The best and worst of this world

[Tycho Morgan]

I've noticed that one of the biggest complaints concerning the Pocket PC platform is with the synchronization software: ActiveSync 3.5. It's a pain in the rear to set up and get working, it occasionally cuts out for unknown reasons, it is only available for recent versions of the Windows OS, and it only allows syncing with Microsoft Outlook 2000 and 2002 (XP). It might have been nice if something had been done about one or more of these issues, but it seems that we'll have to wait a while before the quality of ActiveSync is on par with the rest of the Pocket PC platform.<br /><br />It is because of these problems that I find it ironic that ActiveSync is the thing I miss most about the Pocket PC when I’m using a Palm (as an occasional freelance mobile tech writer, I’ve learned to suffer through it). I really like how ActiveSync keeps your computer and device constantly up to date, its nice to be able to drop it in and walk away, it's nice to have such a fast connection, and despite the complaints about it, I like how once you get ActiveSync working right—no small feat, for me at least—it usually stays working.. <br /><br />The best and worst of this world indeed.

[daddymac]

Lucky me, not 15 minutes after i read this, my Activesync stopped working.

I just went and bought a brand new 128 meg CF card to load WMA files onto, and now it's absolutely useless, as activesync won't work at all.

I tried removing the card, i tried soft resetting, i even tried reinstalling activesync. It's in the crade, and it's definitely charging... (it's a jornada 565).

You'd think after thousands of people have had problems like this microsoft would maybe try and fix it...

Anyone else had problems like this? Its like it stopped working for no reason whatsoever...

[Daniel]

ok, maybe it's just me but I have ActiveSync 3.5 working with Outlook 98. I can see that's not your main point.
I'm not sure about everyone else, but setting up ActiveSync is no drama. The biggest problem I have is with the backup/restore never working, I can back up fine, but if I try to restore it never works, that's just ridiculous.

Daniel

[Bruno]

I am amazed at all this ranting over ActiveSync. Personally I think the software just gets better and better for every version (opposed to the PocketPC versions).

I'm running Windows XP and ActiveSync 3.5 to my Ipaq 3630 and everything just works. Maybe i´m just lucky? :D

[RLBogue]

I think that there are two technical challenges that ActiveSync masters that are quite important. The first, as Sam mentioned, is the "Always up to date" feature that means I can pickup the unit and run to a meeting. (Did I mention I'm always late for meetings.) I think that the second one is the fact that you can move files back and forth to the device. That's something that HotSync needs to address -- oh wait, there's no memory on Palm devices. Nevermind.

As for the problems, most of the problems I've heard of have to do with USB issues, not issues with ActiveSync. Am I just missing something? Are there all kinds of ActiveSync problems that I've not had the pleasure of experiencing yet?

Oh, yea, I have had the occaisional problem with AS not synchronizing Inbox folder correctly -- but that's not like it stops working, it just forgets to remove old folder content...

Rob

[Daniel]

Like I said, try making a backup of your machine (full backup in ActiveSync obviously), make a second one that you know will work too. Then, hard reset your PPC. Next step is to do a restore, the help says that you have to connect your machine (after doing the initial setup stuff) as guest. Then you do a restore and it should restore for you. If you have more than one profile in ActiveSync then it will ask you which one you want to use.
That's all fine (and in fact what it says in help), the problem I have is that whenever I get to this point the actual restore fails saying something along the lines that the device is different from the one on the backup.
I have tried this with a number of different configurations:

H3636 + W2k
H3630 + WXP
H3660 + WXP

None of these configurations actually worked. I would love to hear if anyone else has got this top work and in what configuration as I have no idea what I am doing wrong.

Daniel

[RLBogue]

Daniel:

If I remember correctly you have to make sure that your pocket pc name matches the name that it had when you backed it up. You can't change anything from the last backup - ROM version, OS Version, etc. That invalidates the image. I did make this work from ActiveSync once, but I haven't tried it sense.

However, Check out Sprite Software (http://www.spritesoftware.com) they have a backup utility that is substantially better than the facility built into ActiveSync.

Rob

[Daniel]

Thanks RLBouge, I'm sure that I have tried both (not setting/setting the device name), with the correct capitalization and everything. It seems kind of odd that is should be so easy to do so many other things yet so difficult to restore a backup when you most need it.

Anyone else care to enlighten me? Please? :)

Daniel

[peterawest]

Daniel,

You are right that Outlook 98 works fine too. According to the System Requirements page: "Microsoft Outlook 98 or later required for synchronization to the desktop or portable computer of e-mail, calendar, contacts, tasks, and notes. (Outlook 2002 recommended)"

http://www.microsoft.com/mobile/pocketpc/downloads/activesync/as-sysreq35.asp

[zylark]

I'm running AS 3.1 and never experienced any big problems with it. My ipaq 3630 is hooked up to a win98 box, and apart from some double postings in the inbox when mails are sync'd, not read and then sync'd again.

I did however get my ipaq upgraded to CE v.3.0.9348 when I sent it in for a screen-repair. And AS, as you all know, absolutely refused to install the backup image I had. No big problem as all the outlookdata was on the hd of my desktop PC. I did however loose my Money database, and had to install all my software anew. And most infuriating of all... I had to start from scratch in PocketSlay :evil:

I've done a couple of backup/restore operations since, and everything works like a charm! Now, dare I upgrade to XP/AS3.5/PPC2002. I got it all lying around, but not installed. My philosophy beeing: If it ain't broke, don't fix it...

[RLBogue]

Zylark - Backup will never work with a ROM/OS upgrade. I think it's even mentioned in the documentation...