Sync with your phone via Bluetooth

Starting with SyncEvolution 1.0 alpha, you can synchronize your PIM data with a SyncML capable phone (typically Symbian phones) over Bluetooth. We are testing with Nokia 7210c (Symbian S40 5th edition), it basically works at the moment (Contacts, Calendar, Todos, Notes are syncing, except some data transformation inconsistency problem; yes it's not perfect yet). We will continue work on enabling and testing more phones through the 1.0 development. You are invited to try it out with your phone and report bugs and feature requests and test results.

Bluetooth

Direct synchronization is supported via Bluetooth. For that the two devices must be paired, which has to be done using the normal system services for that, like the bluetooth-applet.

GTK sync-UI

After pairing, the sync-UI can be used to configure synchronization with a phone which has SyncML capabilities (see below if unsure about that). SyncEvolution 1.0 comes with configuration templates matching certain Nokia devices. They all use the same settings, so if you have something from Nokia, use one of these.

More configuration templates can be found in the Wiki entries for specific phones, linked to on the sidebar of the compatibility page. It is possible to make the GUI use them like this:

1. create ~/.config/syncevolution-templates (hidden directory in the home directory)
2. cut-and-paste the "Configuration template" text into a file with an arbitrary name (like ~/.config/syncevolution-templates/my-phone)

This blog post explains the sync-UI setup of phones.

command line usage

When working with the SyncEvolution command line, the phone's Mac address is needed. It can be found with:

Introduced in 1.0 beta 3

Since 1.0 beta 3, SyncEvolution has a list of built in configuration templates for phones. From the command line you can use:

to find a template for your phone. You can use device name, phone model, phone manufacturer, etc. as the ${matchstring} in the command above. Leaving it empty shows templates for HTTP SyncML servers, so use "-l ??" to get device templates.

All matched templates will be listed and sorted by match level. If you find some template that might work for your phone, you can then create a configuration with that template:

In addition, the configuration creation process is fully automated from the GUI (sync-ui). You still have to pair your phone manually. The UI then detects your phone automatically and presents a list of possibly working templates for your phone. After you select one of these, the corresponding configuration will be created automatically (with the syncURL set correctly to the Bluetooth Mac address of your phone).

Phones with no supported built-in templates

We currently have a limited list of built-in template for phones. You might find that none of the template works for your phone. For that case, we developed the 'syncevo-phone-config' tool, which will try to automatically detect a working configuration for your phone.

The following invocation will do a thorough check, create a configuration and print a configuration template for the Wiki:

The syncevo-phone-config in 1.0 beta 3 is faulty. Please download the latest version, then run it as "python syncevo-phone-config.py".

If the tool succeeds, you can use the configuration created under the <my config name> for synchronization. We also appreciate if you could take the time to report success or failure in our Wiki.

Before 1.0 beta 3

Step 1. Detect your phone via bluetooth Make sure you have a bluetooth device (built-in or a USB dongle) on your PC and your bluetoothd service is started correctly. hcitool scan This will lists all bluetooth devices around (the Mac address and name pair), you can figure out which one is your phone by the name, eg. for our 7210c, it defaults: 00:25:47:C8:E1:23 Nokia 7210c Alternatively, you can use bluetooth-applet on gnome environment.

Step 2. Make sure your phone supports SyncML over Bluetooth sdptool search --bdaddr SYNCML You should see information about 'SyncML Client' service. If not, this means the phone does not have a built-in SyncML client over Bluetooth. For advanced phones, you may still try to install a SyncML Client software on it (Yes, SyncEvolution is capable for this).

Step 3. Bluetooth pairing with your phone You may typically rely on a GUI tool such as bluetooth-applet on gnome for help.

Step 4. Build and Install SyncEvolution on your PC. Please according to the corresponding guides.

Step 5. Create the configuration for your phone. We currently still lack a usable template for you, so you have to do the following:

You will probably need configure an additional virtual datasource for some Nokia phones (Because they store calendar (or events) and todo in the same place and treat them as a whole).

Now you can sync with:

Troubleshooting

1. Please set the username and password for sync on your phone to empty.
2. Change WBXML to XML (Though most phones use wbxml).
3. Change your URI property in each source (Some phones may match against this string during sync initialization, such as Nokia N900 it needs "Contacts", "Calendar" exactly)
4. Change remoteIdentifier to some special string "PC Suite", "Nokia PC Suite", etc.
5. Restart your phone.