Use Caution When Using Windows Live Messenger Mobile

[Mike Temporale]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.theunwired.net/?itemid=3985' target='_blank'>http://www.theunwired.net/?itemid=3985</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Windows Live Messenger includes one feature I don't get - even after the product manager tried to explain it during the last MVP Summit back in March - and this feature is "contacts sync". Let me explain you what contacts sync does, if you haven't used Windows Live Messenger Mobile yet: Contacts sync synchronizes your Windows Live Messenger buddy list from the Windows Live server to your Windows Mobile device and in worst case it doubles some of your contacts. Let's say you have a contact called Joe User which uses joeuser as his Windows Live Messenger's user name. Then, after the synchronization, you have two contacts in your contacts list - Joe User with all the Outlook details and joeuser with the Windows Live IM E-Mail"</i> <br /><br />Arne Hess over at The::Unwired sheds some light on a significant risk you face when using Windows Live Messenger Mobile. While the problem isn't described in the quote above, I'm sure it's not hard to guess that it's related to your messenger contacts. Unfortunately, WLMM has this annoying habit of deleting your messenger contacts. You'll have to read Arne's article to find out exactly how he lost all of his contacts twice! I've all but stopped using WLMM because every time I logged in it would tell me I had no contacts online, which I know was incorrect. Maybe that's for the best as I've not suffered the loss of any contacts. I just can't chat with them. ;) Has anyone else had problems with Windows Live Messenger Mobile?

[LarryKeith]

I tried it just once and removed it. I use exchange hosting for my email, contacts, calendar...etc. When WLMM sync'ed for the first time, it pulled all my old Hotmail and Messenger contacts onto the phone which was then sync'ed up with the Exchange contacts. This was very annoying for me. I ended up removing the program and then cleaned up my Outlook contacts.

I haven't tried WLMM since. If they haven't already, they need an option to turn off the contact sync.

[ksaim]

Something similar happened to me as my outlook contacts and my WLMM contacts were first merged together (ie, if Sue was in Outlook and she was in WLMM, she became one contact) then I noticed my once mammoth WLMM contact list had dwindled down. After researching it further, I found that I still was able to contact all of the people that I really wanted to contact. So in the end, it wasn't a horrible experience for me, but it's very invasive for a program to do that--I would rather the WLMM and the Outlook contacts remained separate in my phone.

[djdj]

I had a very similar experience as well. As a result, I can't trust WLMM, so I have quit using it. The contacts sync feature is totally worthless. If I wanted to integrate my contacts I'd do it myself.

I still have a bunch of Messenger contacts that are missing, and email addresses in my Outlook address book that I don't want there. I really wish MS had left things the way they were before.

[extravagant]

yup exact same thing, and not to mention, what if your friend wants to sign in? that means his/her contacts gets synced to your phone too, which is nuts and will cause pure problems for your friend and you!

What a horrible feature......win live messenger mobile is now useless. pocket msn it is (which is not all bad)!

[Rocco Augusto]

I wanted to use WLMM, but the one time I did try it somehow I manged to merge all of my friends screennames into my Contacts... which was no where near fun removing :(

[Jerry Raia]

Why the heck wasn't this "feature" set up as an option?? :evil:

[stingray]

i use skype now:( its so annoying
i was a part of the beta test group and i reported it. so did a lot of people ( you should have seen the bulletin boards) but microsoft insisted it was a feature....and that many people like it
i suggested they just make it an option, never got a response
i hope they learn soon that they shouldnt force features onto people

hope this changes with the next release

[JonnoB]

Like everyone else, I was confused at first by this feature but now appreciate it. First, I had the problem with duplicates until I realized that one of my Outlook contacts was not duplicated but showed the online status in my Contacts window. I realized that one contact had his passport email address entered in my desktop Outlook for his MSN account. I then went through my list of duplicates, deleted the new entry and put their email address in the IM space of the Outlook contact and on the next sync, the Exchange hosted Outlook contacts got pushed to my device and then my Hotmail contacts list got updated with the correct contact information. Now, everything is correct and when I browse my contact list, I get real-time online status in the Contact application on my Smartphone (and my HTC Wizard - WM6 Pro). In addition, the contacts now show status of their online status on my desktop Outlook too.

I think this could be better explained by Microsoft and a setup wizard to assist in getting things integrated like I have done... but even if you do it manually the first time, it will be great for those like me with both an Exchange based contact list and and a passport (MSN, Hotmail, etc) account to sync with using Live Messenger.