ActiveStink messing up Outlook!!!

[Fergus]

I periodically get the message below and i'am now sure its to do with the ipaq syncing. On my XP desktop i have an admin account and user account. I assume the partnership is good for both accounts (i.e. you can have only one partnership per computer for a particular device and this is good for all accounts on that computer). On my user account i have no problem syncing but when i log into my admin account (without even starting any and i mean any applications and that includes MS Outlook in that account) and i have my ipaq in its sync pod and I then go back to the user account Outlook gives me the message below. Additionally i can't get Activestink to work in the admin account. Note the only thing i want to sync in the admin account is files all else is disabled. So far it seems to me that though AS isn't working in the admin account it is managing to cause the error below. Can anyone throw any light on this.

Outlook Error Message...
Unable to display the folder. Microsoft Office Outlook could not access the specified folder location. Another application closed unexpectedly while using your Personal Folders file 'C:\Documents and Settings\Admin\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook.pst'. To prevent potential damage to your Personal Folders file, it will not be available until you close all applications currently using it.


Gus

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Do you have separate Outlook.pst files for your user and your admin accounts? Regardless of whether you're just sync'ing files or not, it appears that AS is trying to reach your Admin Outlook file. Does it exist? Is it corrupted? That might be the difference... your user account Outlook PST file is fine but your admin one may be corrupted (or has been moved / doesn't exist).

If that's not the case, I'd probably try deleting the admin partnership and then re-establishing it.

Another thought is that you may or may not have some background task that is accessing Outlook. If none of the previous suggestions / observations prove to shed any light, then you may want to pull up the task manager before sync'ing and see if Outlook has already been lauched by another application (even though it's not visible, the OUTLOOK.EXE may actually be running). If it is running, figure out what's calling it and consider configuring it so that it doesn't launch automatically at startup.

[Janak Parekh]

Actually, I wouldn't partner a single Pocket PC with more than one user on the computer. If you need to sync files, set it up through the user ActiveSync partnership (use permissions to grant access, if necessary). It sounds like you're using XP Fast User Switching, and it's confusing ActiveSync -- AS isn't particularly robust about handling multiple users this way.

--janak

[Fergus]

I resolved the problem by getting rid of all outlook plug-ins for the admin account and disabling the AS connection on that account. Disabling the AS connection for the admin account seems to have done the trick.

I was not aware you could set up more than one partnership on a single machine for a particular device??

Regards
Fergus

[Janak Parekh]

I was not aware you could set up more than one partnership on a single machine for a particular device??
I'm not sure. It's certainly inadvisable at best. :P

--janak

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

I was not aware you could set up more than one partnership on a single machine for a particular device??
I'm not sure. It's certainly inadvisable at best. :P

--janak
Yeah... things may be a bit better now, but I quit trying to sync my PPC with more than one source a LONG TIME ago. This is the one area where I concede that Palm had a much better, much more seamless solution when I used it 5 years ago. Now, on any secondary laptop or PC I may have, I just allow my PPC to connect as a guest or I'll create the partnership but disable all the services involved. In other words, my connection to any PC other than my primary only serves the purpose of allowing me to manually move files around or to install new applications.

[Janak Parekh]

Actually, I use two partnerships all the time. Just not on the same computer. And, yes, AS 3.x isn't quite so smart about it. I believe AS 4 is a bit better, but I haven't tried myself.

--janak