Using Google Drive and FolderSync to automatically backup your photos and data from your phone and a (brief) review on Mail2Drive

Google Drive is Google’s (much needed) answer to iCloud, Dropbox, Skydrive and a million other options available for online storage. I’ve never bothered to explore it further until I decided to go on a mission to automate and sync my android, Shyamala’s iPhone, home PC calendars using GoogleCalendar as the base. I also managed to sync my facebook and tripit calendar to it too and now have our complete schedule on both Shyamala's and my phones.

Since I was on an automation spree, I decided to work on automatically backing up my photos on my phone. Dropbox did exactly that. Their phone app lets you choose a specific folder on your phone and automatically syncs it to your remote folder on your dropbox cloud drive. However, when Google Drive was released around May, I decided to switch teams and jump on the Google Drive bandwagon. There are many good reviews on Google Drive (including Google Drive vs Dropbox features) on the web that'll explain why I decided to switch to Google Drive.

Google drive has a great software you could download for your PC. It automatically creates a 'Google Drive' folder under 'My Documents'. Anything you move to this folder is automatically synced to your Google Drive as is accessible on the net from any PC (or phone).

I'll not be doing a complete review on Google drive, but in a nutshell, I'm very happy with the 5GB free space - That's far from sufficient to backup all of my photos and data, but more than enough to backup anything important including photos and documents from my phones. I've never bothered to back up anything from my phones for the last few years and risked losing it all if I lost it. Google Drive does have an Android app to view the files and manually upload files from your phone. Unfortunately, it doesn't have an auto-upload function like dropbox to upload all of my photos regularly (so I decided to uninstall the Google Drive app!).

Fortunately, I've found another way to automatically backup photos and documents from my phone to Google Drive - At least until, Google comes up with this feature in their mobile app. I've done this using the FolderSync app. As always, I was reluctant to enter the Google Drive password in this app (especially as Google has just one common password for gmail, calendar and blogger) but decided to give it a go as the app had good ratings. This app has all the options I wanted:

* Syncs to and from Google Drive (2-way sync)

* Lets you select the folder on your mobile and on Google Drive

* Select frequency of the sync - I have it set to sync on a weekly basis

* Allows you the connection type for the sync - WiFi or 3G

* Syncs sub-folders and has an option to disable hidden files syncing

* 2-way sync - this also has an option to delete the file from the origin (mobile) once it has been synced (I've not been daring enough to try this out yet)

It also has an encryption feature to secure the transfer. I'm not sure how secure the encryption is, but I've never really been too concerned about it.

The User Interface used to be much friendlier until it was upgraded few weeks ago. Nevertheless, it's still fairly manageable (considering you only need to configure it once). Following are brief steps to configure the sync :

1. Go to 'Accounts' menu and register Google Drive account

2. Go to 'Folderpairs' menu and configure the folders on both ends and configure the sync options

3. Go to 'Sync Status' to commence the sync

Overall, FolderSync is a great, handy app. Google will need to really convince me to move to it's upgraded Google Drive auto sync app if/when it decides to release it.

I also came across another handy app to use with Google Drive - Mail2Drive
This app creates a file from an email message. You receive a secret email address when you sign up. All you need to do is to forward an important email to that email address and a file is created on Google Drive with that email. Again, not a bad little app to help you with storing any important emails in a location other than your mailbox!

Google Drive has a lot of potential but hidden features already. Looking forward to exploring them and automating it as I wish!

How to Sync all your Calendars - Part 1 - Google, iPhone, Android and Desktop calendars

Lately, I have been on a mission to set up a common calendar for Shyamala and I to share and to integrate our personal calendars, Facebook calendars and travel itineraries so it’s all in one common calendar . With some research and Googling, I’ve managed to do the following:

·         One common calendar

·         Link it to my Android phone

·         Link it to Shyamala’s iPhone (clearly I have a better phone than Shyamala :) )

·         Have a common calendar on our PC at home

·         Automatically include our travel itineraries including flights and hotel bookings

·         Automatically include Facebook events

Not sure if this means I’ll manage my time better, but it certainly does help with it and with planning our schedule. Now for the details:

One common calendar

I needed a fairly straight forward calendar with good integration with phones and other apps. The choice was fairly obviously. I signed up for a Google Calendar account. This was a fairly straight forward process.

Syncing with the Android Phone

Android users are in luck. The setting up of a Google account/calendar is quite straight forward. If your Google calendar account is the same as the gmail account you used when you set up your phone, all of your calendars will automatically sync with the phone. In my case, the gmail account I use on my phone is different to the common calendar I set up recently.  So I had to add the new calendar.

To make life easier, I’ve also added two of the below HTC calendar widgets: 

Syncing with the iPhone

Unfortunately, this is a little more complicated than Android! (Another reason to use Android :) )

Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars, click Add Account and create a new Microsoft Exchange Account -- not the Gmail option (yes!!! Weird!). Leaving the 'Domain' field blank, enter your Google account details in 'Username' and 'Password,' tap 'Next,' and add m.google.com as the 'Server' field on the following screen. Next, you'll be prompted for the services you'd like to sync. If this is your first time setting up mail, contacts or your calendar, go ahead and select all three.

If you are using multiple calendars open Safari to choose which Google Calendars you require. Use your account details to log in to m.google.com/sync on your phone, and select the device you're using. Tap the button next to each calendar you want on your phone, and press 'Save' once you're satisfied. Wait a few seconds, boot up the iOS Calendar app, and your Google calendars, now fully editable, will download from the Web.

If you are assuming multiple iPhones or iPads, you just need to follow the above steps on all of it. You can customize your sync settings on each device.

Have a common calendar on our PC at home

I wanted the calendar to be setup on our laptop at home. Ideally, I was looking for a desktop ‘widget’ that will load at startup on my Windows7 laptop and display the calendar... that is exactly what I found here (Not sure what Microsoft was thinking when they removed Windows Calendar from Windows7!!)

This Windows Live Calendar Gadget allows syncing from Windows Live, Google Calendar or any other calendar (including Facebook and tripit – more details below). It also allows you to sync more than one calendar! – Just what I needed.

1. Go to Google calendar > settings > Calendar tab and select the Calendar you wish to sync:

2. Under ‘Private address’, click ICAL and copy the URL:

3. Go to the Windows Live Calendar Gadget > options and paste the URL.

You can choose various the sync interval, reminder options and pick one of the three skins currently available:

Once it is setup, it sits really nicely on the desktop:

I hope this helps someone..
I've also linked my facebook events and travel itineraries (via tripit) to the above calendar (and the phones). I'll explain how I did that in the next blog.