sync android calendar (tasks) with calendar from PC

Question

My goal is to have common calendar & task management between my PC and Android phone. Here is my situation:

On my PC (Windows 7), I have Windows Calendar installed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Calendar It didn't come with it (it actually stopped being released after Vista) so I had to hack around a bit to get it on there. I use Windows Calendar partially (20%) for appointments and their reminders. My main use of it, though, is Tasks and their reminders. Nearly always, when I have a reminder, I snooze it; I rarely complete my task after the first reminder. So, I usually end up snoozing my reminders minutes/hours/days/weeks into the future. Windows Calendar is perfectly suited for this functionality and is the reason why I chose it and like to use it. The calendar is currently stored on the same PC and is not stored remotely somewhere.

Recently, I got an HTC Desire 601. I would like to access the same appointments and tasks from the phone and, importantly, have the reminders synchronized. To clarify, I would like to be able to snooze a task from my PC at 6pm for 2 hours, leave home for at least 2 hours, and have the task popup on my phone at 8pm with a similar prompt to snooze. So, I'm looking for a fairly complete synchronization effect between the PC and the phone.

So, to do this, I obviously need a shared service (Google Calendar, etc.) or a shared file (iCalendar, CalDAV) on a server that both my phone and PC can access. One knock against Google Calendar is that tasks are deficient compared to tasks on Windows Calendar. Google Calendar tasks don't have reminders (and, therefore, nothing to snooze), so I have ruled Google Calendar out. I'm not familiar with other SaaS calendaring/task offerings (Microsoft, etc.)...maybe someone could advise if they handle tasks more like Windows Calendar.

On the phone, there is a calendar built into Android which is pretty close to what I want for a native client. Popups for reminders, though, have no snooze duration. So, I can't choose how long I want it to snooze. This is fairly significant because I routinely snooze one task for 5 minutes and snooze another task for 1 week. So, I need a client on my phone that has this type of functionality. Furthermore, I need a client that will connect to the "shared" service/file that I mentioned earlier.

Am I stretching the limits of the SaaS offerings out there and the available native clients too much that I now need to write my own Android client? I'm not sure about Windows Calendar "automatic synchronization", so I'm flexible enough to accept changing to a client like Mozilla Lightning, if necessary. I have tested Mozilla Lightning and it synchronizes (appointments) well with Google Calendar, for example. Any advice for my problem?

Answer 1

As you're after a plain Android <-> Windows solution, apart from different hosted solutions, MyPhoneExplorer might also be worth consideration. AFAIK it can sync your Android calender with different Windows solutions, especially Outlook, but IMHO also others. According to its description, this also includes – tada! – even your favorite Windows calendar:

MyPhoneExplorer is a powerful phone management software for your Desktop PC. Some features:

• sync your phone with Outlook, Thunderbird, Sunbird, Lotus Notes, Tobit David, Windows Contacts, Windows Calendar,...
• manage your SMS, Calllists, Apps, Files, handle Calls, create backups... Connection via WiFi, USB-Cable or Bluetooth.

This is the client which is needed for phone, you'll need also the desktop-software which can be downloaded at www.fjsoft.at.

^{(emphasis mine)}

I think this will suit you best. MyPhoneExplorer is said to be a real good solution (as a side-effect, it even helps you with backups, and other means of managing your Android device). Not being a Windows user, I cannot speak from my own experience, though – but a Playstore-rating of 4.6 with ~20k votes should mean something, too :)