Contacts synching with Outlook driving me nuts!

[Guest Dr Who]

I have got a problem that I can't sync my contacts from my phone into Outlook. Active sync shows maybe 1/77 contacts synched and then just sits there not doing anything.

If I add a contact in Outlook with number 02074604658 the number shows up as +44 (020) 76404658 (My Location is set to 020). If I now activesync my contacts that number is transferred to my phone as +44 (020) 76404658 (and if I dial all I get is a dead tone, i.e. the (020) part is WRONG), but more importantly no numbers from my phone are transferred to Outlook.

So basically the format on my phone (either +44 2076404658 or 02074604658) is not the same format as Outlook is using.

I am sure this is why the number can be transferred to my phone from the computer (it doesn't care) but why Outlook won't accept any numbers from my phone. From what I remember the number did NOT display like this in Outlook when it worked with my E100. I was just wondering if anyone can sync there contacts with Outlook what does your number format lool like/how do you input your numbers. I am missing something but I just can't seem to find it.

Grrrr.

[Guest pete1312]

I have exactly the same problem since upgrading from Original SPV to E200 in March. Furthermore most of my Contacts got deleted from Outlook so now my "master" records are on E200 only.

Thankfully, I've got Sprite Backup - just in case!

[Guest Dr Who]

Did you ugrade your activesync version at the same time?

My E100 always worked beautifully but that was using 3.6. Subsequently my E200 and C500 have both had problems.......

[Guest pete1312]

Yes. I upgraded from 3.6 to 3.7.1 around the same time.

Does anyone think its worth trying 3.6 again?

I'm using Outlook 2002

[Guest Dr Who]

I've had problems with both Outlook 2000 and 2002 with my E200 and C500 respectively.

I have a hard drive somewhere with an XP OS on it that had activesync 3.6 and Office XP (Outlook x?) which used to sync perfectly with my E100.

I may see if I can get it to boot in a PC at work, although it may not like the hardware changes. If not I will try and drag out my copy of the E100 disk with 3.6 on it and try that.

Since I didn't set up Outlook any differently on my old XP system I can only think that the problem is with activesync or with the updated OS on the E200 and C500. Strange not more people seem to have this problem.

[Guest Dr Who]

Looking at Outlook 2002 seems to reveal many more problems with the way telephone numbers are handled.

If you click the little pen icon next to the phone number type you want to add it automatically adds +44 to the number and if you then type the number as, say, 02076405125 the number that is transferred to your phone is +44 02076405125. WRONG.

If again using the pen icon you insert the area code as 020 the number that is transferred to your phone is +44 (020) 76405125. WRONG.

If you just enter the number in the box as +44 2074605125 then it transfers as +44 2074605125. Great. But the number it would dial if you chose to phone dial from the computer is 2074605125. WRONG.

In fact the only way you could enter a number that would work dialling from both the PC AND the phone would be to enter directly in the box 02074605125. But I remember my SPVE100 manual stating explicitly that you had to enter the number as +44 2074605125 for Caller ID to work? Maybe they just meant internationally, but I guess some people MAY want to take the flagship Orange business phone abroad?

So what does one do? I wonder if there are any registry hacks to get Outlook to work correctly with UK phone numbers?

[Guest pete1312]

I may not have been having exactly the same problems, but certainly very, very similar.

With my Original SPV, my Outlook 2002 (Office XP) syncronised perfectly.

All my SPV Contacts have always been in international format, i.e. +44 etc with the leading zero of Area Code dropped.

Now, my SPV E200 is still perfect, but my Outlook is ****ed!

I cannot sync from E200 back to Outlook, therefore I gave up months ago and now manually re-add Contacts back to Outlook as and when I need them. I gave up trying to sync Contacts months ago!

When I used to try to sync Contacts from E200 to PC, it just put duplicate entries on E200 (which would not dial due to leading zero being re-added) & deleted my manual entries from Outlook on PC.

Duplicate entries on E200 caused the added complication that Fonix Voice Dial insisted there was no number for a particular Contact. I knew there was!!

It was only after deleting the "Outlook re-imported" Contact from E200 that Fonix worked correctly again.

I have 300+ Contacts on E200.

I have from 10 - 20 on my PC. I manually add more to my PC on a day by day basis as & when I need to use them.

I'm pi**ed off!!!!

[Guest braduk]

Hi. This has been driving me a bit nuts too.

Just checked on MS's knowledge base... and this seems to work:

When you enter the phone number into the contact, leave off the leading "0" (zero) from the area code. This, apparently, is the correct format for a +44 +area code +number entry.

Works for me :D

HTH HAND

Brad

[Guest davefrayne]

Just wondered if your able to copy contact onto pc without using outlook??

I know this may sounds silly to some, but still havent really exploreed this phone yet..

cheers

[Guest Dr Who]

Just wondered if your able to copy contact onto pc without using outlook??

I know this may sounds silly to some, but still havent really exploreed this phone yet..

cheers

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

AFAIK it will only sync with Outlook, hence they bundle Outlook with Activesync in the C500 packaging. Somebody *might* have got it working with linux or Apple - I haven't been around much lately.