Ipaq 2490 can't recognize card subfolders

[kwikway]

I wonder if this is true to all Ipaq 2490's- mine can't recognize the My Documents subfolders in the memory cards!!!!! The Mobile Office applications particularly. MS Reader & Ereader can, but the rest can't read the files I kept inside the My Documents folder in the CF & SD cards. Am I missing something here? Please help.

[Guest979]

Hello kwikway.

You didn't mention the names of any files or folders that are unrecognized, but on my iPaq 1940, the only time I have trouble seeing SD card files is when the name of the file/folder starts with a digit... I'm not sure if this is because of the SD spec, Windows Mobile, or an iPaq-specific issue, but my iPaq does not like file names that begin with numbers.

[kwikway]

I also used Ipaq 1940 before I shifted to 2490. In fact, the My Documents folders in my former SD card for the 1940 can't be recognized in the 2490 (I just transferred my programs & files to the latter). Could it be that the 2490 has 2 cards- a SD & a CF- & the 2490 is confused? If that is so, aren't the WM5 people shortchanging us? I have to put my file folders outside the My Documents folder & my cards are so crowded with scattered files. Wasn't the idea of folders in Windows to organize our files?

Or am I missing something? When I was using the Ipaq 1940, that happened also because I didn't delete the "ignore my docs" file somewhere in the card. When I deleted that, it recognized the files. Am I suppose to delete a particular file again for the Ipaq 2490?

[Sven Johannsen]

Built in MS applications have always been limited to one folder deep. Two things are causing confusion (maybe three). Prior to WM5, there was an expectation of a My Documents folder on Flash cards. There was a hidden file called ignore-my-docs, that indicated if such a folder existed or not. Apps like Word and Excel, only saw files in the root and one level down, if ignore-my-docs was present, or they would see files in My Documents and one level below it, if ignore-my-docs was not present. This helped in keeping the file clutter down in application open file dialogs, by restricting the search to just files in My Documents. The one folder down was just a limitation.

With the advent of WM5, the My Documents concept and ignore-my-docs file has gone away. You will notice that when you load programs to the flash card now, they do go into a programs folder, rather than just going into the root as they used to. So now you are kind of expected to put your files in the root, or one level below. That means you can have a Maps folder on the SD card, but not neccesarily a My Documents\Maps or a Maps\USA folder and find the files.

The other confusion lies in that not every program, not even every MS program, adheres to the one level deep restriction. It depends on whether the program uses the built in file dialogs or has it's own.

So, things were a bit confusing in WM2003 with the My Documents and ignore-my-docs, then changed with WM5, but you still have some level depth restrictions, and it is not consistant as to whether there is a restriction or not across programs.

[kwikway]

so where are we now? I thought wm5 is part of the evolution of the OS- but it seems, so many things got worse. If we are forced to clutter up the root just so they could be read by the programs, are we being told it's okay if you mess up your card anyway we're going backwards. Except for the persistent memory, I'm hard put to find excuses for coming up with this wm5. I have to admit since I've upgraded to wm5, I noticed that I've been using my Symbian Nokia N90 more often even in reading files(Quick Office program) just because things seem less aggravating. In wm5, you wait too long for the unit to open, much less the files.

I've been using WIndows CE since 1999 with my Uniden palmpc & I never thought time would come that I'd be this irritated with my Windows Mobile.