Came to Icon from Android and I need some Help...

[savagelizards]

I am now six days in to Icon and WP, and I have started getting more experienced with my new appendage. I really like it sometimes (like the keyboard - wow!), and mostly feel comfortable, although there are still some stressful moments (like when I ended up with new seven duplicate copies of my contacts and appointments, and things got cross-linked, etc., which I will explain below).

Six days in, I still have a lot of questions on how to do things I used to do with my old Razr Maxx. Quite frankly, I don't know if these are limitations of WP that I have to live with or if there's just a different way of doing things that WP veterans know. I have gotten some answers one at a time on other threads, but I thought/hope that I am not the only android user that scooped up an Icon on day 1, so many users will probably benefit from these questions.

Thanks in advance for your help!

So here goes:

Browser

1. How do you go forward in a browser window?
2. When I click a link in an email, it switches to my browser and then takes the current tab and redirects it to the link. How do I get it to open a new browser window?
3. I can't seem to open more than six tabs at one time. Six is way too limiting - especially on a device where jumping from one task to another and coming back later is the norm rather than the exception. I am used to routinely having over a dozen tabs open in my android browser. Am I doing something wrong or is this a browser limitation?
4. If I pin a webpage to the start screen, is there a way to have that tile update with the contents of the page (interested for a router graphing page, so I don't have to actually access the page, just scroll to the tile)?

Mapping/Directions.

1. Most often, I don't want turn-by-turn navigation - just directions, and an estimate of the time to the destination. However, after about 30 seconds, the directions map launches into turn-by-turn navigation all by itself. Where is the setting that I can use to disable automatic navigation unless I select it manually?
2. When turn-by-turn directions is on, if I am listening to media content it does not seem to pause the content before it begins speaking. How do I get it to pause the content (it may not be a big deal for music, but when I am listening to an audiobook, losing 30 seconds at a time can be really disorienting)?

Calendar and Contacts

1. Syncing - This one is huge for me, so I will try and be as detailed as I can. I asked at the Microsoft store and they were unable to help me, but I know the answer they gave is at least partly wrong. When I was on Android, my phone synced its calendar and contacts to Google. I used a third-party program called Companion Link to sync my desktop calendar and contacts with Google's cloud, so that if I entered a calendar item or contact to either my desktop Outlook on my Surface Pro or to my android phone, the item was synced automatically to the other. This way, if I was at a meeting off site and I entered an event into my Calendar on my phone, it would auto-populate on my desktop calendar, and if I received a meeting invitation through my work (pop 3) email, I could accept it and the event would be automatically be entered into my phone. This is a key for me, and it's causing me stress at the moment, especially since my prime motivator in switching to WP is to get away from Google. Anyway, some months ago I installed a what was then called a Hotmail connector to allow me to receive my Outlook.com emails into my Outlook 2010 desktop application. It didn't seem to sync my calendar items, though, so when I made the move to WP I eventually had to migrate my sync app from Google to Outlook. Companionlink supports this, so I thought it would be no problem. I simply changed the sync destination and it looked like everything was working. Mission accomplished! Oops. I had been premature. All of a sudden, my calendar items and contacts started to duplicate, repeatedly, until I had seven duplicates of every appointment and contact and I stopped the sync to cleanup. Imagine getting seven different reminders from each of my desktop and phone to tell me it was time to leave - Wow! After spending hours cleaning up, I concluded that they were duplicating because the Hotmail connector and Companionlink were both copying items. But when I stopped Companionlink, nothing updated. Or, more truthfully, SOME things still did, without an apparent pattern. So I have some duplicates being created, and other items don't sync at all. What Can I do?
2. Linked Contacts - WP keeps linking contacts that have the same first names, resulting in some confusion, calling the wrong person etc. It's repeatedly mis-linked my boss and his son, who share the same last name (but the son is a II), including pulling in the wrong linked info into the contact listing. Where are the settings to determine how contacts are linked?

Battery Alerts

1. I have quickly realized that QI charging is a good solution for a phone with a smallish battery. I got a free QI stand from Microsoft when I purchased the phone, and I have it on my desk. I am able to make speakerphone calls on the phone while it is in the stand, and even though it's a few feet away from me callers say the phone sounds like it's just up to my ear, and I am happy with how it works out. However, the phone keeps chirping whenever it starts or stops charging, and I find myself picking the phone up and having to click back to the home screen to see if I have an email or text message (since there are no on-screen notifications). How do I disable these charging alert tones?

Voicemail

1. I had a great, free, cloud-based visual voicemail app called Voicemail+ from PhoneFusion. After contacting them, I have learned that they do not support WP and have no plans to do so at this time. I am a bit leery of the quality of paid apps in the store. Can anyone recommend a good, non-Verizon visual voicemail solution, or should I resign myself to having to subscribe to Verizon monthly for a service that I have been used to being free for 5+ years (I can't help myself, but it feels like how they used to charge $10/mo. for VZ Navigator when Google Maps would do the same for free)?

Email

1. When I try and attach a file to an email, I seem only to be able to send photos. Most of the time, I want to send a file I have stored on Onedrive. I could do this with my Android phone. What am I doing wrong?
2. I have my work email set up so that two weeks worth stay on the server before being deleted so I can access recent work from my phone. However, I get such a large volume of email that I don't want to have to look at and deal with each one twice (once on my phone and once on my PC). With my K9 mail client on my android phone, I could easily mark all my messages read at one time, so anything new would stand out. However, when I click on the menu item to add a check box, there is no "select all," so I have to manually add a check to each box individually before I can mark them as read. How do I mark all email as read?
3. Will WP 8.1 have swipe-to-delete for emails?

If you made it this far, I am done (for now anyway). Thanks again for taking the time to give this a read!

 

[Silverdogz]

You can't go forward, or you can change what the little refresh button does, forward might be one of the options.

6 tabs is the limit for IE, try using the UC browser if you want more tabs

The webpage will not update until you visit the site, through it, and it will only show a small portion of it.

Linking can be changed by opening the contact and hitting the little chain icon at the bottom

Magikmail is what I use for VM, there are free and paid versions.

Directions, if you're trying to use drive for this, don't, use HERE maps.

I believe you need to download the file to the phone from the Onedrive app.

Also if you see three dots along the bottom, hit them and it'll bring up more options. "..."

Finally, Welcome to Windows Phone!

 

[Chris Mooney]

I don't even have my Icon yet and I want answers to these questions.......get on it folks!! Not that I'll need answers to half of these....now...but maybe later

 

[tgp]

Voicemail

1. I had a great, free, cloud-based visual voicemail app called Voicemail+ from PhoneFusion. After contacting them, I have learned that they do not support WP and have no plans to do so at this time. I am a bit leery of the quality of paid apps in the store. Can anyone recommend a good, non-Verizon visual voicemail solution, or should I resign myself to having to subscribe to Verizon monthly for a service that I have been used to being free for 5+ years (I can't help myself, but it feels like how they used to charge $10/mo. for VZ Navigator when Google Maps would do the same for free)?

I have a suggestion for this one. Unless you're trying to avoid all thing Google, I would recommend Google Voice. Set up a GV number, and in the settings it's very easy to set GV to take your voice mails. I believe you have to have your carrier's VM disabled or not set up. You can set GV to send you a transcription via SMS and/or email. It's fairly accurate, at least good enough to get the gist of what the caller wanted. GV will also send you a sound file of the voicemail. This is nice in that you don't have to use minutes to call in to listen to it.

The only caveat here is that I've never set it up on a WP so I can't guarantee you it will work. I use Android. But since you're just telling GV to take your VMs based on your phone number, I don't believe the phone platform would make any difference.

 

[savagelizards]

Magikmail is what I use for VM, there are free and paid versions.

Thanks! this is EXACTLY what I was looking for. I was back to dialing for voicemail (I thought I was back in 2008 again)...

 

[savagelizards]

I have a suggestion for this one. Unless you're trying to avoid all thing Google, I would recommend Google Voice.

Thanks, you are not wrong. But my actual motivation to move to WP was to find a was to stop using Google services. I am just not as comfortable with them as I was back when I got my first Droid. Ironically, MS seems to be the least evil company these days. But I am familiar with Google voice and it would have been a good solution.

 

[Saksham Sharma]

Hey you better download uc browser, that'd solve the forward problem. Apart from that thing fixed, its amazing in all other respects too. So get it and enjoy

 

[Saksham Sharma]

And linking contacts is a very handy thing when your contacts are from outlook, google, yahoo, Facebook and all. Just open a contact, and click at the chain icon below. This way you can link contacts you want to link, and unlink others.

 

[savagelizards]

Hey you better download uc browser, that'd solve the forward problem. Apart from that thing fixed, its amazing in all other respects too. So get it and enjoy

Just downloaded and installed UC Browser. Thanks to Saksham Sharma and Silverdogz for recommending, and please keep the suggestions/solutions coming!

 

[Saksham Sharma]

I know uc works a little slow right now, that's gonna improve (tested the beta myself) so don't worry..

 

[Saksham Sharma]

Here are some essential apps to welcome you to windows
a) lockie or lockmix for lockscreen (your choice)
b) nokia camera
c) myTube (youtube app, epic !)
d) pocket file manager (its fully functional)
e) picsart
f) nokia storyteller
g) myAppFree
h) amazing weather hd (its paid) or bing weather (free)
g) wpcentral ;-)
h) for shortcuts to settings you can use status tiles or quick settings
Hope you enjoy your ride here at wp !

 

[Joel S79]

Syncing - This one is huge for me, so I will try and be as detailed as I can. I asked at the Microsoft store and they were unable to help me, but I know the answer they gave is at least partly wrong. When I was on Android, my phone synced its calendar and contacts to Google. I used a third-party program called Companion Link to sync my desktop calendar and contacts with Google's cloud, so that if I entered a calendar item or contact to either my desktop Outlook on my Surface Pro or to my android phone, the item was synced automatically to the other. This way, if I was at a meeting off site and I entered an event into my Calendar on my phone, it would auto-populate on my desktop calendar, and if I received a meeting invitation through my work (pop 3) email, I could accept it and the event would be automatically be entered into my phone. This is a key for me, and it's causing me stress at the moment, especially since my prime motivator in switching to WP is to get away from Google. Anyway, some months ago I installed a what was then called a Hotmail connector to allow me to receive my Outlook.com emails into my Outlook 2010 desktop application. It didn't seem to sync my calendar items, though, so when I made the move to WP I eventually had to migrate my sync app from Google to Outlook. Companionlink supports this, so I thought it would be no problem. I simply changed the sync destination and it looked like everything was working. Mission accomplished! Oops. I had been premature. All of a sudden, my calendar items and contacts started to duplicate, repeatedly, until I had seven duplicates of every appointment and contact and I stopped the sync to cleanup. Imagine getting seven different reminders from each of my desktop and phone to tell me it was time to leave - Wow! After spending hours cleaning up, I concluded that they were duplicating because the Hotmail connector and Companionlink were both copying items. But when I stopped Companionlink, nothing updated. Or, more truthfully, SOME things still did, without an apparent pattern. So I have some duplicates being created, and other items don't sync at all. What Can I do?

Holy crap that would drive me mad. Since you mention wanting to get away from Google services, I imagine you're in the process of switching to use Outlook.com's calendar over Google's? The cleanest way to continue using Google's calendar for the stragglers is to just add your Google account to the phone, it'll sync the calendar out of the box. I am fairly sure that you can attach also your Google account to your MS account via Outlook.com, and it'll 1-way sync the items (pull from Google, not update, and I found a link! How to sync Google Calendar to Outlook.com for your Windows Phone | Windows Phone Central ). Obviously if you do that, you won't want to use Google on your phone, since you'll probably get duplicates, but you won't be able to update the Google calendar items. If you just need to get a 1 time pull of the items so you can say good riddance to Google, I believe you can dump the calendar in iCal format and just import that into Outlook.

As far as syncing with Outlook 2010... the Hotmail Connector is supposed to handle everything, but it apparently sucks, so you might want to trash it and try again. Another option is to just add the account like it's another 3rd party email client (setup your Hotmail in Outlook like any old POP or IMAP account), and continue to use Companion Link to sync.

Reminds me, I gave my 928 to my GF, so I really should stop using Google for my Calendar.

 

[savagelizards]

Holy crap that would drive me mad. Since you mention wanting to get away from Google services, I imagine you're in the process of switching to use Outlook.com's calendar over Google's? The cleanest way to continue using Google's calendar for the stragglers is to just add your Google account to the phone, it'll sync the calendar out of the box. I am fairly sure that you can attach also your Google account to your MS account via Outlook.com, and it'll 1-way sync the items (pull from Google, not update, and I found a link! How to sync Google Calendar to Outlook.com for your Windows Phone | Windows Phone Central ). Obviously if you do that, you won't want to use Google on your phone, since you'll probably get duplicates, but you won't be able to update the Google calendar items. If you just need to get a 1 time pull of the items so you can say good riddance to Google, I believe you can dump the calendar in iCal format and just import that into Outlook.

As far as syncing with Outlook 2010... the Hotmail Connector is supposed to handle everything, but it apparently sucks, so you might want to trash it and try again. Another option is to just add the account like it's another 3rd party email client (setup your Hotmail in Outlook like any old POP or IMAP account), and continue to use Companion Link to sync.

Reminds me, I gave my 928 to my GF, so I really should stop using Google for my Calendar.

Yeah, I am trying to get away from Google. It's my single biggest motivator for my move to WP.

That said, my wife uses Gmail and we have a shared family calendar that I would still like to use. If I have a Gmail account configured, could this mean that all my info is still syncing to Google? If so, where are the settings to stop that or are there any? All I want to do is be able to view my Gmail (for email stragglers not yet sending to my outlook.com email address) and use our shared family calendar. I don't want anything to sync with google, except that shared calendar if I can.

With my desktop Outlook 2010 client, I don't know if I can access my outlook.com email account without the connector, but if I can, then I think you are right - I can use CompanionLink for syncing and everything is fine again.

I know I will look back at this and it won't be such a big deal, but right now it's driving me crazy, so thanks for all your help!


Ps. As for your girlfriend, women would never dream of reading someone else's emails, would they? Nah... you're probably fine LOL!

 

[Joel S79]

Yeah, I am trying to get away from Google. It's my single biggest motivator for my move to WP.

That said, my wife uses Gmail and we have a shared family calendar that I would still like to use. If I have a Gmail account configured, could this mean that all my info is still syncing to Google? If so, where are the settings to stop that or are there any? All I want to do is be able to view my Gmail (for email stragglers not yet sending to my outlook.com email address) and use our shared family calendar. I don't want anything to sync with google, except that shared calendar if I can.

When you add an event to your calendar, it should default to your primary account, which will be your Hotmail account. If anything, it does give you the option to choose the account (I personally use Simple Calendar, but I checked both it, and the default calendar app). When you add a contact, it'll prompt you to select the account to add it to as well.

Forgot to mention, you can have it NOT sync contacts from Google if you want. It's in Settings - email + accounts, tap Gmail, and scroll down a little.

With my desktop Outlook 2010 client, I don't know if I can access my outlook.com email account without the connector, but if I can, then I think you are right - I can use CompanionLink for syncing and everything is fine again.

If you go to outlook.com, click the settings gear, and then More Mail Settings, there's an option in there to Connect Devices and Apps with POP. You can turn on the POP email service in there and use that instead of the connector, Outlook shouldn't care. There's also a link in there for More email options, and there's some IMAP stuff in there. Primary difference, of course, is it won't sync your calendars/contacts, but I don't think Outlook will care how you're pulling your email. It's at least worth a shot.

I know I will look back at this and it won't be such a big deal, but right now it's driving me crazy, so thanks for all your help!

lol, I can't blame you. It would totally drive me nuts!

Ps. As for your girlfriend, women would never dream of reading someone else's emails, would they? Nah... you're probably fine LOL!

lol! I let her use my Surface and the emails pop up in the toast from time to time, so I don't care if she sees my email. I meant for our shared calendar though, we currently use Google, but since she now has a Windows Phone device and her primary email is already Hotmail, it's probably time to switch.