I have put up writing a review for Missing Sync and it's three companion applications for some time as I could not decide if they are good or bad. Should one praise or blame them. The truth lays somewhere in between.

So here the review, updated the 29.Sep.2011 for Version 2.6.1.

No cloud needed

Missing Sync is for you if you don't want a cloud based sync for your Android. With Missing Sync your contacts and calender entries won't be stored on Google's server. Your files won't be visible to the drop box administrators. It is your desktop system and mobile phone and no middle man. — Almost - for wifi connection the mark and space server are used for exchange of the ip numbers.

Now this part works flawlessly once you locked though the advanced setting and made some adjustments.

One sync to sync it all

Missing Sync syncs almost everything: calender, notes, text messages, contacts, folder (documents, eBooks, any plain old file), music, pictures, video, tasks and bookmarks. So the only other sync you might wish for is a password manager. Mind you: Fliq Notes has encryption so if you only have a few passwords to store you might not even need that.

There are 4 transports available for Sync: Wifi, Bluetooth, USB Tethering and USB Mass Storage.

There is a slight handicap here: Not all options work with all protocols and you can't use all protocols with all Android devices.

Now I understand that these is due to technical limitations and there is not much Mark & Space can do about it. What upsets me is that it is not documented and if you choose the wrong combination the sync aborts with an error message. The only way to find out is try and error. I bed some of the one star comments are due to users not being patient enough to find out.

Just in case you are inpatient as well (understandably) here the list:

Wifi, Bluethooth

Should sync everything, however there is a bug in folder sync which means you can do folder sync wireless.

USB Tethering

Same as Wifi and Bluethooth but only available with Android 2.3.x »Gingerbread«.

USB Mass Storage

Only folder, music, pictures, ring-tones, video. Note that USB Mass Storage is not available on Android 3.x »Honeycomb«.

If you look carefully then you will notice that folder sync won't be available on Android 3.x »Honeycomb« until the folder sync bug is fixed. Also if you have a large music collection syncing them wireless is a pain as in the arse.

Hint: Make your initial music sync with USB Mass Storage and

Install applications

A feature I only recently discovered is the install application function. This function will install apk files on your device. Pretty helpful if you are not a developer and know adb in and out.

Fliq

You need the four Fliq apps to make the most of it. So I review them here as well.

Fliq Notes

Fliq Notes has recently been updated and has now full Android 3.x »Honeycomb« support which improved the user interface significantly. It is now a very nice notepad application with two way sync with the desktop. Typing a shopping list on a real keyboard and then just sync it to the phone is a killer feature. Fliq Notes also got encryption so you can store sensible informations as well.

Fliq Calender

Fliq Calender is a Google Calender clone, it's look and feel is identical and same feature set. With just one exception: Google's calender android app only syncs with the Google Calender cloud app. Fliq Calender uses Missing sync to sync to all destinations on your desktop pc. Again that is a killer features.

Mac OS X ME users beware: A calender set up to sync with one of the cloud services (Mobile ME, Google Yahoo) will only do one way sync from desktop to phone.

Fliq Task

A simple task manager, nothing special. One can only hope it gets better over time. But it does sync with your calender task.

Fliq Bookmarks

The bookmark manager which comes with the standard Android browser is just too primitive. If you want to handle more then 20 bookmarks it becomes a pain. Fliq Bookmarks promises help here by synchronizing your desktop bookmarks to your phone. Like the other Fliq applications it is a simple, minimum feature application but does do the trick.

Proximity Sync

Proximity Sync is pretty cool. If you are in WiFi or Bluetooth proximity you will sync automatically once every hour (or whatever you set up in the settings). And with the newest version it works out pretty well. What makes it perfect for me (as compared to previous reviews) is the new set-up which allows me to switch off unnecessary notifications.

Resume:

I would still buy Missing Sync — especially since the new 1.6 version addresses some the issues I had before. Yes, it is expensive, it has a lot of twirks but at the end of the day Missing Sync gets the job done and that is all that counts. If you are still unsure you might want to have a look at the Missing Sync Forum