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A single online account for Mail, Contacts and Calendars for the 3 major platforms?


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I want to have one online account for my mail, contact and calendaring needs.  The 3 accounts i am looking at are Gmail, Outlook.com or iCloud.

 

I have many devices.  Mulitple PCs, a couple Macs, iPhone, Lumia 1020, Nexus 7.

 

Using the built in apps of Windows 8, OS X and Andriod, I can't get one account to work on all platforms.  I am really tempted to build my own exchange server with my own domain and use that because that is the only thing I can find that works on all platforms.

 

Is there anyone else that has come across this issue?  OH, the one gotcha on this, I can NOT use Outlook on the PC and Mac.  I use Outlook strictly for work.  So for my personal mail I use Windows Mail or the Mac Mail app.

 

I have done some of the work arounds but they have limitations such as being read only copies when you subscribe to a google calendar from an Outlook.com account for example.  Anyway, I blabbed on long enough, i am sure I am not the onlyone having this issue.

 

Thanks!

Mark

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I want to have one online account for my mail, contact and calendaring needs.  The 3 accounts i am looking at are Gmail, Outlook.com or iCloud.

 

I have many devices.  Mulitple PCs, a couple Macs, iPhone, Lumia 1020, Nexus 7.

 

Using the built in apps of Windows 8, OS X and Andriod, I can't get one account to work on all platforms.  I am really tempted to build my own exchange server with my own domain and use that because that is the only thing I can find that works on all platforms.

 

Is there anyone else that has come across this issue?  OH, the one gotcha on this, I can NOT use Outlook on the PC and Mac.  I use Outlook strictly for work.  So for my personal mail I use Windows Mail or the Mac Mail app.

 

I have done some of the work arounds but they have limitations such as being read only copies when you subscribe to a google calendar from an Outlook.com account for example.  Anyway, I blabbed on long enough, i am sure I am not the onlyone having this issue.

 

Thanks!

Mark

 

Mail shouldn't be an issue since everything supports IMAP -- so that simplifies this a bit.

 

So your issue is really contacts & calendar. I can tell you right now that google calendar doesn't play well with Windows 8 calendar so that pretty much knocks Google out. Similar issues occur with ical so that knocks iCloud (specifically, multiple calendars and updating your calendars from Win8). I don't imagine Android plays well with WIndows 8 calendars.

 

EDIT: I think exchange is your best bet honestly.

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If your device is for personal use, then you can use personal email in email client..

 

Then you can download outlook app for work use.  Not a problem. 

 

If you have a tablet with user switch, you can have two user accounts... one is for personal and other is for work...

 

Calendar is up to you to use it for personal or work...  You can download alternative calendar app for either personal or work use... so you can separate the accounts.

 

I have no problems with my account on all devices I have as you mentioned.

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Sho, the issue isn't between work and personal.  Work is no problem at all, i only use Outlook for work on my PCs and Macs.  Work is Exchange so it works great on everything.  So not an issue.  I only brought it up because I don't want to use outlook for personal use.

 

My issue is I need to find 1 online account (Outlook.com, Gmail or iCloud) that will work on all platforms.  I perfer not to install additional apps for them but if I have to then I have to.

 

I am really thinking with Snaphat that building my own exchange server will probably be best.  However, if anyone else can tell me how they do it or has some software that I can use to make it work, let me know.  So again... i don't want to seperate work and personal, I just want ONE personal account that works on everything.

 

//EDIT:  Yes Snap you are exactly correct, Contacts and Calendars :)

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I have a personal domain configured as a Microsoft account. I can use Outlook.com with it instead of a @outlook address.

 

This account is the only I have for everything since consolidating my subscriptions, newsletter, site logins and whatnot. It was a PITA to move everything to it but in the end it was more than worthy. Now I use it in Windows Phone, Windows 8.1, Xbox, an HTC One and a Nexus 7.

 

My main phone is an HTC One and I can use mail, calendar and contacts with it as it supports Exchange, just as with the majority of Android devices. I prefer the native Sense email client over the Outlook app but you can use it as well. This account is set as the default for Contacts as well and it works as expected. The Outlook app can sync calendar and contacts, but I haven't needed to try that. I also have real push notifications for mail as it is Exchange.

 

For calendar subscriptions on my Microsoft account, I couldn't get the calendar apps to read my subscribed calendars. They only read the default calendar in my account (I only have one calendar, so I don't if they can read more). For this I have to make the only workaround on my setup which was to add my subscribed calendars to my Google account. I only need those to be read only (sporst team schedules and festivities) so the native app or Google Calendar work very well. The default calendar which I use for personal and work stuff can be synched without problems.

 

I don't have much experience but I think you should be able to use a Microsoft account with their mail app and other clients just by setting up as IMAP, which is now supported by Outlook.com. Calendar and Contacts could be used with an Outlook app for iOS.

 

You can use Outlook full set of features, like aliases, etc. with a personal domain.

 

Just my two cents. If you are thinking to go with a personal domain (or consolidate your stuff into an existing Microsoft account) I can't recommend Outlook.com enough. The problem with Google accounts is that they are stubborn about supporting Windows Phone and Windows 8.1.

 

PS: You can import your Gmail mails and use that address as an alias. That would aid you when doing the migration of your stuff.

 

PS2: Sorry for the long post.

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No problem with the long post.  That was great.  The issue with the MS account is it working on the Mac, unless i am missing something which i am perfectly fine with someone showing me the errors of my ways.

 

Keep the ideas coming!  Thank you.  I like to collect a few then try them all and go from there.

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Just use the browser versions or either Gmail or Outlook, not sure if iCloud has browser access, there's no real need for an actual program for mail, calendar, or contacts

 

Been using Gmail/Calendar/Contacts from the browser for years, at no point have I felt the need for a program to do any of those or felt I was missing anything 

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thanks to Caldav and carddav you can use Gmail to sync all of those things with just about any device. 

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thanks to Caldav and carddav you can use Gmail to sync all of those things with just about any device. 

 

On windows what software do you use?  I don't want to use a browser for contacts and calendars.  I don't always have internet access.  I hear all these great things about CalDav and CardDav but don't know what software works with them that is decent.

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On windows what software do you use?  I don't want to use a browser for contacts and calendars.  I don't always have internet access.  I hear all these great things about CalDav and CardDav but don't know what software works with them that is decent.

on windows 8 i use the mail app, on windows phone 8 i use the default accounts apps, and in others i suppose you can use outlook, eudora or even thunderbird if you really wanted to.

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on windows 8 i use the mail app, on windows phone 8 i use the default accounts apps, and in others i suppose you can use outlook, eudora or even thunderbird if you really wanted to.

Mail is the easy part.  The windows 8.1 contacts and calendar apps don't support gmail.  Only options are exchange or outlook.com.  This is the only decent calendar and contacts app I could find that supports CardDav and CalDav - http://www.emclient.com/

 

I was hoping to use Outlook.com for my main account but the Mac Calendar and Contacts app doesn't work with it.

 

Is there anyone that uses Windows 8.1, Mac OS X.9, iOS, and Android that is successfully using contacts and calendars across all devices (without outlook and NOT browser based, I need apps)?

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Is there anyone that uses Windows 8.1, Mac OS X.9, iOS, and Android that is successfully using contacts and calendars across all devices (without outlook and NOT browser based, I need apps)?

 

The silence suggests a no  :rofl:

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The silence suggests a no  :rofl:

Hehe, thats what I am thinking.

 

I just built an exchange server in my MSDN partner account on Azure to do what I need.  Since exchange works with everything.

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