[Defy Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] google-the_big_brother:
Hi everyone,

I just bought new Motorola Defy and was quite excited about the phone. Finally a smartphone that can survive a little bit rough handling. It has quite good HW and for a reasonable price. There was nothing to think about; I just had to have it! :) Device of my dreams!

Now the dream is turning into a little nightmare. It seems like I can only use my phone if I let it send every piece of information straight to google (and Motorola). Have you read those thousand lines long agreements telling you, that you must obey this and that while they are responsible for nothing? Did you too think: “What the hell, do I no longer have any rights?” Never mind I tried my very best to avoid this. I created a dummy gmail account (to be able to use android market), disabled as many background data as possible and did my best to have everything under control.

And now the crucial part of my story: I desperately need to use my calendar. I have everything there. I need to sync my work calendar with my mobile and when I’m out of office, I need to be able to plan anyway and then sync it all back. We MUST use Microsoft Outlook. And the most important part (which many may try to discuss about, but there is really nothing to discuss as it is just a fact): everything MUST stay just in my phone, no kind help of google storing my data who knows where.

It was quite difficult to find a free program that would be able to sync my data just from Outlook to Android and back without google. Finally I found two which seemed to be OK: MyPhoneExplorer and Android-Sync. Life was great once again! :) So I created a test Outlook calendar at home, filled it with some events and tried to sync it with Defy. It was working! Splendid! :D When I went to Calendar -> More -> My calendars, there was a calendar named “Default”. OK.

As the calendar options were bit less than I expected from it I downloaded from android market application “Calendar Snooze”. Everything was as I was used from Windows Mobile 6.1 and as I needed it to be. I was prepared to sync my real work calendar.

The horror! While playing with my new mobile exploring even more settings and abilities I saw it. Suddenly my calendar was named as my dummy google account. What? Why? What if it sent all information to google despite all my efforts? IT REALLY DID! Though I tried so hard, it was all there and I wasn’t even asked whether I want it!!! I was furious! Unbelievable! Such arrogance! I was only thanking God for my paranoia and using test calendar. You can never be paranoid enough with google obviously!

I deleted all information from google calendar, reset mobile to factory default and started to try again. No google account this time. Knowing which applications I wanted I downloaded them from every possible website except android market (thanks God for such websites!). Then I wanted to sync my calendar once more, but hidden from google’s all-seeing eye. “Surprise, surprise,” said Mr. google. It was impossible! My beloved phone kept telling me: “You must synchronize a calendar before creating a new event. You can set up a calendar using google Mail or a Corporate Sync account.” WHAT???! :mad: So I created an fake e-mail account. No, it had to be an exchange or google account! I cannot use exchange. Security policy denies that. (Again, I saw many desperate people searching for solution of same problem as I have and many wise guys saying: “Go to your IT specialists and tell them to allow that.” (or something like that) NO, it’s nonsense! They know why it’s so and no company will change their security policy, just because of one employee trying to sync his mobile. So, please no such suggestions (even well meant), it doesn’t help. Just take it as a fact, please, as I have to.)

I also tried to set google account and then cancel sync settings (an advice I saw somewhere). After creating google account I went to Settings -> Accounts -> selecting google account and there are options: “Sync Calendar”, “Sync Contacts” and “Sync gmail”. None of them can be disabled. :mad: And once created it is impossible to remove google account from my phone (except from resetting it)!!! :mad:

So here I am and I don’t know what else I can do to sync my Outlook calendar with Android’s calendar, without being scared I’ll find sensitive data in google’s greedy hands. Can anyone help me, please?

If I may humbly ask: please no questions like: “Why did you buy android phone if you don’t want to use all google applications?” I can imagine that it may be a great advantage for many of you, but I think it should be a choice, not a must. What’s more my e-book reader, music player, camera, internet browser, games, photo gallery, SMS, QuickOffice and much more works perfect even without google. (Let’s hope it will not change, but who knows if people don’t treasure their privacy and freedom… :(). Also if there was same hardware with Windows Mobile I would buy it after this frustrating experience.:(

I’m sorry for this loooooooooooooooooooong reading, but maybe this will prevent some people from “attacking” me, just because I don’t have the same needs and preferences and opinions as them. This thread may even be much more brief and helpful without it.

Also I’m sorry if I sound offensive, it’s meant to be defensive after what I saw at many forums. :(

I’ll be very grateful for any constructive advice or solution. I wish you all a nice day! :)