Any ActiveSync gurus in the house?

[agallag]

I'm having ActiveSync issues. I just picked up an HTC S621 (WM5.0) phone to replace my SMT5600 (WM2003SE). Activesync decided to just stop working properly. I've tried uninstalling, reinstalling, upgrading to AS4.5, downgrading back to 4.2, hard and soft resets of the phone, many reboots, and yet I still get the following results.

When I first plugged in the phone, I selected the defaults for sync: Inbox, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks. I went through usual "connecting, syncing" stuff, looked like it was working fine. It said the sync was successful (but it seemed to go too fast). When I looked at the phone, it had no contacts, email, or any data at all. No matter how many times I sync, it still doesn't actually copy any data. There's no errors or warnings at all.

After messing with it all day, I somehow got the situation in the first attached image. There's two "Windows PCs", and neither of them do anything useful. I'm ready to start pulling my hair out. Do I have to uninstall everything (including Outlook) to get this back to normal? Arrrrgh!!!!

I'm pretty sure it's not an issue with the phone, because I can sync just fine with my Vista machine at home. It has the same version of Outlook (2007), but is using Vista's Sync Center/Windows Mobile Device Center instead of ActiveSync.

[VJ]

I'm using ActiveSync to synchronize my HTC TyTN (wm5) to both my desktop pc (XP Pro SP2) and my laptop pc (XP Pro Tablet).
Regularly, it happens that the ActiveSync either stops recognizing the device (connecting it as guest and limiting the functionality) or fails to synchronize. In either case, I manage to solve it by deleting the "mobile device" on the PC (file | delete mobile device), and by deleting the PC on which the error occurs from the ActiveSync list on the HTC (ActiveSync | menu | connections - I think). After that, the pc and htc act as if they see each other for the first time.

Dunno, but your problem might be a result of the combination with Vista....?


Jörg

[agallag]

I've tried the deleting thing several times as well. ActiveSync sees the device just fine, and even syncs with no errors. I think it's just connected to the wrong Outlook profile or something screwy like that. I never had problems syncing my SMT5600 to both Vista and XP...

I'm officially stumped.

[VJ]

Sorry, my ActiveSync knowledge doesn't go that far...

Jörg

[The PIT]

Activesync uses TCP/IP doesn't it. Perhaps since it's a new device the firewall has blocked it.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/help/activesync/default.mspx

[Jammrock]

On your phone go to Start -> Programs -> ActiveSync.

Delete all your partnerships (Menu -> Configure Server -> tap&hold on each partnership until the menu pops up and then Delete).

On ActiveSync (PC) make sure you go into File -> Connections Settings, and make sure USB is checked. On one of my PCs the "Connect using USB" option gets unchecked every time I reboot.


Again on ActiveSync on the PC, File -> Delete Mobile Device .... until all devices are gone. If there are any associated.

Go back to version 4.5 if not there already.

Plug back in and go through the wizard again. Let me know if you have troubles after this.
Plug the phone in and go back through the setup wizard.

[agallag]

Finally solved it. Not very satisfyingly either. Instead of figuring out what the problem was, I totally uninstalled Office 2007 and ActiveSync, then reinstalled everything. It's working like a charm now.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't a problem with either ActiveSync or the phone, since I had completely uninstalled ActiveSync and cleaned out the registry, as well as doing a hard reset of the phone, wiping everything. Twice.

I think there was something screwy with my Outlook profile. By the end, whenever I attempted to sync, it would create about 300 blank contact records and a similar amount of blank appoinments in outlook, but it wouldn't sync any actual records. I think Outlook was temporarily posessed by demons.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions guys. Now I can get back to enjoying the phone, which is freakin' awesome.

BTW, most interesting bit, after reinstalling Office, it didn't require re-activation. Strange... guess the activation bits in the registry were still around.

[The PIT]

Office 2007 kills active sync. What crap not the first time I heard this peice of office junk killing another app.

[Jammrock]

Office 2007 kills active sync. What crap not the first time I heard this peice of office junk killing another app.

Don't have any problems here. Keeping Office 2007 from crashing though, that's a different story.

[Elie]

Never had Office 2007 crash on me in VISTA

[agallag]

Never had Office 2007 crash on me in VISTA

I've never had Office 2007 crash in Vista or XP. This was the first and only problem I've had with it.