Strange...here's the story

I have an XDA II running WM5.0 and an HTC TyTnII running WM6.1

The HTC came back from having the screen replaced (I cracked it !). Did a factory hard reset. Reconnected, AS4.5 said sucessfully syncronised - I thought all was good. BUT, some contacts (this is the wierd bit as there is not consistency based on Category, last update etc) are NOT on my PDA. BTW, I have 4,941 contacts   :)

So, deleted the partnership, deleted ActiveSync 4.5 completely, did another hard reset on the HTC.... set it all up again but same issue.

So I am thinking is an AS4.5 issue as it usually is :) so connect my XDA II to see what happens. Had to set a new partneship as had deleted AS4.5, 15 minutes later all good and the contacts ARE ON THE XDA.

So... WM5 working great on old technology... WM6.1 creating inconististent records. Go figure!

Anyone got any ideas? It is the HTC that has the problem

Welcome to The Connection, Nic.

This may be asking an over simplistic question, but are you sure you do not have a filter set on the TyTn ?

Select Menu, Filter to make sure that All Contacts are selected. I have a few WM6.1 devices, and I have not noticed any contacts missing though I only have 800.

Laura, thanks for the thought. I checked (again) and it is set to 'All Contacts'.

The perculiar thing is that the contacts that did not make it across are in a variety of categories but mainly 'Personal' and marked 'Private' but then again some with these combinations have been copied...  ?? Hard to know how to check what is there and what is not... the 3 I detected are simp,y because i wanted to call them only to discover they are not on the HTC but they are on the Outlook.

I have deleted some categories in case there is some unknown issue limiting the number of categories. Now only 23 instead of 28. I recall the old Palm system having a problem with more than 10 categories - hence the move for me to WM.

I have also run SCAN.PST several times to be sure. BTW, I have had this HTC for 18 months and never had this problem before.

Hmm...strange -- you might want to try unchecking the option to sync contacts, and sync. Then re-check that option and sync again.

Thanks again for the helpful suggestion. i had actually done this (twice actually - once on the HTC ActiveSycn and then again from the PC) and all the contacts are deleted, then reinstalled... same problem.

Appreciate the help - any more ideas? Is there a log I can look at to see if there is some error?

Oh and have just deleted the partnership (and pressed 'yes' to the option to delete syncronise files), set up a new partnership, 'Replace All Items on PDA ' from Desktop,   and still same problem. Noticing more entries not on the PDA as time goes by...

Can I manually delete the sync files as I suspect they are corrupted somehow....?

Rather than just deleting the partnership, I would reinstall Activesync as this will delete the old profile folders.

Laura

Hi there! Thanks again for the helpful suggestion. I have already done that so many times I lost count BUT...  I have at least found the problem so maybe you can help with the solution   :)

The problem is caused by contacts or appointments where there are REMARKS IN THE NOTES SECTION... !! Go figure! So contacts where I made a note (where I met them, wife's name etc) are NOT sync to my HTC. Same for Celndar events so birthdays are there but  thursdays flight details is not as I save the booking reference number in the notes section. Delete the comments, resync no problem. Add a note on the HTC then will sync back to the PC but any note added to Outlook means the record is not carried accross and if it already exists, then is deleted. Sync status says 'Syncronised' either way! So part of the mystery of the partial sync is solved..

Oh - for the information of anyone reading this at a later date, I took the phone to HTC who told me there was an Outlook profile corruption (they were half right and there were keen to defend their product as being defective - see below for next stage in a potential solution). So I created a new profile, unistall ActiveSync (thanks Laura), rebooted, etc etc... but the problem continued. So....just in case you think I am one of those who sits around wiating for someone to spoon-feed the solution LOL !), I borrowed another HTC PDA and another laptop with an existing Outlook.pst. I hard reset my HTC so was blank and then connect to the second PC. All good. The data came across great although not so many contacts or calendar events as mine. ERGO - my HTC is okay, my Outlook okay (as scanpst and 'detect and repair' and registry check run many times and I had created a new profile)  so problem MUST BE WINDOWS XP REGISTRY.....

A quick Google suggests the solution is only to FORMAT MY PC as the error is in the registry which none of the prior actions can correct. I suspect even removing Outlook 2003 and reinstalling would be a waste of time...

So suggestions? Anyone know which regedit entries to change so the events and contacts with comments in the 'Notes' are syncronised.... or do you think I should reformat (this is the standard MS help desk reponse to an unknow problem as it is the user who spends hours/days reinstalling...)?

Hi, Nic -

Awesome work on the troubleshooting! Thanks - I am sure others will benefit from what you've discovered. As far as next steps, I don't have any brilliant ideas, but I'm going to see about getting this some attention internally with the Windows Mobile team. Stay tuned...

Nic - great detective work here and I am so sorry that you are having these problems. What a strange problem.

There are various tools to repair OUTLOOK pst files that might be worth trying, though definitely make a backup first. It might even be worth trying to make a copy of your .pst file and picking up the copy in OUTLOOK instead of the original - though it obviously depends what and where the corruption is.

Laura

Thanks for the encouragement. I think I have a solution that DOES NOT INVOLVE REFORMAT THE PC... !!

Ever looking for a shortcut and not looking forward to spending a whole day setting my PC again, I found an obsure post at http://social.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/windowsmobileactivesync/thread/0e45e137-1acd-46a4-a2e5-c95aac825126/ about Pocket PC which said:

"If you are having problems with partial synchronizations or missing notes, try re-registering the OLE32.dll.  This is done by clicking on "Start" and then select "Run".  Then in the box for the Run Command and type: Regsvr32.exe %Windir%\System32\Ole32.dll "

I did this and then 'Unselect' any current Sync settings (you get a warning message that all items on your device will be deleted - this is okay), then when complete, reselect the items and.... BINGO.

Well, so far so good. Still syncronising (rememeber I have 4,700 contacts!) but now one contact that was missing before HAS BEEN COPIED ACCROSS to the HTC and it has comments in the notes section.

If this is the solution and the only step involved, then hopefully will save future users with this problem the 40 hours of deleting, hard reset PDA, remove Activesnc, reinstall Actviesync, deleting partnerships, create new Outlook profile, delete old Outlook profile, import items from old Outlook.pst to new Outlook.pst, registry cleaning, multiple scanpst..... etc!!

Will send a future post to let you know if this works

That's great and I think you could have definitely found the answer here as it seems to have helped a few people with the same situation.

Please do let us know if it works for you also.

Laura

I am declaring this the solution although I will do some more testing over the next week. No more posts from me indicates all is well. The 'missing' contacts and calendar events are now all on the HTC.

Thanks for your support and encouragement. Take care.

Laura

All good. Working now on the HTC. However, when I sync my XDA (that was working fine when the HTC was not!), it has created random duplicate contacts (931) and appointments (425) in both the PDA and Outlook and I am in the process of fixing this... never ends, eh?

Hmmm... I'm so sorry - this is the problem with syncing multiple devices and recreating partnerships.