ActiveSync deleting appointments and contacts in desktop Outlook!!

[maikii]

Using IPAQ 2210 with Windowsmobile 2003 (as came on it). Also an Audiovox SMT5600 smartphone, also WM2003.

Desktop--running Windows XP SP1, all updates to it. Office 2003, including Outlook 2003, also all updates.

Activesync 3.8, syncs both WM devices to desktop, separate profile for each.

Lately, sometimes after syncing one of my devices with ActiveSync, there are appointments and contacts missing in my desktop Outlook! That's really a problem! And they seem not to be recoverable, AFAIK! (BTW, they are also missing in the newly-synced portable devices.)

The conflicts setting on both profiles is for the desktop computer to overwrite the data on the portable device, if there is a conflict. So, syncing a device to the desktop should in no way delete data from desktop Outlook. But that has been happening sometimes lately!

Anyone else experienced this? It is a very serious problem, to suddenly lose important appointments and contacts! Is Microsoft aware of this bug?
Has that problem been solved in ActiveSync Beta 4? Is that safer to use than 3.8?

I searched the Microsoft Knowledge Base for info on this, but did not find any.

Anyone know of a way to recover the lost data? (I wouldn't be surprised if it still existed somehow in the Outlook data (.PST) file, but somehow is not showing. Just a guess.)

Thank you for your input.

[npatang]

If there is no back up of the outlook data then there is no option to recover the lost data.....

It is always good to select the option to leave the item unresolved if there are any conflict u will get to know!!!
But in the case if you have chosen the option to overwrite the data you will never come to know whether there is conflict or not...

I know this is not the solution which you want but this is a suggestion for you!!!!!

--Npatang

[maikii]

If there is no back up of the outlook data then there is no option to recover the lost data.....

It is always good to select the option to leave the item unresolved if there are any conflict u will get to know!!!
But in the case if you have chosen the option to overwrite the data you will never come to know whether there is conflict or not...

I know this is not the solution which you want but this is a suggestion for you!!!!!

--Npatang

As mentioned, the setting was to override the device's data if there was a conflict, which should not cause any changes in the desktop data!

If there is a conflict in data between the data on the PPC or Smartphone and desktop Outlook, and the desktop info is more current (I usually don't enter the PIM data on the PPC or SM at all-it's entered on the PC and synced to the devices), why shouldn't I overwrite the device's data? How could that have contributed to the problem I described?

If the setting is to leave unreslived, couldn't that lead to duplicate info? For instance, a contact, originally entered on the PC and synced to the PPC, but mistakenly altered on the PPC. If the setting is to overwrite, I assume that incorrect record on the PPC would be overwritten by the correct on on the PC. However, if left unresolved, you would probably end up with a duplicate record on both devices, no? Do most users have this set at "keep unresolved"?

Please explain. Thank you.

[PetiteFlower]

When you set it to "leave unresolved", then whenever there is a conflict activesync will do nothing but display a message that there are unresolved items. Then, you will click on the message and tell it what to do for each individual item.

[Janak Parekh]

The conflicts setting on both profiles is for the desktop computer to overwrite the data on the portable device, if there is a conflict. So, syncing a device to the desktop should in no way delete data from desktop Outlook.
Actually, this is incorrect. A conflict only occurs if changes have been made on multiple devices (e.g., a desktop and a Pocket PC). If you delete an item off the Pocket PC, and then sync, there's no conflict; the corresponding item is deleted off the desktop.

(In other words, this is not the same thing as "desktop overwrites Palm" in HotSync. ActiveSync 3.x has no such option for regular syncs.)

--janak

[maikii]

The conflicts setting on both profiles is for the desktop computer to overwrite the data on the portable device, if there is a conflict. So, syncing a device to the desktop should in no way delete data from desktop Outlook.
Actually, this is incorrect. A conflict only occurs if changes have been made on multiple devices (e.g., a desktop and a Pocket PC). If you delete an item off the Pocket PC, and then sync, there's no conflict; the corresponding item is deleted off the desktop.

(In other words, this is not the same thing as "desktop overwrites Palm" in HotSync. ActiveSync 3.x has no such option for regular syncs.)

--janak

Wow, that is surprising! If a contact is deleted from the PPC, but not from the desktop, although the setting is to overwrite the PPC in case of conflict, the syncing will delete the contact on the desktop?

What if the contact had never been on the PPC yet. One just entered it on the PPC, then synced. Wouldn't that create the contact on the PPC? (In fact, that's worked for me many times.)

And, in this case, I had not deleted the appointments and contacts from the PPC, that were deleted on the desktop PC. I cannot figure this out! :oops:

[Janak Parekh]

Wow, that is surprising! If a contact is deleted from the PPC, but not from the desktop, although the setting is to overwrite the PPC in case of conflict, the syncing will delete the contact on the desktop?
Yes - it is not a conflict. A conflict, as I mentioned before, is one where records are changed in both places. The idea here is that the sync is unambiguous.

What if the contact had never been on the PPC yet. One just entered it on the PPC, then synced. Wouldn't that create the contact on the PPC? (In fact, that's worked for me many times.)
I think there's a typo here. If you're saying that a contact created on the PC is synced to the Pocket PC, yes, that would certainly be the expected behavior. Again, there is no conflict.

And, in this case, I had not deleted the appointments and contacts from the PPC, that were deleted on the desktop PC. I cannot figure this out! :oops:
Is there a pattern to what's missing? Did it happen after you synced one of your two devices that hadn't been synced in a long time? Or did you create a new partnership? Is there some common thread to the appointments that disappeared, e.g., were they created at a similar time?

(Ideally, you should back up your data periodically, in addition to syncing it, by either using a PDA backup program or by archiving PSTs.)

--janak

[Sven Johannsen]

For a little more clarification. If you change Bob Smith's work extension on the PC, and add his wife's name on the PPC, that is a conflict. Changes were made on both copies of the same record between syncs. AS will follow the option selected and you would lose the wife's name, because the PC record with new extension would be the valid new record.

If you delete an appointment on the PPC and change the time of that same appointment on the PC, that is a conflict, a change was made to the same record on both devices between syncs. In your case the PPC would get the record with the new time, because that is what you said to have happen on a conflict.

Note that PIM DB sync is record based, not field based on the PPC. A conflict is a different change in the same record, and the entire record is replaced based on your selection.

As has been said, if you delete something on the PPC, and don't do anything to that same record or file on the PC, there is no conflict and your unambiguous election to delete that record will be sync'd.

Do you by chance have automatic archiving set up on Outlook on the desktop? That could explain missing appointments, but wouldn't be an issue with contacts.

[maikii]

What if the contact had never been on the PPC yet. One just entered it on the PPC, then synced. Wouldn't that create the contact on the PPC? (In fact, that's worked for me many times.)
I think there's a typo here. If you're saying that a contact created on the PC is synced to the Pocket PC, yes, that would certainly be the expected behavior. Again, there is no conflict.


No, not a typo. Yes, of course that is the expected behavior. What I meant was, in that case AS would find a contact on the desktop and not on the PPC, and sync it to (create it on) the PPC. Whereas in the other case you mention, if the contact was on the PPC, and was deleted only from the PPC, AS would also find the contact on the desktop and not on the PPC. But you say in that case the contact would be deleted from the desktop PC on syncing. In either case AS finds a contact on the PC that is not on the PPC. But the result is very different. Does AS keep track of what the changes are every time it syncs? Stored in the outstore.dat and repl.dat files in the Profiles folder (in %appdata%)?


And, in this case, I had not deleted the appointments and contacts from the PPC, that were deleted on the desktop PC. I cannot figure this out! :oops:
Is there a pattern to what's missing? Did it happen after you synced one of your two devices that hadn't been synced in a long time? Or did you create a new partnership? Is there some common thread to the appointments that disappeared, e.g., were they created at a similar time?

--janak

This has happened to me more than once. I don't know if there is a pattern. I haven't always discovered it immediately, that certain contacts and appointments were missing. Once the contacts missing were towards the end of the alphabet. The appointments missing were not all created at the same time. I think at least one of the times it was after a sync where I had previously deleted the outstore.dat and repl.dat files in the Profiles folder. (I have read that when one is having problems with a sync, unresolved items, etc., a recommendation to quit AS, reboot the portable device, delete the outstore.dat and repl.dat files in the Profiles folder, re-start AS, and try again. It works, the devices will now synchronize, although it then asks the question about combine or replace (I always choose to replace items on portable device), and re-syncs everything, takes longer.)

I know at least one of the times I lost data was after doing such a sync as described above, after deleting those two files. Do you think that could have caused the problem? But again, since the choice was to replace items on the smartphone, how could it be that contacts and appointments were deleted from the desktop PC?

[maikii]

Do you by chance have automatic archiving set up on Outlook on the desktop? That could explain missing appointments, but wouldn't be an issue with contacts.

No, I do not have automatic archiving set up. I occasionaly archive manually, but that is quite different. Besides, it was not old appointments I lost, but current ones.