HOW TO sync multiple Exchange ActiveSync accounts

[zim2323]

Hello everyone!

I have been searching for weeks on this topic. I finally found a post on Google help yesterday that finally led me to the last piece of the puzzle to answer HOW to do this. I'm posting this here in hopes that it helps somebody with the same problem I have. THIS WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO CONNECT MULTIPLE EXCHANGE EMAIL ACCOUNTS. I do realize this is a real PITA, but it was the ONLY way I could find to sync all my data using automated sync throuh more then one Exchange ActiveSync type service.

What I needed on my phone:
Work Exchange email
Work Exchange calender (had to be seperate from Gmail calenders)
Gmail email
Gmail calendar
Gmail contacts
4 Hotmail/MSN/Live emails (absolutely NO Live software)
Verizon email

I wanted everything COMPLETELY automated with absolutely no interaction by me to sync or send/receive data. Since Windows Mobile does not natively support multiple email/calendars, this is what I had to do...

From PC:
- Configured each Hotmail/MSN/Live account to forward email to Gmail. Configured Gmail to accept those accounts and reply as To address.
- Configured Gmail to access my Verizon POP account and accept that email and reply as To address.
- Create calender labeled Work in Gmail.
- Sign up for (pay) account at http://oggsync.com/. This will be used to sync Gmail calender. Download and copy to your phone. This is a 2-way sync and will push events created on the phone up to Gmail calender.
*Note: I don't use NuevaSync or GooSync to do Calendars because they do not proprely recognize seperate calendars/categories. GooSync does to a point, but it's very convoluted and a lot of extra typing to create a calender event on the phone and have it translate to the proper Gmail calendar. OggSync will organize calendars seperate based on the categories defined/created and relay that back to Gmail during the sync process making it completely automated. With OggSync, each seperate Outlook category equals a seperate Google calendar.
- Sign up for free account at http://nuevasync.com/ and then configure Contact sync authorization through Gmail. This will be used to sync Gmail contacts because Oggsync does not do automated contact syncing and does not properly sync contact pictures.
- Download Chronobis http://www.chronobis.com/ and copy/install to your phone. This will be used to do a one-way pull from my Exchange calendar at work down to the Work calender/category on the phone, which Oggsync will upload to the Work calendar in Gmail calender. I won't be able to sync changes to work, but at least I have my calender.

Now we have everything we need to sync all our data. ActiveSync will be used with work email and NuevaSync to sync Exchange email and Gmail contacts, IMAP will pull email from Gmail (which all other accounts forward to), while Oggsync and Chronobis control Gmail calender and Exchange calender syncing.

From Mobile:

- DO NOT GOTO MESSAGING AND SETUP EMAIL. ***THIS IS THE KEY TO USING MORE THEN ONE EXCHANGE ACCOUNT*** First, goto ActiveSync and click Menu->Add New Server. Setup your Nuevasync account to sync your contacts (UNSELECT EVERYTHING BUT CONTACTS). Once this has been done you should see all your contacts come down.
- Now goto messaging and and configure your Exchange email account. You'll notice that when you get to the point it asks you what type of service you want, you still have the option for an Exchange account. I believe as long as you ultimately UNSELECT email as part of the account, you theoretically should be able to create up to 4 Exchange accounts. One for calender, contacts, tasks, and then email. They could all come from different ActiveSync/Exchange servers. YOU MUST CREATE THE EMAIL ACCOUNT LAST. =) Make sure when it asks what you want to sync to only choose email.
- Goto messaging and configure your Gmail IMAP account.
- Install/open OggSync and configure your calender syncing. Make sure you include all the calenders you want to sync and in Options allow OggSync to move events to calenders based on category. I configured Oggsync to sync every hour.
- Install/open Chronobis and configure it to sync your Exchange calender down to the Work calender/category. OggSync will then PUSH this information up to Gmail as well for archive purposes. I also use the desktop version of OggSync (flaky with .net35 installed) and Outlook2007 to pull everything from Gmail down (mail, calender, contacts) to a local PST on my computer at home on a monthly basis where I send it to backup and have a copy of everything that is completely readable offline. =)
*Note: One of the problems I ran into is that at work we have a piece of software that monitors and fills our calender with events. When I would use Exchange to sync the calender after using OggSync to pull down my Gmail calender, all of my Gmail events would push up to work calender through ActiveSync since there is no way of controlling this in WM6. By using Chronobis, it's a ONE-WAY sync down from my Exchange server. I get notice of changes/activity from work, but my personal calender doesn't get sync'd up to work calender where it would get altered by the monitoring software.

At this point, I have EVERYTHING I need pulling down to my phone and it is completely automated. Is it worth it? Maybe, maybe not. I do know that now I don't ever have to touch a PC to check email/calender for ANYTHING.

I really wish Microsoft would read this and grow a brain about how badly we need multiple email/calender/contact sync events. We've been asking for it for years now. THIS is what I have to do while they ignore me/us.

Please let me know if you have questions about something specifically to what you are trying to do.

[zim2323]

***UPDATE***
Found out that Chronobis does NOT automatically syncronize like I thought it did. This involves running the software syncing it every morning for me to get the days events/changes.

[Devileyezz]

Yeah, ummm, no. Not going to happen. This is way too futuristic, we're going way too fast and technology is being throttled.