How do I sync Baïkal Server with Outlook 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 & 2019?

Outlook with CardDAV sync Baïkal? with CalDAV sync Baïkal?

In this year of 2020, more and more jobs require people to work from home due to COVID-19 pandamic. Syncing calendar, contact and task remotely from home in order to cope with colleagues has become an issue for those who have not done this before.

A German dude from my company was chatting about discontinued Google Calendar Synchronization service. He then migrated to a open-source Baikal CardDAV/CalDAV server (now this project is maintained by sabre.io). He is doing fine on his iPhone but he worried more about what to use for his Outlook?

It sounds interesting that everyone is searching for an alternative to Google Calendar Synchronization service. The following is a testdrive to see if EVO Collaborator for Outlook can handle Baïkal Server?

1. Within ECO, I simply input the following Baikal CardDAV url or Baikal CalDAV url and it went through Baikal autodiscovery.
   https://<domain or ip>:<port>/baikal/
   
2. After entering username and password, I can now access Baikal CardDAV/CalDAV services.

I then passed this URL to my colleague and told him to try it with his own hand. The result came out fine as expected! That is really cool!

How to sync Zimbra contacts and calendar with Outlook?

How do I import Zimbra calendar and contacts to outlook 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019?

In this year of 2020, more and more jobs require people to work from home due to COVID-19 pandamic. Syncing calendar, contact and task remotely from home in order to cope with colleagues has become an issue for those who have not done this before.

Some of my friends are using Zimbra Network Edition and often compalin that the Zimbra Connector for Outlook ZCO only works with MAPI. I tried Zimbra Network Edition along with some connector softwares on the market. Amazingly, I found that EVO Collaborator for Outlook works! (not the ZCO which only works with paid version of zimbra) All I need to do is to correctly enter the server URL below Hostname (CardDAV/CalDAV) or webcal:// URL within ECO as the following:

https://<servername_or_server_ip>:443/

After fields within the profile have been properly filled out, calendar sync is a breeze. Not only Zimbra platform supports CardDAV and CalDAV, but also EVO Mail Server has native support on ECO smoothly.

How to sync Google Calendar with Outlook 2016 & 2019?

How to synchronize Google calendar to Outlook 2016 & 2019?

In this year of 2020, more and more jobs require people to work from home due to COVID-19 pandamic. Syncing calendar, contact and task remotely from home in order to cope with colleagues has become an issue for those who have not done this before.

On July 29 of 2015, the long awaited Windows 10 was released. Two months following that, Microsoft Outlook 2016 was released on Sept. 22 of 2015. Many of us are looking for good synchronization compatibility between Google Calendar (or shall I say CardDAV and CalDAV) and Outlook. Well, apparently, Microsoft let us down.

Microsoft may have its own reason not to blend in CardDAV and CalDAV. However, I think lots of users around the globe are looking for a solution of synchronizing their contact, calendar, and task items on Google, iCloud, Yahoo, Outlook.com and many more service of the kind with Outlook 2016.

Developers such as gSyncit and EVO Collaborator for Outlook have well prepared for the launch of Outlook 2016 in a Windows 10 environment. While gSyncit released its v4.0 last August, EVO Collaborator for Outlook took a whole year to consolidate itself with compatibility vs. various cloud and on-premises platforms. Yet, EVO has announced the official release of v2.0 to welcome Outlook 2016 with the same ease of use and simplicity of configuring profiles.

If you have not used ECO before, you may refer to my old posts of how to configure contacts, calendars and tasks from various source with Outlook since steps are basically the same and simple.

2018.01.05

Outlook.com contacts not syncing with Outlook 2016 & 2019

Outlook.com contacts not syncing with Outlook 2016 & 2019

outlook.com, formerly known as hotmail

Today I was asked about this question, "Outlook.com contacts not syncing with Outlook 2016", I knew that Outlook should automatically sync with outlook.com contacts once the account is added.

However in real world, this kind of problems happened a lot in Microsoft products, don't try to call Microsoft support, You may end up with spending several hours with some dude, explaining your issue with the software again and again. I know, been there, done that! 

Resolving Outlook 2016 contacts not syncing with Outlook.com issue quickly

Since we don't have the time to explain with some dudes who don't have access to their R&D resources, why wasting time on that, just use something helpful instead.

We'd like to introduce you EVO Collaborator for Outlook. with this handy plugin, your outlook.com is just few minutes away from your Outlook 2016.

The setup is simple, I have written a tutorial for that before, please read sync outlook.com contacts and calendars with outlook here

How to sync Bitrix24 calendars, contacts and tasks with Outlook?

How to sync Bitrix24 calendars, contacts and tasks with Outlook?

My friend opened a small company and he was looking for a decent collaboration platform that comes with CRM. He found Bitrix24 is a nice solution for a starter like him since it has its own cross-platform applications or APPs for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. 

Now, he is looking for a way to sync his contacts, calendars and tasks with his newly installed Outlook 2016 on his Windows 10 machines as well as other computers installing Outlook 2007, 2010 2013 or 2019 under Windows 7 or Windows 8 in company. I suggested him to try some CardDAV & CalDAV compatible Outlook connector software plug-ins on the market because Bitrix24 is compatible with both CardDAV and CalDAV protocols. 

He found and installed several add-ins. However, he realized it is tough in finding server’s CardDAV URL and CalDAV URL. Not until he tried EVO Collaborator for Outlook, life was a lot easier because ECO is able to auto-detect the address book URL and calendar URL with a single mouse click. 

He said it is quite easy. What he did is downloading ECO from its official website, installing the outlook add-in, entering the following information and clicking on TEST button to verify configuration. That is all:

1. Server URL:
   According to Bitrix24’s support document, the URL should look like the URL in step 4.
   
   
   
   
   With ECO’s server auto-detect feature, all you need to enter is:
   
   <servername>.bitrix24.com
   
   
2. Your username and password

After the phone call, I actually tried out but I found that Bitrix24 only implements one-way synchronization from server to outlook for both address book and task.  I did some research on Bitrix24’s forum and found that Bitrix24 made this one-way sync limitation https://www.bitrix24.de/support/forum/forum5/topic435/ on purpose for their own concern. So, this one-way sync situation is normal and not an issue.

2018.01.05

Sync Outlook with Horde Groupware Server

Sync Outlook with Horde Groupware Server 

In this year of 2020, more and more jobs require people to work from home due to COVID-19 pandamic. Syncing calendar, contact and task remotely from home in order to cope with colleagues has become an issue for those who have not done this before.

Horde Groupware Server is an popular open-source solution in United States and Europe Union. Many companies use them for address book, calendar and task sharing and synchronization.

A decent Exchange alternative

horde groupware

Since it is an open-source software, we can treat it as one of the alternatives to implement over Exchange Server or Office 365. Yet, it is well maintained that updates are released now and then.

CardDAV and CalDAV implementation

Horde Groupware serve is using CardDAV and CalDAV as backbone for contact, calendar and task. Users are able to connect to the server and synchronize data items across platforms such as Windows, Linux, iOS, OS X, BB, and Android...

What about Outlook 2016 & 2019?

Thanks to CardDAV and CalDAV webdav protocols, it is common to sync under all above platforms except Windows. For Outlook does not support these open-source standards, we need an add-in as bridge to interconnect the server and Outlook. Here, I found EVO Collaborator for Outlook handy and it works:

1. Download and install EVO Collaborator for Outlook from the official website
2. Open Outlook and go to Configure profile(s)
3. Click on a Profile #22 or any not-configured entry to the left.
4. Enter Horde Groupware server URL in Hostname (CardDAV/CalDAV) or webcal:// URL like this:
   
   
   https://<Server_IP>/horde/rpc.php
5. Enter username and password. Then click on TEST, Apply and Quit.

How to sync SOGo Groupware Server with Outlook?

How to sync SOGo Groupware Server with Outlook?

In this year of 2020, more and more jobs require people to work from home due to COVID-19 pandamic. Syncing calendar, contact and task remotely from home in order to cope with colleagues has become an issue for those who have not done this before.

A scenario from my client:

“Our CIO told me to migrate company’s Exchange Server to some other open-source solution due to an IT budget cut. After evaluation on different solutions of free mail servers like SOGo, Zimbra, Kolab and Zarafa, I chose SOGo Groupware Server. Why? Not only SOGo has a sturdy groupware but also has a seamless integration with Thunderbird. For mails, users can connect through IMAP, which I do not have much trouble with. What about contact and calendar? I went through SOGo website’s Native Microsoft Outlook Configuration Guide but it seems too much hassle. Is there any easier out?”

As far as I know that SOGo supports CardDAV and CalDAV, I told my ex-colleague, “Why don’t you try EVO Collaborator for Outlook?” They do adapt their product to fit in various CardDAV/CalDAV servers. 

After a few days, my ex-colleague told me EVO Collaborator for Outlook is now compatible with SOGo. Here is his experience sharing below:

“Nothing complicated! All I did is entering server URL, user’s e-mail address and password. All that left is auto-discovery’s job. It is amazing!” 

He show me a screenshot of ECO’s Configure profile:

By looking at the screenshot, the server has a URL structure like:

https://<servername>/SOGo/dav/

If you happen to synchronize SOGo groupware's calendars and address book with Outlook 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 or 2019, then you can give it a shot. It will save you lots of time to manage configurations on both server backend and Outlook parameters.


2017.11.01

How to get Gmail push notification on all of your devices

Being notified on time - How to get Gmail push notification on all of your devices

From time to time, when we log in our Gmail accounts, we see mails that came in hours ago but did not receive any notification. As a result, we may miss some deadline by hours. 

Knowing Exchange mail account and Google Apps have push mail notification for the users, they always get notified on time and this is why most business people use these paid services. Now, we may wonder is it possible for free Gmail accounts to also get this kind of push mail notification benefit?

In fact, there are 4 ways through which we can get notified and they are available on several platforms:

1. Chrome:

Android - Just use Gmail App for Android to achieve email notification as described in next section.

iOS - Just use Gmail App for iOS to achieve email notification as described in next section.

OS X - Log in your Gmail account on the respective device. Then, refer to tutorial on Change email notification. However, the downfall is that Chrome, Firefox, or Safari must be opened at all time if you wish to receive such email notification via Chrome. The notification will pop up in 1 to 2 minutes after the mail was delivered.

Windows - Log in your Gmail account on the respective device. Then, refer to tutorial on Change email notification. However, the downfall is that Chrome or Firefox must be opened at all time if you wish to receive such email notification via Chrome. The notification will pop up in 2 to 4 minutes after the mail was delivered.

2. Gmail App:

Android - Gmail for Android: According to my experiment, Gmail's push notification pops up 2 to 4 minutes after I sent an e-mail from my another Outlook.com account.However, you need to make sure the Notification Center on your Android enables notification for Gmail:

iOS - Gmail for iOS: Like Gmail App for Android, you need to make sure the notification alert for Gmail App is turned on somehow.

OS X - N/A: Currently, there is no Gmail App by Google.

Windows - Google: This is a Windows 10 App gathering all Google services in a browser view. When you click on Gmail icon, a Gmail web-UI session will pop up. Thus, it works the same as how Chrome Gmail Push Notification works. Please refer to what we wrote earlier above.

3. Third-party tool:

Android - Just use Gmail App for Android to achieve email notification.

iOS - Just use Gmail App for iOS to achieve email notification.

OS X -

Aura - Once you install this Chrome extension, Aura will ask you to complete Google OAuth and stay in Status menus at top-right. According to my experiment, Gmail's push notification pops up less than 1 minute after I sent an e-mail from my another e-mail account.There are some other similar Chrome extension utilities such as Gmail Notifier, and they work the same way.

Windows -

EVO Collaborator for Outlook under Outlook environment (Sync Google Calendar with Outlook 2007) - If you use Outlook to send/receive e-mail messages for your Gmail account, then you need to be aware of that Outlook 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, or 2019 can only periodically check for incoming e-mail messages according to a pre-defined timer interval. Yet, you need to keep Gmail's INBOX folder selected.However, if you use EVO Collaborator for Outlook to synchronize your Gmail contact, calendar and task, there is an extra feature of monitoring for Gmail push notification. Once deployed, you can browse around Outlook instead of keeping INBOX folder selected and ECO will still remind you of arrival of incoming e-mail messages by playing "ding" notification sound  or a pre-defined wave file.

Gmail Notifier Pro - This is a stand-alone monitoring and e-mail software, in which you configure your Gmail account with username & password.
Then, you can use it for notification purpose as well as e-mail writing. You may close the application and it will go to Windows system tray area at lower-right. According to my experiment, a notification alert 2 to 4 minutes after the testing e-mail was sent from my 
Outlook.com account.

Checker Plus for Gmail - This is a Chrome extension. You can add this extension to your Chrome. Then, open the extension configuring page and put a check mark next to Run in background when Google Chrome is closed.
According to my experiment, the notification alert appears above Windows system tray area within 2 to 4 minutes after the testing e-mail was sent from my Outlook.com account.

4. Third-party mail application:

Android - Just use Gmail App for Android to achieve email notification.

iOS - Just use Gmail App for iOS to achieve email notification.

OS X - , MailTab for Gmail - This is a small mail software utility. Once Gmail OAuth is complete, it will start monitoring incoming Gmail e-mail messages in the background and the notification will pop up in 1 to 2 minutes after the mail was delivered.

Windows - Mail app for Windows 10 (how to enable instant notification on Windows 10?): It is good that Mail app for Windows 10 does not have to be running in order to get notification since Notification and Action will monitor incoming Gmail e-mail messages in the background and the notification will pop up in 2 to 4 minutes after the mail was delivered.

Transfer contacts and calendars from iCloud/iPhone to Gmail/Android

Transfer contacts and calendars from iCloud/iPhone to Gmail/Android

It’s time to share some new IT stuff with you guys.

A friend was asking me, “Can I Transfer contacts and calendars from iCloud/iPhone to Gmail/Android?”

Of course, you can.

I have done some research on Google and conclude with some solutions below:

Contacts: Users log in iCloud and save every contact into .vcf file and log back in Gmail and import those files.

Calendars: Many different ways of doing it. It is similar to the Contact solution. It has to go through an intermediate account, such as from iCloud to Android or iCloud to iCAL first and then from either Android or iCAL to the destination.

Experienced users must understand how time wasting it is. If there is a way to perform a direct transfer from iCloud to Gmail, then it is nice to have it, right?

Let’s look at EVO Collaborator for Outlook.

This Outlook plug-in enables Contacts and Calendars of Outlook 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019 to be a bridge between multiple cloud services. Through this tunnel, a cloud-to-cloud on-the-fly duplication, moving, or synchronizing now becomes possible.


What is CardDAV and what is CalDAV? CardDAV and CalDAV are standard protocol API by IETF’s RFC for contacts and calendars. Google and Apple are using the contacts API and the calendar API to take care of contacts and calendars at the backend to service their customers’ needs on such information..

How to perform cloud-to-cloud contacts and calendar duplication and transfer on-the-fly? 1. Download ECO from EVO’s official website

STEP.1

Download URL (when you install it, please log in as administrator) 2. Set up Gmail account within ECO’s Configuring profile(s)

a. Go to ‘Configuring profile(s)’ under EVO ribbon








b. Due to OAuth, there will pop up a small browser for Gmail logon. Once authenticated, close the window





c. Once completed, Gmail contact, calendar will be bi-directionally synchronized. Data from Android mobile devices will be sync’d too.

3. Create iCloud profile

a. Repeat account adding like Gmail




b. There will be no OAuth window popping up, but you will need to use Apple ID's App password, to do that you also have to enable 2-steps verifications in Apple.

c. Once completed, iCloud contact, calendar will be bi-directionally synchronized. Data from iPhone mobile devices will be syn’d too

4. Synchronize contacts between iCloud and Gmail

a. Click on ‘Explore server’ under ‘CardDAV actions for contacts’ on ECO ribbon





b. Click on ‘Profile2’ in the ‘Profiles’ section

c. At this moment, ‘Full name’ in the middle will display all contacts under this iCloud account.





d. Hold ‘Ctrl’ and mouse left-click for selecting multiple contacts

e. Go to bottom of ‘Detail’ tab and click on ‘C2C Cloud to Cloud Copy’




f. In the pop-up box, click on Profile6 to continue duplicating





g. Once completed, a message box appears and inform number of success and failed items


5. For the calendar part, it is similar to step 4. The difference is clicking on ‘Explore server’ under ‘CalDAV actions for calendars’ in step a. Under Full name, all calendar and task will be shown and you can click on either radial button at the top from step c. However, Gmail does not provide Tasks service.










All the tutorials above can also provide synchronization between different other cloud services that run on CardDAV and CalDAV. Also, one easy-to-use alternative choice rather than cloud solution is EVO Mail Server. It has both CardDAV and CalDAV of its own for better performance over the slow and scolded information retrieval from Gmail services on contacts and calendars. Try it out: EVO Mail Server

2018.01.05

Google Calendar Sync error code 2016

Google Calendar Sync error 2016

For those who have enjoyed the benefits brought by Google Calendar Sync software, you are perhaps disappointed by now as of 8/1/2014. Why? Google is shutting down the service mercilessly.

For smartphone users, non-Outlook users, or Google Apps for Business (GASMO), Education and Government users, they have their own way out. What about for the rest of Outlook users? All they get is error code 2016!

I have done some research looking for alternatives. I came up with three solutions as below:

1. EVO Collaborator for Outlook
   
   
   
   
   Up to 100 profiles covering more CardDAV/CAlDAV services than just Google’s, such as iCloud, Yahoo!, SabreDAV, Zimbra, OwnCloud and EVO Mail Server. Once installed, all you need to do is keying in username and password. Synchronization will be triggered once profile changes take place or any contact, calendar or task change Outlook 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019 is detected, or every 300 seconds. One highlight is the capability of synchronizing cloud to cloud.
2. Bynari WebDAV Collaborator
   
   
   Once installed, more than 10 fields have to be configured per profile. It is somewhat not user friendly. I don’t know how to define synchronization mode. One highlight is the synchronization schedule. If you know exactly how to configure what you want from it, it is good.
3. ICal4OL
   
   
   More complicated than Bynari. It may be advanced and flexible. However, you need to understand lots of tech terms. To be honest, I gave upon it because I am just an ordinary Outlook user busy on my assignments rather than being a IT guru.

Even though Google is giving us a hard time unless we pay for GASMO, there are still alternatives to choose from and make our day. Guys! Don’t you give up! try EVO Collaborator for Outlook.

 

How to setup Gmail POP in Outlook? How to setup Gmail IMAP in Outlook?

How to setup Gmail POP in Outlook? How to setup Gmail IMAP in Outlook?

A majority of users are used to using Gmail on browsers. However, there are occasions integrating Gmail accounts into Outlook user-interface is more convenient. Thus, we do not need to flip between Outlook and browser while working on mails between accounts under Outlook.

Most users may wonder why Gmail cannot be easily configured in Outlook lately? Recently, Gmail, iCloud and Yahoo! mail have implemented an additional security feature that require users to enter a second password for any third-party application including Outlook that is trying to access their email, calendars, contacts and tasks information.

It is called 2-step verification. You must enable it in order to use Gmail under Outlook. 

Here is how to enable it:

Log in your Gmail and go to Account / Security / Password. Click on Setup next to 2-step Verification. Right there, proceed its following instructions.

Then, how do I setup Gmail email in Outlook?

1.      In your account’s Google Account page, go to Security tab at the top and click on Settings (if it appears Disabled) next to Access for less secure apps under Account permissions.Click on radial of Enable next to Access for less secure apps and Done.

3.      Within Gmail, select Settings from the gear-icon pull-down menu at the top right-hand side.

4.      Under Settings page, click on Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab and turn on POP3 and/or IMAP upon your choice. Shown as below:

5.      How to setup Outlook for Gmail? Go to Outlook, click on File at top-left and select Account settings

6.      Manually create a mail profile as usual. On Account Type, choose POP or IMAP according to your preference. Enter password which you just obtained from 2-step Verification.

7.      Click on More settings to the right. Click on Outgoing Server tab and check the box of My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication.

8.      Go to next tab of Advanced, check the box of This server requires an encrypted connection (SSL) and the port number will change to 995 for POP and 993 for IMAP.

                                      

9.      Then, change Outgoing server (SMTP): to 587 if value of Use the following type of encryption connection: is TLS.

10.   change Outgoing server (SMTP): to 465 if value of Use the following type of encryption connection: is SSL.

11.  Click OK to exit and OK all the way.

Now we can use Gmail's mail feature in Outlook. But what about contacts and

calendars? There is an Outlook add-in called EVO Collaborator for Outlook and it is able

to handle this type of 2-steps verification process in Gmail, iCloud and Yahoo!. You can

download it from its official website and try it out.

EVO Collaborator for Outlook is compatible with:

Public contact, calendar, task services such as Gmail, iCloud, Yahoo! and fruux

On-premise CardDAV/CalDAV servers such as EVO Mail Server, Mac OS X Server,

OwnCloud and Zimbra

After ECO installation, any contact, calendar and task items created by other means of

mobile devices or web-based interface will be synced to Outlook and vice versa.

For all items before ECO installation, you may manually select items and upload them to

your CardDAV/CalDAV account.

I think it is worth every penny of it.

Please refer to the following links on how to sync popular CardDAV/CalDAV services

with Outlook 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 or 2019.

1. Sync Gmail with Outlook

2. Sync iCloud with Outlook

3. Sync Mac OS X, Zimbra or OwnCloud with Outlook