ActiveSync Related Concern

[raangeles]

Hello, everyone. I am quite new in getting into forums so I'm struggling a bit till I get the hang of it..... anyway, I have been using my HTC touch & outlook and been synching the 2 for quite some time already. In fact, I have done so with other older PDAs using PPC... those times, I have closely kept my MS outlook and PDA PIM info in synch very closely so when my laptop crashes, there isnt much hassle to recover...... until recently....

My laptop crashed & over the next 5 days, I have been relying on my PDA (HTC) for my personal info mgmt work. Now, I have rebuilt my laptop from scratch & restored my outlook database (.pst) from my backup (I was fortunate I was able to backup my outlook databases just BEFORE it crashed). So, now, the difference between my outlook dbase & my PDA are:

- outlook has current emails
- PDA has current calendars, contacts, notes, & tasks

what should I do so that both outlook and PDA will contain all changes that happened over the past 5 days without duplicates happening?

Thank you.

[Bassey]

Hi raangeles and welcome to 4WinMobile.

First off, backup everything, just in case

Then, delete the synch partnership on the Touch from within ActiveSynch.

Re-connect your device and set up a new synch partnership.

Now synch JUST the email to get that up and running.

Then synch everything else.

Removing the partnership is the main thing though. Otherwise, the touch will remember when it was last updated, may see a newer time in Outlook (as it was restored recently) and overwrite the touch with the PC data.

But I can't stress the idea of backing the touch up first strongly enough!

[raangeles]

Hi. Thank you for your response. So basically, my need is to be able to synch my Touch with my newly restored outlook using a NEW partnership and:

- have all my calendar updates in the PDA to go to my outlook
- have all my task updates in the PDA to go to my outlook
- have all my notes updates in the PDA to go to my outlook
- not have duplicating entries in any of the above
- email, I essentially dont touch in my PDA

So am I correct in understanding your recommendation that:
- backup my PDA data (which I already did)
- create a new partnership upon synching
- change the synch options to synch ONLY email
- synch ONLY email then disconnect
- change the synch options again to update the rest
- synch again but this time synch the rest

Is this what you are trying to say?

Thank you.
- change

[Bassey]

That's right, but remember to go into ActiveSynch on the Touch FIRST and delete the existing partnership from there (From within activeSynch got to Menu->Options, select the machine name and press the Delete button).

[raangeles]

Hello. I just finished the process.... Unfortunately, what happened was OUTLOOK won and replaced all my updates in my TOUCH PDA so I lost all updates in the past 4-5 days.... I guess I'll have to restore my PDA back from backup & start over?

[neilm]

Your problem is that you are trying to sync 2 out of sync devices without a valid sync log. So, first restore the PPC backup.

I also think that deleting the partnership on the device actually removes all the PIM data- another user reported that after I'd advised him to delete, so I tried it and indeed lost all my contacts, tasks and appointments.

As long as you have valid backups of PPC & PC outlook data, you may be best to try a new partnership and seeing if the 'combine' items works as it should- it sometimes does

When in Activesync on the PC go to File/Remove Partnership. Now connect the PPC and the New Partnership wizard will start. When it finds data on both devices, the conflict wizard will start- here is where you can elect to combine items.

If you get too many dupes, you will need to manually delete, or restore and try something else!

[debonairone]

I found myself in this exact same situation on more than one occassion... What I did was this:

• create a backup of the data in Outlook and the PPC
• delete the partnerships on both pc and ppc
• remove the email account from outlook
• create new partnership
• sync device, all pim data should now be in outlook
• add email account

I think this is how I did it... looking over this list, I may have had to add in a bogus email account, not sure, has been awhile... Anyway, another option would be to tell outlook not to sync the pim data and just sync the email, then you would have all of the current stuff on the pda... then delete the partnership, remove the email account and delete all pim data from outlook... Then go back and recreate the email account, pull current email, setup active sync and connect pda... should have all current and synched data...

[raangeles]

Thank you for all the responses. I have been hesitant to do the manipulations on email accounts, the PIMS, etc. Actually, I figured out a solution myself:

Since my outlook was already restored & has since been receiving emails since it is in an office environment, my problem was my PIM data (calendar, notes, tasks) were getting more & more out of synch between my laptop & PDA over time.... So, what I did was:
On my laptop:
- just keep using it as normal

On my PDA, restore my backup.

Then,
- I got a spare PC, installed outlook 2003 with NOTHING inside it so its fresh.
- I synch'd my PDA with this spare PC's outlook
- It combined whats in outlook (empty) & my PDA, thus, creating a new
outlook database with all my PDA contents intact!!!
- copied that outlook database, renamed it, then copied it into my laptop

Back to my Laptop,
- I opened my outlook database
- I opened the backup outlook database that I copied from the spare PC
- I opened the calendars for BOTH databases and just visually did
manual compares & moves
- it worked like a charm because I was assured of no data loss as long as
my eyesight is good (I can keep the spare outlook for a while until I am
confident I can delete it already)

THERE!!! Just to share with you all.....


I also tried bluetoothing calendar items but, at least using the dongle, laptop, & PDA I had, I COULD bluetooth the calendar items alright BUT I lost all the comments - and that's what's important to me!!!!

Anyway, I'm back on my feet now and ready to catch up!!!

Thanks all for sharing.....



-

[neilm]

Great stuff- lateral thinking pays off