I use Samsung Kies to synchronize my outlook calendar, contacts and to dos with my Samsung Galaxy S3. First of all you have to install Samsung Kies on your PC. Samsung Kies can be downloaded from the official Samsung website here.  Afterwards I connected my SGS3 with the USB cable to my laptop and I opend Samsung Kies. After a few seconds the GT-I9300 was recognized by Samsung Kies.

Galaxy S3 sync with Outlook using Samsung Kies

Galaxy S3 sync with Outlook using Samsung Kies

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Update 11th of October 2012 (Kies version 2.5.0.12094_28):

Samsung release a new update of Samsung Kies that provides a couple of new features that I will explain.

After connecting the smartphone to your PC you select “Sync” within Samsung Kies. There you get the following possibilities to sync your SGS 3:

  • Sync contacts with Outlook
  • Sync schedule with Outlook
  • Sync To Do with Outlook

In the following I will describe all 3 possibilities.

Sync contacts with Outlook

I selected “Sync contacts with Outlook”. At the beginning I synced “all contacts” but I cannot recommend this as you get more contact entries than in your outlook contacts (e. g. only email addresses without contact name etc.). That’s why I recommend to choose “Selected contacts folder” and “contacts”. If you maintain the outlook category for your contacts check “Sync the Outlook category with the contact group of the device”. Click on Sync to start!

Sync Outlook contacs using Samsung Kies

Sync Outlook contacs using Samsung Kies

 

Afterwards all outlook contact data are on your Samsung Galaxy S3.

With the new Samsung Kies update there is also the possibility to define the syncing direction:

  • Apply to both device and Outlook
  • Apply to device only
  • Apply to Outlook only

As I did not understand how those settings affect my synchronization I just tried what happens if I change or delete contact data in Outlook or in my Samsung Galaxy S3 and…

selected “Apply to both device and Outlook:

  • 1. Test case: I deleted in one of the contact data the picture, first name, cell phone number and email address and I also added a new email address and I changed one phone number. After synchronizing all changes have been transferred to the Outlook contact data. I just found out as I deleted the first name on my SGS 3 the title and the middle name have been deleted in Outlook. On my Samsung Galaxy S3 the title and middle name are still there.
  • 2. Test case: Similar to case 1 I changed the contact data in Outlook. The deleted and changed data have been successfully synced with my Samsung Galaxy S3.
  • 3. Test case: I deleted one contact on my Samsung Galaxy S3: After clicking on “Sync” I got the message: “If you sync, the Contacts deleteted on either Device or Outlook will be deleted on both. If you do not want to delete contacts initialise the syncing log. Syncing will proceed automatically when syncing log has been initialised.” Here you get a reminder message that allows you to choose if you want to delete the contact from both devices or if you want to restore the contact again.
  • 4. Test case: If you delete the contact in outlook the same message comes up as in case 3: If I press “Sync” the conact will be deleted on my SGS 3 as well. If I choose to initialise the syncing log the contact data will be restored.

-> All changes no matter on which device will be synced to the other device.

 

selected “apply to device only”:

  • 1. Test case: I deleted in one of the contact data the picture, first name, cell phone number and email address and I also added a new email address and I changed one phone number. After synchronizing the changes have not been transferred to the Outlook contact data.
  • 2. Test case: Similar to case 1 I changed the contact data in Outlook. The changed contact data are synchronized to my Samsung Galaxy S3.
  • 3. Test case: I deleted on contact on my Samsung Galaxy S3: After pressing “Sync” the same message as above appears. Anyhow if I choose “Sync” the Outlook contact will not be deleted. If I deleted the contact date by mistake I can restore it by initialising the syncing log.
  • 4. Test case: If I delete one contact in Outlook the message also appears. If I click “Sync” the contact on my Galaxy S3 will be deleted as well. If I choose “Initialise syncing log” the contact data will be restored from my smartphone.

-> Changes on the Smartphone are not transferred to Outlook!

 

selected “apply to Outlook only”:

  • 1. Test case: I deleted in one of the contact data the picture, first name, cell phone number and email address and I also added a new email address and I changed one phone number. After synchronizing the changes have been transferred to the Outlook contact data.
  • 2. Test case:  Similar to case 1 I changed the contact data in Outlook. The changed contact data are not synchronized to my Samsung Galaxy S3.
  • 3. Test case: I deleted one contact on my Samsung Galaxy S3: After clicking on “Sync” I got the message: “If you sync, the Contacts deleteted on either Device or Outlook will be deleted on both.” After choosing “Sync” the contact will be deleted in Outlook. If I deleted the contact on my smartphone by mistake I can select “Initialise syncing log” and the contact date will be restored from Outlook.
  • 4. Test case: I deleted one contact in Outlook. After pressing “Sync” the same message as above appears. Anyhow if I choose “Sync” the Outlook contact will not be deleted. If I deleted the contact date by mistake I can restore it in Outlook by initialising the syncing log.

-> Changes in Outlook are not transferred to the Smartphone.

Result: If you choose the right settings you should not get double contact data in your smartphone or Outlook. Anyway you have to understand what the different settings cause in the synchronization process.

 

Sync schedule with Outlook

After synchronizing the contact data the next step is to sync your Outlook appointments.

I selected “Sync schedule with Outlook”. You also can select a certain timeframe to sync the schedule. Afterwards I pressed the “Sync” button.

To test if all appointment types have been synchronzied in the right way I set up differnt appointments:

Outlook appointments

Outlook appointments

The result on the Samsung Galaxy S3 is that:

Samsung Galaxy S3 Calendar

Samsung Galaxy S3 Calendar

In one of my earlier tests I said that the synchronization of Outlook schedule works without any problems. But this is only the case for “simple” appointments. If you want to sync a well maintained business calendar I run into following problems:

  • I cannot see the attendees of the appointment
  • The “private” flag of the appointment is not synchronized
  • Attachments of the appointment are not transferred
  • All-day or appointments for several days are not visible on the entire day, only at the beginning of the day.
  • The Samsung S Planner cannot distinguish between “out of office” (red coloured), “busy” and “free” appointments.
  • The categories of the appointments are not synchronized.

Result: You can use Samsung Kies to sync “simple” appointments with your Samsung Galaxy S3. I would expect hat the TOP Model of Samsung is also able to sync an Outlook business calendar. This has to be improved!

Sync To Do with Outlook

I choose “Sync to do with Outlook” and “Selected To do Folder”. After pressing the Sync button I have all my To dos in my Samsung Galaxy S3 S Planner. I set up different To dos in Outlook in order to check if they are synchronized in the right way.

Outlook Aufgaben

Outlook To Dos

The synchronized Outlook To dos are visible in the Samsung Galaxy S3 S Planner. The To dos are always visible on the due date within the calendar. You can check the box on the left in order to set the it done.

Aufgabe im S Planner Kalender

To Dos in S Planner

TIP: If you want to see all To Dos you can move with two fingers from right to left and a menue will appear on the right side. If you choose To Dos a list of the synchronized To Dos appears.

 

Aufgaben im S Planner

To Dos in Galaxy S Planner

Result: The synchronization of To Dos works pretty good with Samsung Kies. As you can see in the screenshot above, the priority of the To Dos is synchronized as well. Only the % complete is not synchronized.

Sync Outlook Memos

Unfortunately Samsung Kies does not support to sync Outlook Memos with my Samsung Galaxy S3. Older Android versions (like Android 2.3) support the synchronization with S Memo, as I tested it with a Samsung Galaxy Ace 2. Hopefully this will be improved as well!

 

Summary

All in all the synchronization of Outlook contacts, schedule and To dos is satisfying. The sync of business calenders has to be improved in order to use the smartphone also for business purpose. Furthermore I would expect that also Outlook memos can be synced in the near future!

Test result Galaxy S3 sync with Outlook

Test result Galaxy S3 sync with Outlook

 

I also tested a different sync software called MyPhone explorer in order to sync my Outlook data with the Galaxy S3. Here you can find the test review and my experiences.

 

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Ich lebe in Bayern nahe München. In meinem Kopf habe ich immer viele Themen und probiert gerade im Bereich Internet neue Medien viel in meiner Freizeit aus. Ich schreibe an dem Blog da es mir Spaß macht über die Dinge zu berichten die mich begeistern. Ich freue mich über jeden Kommentar, über Anregung aber auch über Fragen.

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