jeeez guys you cant even get your phones from the same company to sync with your own applications any better than this? and i'm only talking about contacts at the moment.
let me get this straight, i have to do an export for my contacts, make a windows live account, upload contacts backup into windows live and then sync this, through windows live, to my phone. how many more steps could you possibly put in? unbelieveable. now if you are a businessman like me then you might have your contacts divided into different folders/groups which means you have to do a export for each group and go through the above steps to get them onto your phone. isnt that just fantastic! but wait there is more. once you get them onto your phone you then have to re-divide them into groups again. isnt that just fantastic. wait there is even more. lets say you add a new contact, you have to go through this whole BS again. this is the best that the minds at microsoft could come up with. but wait there is more. anything else you want to sync or add to your phone you have to use the zune software. this is just brilliant!!! way to go microsoft your the best....
now lets look at my IPhone. i plug it into my laptop, it automatically launches itunes and automatically syncs all my contacts into groups and adds any new ones i might have added and syncs everything else on the phone in one simple step. apple can sync to microsoft software better than microsoft? unbelieveable and i spent $600 for this crap?
i will have a HTC HD7 for sale if anyone is interested. it is unlocked.
regards

Ta ta then.

chatham;10985424now if you are a businessman like me...[/QUOTE said:
...then perhaps it's time to look into Exchange server instead. If you're a small business, get yourself a hosted Exchange server for a few bucks a month.
Anyway, all you really have to do is install the Live add-on for Office, then drag and drop all your contacts from the local addressbook to the live one. Wait a while and all your contacts will magically appear on your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

adesonic said:
Ta ta then.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Amazing! !!!

You can either sync with Windows Live (for average user) or with Exchange (which most businesses use). Within those two systems you can create categories, groups etc and it will sync with your phone wirelessly.
Let's take your steps and break them down.
i have to do an export for my contacts, make a windows live account, upload contacts backup into windows live and then sync this, through windows live, to my phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Export your contacts from Outlook - yes you need to do this.
Make a Windows Live account - no, you already have one if you want to use ANY of the services on Windows Phone 7. So, either you already have one or you haven't actually setup your phone properly. Even if you don't have one it takes less than a minute to get one.
Upload contacts - yes, takes all of 2 seconds on the Windows Live site.
Sync to your phone - big whoop, all you need to do is enter your Windows Live ID (which you should already have entered) and you'll get all of your contacts sorted.
But wait, there's more.
If you download the Windows Live connector for Outlook any changes made to your account will be automatically synced between your phone, computer and the cloud. Everything is backed up and you can gain access to your contacts from where ever you are in the world. Without even having to plug it in.
It's that simple.

chatham said:
let me get this straight, i have to do an export for my contacts, make a windows live account, upload contacts backup into windows live and then sync this, through windows live, to my phone. how many more steps could you possibly put in? unbelieveable. now if you are a businessman like me...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Contacts are part of the standard featureset for email (both consumer and corporate). Modern consumer email is dominated by Google gmail and Microsoft hotmail/live mail. Corporate email is dominated by Microsoft Exchange. All of these services support exchange activesync, as do the main phone platforms. While support is often incomplete, it includes synchronization of contacts, which is basic.
If contacts are not part of your email system, or both are stored locally, you have a legacy system that needs upgrading. Probably this was the case.

i appreciate the above responses and it has given me additonal information that i did not have. but, as far as i can see i still have at least two to three additional steps that an IPhone does not require. i thought the windows phone would given me better intergration with microsoft programs but it doesnt. so i keep asking my self why would i keep this phone? they could of made it as simple but they chose not to.

There are some weird quirks with accounts for sure. I understand the requirement for a Live account, but I still can't believe that you can't disable non-email sync on the primary live account or at very least delete it without resetting the entire phone.
Sent from my GT-I9000M

chatham said:
i appreciate the above responses and it has given me additonal information that i did not have. but, as far as i can see i still have at least two to three additional steps that an IPhone does not require. i thought the windows phone would given me better intergration with microsoft programs but it doesnt. so i keep asking my self why would i keep this phone? they could of made it as simple but they chose not to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WP7 doesn't even have the normal amount of features most modern smartphones have. Stuff like you are talking about is probably not even a consideration with MS. WP7 is "supposed" to be a non-smart smartphone...for the grandmas and grandpas and those who aren't computer literate. From all the excuses I've been battered with over the last 2 months, that seems to be the main one.
If T-Mobile ever gets the iPhone...or if I ever switch carriers, I will put WP7 behind me in favor of a new iPhone.
By the way, don't bother stooping to the level of the fanboys...or fangirls... by responding, just ignore them and they'll go away. Or at most just tell them to keep it on topic.

MartyLK said:
If T-Mobile ever gets the iPhone...or if I ever switch carriers, I will put WP7 behind me in favor of a new iPhone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The sooner the better.

chatham said:
i appreciate the above responses and it has given me additonal information that i did not have. but, as far as i can see i still have at least two to three additional steps that an IPhone does not require. i thought the windows phone would given me better intergration with microsoft programs but it doesnt. so i keep asking my self why would i keep this phone? they could of made it as simple but they chose not to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Synchronization of contacts and email via a USB cable to your pc is not a good idea.
Yes you can do it with some phone platforms, yes not with WP7, yes a lot of people complain, but in this one instance they are wrong. They want to use a flawed and obsolete method.
Basically you need to choose a modern email service, where that includes contacts, calendaring, etc.. If you have WP7, go with Live mail if you want something free, Exchange if you want something good. You have to go through an extra step now, but you should really do that anyway. This should replace what you have at the moment.

Jonno2343 said:
You can either sync with Windows Live (for average user) or with Exchange (which most businesses use). Within those two systems you can create categories, groups etc and it will sync with your phone wirelessly.
Let's take your steps and break them down.
Export your contacts from Outlook - yes you need to do this.
Make a Windows Live account - no, you already have one if you want to use ANY of the services on Windows Phone 7. So, either you already have one or you haven't actually setup your phone properly. Even if you don't have one it takes less than a minute to get one.
Upload contacts - yes, takes all of 2 seconds on the Windows Live site.
Sync to your phone - big whoop, all you need to do is enter your Windows Live ID (which you should already have entered) and you'll get all of your contacts sorted.
But wait, there's more.
If you download the Windows Live connector for Outlook any changes made to your account will be automatically synced between your phone, computer and the cloud. Everything is backed up and you can gain access to your contacts from where ever you are in the world. Without even having to plug it in.
It's that simple.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the problem is if you don't have Exchange syncing isn't that easy. Even after you export the contacts out of Outlook into Hotmail if you add a new contact later you have to manually add them in Hotmail, I don't think Connector will automatically sync them.
If you need to sync your calendar the best way is to add the Live calendar to Outlook then when you create an appointment in Outlook you either have to send an invite to your Hotmail account or drag it to the Hotmail calendar. These options are not that easy.

ok, but considering how long installing and setting up itunes takes, I still think wp7 is faster. And it really isn't that difficult to export your contacts from outlook and open that file in a live account.
Or you can use www.soocial.com to do it for you.

MartyLK said:
WP7 doesn't even have the normal amount of features most modern smartphones have. Stuff like you are talking about is probably not even a consideration with MS. WP7 is "supposed" to be a non-smart smartphone...for the grandmas and grandpas and those who aren't computer literate. From all the excuses I've been battered with over the last 2 months, that seems to be the main one.
If T-Mobile ever gets the iPhone...or if I ever switch carriers, I will put WP7 behind me in favor of a new iPhone.
By the way, don't bother stooping to the level of the fanboys by responding, just ignore them and they'll go away. Or at most just tell them to keep it on topic.
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Click to collapse
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chatham said:
i appreciate the above responses and it has given me additonal information that i did not have. but, as far as i can see i still have at least two to three additional steps that an IPhone does not require. i thought the windows phone would given me better intergration with microsoft programs but it doesnt. so i keep asking my self why would i keep this phone? they could of made it as simple but they chose not to.
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For me, having to set something up once and then never worry about it again is by far the easiest. All you have to do is migrate your contacts over to Windows Live and you will have them kept in sync WITHOUT plugging them in.
Windows Phone also supports Wireless Sync for Music, Videos, etc and so the way they have done it, they do not require you to plug your phone into your computer unless you're updating or doing the initial setup.
To me, this is the simplest, most user-friendly way imaginable.
If you contacts are only locally stored and you happened to have a computer crash or hard drive corruption, those contacts would be lost. If you have them on Windows Live, all you'd need is to sign in with your Windows Live ID on Outlook once you've sorted it out and everything will be back up and running.
Using a Windows Live ID will also alow you to keep your work PC, Laptop and home PC all in sync if that's what you would like. There really are no disadvantages of doing it like this. Try it, I'm sure you'll all agree with us then that it really isn't hard at all.
MartyLK, I don't know why you're calling those who provide clear, logical explanations and solutions a fanboy when you come in here and just say go to iPhone.

rsacipher said:
I think the problem is if you don't have Exchange syncing isn't that easy. Even after you export the contacts out of Outlook into Hotmail if you add a new contact later you have to manually add them in Hotmail, I don't think Connector will automatically sync them.
If you need to sync your calendar the best way is to add the Live calendar to Outlook then when you create an appointment in Outlook you either have
to send an invite to your Hotmail account or drag it to the Hotmail calendar. These options are not that easy.
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You need to set your Live account as the default account for data files by following these steps.
Tools->Account Settings
Data Files tab
Select Windows Live account and click Set as Default
Then calendar and contacts will show up from Windows Live.
The one thing they really need to add is the ability to sync multiple calendars, I can't for the life of me figure out why they'd opted to leave this out.

Jonno2343 said:
MartyLK, I don't know why you're calling those who provide clear, logical explanations and solutions a fanboy when you come in here and just say go to iPhone.
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Oh come now! You're just making that up...lol...I know you are...I can tell!

MartyLK said:
Oh come now! You're just making that up...lol...I know you are...I can tell!
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Oh joy, the person who gets half the threads he posts in locked striked again. Just because you want android and all its flaws doesnt mean we do. Enjoy your iphone and its ugly UI/OS and tiny screen or your android and its overall lag. The sooner you ditch the HD7 the sooner the WP7 community loses a member thats worse off than these "elderly dumbphone" users. Being technology illiterate > being socially incompetent.

rsacipher said:
I think the problem is if you don't have Exchange syncing isn't that easy. Even after you export the contacts out of Outlook into Hotmail if you add a new contact later you have to manually add them in Hotmail, I don't think Connector will automatically sync them.
If you need to sync your calendar the best way is to add the Live calendar to Outlook then when you create an appointment in Outlook you either have to send an invite to your Hotmail account or drag it to the Hotmail calendar. These options are not that easy.
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I don't understand the problem here.
Ok, so you've been using an old school POP or IMAP account with locally stored Outlook contacts and calendars. As people have been saying this is something one should really consider moving away from anyway.
Since you have to create a Live Account to use your WP7 device fully (i.e. marketplace access and so on) you've got everything you need. Install and configure the Hotmail connector (the Social connector is also nice), open Outlook, go to Contacts (local ones), select ALL, drag and drop these onto "Contacts - [email protected]". Wait a while and they will sync up, wait a little longer and they will automagically appear on your phone. Once they have, delete your local address book from Outlook - ALL your contacts are now stored on the cloud and you can access them from your PC, your Phone and any other PC in the world with internet access.
Now move on to your calendar. This is a little more tricky, as you cannot select ALL and move them across (afaik), so your best bet may be to work your way from today and forward moving all and any entries to the Live calendar. Again, wait a while and they'll all automagically show up on your phone. When they have you may want to disable the local calendar (ie. remove it, but do not delete it if you want the opportunity to go back and check history), finally set your default calendar to the Live one. Any new entries will now go directly to the cloud.
That's it. You're done. Using your Live account for contacts and calendars does not mean you have to send/receive email thru it. You can pick and choose which parts you'll use by default. If you don't make use of it for email, simply remove the Hotmail tile from your home-screen and replace it with your POP/IMAP account.
Like others have said, you do this once. That's it. Everything is now in the cloud and you can sync it up to any device you want.

MartyLK said:
WP7 doesn't even have the normal amount of features most modern smartphones have. Stuff like you are talking about is probably not even a consideration with MS. WP7 is "supposed" to be a non-smart smartphone...for the grandmas and grandpas and those who aren't computer literate. From all the excuses I've been battered with over the last 2 months, that seems to be the main one.
If T-Mobile ever gets the iPhone...or if I ever switch carriers, I will put WP7 behind me in favor of a new iPhone.
By the way, don't bother stooping to the level of the fanboys...or fangirls... by responding, just ignore them and they'll go away. Or at most just tell them to keep it on topic.
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Can we stick to topic here folks