BirdieSync

Is it possible for BirdieSync to automatically sync with an Andriod device when ever the Andriod device is connected to my PC, via cable or bluetooth?
And then continue syncing at periodic intervals?

Many thanks

Hello TimTDP,

Presently BirdieSync can only be connected to the desktop with a Wi-Fi or a cellular connection. But it may be possible to use a USB connection in the future. BirdieSync doesn't synchronize in background mode. The application must be running on the Android device. But if it remains running and connected to the desktop, then you can choose a synchronization frequency in BirdieSync options on the desktop.

Background synchronization is now provided in version 2.3.2.0 which has just been released. It is no longer needed to manually launch BirdieSync (only after a reinstallation). But note that if you use a wireless connection, you have to ask for the connection before the synchronization is launched. If you use USB, connection is established automatically and the synchronization is launched. If the connection is established and a contact or an event is modified on the mobile device, the synchronization is launched.

You may use BirdieSync settings (BirdieSync window, menu "File/Options", Synchronization tab, Synchronization frequency group), to choose the synchronization frequency you wish.

Apologies if this has been answered elsewhere but I wasn't able to find anything when I searched the forums.

I've been trialling BirdieSync for a couple of days (on Samsung Galaxy S2 running Android 2.3.3) and I'm impressed so far however one feature I'd like is the ability for the android client to automatically connect when a known wireless network has connected. I understand that the client will automatically sync via a service once it's been connected, however it currently still requires you to open the client and click connect before the auto sync service starts.

This in my opinion would make BirdieSync perfect as it would mean that as soon as I get home and my phone connects to my home network, my calendar would sync. I've recently stopped using Google's calendar service because I'm becoming more and more paranoid about my personal data being stored on servers that I have no control over but the convenience of cloud sync is brilliant and auto connect on BirdieSync would be close to on par with a cloud calendar for my purposes.

Am I missing something (i.e. it is possible to make BirdieSync auto connect and begin syncing when a wireless network is connected) and if so how do I make this work? If not, will this be considered for future versions? This is looking like the only factor that is making me search for other options.

Hello GWWalks,

Thank you for the suggestion. I understand the benefit of automatic connection. It will be necessary to think about it to see the implications of implementing such a feature. For instance how it's possible to manage automatic connection smartly without impacting the battery.

Birdy wrote:Hello GWWalks,

Thank you for the suggestion. I understand the benefit of automatic connection. It will be necessary to think about it to see the implications of implementing such a feature. For instance how it's possible to manage automatic connection smartly without impacting the battery.

A scheduled connect/synchronization would be very nice to have (I really miss this in BirdieSync).

Perhaps these options would be useful:

Sync. frequency on battery: Off, 1m, 5m, 15m, 30m, custom
Sync. frequency on AC: Off, 1m, 5m, 15m, 30m, custom
Only sync when connected to (wireless): myhomewireless, myworkwireless, somepublicwireless, Any (Any: synch on all wireless connections)

The sync. frequency could also be coupled to some activity, like unlocking the phone or plugging in the power cord (assuming sync has not just been running).

Just a little two cents brain storming.

Look forward to this functionality.

Kim

Hello Kim,

Thank you for the suggestions. Actually the first issue to solve is to be able to detect that the Android device is connected to the correct local network (in case of a Wi-Fi connection for instance) and then to check if BirdieSync server is reachable on this network. This must be done before synchronizing. But maybe it's possible to use the same kind of frequency to attempt a connection to BirdieSync server.

I found a few pages with some interesting links on how to detect the current WIFI connections SSID:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9353 ... -available
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7599 ... oid-system
I assume the connection check can be done using a timer of some sorts.

I definitely think that there, eventually, should be some frequency settings for when the phone is on battery. But to begin with, a simple solution that looks at the WIFI SSID and initiates a connection, if the right one is found, should be enough.

Another thing that would be nice is, that the connection attempt should be silent, so no error message when the server is not responding.
Whether it stays connected or not does not matter to begin with (on a battery point of view a connect/sync/disconnect is probably the best solution, but requires the frequency to be stored on the phone).

I look forward to a good solution

/KimN

Thank you for the detailed information. That may be useful to avoid connecting to an unwanted Wi-Fi network.

Hi there,

I am new to birdiesync and installed yesterday. It works quite fine so far (was using myphoneexplorer till yesterday, but establishing the connection is to much work). Have been hearing that birdiesync costs some money and is therefore much better.

But now I find no automatic Start of the sync so I totally agree with all the other users here, that this would be a really great feature (unique selling point, i think?) if you could implement a timebased try to connect? Like all the sync accounts do (setting for the "office hours" like 9-5pm and how often it should (try to) sync in the office hours and how often around)

Please try to implement this! Pushing some buttons to make it work is kind of old fashioned?! )

Thanks in advance!
Kind regards
mb277

PS: if it takes much more time i have another suggestion: you could display a little remindericon in the upper right corner of the birdiesync icon/widget to tell the users if they didnt sync sind eg 24hours - how about that?!

New user here.

I've always found it interesting that all these "smart phones" have difficulty replicating features that were considered standard on a 10 year old Nokia phone.

In 2003, I used my Nokia series 60 with a bluetooth adapter on windows and never worried about my contacts and calendar again. Whenever I was near my computer, the two would sync automatically. Now this seems to be a challenge for developers...

I just whacked Outlook in favour of Thunderbird to do a better job of syncing. I also just ditched VCOrganizer for android because is had difficulty syncing anyway.

My phone is my right hand in how I make a living. Unlike some on the android forums, I don't consider a 20 euro one time purchase outlandish. I would gladly pay that for a syncing system I could rely on. I don't have time to fiddle with this kind of thing.

I like your product so far. Please seriously consider adding this feature, even if it means raising the price.

Eric.

I totally disagree with all users here. This feature is not a "nice to have" it is a total necessary and basic feature. If I have to manually connect my devices all the time this whole syncing process gets useless and is not worth a cent. This may sound harsh but I want to install and setup birdiesync and then never ever think about it again. Otherwise I could also manually export my contacts and appointments and import them manually. I'm currently evaluating birdiesync and it works like a charm but without this autosync feature I'm not gonna buy it.

And when you implement this feature also implement the possibility of multiple connections. I have an Android device and an iPad setup with birdiesync but when one of them is connected the other one is unable to establish a connection. This sucks. I can understand that it might cause some serious problems if both devices sync at the same time but if i have not only to manually connect all devices but also disconnect them periodically so that i can connect the other device this is far away from "easy to use".

Hello TrialUser,

I understand that the auto sync feature could be a better way to handle synchronization and allow to do it automatically and just forget it. I'll see if it's possible to implement this feature.
Regarding the multiple connections for the devices, I think it may be considered along with the future evolutions of the synchronization engine.

Thanks for your answer! Looking forward to see this implemented

Hi,

may I ask what the status is on this feature?
After installing BirdieSync for testing I spent hours trying to find how to configure it to automatically connect-sync-disconnect at regular intervals. Until I found this thread it never came to my mind that any syncing program/app might lack this very basic feature. So far BirdieSync synchronizes fast and reliably, which is more than I can say about a few other apps I tried to keep my calendars synced between my PC and my various Android devices via 3G/2G, and I like that very much. But I am quite unsure as of yet whether I really want to buy a software that requires me to sync manually all the time. If it allowed setting up the various android devices to automatically connect-sync-diconnect at configurable times/intervals (to prevent them from trying to sync all at the same time), and assuming that the impression of reliability I have so far persists, BirdieSync might be the perfect solution for me.