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View Full Version : How to store Messaging/Inbox mail attachments on a storage card? A tutorial from Menneisyys


Menneisyys
03-30-2005, 11:46 AM
Much as it's impossible to move ActiveSync-based mail bodies into a storage card (a more detailed discussion of the problem can be found, for example, at http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=36376 ), you still can do the same to attachments. Now, I'll describe how it should be done and what to do, in addition, after the reghack.

Unfortunately, Messaging, on newer devices, is only able to store attachments in the built-in file store. The limited storage space, however, may make this solution problematic. So, you may want to try to find alternatives.

The first step is the registry hacking. You can do this by hand if you don't want to use, for example, Tweaks2k2 ( http://www.tweaks2k2.com/portal/staticpages/index.php?page=20050224182009983 ), which is also able to do this first trick (but not the second, which is also vital).

Get a registry editor and navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MAPI]

Its value will be something like this:

\LOOXstore\Inbox.mst29646649.1889008896\Mail Attachments

rewrite it to, say,

\SD-MMCard\Mail Attachments

(it can be any directory name after the card name, naturally. And, again, if you don't want to play manually with the Registry, you can always use Tweaks2k2.)

The second step:

It's very important that you remove the Messaging applet from the Today screen (Settings/Today/Items and, there, uncheck Messaging) if you do this. The reason for this is very simple: when the Messaging applet initializes after a warm reset, the SD/CF cards may still not be visible (at least not on the Pocket Loox 720 and some other, current devices), because of the long initialization time of the cards. Therefore, Messaging will create a physical directory, \SD-MMCard\Mail Attachments, in the root of the PDA RAM-based file system. And, later, when the SD card is initialized, it won't be able to map it to the already-existing \SD-MMCard directory in the file system, so, it'll need to put a trailing '2' after the directory name. Therefore, you won't be able to access anything pre-linked app from your card and most apps won't even recognize it being there. (You will, however, still be able to access its contents in the \SD-MMCard2 directory. That's not sufficient, however.)

This is a widely known issue with WindowsCE. By removing the Messaging link from the Today screen, you make sure Messaging isn't invoked before the memory cards are initialized. That way, name clashes like the above won't occur.

Please note the following:

- Messaging is the new, WM2003SE name for (Pocket) Inbox. That is, in pre-WM2003SE devices, look for the name 'Inbox' instead of 'Messaging'.
- on different PDA types, the storage card names are different. On old PPC devices, it's Storage Card. It's only with newer, mostly double-slot devices that they got meaningful names. In the iPAQ 2210 (and most other, dual-slot PDA's) it's CF Card and SD Card; in the Pocket Loox 720, it's CF-Card and SD-MMCard .
- Also, it's only with Pocket Loox devices that the built-in flash ROM is called LOOXstore; on iPAQ's, they're called iPAQ Store
- to my knowledge (I've did a Google serch for the registry key) this is the first time the Today trick/solution is published anywhere. Previous attempts on solving the '2-postfix' problem only (if at all!) discussed the case when the card was physically removed during synchronizing; see, for example, http://www.ppcw.net/?itemid=1885&catid=80 (the attempts at solving the problem here were pretty misleading, actually) or http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/printview.php?t=25552&start=0 . The problem with the Today Messaging link is completely different and can't be just solved by saying 'keep your cards in while soft resetting' (because it won't help).
- both POP3 and ActiveSync-synchronized Inbox mail attachments are stored in the new directory.