Microsoft ActiveSync Sucks

(rant)

This is a terrible program to use for syncing. The options are far and few and I couldnt get this piece of crap to STOP automatically syncing every 5 secs. This caused all my phone contacts to be removed, minus a few. And they arent in Outlook either as those were also removed. They are all lost and I have no way to recover them.

Thanks Microsoft for screwing me out of my personal, military and business contacts and seriously messing up my life and work.

Oh, and all my calender entries and appointments are gone as well.

I know the first thing you'll say is "oh you should have backed it up somewhere" Thats precisely what I was trying to do, since I was setting ActiveSync to have my device overwrite what's in Outlook.

Is it outlook or outlook express?

If it's outlook, EVERYTHING is stored in the Outlook.pst file, contacts.. calender.. everything. If you'd like to back things up, i'd say just copy/paste that file to another location where activesync can't destroy it.



~ Gos

*points and laughs* hahaha!

no seriously though, i do know what youre talking about though. i really dont try to have activesync do much of anything but let me get access to my mobile device. i do know though that it will put old phone numbers back as well. i cant tell you how many times i deleted my ex-girlfriends phone number.

It really is a scam that you cannot just plug in a pda/phone etc.. and have it be just a regular storage device. I feel your pain as well.

If you think activesync sucks, you should try Vista's "Mobile Device Center". All the quirks of activesync with none of the configurability.

That said, I've been using activesynch for 4 years and have never had a problem. I use every aspect of it including contacts, calendar, emails, notes, etc... and synch over USB, infa-red and bluetooth with both a desktop and a laptop, as well as now, a laptop running Mobile Device Center. I've actually grown to rather like the program, as it's now performed over 3000 synchs for me without a hitch and makes setting up a new device a one-step process.

If you go to tools>options in active synch, click on the calendar, etc. then click the settings button, you actually get some pretty decent configurability. Click on the Schedule tab to define when synchronization occurs. Remember that unless you set the desktop schedule (at the top of the schedule tab) the device will synch every time it's turned on if it is connected.

You may also want to check the rules to determine which device has seniority.

Also, as Goshawk has pointed out, you MUST have Outlook 2000 or higher installed to have active synch work properly. If you do not have Outlook 2000 or higher installed, active synch will simply wipe your device, as we've seen here.

This document may help with further questions you may have.

noxqzs said:

It really is a scam that you cannot just plug in a pda/phone etc.. and have it be just a regular storage device. I feel your pain as well.

Click to expand...

Actually, you can. Just set up active synch as a guest partnership. I'd not consider free and functional software to be a scam, even if the interface may be a bit quirky at first.

I've had no issues with activesync on my moto q. I have mine set to sync every half hour to my exchange server.

hafa said:

Actually, you can. Just set up active synch as a guest partnership. I'd not consider free and functional software to be a scam, even if the interface may be a bit quirky at first.

Click to expand...

the problem I have is with installing the whole application. I would just like the driver itself that allows my device to be seen as a regular storage device, without the bloatware. To this effect, there is no solution.

noxqzs said:

the problem I have is with installing the whole application. I would just like the driver itself that allows my device to be seen as a regular storage device, without the bloatware. To this effect, there is no solution.

Click to expand...

10MB installed = bloatware? Maybe with a 486 25mhz processor, 16MB RAM and a single 200MB HDD...

hafa said:

10MB installed = bloatware? Maybe with a 486 25mhz processor, 16MB RAM and a single 200MB HDD...

Click to expand...

Your and my definition apparently is different. Is it too hard to comprehend why a person would want a single dedicated driver without the need for an application. Do you realize that its not possible to simply plug a windows mobile device into any other computer without Active Sync? When I am at some airport in another state, and would like to download the latest weather data onto my pda, does that mean I should have to install Active sync there. Different applications, require different solutions, and having a pda be recognized as a simple storage device without the need for sync software, is just that very reason. When you plug in a USB memory stick, the computer uses a generic HAL driver. Whats stopping MS from implementing this way of doing things, as a means of reduced functionality? What works for some does not work for others.

noxqzs said:

Your and my definition apparently is different. Is it too hard to comprehend why a person would want a single dedicated driver without the need for an application. Do you realize that its not possible to simply plug a windows mobile device into any other computer without Active Sync? When I am at some airport in another state, and would like to download the latest weather data onto my pda, does that mean I should have to install Active sync there. Different applications, require different solutions, and having a pda be recognized as a simple storage device without the need for sync software, is just that very reason. When you plug in a USB memory stick, the computer uses a generic HAL driver. Whats stopping MS from implementing this way of doing things, as a means of reduced functionality? What works for some does not work for others.

Click to expand...

I agree that the lack of a universal driver is disadvantageous. This lack, however does not justify the application of the term bloatware, which is what I took exception to.

There are other ways to transfer data to a modern PDA, such as 802.11G and bluetooth, both of which do not require active synch. Data could also be transfered via memory cards. These techniques and protocols, however, merely constitute work-arounds to the afore-mentioned issue.