Please help: trouble with Contacts, won't sync but no error...

[karinatwork]

Hi, I was wondering if someone could help me figure this one out: I suddenly have trouble synching my contacts. All of my contacts are on my pc, but only some of them are on my pocket pc. There is no filter or anything on, and when delete the contact from my pocket pc, it will disappear from my computer as well, but the contacts that don't show up on my pocket pc just don't show up and I don't know why! It is driving me crazy! Any ideas?? Thanks!
:(

[Jason Dunn]

Well, beyond the obvious soft-resetting of the Pocket PC and rebooting of the desktop PC, have you tried...

1) Running scanpst.exe on your Outlook data file to check for corruption?
2) Are the contacts you're creating somehow flagged as private on the desktop?
3) You've double-checked your ActiveSync settings and it's set to sync all categories of contacts?
4) Creating an Outlook sub-folder, moving all your contacts into that folder while the Pocket PC is connected, thus clearing it out, then moving them all back in and watching if the number of total contacts ActiveSync sees is correct?

Hopefully one of those will work for you. ;-)

[Rok]

I'm having the exactly same problem, and none of the obvious troubleshooting steps have worked so far. Some contacts from the Outlook just aren't sync'ed, period. Nothing helps. Editing and re-saving them, changing categories, zilch, nada.

I'm on the verge of returning my otherwise perfectly nice Pocket Loox N560. I never had any problems with WM 2003 on my Ipaq 4150.

Any help, even a tiny clue, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Rok

[Jason Dunn]

Rok, did you try all of my troubleshooting suggestions?

[Rok]

I did, to no avail. Unfortunately.

R

[Jason Dunn]

I did, to no avail. Unfortunately.

So when you moved all the contacts out, and cleared out the device, and you moved them back - did ActiveSync show the correct total number of contacts it was going to sync? Or did it show a smaller number? If it showed the correct total, that would seem to indicate to me that the contacts ARE on the Pocket PC, but you can't see them for some reason. Might be time for a hard reset if that's the case. Are you running the latest ROM on your device?

[karinatwork]

1) check
2) check
3) check
4) check
Doesn't work. Some addresses just don't sync. It's freaky. Even when I re-create them.... I'm going to cry now.

[Jason Dunn]

That's so strange. What version of ActiveSync are you using, and what type of Pocket PC do you have?

[karinatwork]

Active Sync 4.1.0 build 4841
I-mate Jamin WM 5

Does it have to do with the fact that they changed my office network around? We have a domain server now or something like that.... *ripping hair out*

[Janak Parekh]

I did, to no avail. Unfortunately.
So when you moved all the contacts out, and cleared out the device, and you moved them back - did ActiveSync show the correct total number of contacts it was going to sync? Or did it show a smaller number? If it showed the correct total, that would seem to indicate to me that the contacts ARE on the Pocket PC, but you can't see them for some reason. Might be time for a hard reset if that's the case. Are you running the latest ROM on your device?
In addition to what Jason says, try to isolate one contact that doesn't sync (e.g., move everything out, and try to sync that ONE contact). If you can't see it on the Pocket PC, then either a) there is some metadata about that contact that is confusing ActiveSync; or b) as Jason said, it might be time for a hard reset. If it does sync, then somehow the sync process is being broken during the mass sync of contacts.

Other questions: which version of ActiveSync are you using, what version of Windows Mobile, and what Contact program on the Pocket PC are you using?

(As Karin implied, some Contact-viewing programs let you set a Category or other filter that may be "sticky" until it is reset, although it doesn't sound like this is the case.)

--janak

[Janak Parekh]

Does it have to do with the fact that they changed my office network around? We have a domain server now or something like that.... *ripping hair out*
It shouldn't, if you're syncing with your PC. Is your Outlook (or your Pocket PC) configured to work with Exchange Server?

--janak

[karinatwork]

No, no exchange server. And yes, all the folders have been redirected properly. And most of my contacts work, just a few don't, and refuse to be re-recreated. That is the WEIRDEST thing ever. Totally.

[karinatwork]

Ok, new discovery: When I switch from Outlook 2003 to Address Book, the contacts that don't sync won't appear in the address book either. You know, the Windows Address Book? What's going on here???

[Jason Dunn]

Ok, new discovery: When I switch from Outlook 2003 to Address Book, the contacts that don't sync won't appear in the address book either. You know, the Windows Address Book? What's going on here???

Hrm. I'm not sure if that's relevent or not - I don't have ANY contacts in my WAB...

[Rok]

Also tried hard reset, no dice. Spooky.

Cheers, R

[karinatwork]

Ok, the only thing that seems to help is:
1) Determine which contacts don't sync my shuffeling them between folders
2) Print the un-syncable contacts
3) Delete the un-syncable contacts
4) Re-create the contacts from scratch by typing them in by hand from your hardcopies (do not copy and paste - it won't work, even if it's only a phone number or email address).

This seems to fix it, but it's a hell of a PITA!

[Jason Dunn]

Also tried hard reset, no dice. Spooky.

Hrm. That would seem to indicate it's a problem on your PC than, that narrows it down a bit. :-) Have you tried uninstall, reboot, re-install of ActiveSync?

[Janak Parekh]

Ok, new discovery: When I switch from Outlook 2003 to Address Book, the contacts that don't sync won't appear in the address book either. You know, the Windows Address Book? What's going on here???
Windows Address Book is definitely not used by ActiveSync in any capacity. It's the address book for Outlook Express, more than anything else.

Ok, the only thing that seems to help is:
1) Determine which contacts don't sync my shuffeling them between folders
2) Print the un-syncable contacts
3) Delete the un-syncable contacts
4) Re-create the contacts from scratch by typing them in by hand from your hardcopies (do not copy and paste - it won't work, even if it's only a phone number or email address).
This suggests the contact(s) have gotten corrupted somehow. Is there any third-party program you use on your PC that interfaces with Outlook other than ActiveSync? I wonder if something got inserted into a custom or a Note field that would confuse it (or the Pocket PC).

--janak

[Truthiswithin]

Dear Karinatwork, friends,

I've had the same problem after importing from Gmail. It seems that addresses imported into Outlook don't sync. If your problem is the same as mine, this should work:

1) Export your Outlook contacts to a .CSV file on your desktop
2) open up Outlook Express (not Outlook)
3) Import the .CSV file into Outlook Express
4) Open up Outlook again
5) Import our Outlook Express addresses into Outlook

Worked for me, hope it is the same problem you are having, and that you can follow these instructions.

Best wishes,

Truthiswithin

[Mark Drucker]

Check out this. I couldn't sync any contacts but no error message - then I found a fix. See correction posting. Good luck all.

[Mark Drucker]

This is a correction to my last post which you must modify with this instruction! ! I found what I really did. On your pocket pc with active sync if you go to Settings\Connections\Active Sync Mode you get to choose a "USB ActiveSync Interface" I chose "RNDIS Sync mode" instead of "USB serial Sync Mode". I don't know what it means but it made all the difference! Good luck.

[Janak Parekh]

This is a correction to my last post which you must modify with this instruction! ! I found what I really did. On your pocket pc with active sync if you go to Settings\Connections\Active Sync Mode you get to choose a "USB ActiveSync Interface" I chose "RNDIS Sync mode" instead of "USB serial Sync Mode". I don't know what it means but it made all the difference! Good luck.
You're changing the connection mode on your Pocket PC. 99.9% of the time, you want RNDIS -- and it's the default on any WM5 Pocket PC.

--janak