Google/Android "sync will be back soon" problem fix for me

Hi guys,

I recently had a problem on my android phone where it wouldn't sync my google calendar. On going into the account sync under settings, all sections of my google account services other than my calendar were syncing fine.
I did a google search for this after disabling and enabling, resting the phone etc. I didn't find I direct solution to the problem from my web search but I did find other having this same error for either the google calendar or other google services such as the chrome web data sync.
So yesterday, after my s planner calendar app not being able to sync since the 3rd of December, I made the following changes. I can't say specifically which one of these resolved the problem for me but it is working fine again now.

Ok so firstly I enabled calendar sync under my google exchange sync account. I use this purely for email as it doesn't pull the 3 separate calendars under my google account properly. I don't think this fixed the problem however as I think I turned this off quite a bit before the sync on my normal google account stopped working.

Secondly, I installed googles own calendar app. Tried it before to see what it's like and I'm not a fan of the month view, the week view is really nice and the event creation with address book search for address is great by the way. This syncs directly with your google calendar rather than relying n your android phone account to sync the data like S Planner does. Not convinced this was the fix either.

Now one of the next two actions would be my bet at the fix however I can't say for sure. Because I did all 4 things one after another and it was fixed when I checked. Sorry it's not mo specific but I was doing it before leaving for work and was running low on time.

So the third thing I did was to log into my google dashboard and clear the chrome sync data. This means you then have to re sync everything like you did the first time you logged into chrome with your account. If you need your pc bookmarks on the go I wouldn't recommend doing this without access to your pc you'll need to log into chrome again with your google account details to get all your desktop bookmarks.

Lastly, I use Calengoo as my main calendar app. This syncs directly to my google account also so wasn't affected by the problem. The reason I wanted to fix the problem is because I like the Galaxy S3 alarm where it reads my appointments for the day as well as the weather and news headlines. That feeds from S Planner. In Calengoo, I turned on Android calendars, refreshed Calengoo then saw all the events had duplicated. I disabled the Android calendars again, went to S Planner and it was fully synced again. Checked the account sync in settings and that was working fine too.

I'm not completely sure which if the above changes fixed the issue for me but it saved having to remove my google account from my phone and re add it. Not sure what the consequences of doing this would be but I think a sync to my pc would be wise before hand if I were to have gone with this option. I do however think it was probably the chrome sync. Maybe a bug in Jellybean or just with the chrome sync, I'm not sure but that seems to fix the problem when's its the chrome data itself that won't sync (from what I've read).


If anyone else takes a more systematic approach to this and gets it fixed I'd be interested to know specifically what resolved the issue in case it reoccurs. Hope this helps some others out there as I know it's annoying.

Jim

Android Todo Apps, Which to Choose

Android Todo Apps, Which to Choose

If you have recently acquired an new android handset and need a good todo list, I'm hoping I may be able to help you here.
I've recently jumped ship from being an iPhone fan after the disappointment of the iPhone 5 specs and features. I knew there were less apps available to me on the Google Play store but it seems there are also less app reviewers for android apps as well.
There are a few out there and I've tested most of the apps they recommend and have finally found one I like.
Before I get into the details of what apps I've tested and which I personally think is the best, I'll explain what in look for in a todo app. My requirements may be different to yours so bear this in mind so you can understand my app of choice. Also if you know of a better app that I've not tested yet then please comment below as I'd love to hear about it.

What I Look for in a Todo App

For me, a todo app needs to have the following features :
  - Pop up notification reminders
  - Reoccurring reminders which complex repeat options (for example @9am every Wednesday and friday)
  - Separate todo list (ideally synced from and with my Google ones)
  - An "all tasks"  view (something the online Google task list desperately needs)
  - A clean, simple ui that is as easy on the eye as it is to use
 
Now in don't think this is an overly demanding set of wants or needs. I want todo app that is quick and easy to use and read. I don't want using it to be a chore. I want it to help with my personal and business "chores"  as it were.

The Apps and Which is My Personal Choice

I've tested most of the top apps and one of which I used for several weeks before finally moving on to my app of choice. The tested apps in no particular order were:
  - Any.do
  - Astrid
  - 2Do
  - Tasks
  - Gtasks
  - Taskos
  - Remember the Milk
  - Wunderlist
 
I also read the feature list for several more apps but felt those didn't warrant testing due to lack of reminders or Google sync, or just because they didn't look easy and clear to use.

Of those above apps, four of them stood our for me and one of them was a real let down after using it on ios. The let down for me is 2Do. At over £5 to purchase with non free trial, I found myself sorely disappointed, the reminders aren't snoozable, the notification its persistent, it doesn't pop up. The a best point about 2do is the check list and project features. For those reasons only is it still installed on my GS3.
I found both Any.do and Tasks to have a very pleasant on the eye kind of ui. Any.do looks very fancy but is flawed with only simple repeating reminders and if you snooze one then complete it a couple of hours later, the repeated reminder goes from the snooze'd completion time. So all looks and low functionality it seems.
Tasks is actually a really nice app, if you don't have a need for repeating reminders then this could be the app for you. It feels very slick when used too. But due to a lack of repeating reminders and also no All Tasks list, I was a no go for me.
I'll come back to my two favs in a min and quickly cover off the worst apps for me.
Remember the Milk, has a great name for itself and has all the features if your willing to subscribe to a yearly service fee of $25. For me that's way over the top for pricing so was a no go.
Taskos seemed to basic and simple when I tested the free trial. It had the features in wanted but not the clean ui.
Wunderlist is another very popular app and isn't that bad. Again it has plenty of features but I just don't like the way if felt to use. It just seemed a bit fiddly and lacked the repeating reminders I need.
So that leaves Astrid and Gtasks.
Astrid is actually a really nice app that I used for the best part of a month. It's got a clean ui, separate list views, syncs with Google tasks, quick and easy to create tasks, supports repeating reminders and snoozing that works properly. It also has an option to make the reminder in the notification centre persistent, and have pop up notifications. It can even pop up to bug you if you missed a call which you can create a reminder to ring back later from. And that's not all, it's really a feature packed app. That's almost perfect. And in fact, if the repeating reminders worked properly all the time, it would have been my app of choice, but sometimes, the repeating reminders acted weird. For example, I have a reminder that goes off on the days in have to pick my son up from pre school. They're always the same days. Every now and then, Astrid would reschedule to the next reminder after completing (the next reminder being a couple of days away) then pop up again later on the same day with the alert again. If in hit done, it would complete the reminder that's not due for a couple of days.
From what in could tell, this happened when I hit snooze, then went in and completed the reminder before the snooze timer came around again. Either way, it's not a good thing.
So that leaves Gtasks. For me this gets the balance right. It's got a nice clean crisp ui, it's very quick and easy to use and has all the features I need. To get the more complex repeating reminders you have to buy the licence key app but I liked using the free version that much I decide it was worth just over £3 for it. It's not 100% perfect. There could be a couple of improvements with task creation like being able to pick the task list while in the creation screen rather than having to go to the list first or move the task after. Also being able to tap on the time field and type the time in would be nice as apposed to scrolling through to the time you want but these are quite small niggles that I'm willing to look past for the overall app functionality.
I've also found one bug in the app so far. I have one daily repeating reminder every evening and by snoozing it to the next morning it then won't repeat that evening. The app seems to assume that by snoozing the reminder, for example, from the evening of the 20th to the morning of the 21st, it doesn't need to reappear on the evening of the 21st. It also then changed the repeat time to the following morning of the 22nd. This is a more annoying bug and I've reported it to the devs. It's still workable with this bug but annoying. Hopefully the devs will reply soon and fix the problem.

For me, overall, it just works and feels good to use, but don't just take my word for it, download the free version and try it for yourself. Even with the couple of little niggles its still a great app and for me deserves 4/5.

Apologies for the lack of new posts recently

Apologies for the lack of posts recently for anyone that checks my little blog for info and news. I've been busy with my day job and as a family, my other half's work haven't been giving her the hours so I've had to work harder to try and make up for it as much as I can.

As you can also see, I've now setup an Android blog which is new to the site. You can probably also guess (if you read my blog about the iPhone 5 rumours) that I was disappointed with the new iPhone 5 handset and have moved to Android (galaxy S3).
I'd also like to say what a breath of fresh air the move has been for me. Android Jelly Bean isn't the perfect OS (none of em are though) but I guess moving from iOS to Android is a bit like taking a dog for a walk. Getting to the park. Letting the dog off the lead and whoosh, off you go with this new found freedom.

I've still got my iPhone 4 but it barely gets used anymore and it feels positively tiny compared to my GS3. I do, however, heavily use my iPad for business and pleasure so there will still be iOS app reviews and there are some I still need to write from iPhone usage before home life and work got in the way of blogging. And of course there will now be reviews for Android appearing in this new area.

I hope some people out there will enjoy my little blog and get something from it.

Kind Regards

Jim