Easiest way to sync your Mobile phone over Bluetooth in Ubuntu

Technorati Tags: Synchronization,Mobile,Ubuntu

I always had tough time finding easy and reliable solution to handle PIM data sync between my mobile phone and Ubuntu(Evolution to be precise).
Of all solutions which I tried, Opensync(with Multisync GUI) worked ok, but had to do some tweaking to get it working. Also It didn’t sync Notes(Memos in Evolution).Still detailed guide over at Ubuntuforums is good and many members have updated it with their comments.

Now after latest beta release of syncEvolution(1.0 Beta 3) , I can say that PIM sync of Mobile to Evolution in Ubuntu has become very easy.In fact I found it easier than doing on Windows. Also syncEvolution allows you to sync your Evolutions PIM data with various online services like Funambol, Google, Memotoo, Ovi. I had earlier posted how-to sync Evolution PIM with your online OVI.com account. So now I think by adding working feature of local phone sync over bluetooth, syncEvolution has covered many aspects of PIM  Data sync.  I think good thing is that syncEvolution being developed as part of Moblin platform. Now Intel’s Moblin and Nokia’s Maemo have joined forces to create MeeGo. So I feel there are lot of positives to look forward as syncEVolution works on Open standards and is Open software.

Well lets look as how syncEvolution actually works to sync your phone PIM Data(contacts, Calendar and Notes) with Evolution in Ubuntu.
I am using Ubuntu 10.04 Desktop edition with latest updates, along with Nokia E72. Also you will need to have Internet connection to download syncEvolution software.

We will need to install syncEvolution. So lets start by adding repository in software sources.

   Switch to Other Software Tab and Click on add

  Put in complete apt line

  Now it should show in sources list, ensure that it's checked and click close.

  Click Reload to reload package changes.

Now we will open Synaptic Package Manager and Install syncEvolution, you can use aptitude also.

Select Origin-> /main(downloads.syncevolution.org) and select syncevolution-evolution.

Click Apply and start install. This will download and install syncevolution 1.0 Beta 3.

You can ensure that syncEvolution has got installed by checking it under Programs-Internet-Sync

Now you can start pairing your phone via Bluetooth with your Computer. You can skip these steps if you have already paired your phone.In this case you can directly open Sync.

Switch on Bluetooth on both phone and computer and keep it visible(Visibility -> Shown to All).

Here Bluetooth will list sync(syncEvolution) as program which you can use.This is really nice step as it makes sync very easy.

Once you click on sync, it opens syncEvoution program.

Here as I mentioned earlier you can sync your Evolution PIM data with online services, but you can also do direct sync with Bluetooth paired phones as seen in screenshot.

Just click on + sign next to phone which you just now paired.Select template based on your phone type, these templates are delivered and also can be edited/changes based on your phone type.We can cover that later.

Once you select template, you can change settings about content to be synced and also direction.

Then click on Save & Use. Now you have to just click on "Sync now".

It will give Sync status , whether complete or errors.

Now open Evolution and check if content(Contacts, Calendar, Notes) have been synced or not.

Above screenshot shows that it syncs complete PIM Data i.e. Contacts, Calendar, To-dos, Notes

There are more options under "Fix emergency sync" option which I have not tried myself.

There are few issues with syncEvolution which I hope will be addressed in future versions.

•     No clear status updates of sync. It always says no changes in GUI.Almost no way to get any details about sync. You can do this still by enabling logging in template file and checking out log file at .cache/syncevolution folder.
• Contact images are not getting synced.

I am sure if more people start using this program , we can help in making it better. You can go over to www.syncevolution.org . Developers are very supportive and interactive.

I hope many of you will find this guide useful. Please let me know if you find any issues or share your experience, I will be happy to help.

Open source is the way to go !!!