Help me restore that PIM data . . . I lost it on both Axim & Desktop

[TerryP]

Dell helped me get my contacts back on the Axim 5 from my laptop.

But now how do I get the contacts from the Dell to my desktop?

Last time, I had a new partnership to the dektop and it lost them when I hit sync? I am afraid no to mess.

Terry

[Janak Parekh]

Make sure there are no records on your desktop Outlook setup, and establish a new partnership. If you establish a new partnership, Activesync by default copies over the records from the Pocket PC to the desktop. I've done this many times without problems. The danger is if you use an existing partnership, and have cleared out your desktop -- then ActiveSync thinks it should sync the deletes over to the Pocket PC. But as long as you're creating a new one, you should be safe.

And, if you want to be careful, I'd suggest you first run a backup utility on your Axim to back it up to CF or SD before going any further. There's nothing to lose then. :)

--janak

[Sven Johannsen]

Activesync by default copies over the records from the Pocket PC to the desktop.--janak

You sure about that? Maybe that is the case if you never had items in Outlook, i.e a perfectly fresh installation, and you do have items on the PPC.

The options I have seen are overwrite the PPC with the PC data, disasterous in this case, or combine the items on the PPC and PC. The later ensures nothing is lost, but can sometimes result in some irritating duplicates. In my experience though, it is rarely two of everything. It is usually just scattered dups. Mostly it figures out that the records are the same and leaves just one copy.

[Janak Parekh]

You sure about that? Maybe that is the case if you never had items in Outlook, i.e a perfectly fresh installation, and you do have items on the PPC.
That's what I implied in my previous response -- make sure the desktop Outlook is clean. That can either be done by deleting the PST and starting afresh, or manually deleting all the records. I've done both in various circumstances whenever I set up the second partnership.

I should amend my previous statement by saying "Typically, ActiveSync combines data, but since there won't be any on the desktop, it will copy the data from the Pocket PC over."

Sorry for being vague. :(

The options I have seen are overwrite the PPC with the PC data, disasterous in this case, or combine the items on the PPC and PC. The later ensures nothing is lost, but can sometimes result in some irritating duplicates.
Yeah - I avoid both. If I get the request, I immediately stop the ActiveSync and resolve it pre-sync via the aforementioned strategy. I personally never want the combine. I guess it's possible that people have two sets of records they'd actually like merged, but I've never seen that to be the case.

--janak

[TerryP]

Good Morning:

I am beginning to hate activesync, and am considering Intellisync.

What orignially happended is this:
I bought a new desktop. Installed Activesync, did a clean install of Outlook. No previous partnerships.
I did a Std Partnership and Sync'd. The Contacts & Calendar in the Dell Axim5 went into the desktop beautifully.

Then the desktop went back to the service dept for sub spooler problems (not fixed by the way), came back but activesync was missing. So I re-installed it. I hooked up the Axim, but it called for a neew partnership. OK I did that, and synched. But this time it did not ask if I wanted to combine or have the data go one way or the other. It just synch'd.

I lost all Contacts from the PDA. I tried it backwards, i.e. going from the desktop back to the Dell, it sucked all of the Contacts out of my desltop.

I had a set of Contacts on my work computer. I went over there to sync. I lost all contacts out of my work computer. I was horriefied.

And the back up on the desktop would not work with the new partnereship.

I called Dell. They had me make a back up of Contacts on my laptop. Then had my remove all of the partnerships from the laptop, and sync to it. it worked. I got all my contacts back on to the Dell.

But it has me afraid to do anything with the work and home desktops of which I NEED to get my contacts back on there.

Can you help with that??

Do I do anything in the Activesycn "file" -"Import/Export data" ??

Or just delete all partnerships and sync again?

Thanks

[Sven Johannsen]

Didn't read the whole thing, but wanted to chime in that Intellisync requires AS to function, so you are not buying yourself much if AS won't connect. It has different options and features, but still uses the AS conduit. I don't think there is a third party sync program that doesn't use the AS conduit actually.

[Sven Johannsen]

OK, now that I read the whole thing, and if Janak concurs. If you have a good set of PIM info on one machine, first back up that info. That way you can always get it back.

Delete all the partnerships on the desktops in question, before you try to establish a new partnership. Then attach the PPC to the one with the good set of info. It will create a new partnership, say it is the only one. That will remove any other partnerships that may still be on the PPC. Let the desktop overwrite the PPC info, since we think the desktop one is right.

On the second desktop, when you create the partnership, say more than one PC when it asks. That will leave the first partnership on the PPC and establish the second. This time, combine info. Yes that can cause you some duplicates, but it is safer than trying to clear out Outlook and combine, IMHO. You don't ever get an overwrite desktop with PPC option.

You should now have a PPC with everything on both the home and work machines. A second machine that has everything, and after you sync with the initial machine, it will have things that may have only been on the second machine.

[Janak Parekh]

OK, now that I read the whole thing, and if Janak concurs.
Your plan should certainly work. IMHO, it's a bit more work than necessary, but what the heck. ;)

If you have a good set of PIM info on one machine, first back up that info. That way you can always get it back.
Yes -- TerryP, before you do anything, backup the PST (Personal Storage File) on your desktop and/or laptop. You can find it by doing a search for *.PST. Once you have those, you can do basically anything and if anything goes wrong, just put the PST back in place. A backup of the Axim as well won't hurt.

Delete all the partnerships on the desktops in question, before you try to establish a new partnership. Then attach the PPC to the one with the good set of info. It will create a new partnership, say it is the only one. That will remove any other partnerships that may still be on the PPC. Let the desktop overwrite the PPC info, since we think the desktop one is right.
I believe you're referring to his laptop here.

--janak

[TerryP]

:D

Thanks Guys!!

I appreciate all your help on this.

Do you know anything about my "Sub
Spooler Not Working" error message??

Or should I look for a different forum for that one?

It foist appeared when I hooked up a $200 Epson Scanner to do pictures and slides and slides. I started the Epson program, clicked on "COPY" and it would not send the scanned document to the printer.

After that, I couldn't print. I couldn't delete the printer. It showed a print job in the que, bbut I couldn't find it. And the pesky error kept coming up, "Sub Spooler not working..."

I could print with when hooked up the laptop, but not with the desktop.

What does that sound like?

Terry

[Janak Parekh]

Do you know anything about my "Sub
Spooler Not Working" error message??
Hmmmm. I haven't had print spooler errors like that in many years. I'd suggest you check out Epson's site and make sure you have the latest driver; they may also have FAQs or a Knowledge Base there. In fact, I never install drivers from the CD anymore without checking for an update from the website first.

What does that sound like?
A driver or DLL conflict, and/or a registry issue. Unfortunately, I can't give you any more concrete details based on what I've heard. :(

--janak

[Sven Johannsen]

For clarification, are we talking about three machines here? I see references to a work and home desktop and to a laptop.

They had me make a back up of Contacts on my laptop

afraid to do anything with the work and home desktops of which I NEED to get my contacts back on

PPCs can only handle two partners. Trying to sync with the third, will prompt to delete one or both of the previous partnerships.