ActiveSync Folder Sync Quirks

[Jason Dunn]

By now, you all know how I, ahem, feel about ActiveSync 3.x :twisted:, but it continues to...surprise me. 8O Look at the screenshot below and tell me what's wrong (the left is my Outlook folder structure, and the right are the folders ActiveSync offers up for Inbox settings):<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/activesync-mailfolders.gif" /> <br /><br />Notice how ActiveSync is only giving me access to some folders - seemingly at random. There's nothing special or unique about those folders, yet no matter what I do, I can't get them to show up. I've reinstalled ActiveSync, poked around looking for any other relevant settings, etc. - no luck. I've also done a scapst.exe on the PST file that I use, and no errors were found. I have no problems with any of these mail folders, but I can't explain this quirk. Have you ever had this problem? Better yet, do you have a solution for me?

[Sven Johannsen]

Mine's an all there vote. But I don't have near the complexity of your's. I only have one folder in the 'root' called Saved, and 13 folders under that that break out various catagories. I see at least 4 'root' folders and the one you have open has 16 subs and a sub under one of those. Maybe it's just too much. :?:

[Vincent M Ferrari]

I don't have near the complexity of your's. I only have one folder in the 'root' called Saved, and 13 folders under that that break out various catagories.

I was thinking the same thing. I have 6 folders under my Inbox folder, and everyone of them goes with no problem. Have you tried moving those folders to underneath Inbox and seeing if that allows them all to sync? Mind you, I don't have as many folders as you do either, but they do all go...

Hope that helped...

[Pony99CA]

Notice how ActiveSync is only giving me access to some folders - seemingly at random. There's nothing special or unique about those folders, yet no matter what I do, I can't get them to show up. I've reinstalled ActiveSync, poked around looking for any other relevant settings, etc. - no luck. I've also done a scapst.exe on the PST file that I use, and no errors were found. I have no problems with any of these mail folders, but I can't explain this quirk. Have you ever had this problem? Better yet, do you have a solution for me?
I don't use Outlook for E-mail any more, so I can't help on that end, but I have some thoughts on the folders.

If I look at the Inbox synchronization options, there's one option titled Copy messages from the last [X] days. Do you have it enabled? If so, what do you have the X set to? I'm wondering if ActiveSync shows only those folders that contain E-mail newer than X days.

Steve

[Dave Beauvais]

All mine are there, and I seem to have a more complex folder tree than you do. I'm using ActiveStink v3.6 with Outlook 2002 under WinXP Pro.

--Dave

[Ed Hansberry]

Jason, how old is your PST file? Is it left over from Outlook 97 and upgraded for years and years? It *might* be time to create a new one - similar to the fix for the Notes problem some have. :(

[Fzara]

Its so interesting to see how many folders Jason has for PPCT.

Not to go in a new direction, but what is the release date for Outlook 11?

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Its so interesting to see how many folders Jason has for PPCT.

Funny, I was just thinking the same thing... looking at all those folders trying to figure out what's used for what.

I don't see this problem myself, but like the others, I don't have nearly the same number of folders.

[JMountford]

A little off topic but not much, what about functionality in syncing folders other than the one AS creates to the PPC.

[daS]

I see everything. I have a dozen folders all directly under the root inbox. I'm using Outlook 2000 and ActiveSync 3.5

But I'm with you on the thought that ActiveSync needs to be re-written from scratch. I can't believe how much trouble people have with the simple concept of connecting two computing devices - something we've been doing for decades! 8O

[Jason Dunn]

Its so interesting to see how many folders Jason has for PPCT.

I was actually very nervous about posting this screen shot - it's an insight into my psyche and how I organize the site... 8O

But I couldn't do the post without having a screen shot illustrating it, so... :wink:

[Jason Dunn]

If I look at the Inbox synchronization options, there's one option titled Copy messages from the last [X] days. Do you have it enabled? If so, what do you have the X set to? I'm wondering if ActiveSync shows only those folders that contain E-mail newer than X days.

I have it set to sync all email - the box is un-checked, so I *should* be getting all the email in the folders I've selected. The root problem is not being able to select the folders... 8O

[Jason Dunn]

I see everything. I have a dozen folders all directly under the root inbox.

How very odd! I moved my 02 - Advertising folder from under the Pocket PC Thoughts folder into the Inbox folder:

Inbox
02 - Advertising

Rebooted the computer, looked at ActiveSync again, and I only had Inbox as an option - no selection of Inbox subfolders.

Oh ActiveSync... :roll:

[jgallen23]

I had the same problem, but I figured out how to fix it.

You have to create a new folder with active sync running and you can name it whatever, move all your stuff over there and then delete the old folder and rename the new one. Yeah, it's kinda annoying, but it works

[dochall]

Well I see everything but I had forgottent that AS could now do folder sync so thanks for the reminder :P

[adamz]

The poll should've had the option: "I don't believe in syncronizing email folders mainly because it doesn't work." :)

Man, Do I miss Win CE Inbox Transfer!!

[Wiggin]

Log another vote for a complete NUKE of AS 3.x!! :evil:
rant/
How ironic that on the day you post your note about AS problems, I have the first true "problem" with AS that has caused me to do the dreaded...yes, a Hard Reset! Oh, the horror of it all!
For no reason, I lose all ability to establish a relationship between the PPC and the PC. After trying all the tricks I've learned over 3+ years of PPC use, no progress.

:cry:

The ONLY bright side to this story is that I now have a chance to clean out some accumulated junk off the PPC (and it runs Significantly faster now... guess I had a heavy load of apps that slowed things down :? )

...BUT, I would rather have done this on MY OWN terms, not ActiveSync's terms. Why is it so hard to build an AS that works 99.9% of the time??
rant off/

[GO-TRIBE]

Try looking at the properties of each folder in Outlook (right-click on folder in the View Folders window). I think you'll find a difference (like the Generate Microsoft Exchange Views checkbox), and there you should be able to correct it. :idea:

[Foo Fighter]

Ugh! I feel your pain brother. Over the past two weeks I have learned to hate ActiveSync. From the time I received my Axim in December I have had nothing but a positive experience with the PPC platform in general. Everything worked exactly as it should, for the most part. Then, quite suddenly, I began getting sporadic disconnections and time-outs when syncing, which continued for several days. Initially I tried to tolerate this goofy behavior, but then just a few days ago I lost all ability to sync. After several unsuccessful attempts to remedy the situation, I bit the bullet and resolved myself to the inevitable: HARD RESET.

While that did fix the problem, I am more than just a little p***ed off by the fact that I had to wipe out my PPC and set everything up from square one just to fix one of Microsoft's problems. I'll stop right there before I come off sounding anti-PPC again..but needless to say I am not happy. :evil:

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

While that did fix the problem, I am more than just a little p***ed off by the fact that I had to wipe out my PPC and set everything up from square one just to fix one of Microsoft's problems. I'll stop right there before I come off sounding anti-PPC again..but needless to say I am not happy. :evil:
If there is one thing PPC related that I could point to that has been FAR inferior to my experience with Palm, it's been sync'ing. HotSync to me was so seamless to my everyday actions that I just completely took its functions for granted. ActiveSync is anything but seamless and it's a seemingly daily reminder of how painful such seemingly basic activities can be. Don't get me wrong, I have no current plans to switch back to Palm, but this is one area I envy most of Palm users.

[ppcsurfr]

Looks like my Pocket Hotmail folder structure... but mine works.

[guinness]

While that did fix the problem, I am more than just a little p***ed off by the fact that I had to wipe out my PPC and set everything up from square one just to fix one of Microsoft's problems. I'll stop right there before I come off sounding anti-PPC again..but needless to say I am not happy. :evil:
If there is one thing PPC related that I could point to that has been FAR inferior to my experience with Palm, it's been sync'ing. HotSync to me was so seamless to my everyday actions that I just completely took its functions for granted. ActiveSync is anything but seamless and it's a seemingly daily reminder of how painful such seemingly basic activities can be. Don't get me wrong, I have no current plans to switch back to Palm, but this is one area I envy most of Palm users.

I just had to a hard reset because of errors that ActiveStink was giving me about old appointments and contacts :onfire: . But the PPC was working fine, it's just the syncing software is a POS, I've had to uninstall/reinstall it numerous times lately.

[Jason Dunn]

While that did fix the problem, I am more than just a little p***ed off by the fact that I had to wipe out my PPC and set everything up from square one just to fix one of Microsoft's problems. I'll stop right there before I come off sounding anti-PPC again..but needless to say I am not happy. :evil:

I give you my Pocket PC Papal dispensation to rant as much as you want about ActiveSync without fear of retribution - I'm right there behind you! :D

[RLBogue]

Jason - Just delete your inbox and recreate it -- including subfolders. Sounds like your PST has got something odd in it.

[acronym]

how about a vote for "tried it awhile ago, didn't work - took up too much memory (I'd use it again if I could save the messages to either cf or sd)"

[paulv]

I'm actually fairly sure it's the database file in Pocket Outlook that gets corrupt. Every time I have this Sync problem (usually due to a large or complex attachment) I end up needing to pull everything out of my inbox one my laptop, separately empty inbox on my PPC and then gradually put the data back into to my laptop's inbox to allow the PPC to create a clean database index file. What I'd like to see is some utility that reviews and cleans the PPC database files to remove old links and unused attachments still sitting in memory. It's a shame that AS doesn't rebuild the index for you on each Sync as that would most likely fix the problem.

I basically cannot recommend PPC's for computer illiterate users as explaining the need to regularly soft-reset and attempting multiple Syncs is a bit ridiculous for a product that's meant to be user-friendly.

[gadgetguy804]

Speaking of synchronizing, does the fact that the Deleted folder and the Drafts folder don't have check boxes beside them in Active Stink settings, mean that they automatically sync or not? Since they are listed, I assumed they would. But if I create a message on the iPAQ and it gets saved in the Drafts folder on the iPAQ, it never seems to make it to the Drafts folder on the PC. (ActiveSync 3.5, Outlook 2000, PPC2002, Windows XP).

[JoeMoon]

You would think that some developer somewhere would see a blessed need for a good ActiveSync program and make one!

I've expeirenced those similar issues when I was using my IPaq. Now, I have a Dell Axim and just recently discovered a whole new quirk...

Inbox will not allow ActiveSync to stay active when the Axim is in the cradle. I deactivate InBox from AS, and it works fine... Now, If I activate InBox in AS and Sync through my wireless connection - the inbox syncs up fine and AS works as advertised... Why the problem? Who knows...

Also, what kind of a person would not want to have their SENT FOLDER sync'd? At least give us the option? Sometimes I wonder if the developers at MS ever use the stuff they design?

Joe...