Understanding Sync – Devices, Email Clients and Accounts
A common misunderstanding people have when it comes to Office 365 (Outlook – desktop client) is the term “sync” with a multi-user multi-device subscription (i.e. the basic 5 user Office 365 Home license). The misunderstanding comes from the marketing materials not making it entirely clear that being able to have the same data depends on one key factor which is how (i.e. the protocol used) to connect to any given email account which has a direct impact on what information can and does get synchronized natively using Outlook and what requires a 3rd party program.
Email Clients versus Devices
To keep this as simple as possible, an <email client> (i.e. Outlook <desktop> part of the Office 365 suite being just one of many possible email clients) is used to connect to any email account no matter what device is used, whether laptop, tablet, smartphone and regardless of the platform used on that device (i.e. Windows, IOS <Apple>, Android, Blackberry etc). Any email account must be configured inside the email client before it can be used.
The exception to this is if you connect to your email account via your browser, otherwise referred to as <webmail>.
Email Protocols
An email protocol is the method by which an email client connects to an email account. The protocols are industry standards which each specific capabilities which are not unique to any email client. The 5 industry standard protocols are
- POP3
- IMAP
- Exchange
- Exchange ActiveSync
- SMTP
For more detail information regarding protocols – see Understanding Email Protocols (POP, Imap, MAPI, EAS etc) but a quick summary is as follows:
POP3 – only the contents of the <Inbox> is downloaded to the device once. There is no bi-directional syncing of the <Inbox>. Whether anything remains on the server in the <Inbox> depends on the option selected. Contact/calendar info is all stored locally on the device.
IMAP – a bi-directional exchange of email data which can be contained in multiple folders. Email data remains on the server until deleted on the server or on the device. When items are deleted on a device, those items get deleted on the server the next time the device connects to the server. Multiple devices connecting to the same email account using IMAP will all see the same data that resides on the server. Contact/calendar info is all stored locally on each device.
Exchange – a bi-directional exchange of information for all items including contacts and calendar. Any device connecting to an email account using the Exchange protocol will see the exact same data.
Exchange ActiveSync – the protocol used to connect an Exchange account using a mobile device
- with the introduction of Outlook ‘2013, Outlook.com accounts were configured using the Exchange ActiveSync protocol (unless manually configured otherwise). A similar (delta-sync) MAPI protocol was used in Outlook versions ‘2010 and earlier)
- Outlook.com accounts have now, for the most part, been migrated to the Office 365 backend Exchange server platform and will be configured using the <Exchange> protocol (instead of Exchange ActiveSync) by default when configured using <Auto-Discover> (the process that occurs when only the email address and password is entered to configure an email account. For more information about email account configuration see: Understanding Outlook Email Account Configuration
SMTP – is the <outbound> protocol used to <send> email messages and is the same regardless of what <inbound> protocol is used to receive messages.
GMail, iCloud and other general email service providers
Gmail – only supports the POP and IMAP protocols. To sync Google contacts/calendar info with Outlook, the Google App Sync Outlook addin is required which requires a Google business account or a 3rd party program. Two such programs are CompanionLink for Outlook/Google from CompanionLink or Sync2 from 4team.
iCloud – is a proprietary protocol from Apple and requires the Apple iCloud Outlook addin to access iCloud based contact/calendar info
Yahoo, Aol etc – can only be configured using the POP or IMAP protocols. A 3rd party program would be required to access contact/calendar info if available. For the most part, a manual export/import process is required.
Email client extensions
As mentioned, every device connects to an email account via the email client in use on the device. Some of these email clients are able to directly connect to Google and iCloud contact/calendar data. That capability is possible via extensions which are built into the email client. The same functionality is provided in the Outlook desktop client (part of the Office 365 suite of programs) by way of 3rd party addins.
Sharing information between devices (horizontal sync)
There is no native capability to directly share Outlook data between multiple computers directly or between Outlook on one machine and other mobile devices. For example, in the case where an email account is configured using POP or IMAP on both devices and the desire/requirement is to share the same contact/calendar data between these devices, then a 3rd party app is required such as CompanionLink for Outlook or Sync2. In this case, Outlook plays no role in the synchronization process which is completely controlled via the options and settings of the 3rd party program being used.
The CompanionLink folks provide synchronization capability between Outlook desktop and virually all mobile devices some of which are
- CompanionLink – Android
- CompanionLink – Blackberry
- CompanionLink – HTC
- CompanionLink – iPhone
- CompanionLink – Kindle
- CompanionLink – Samsung
- CompanionLink – Winphone
In the case where the email account is configured using POP3 on all devices and there is the desire to maintain the same data on all devices, this can be accomplished via CompanionLink DejaCloud or Sync2.
Category: Outlook Sync, Understanding Outlook
