Vario - Active-Sync

[Guest The B.A.]

Ay up,

How long does it take to connect first time with active sync and the MDA Vario, mines been on for 10 mins and it just keeps saying "retrieving setting". I installed the new version from the supplied CD, rebooted both the Vario and PC. Decided to try the C500 and that seems to sync fine - am I just being to impatient or is something amiss?

Thanks,

Ian

[Guest nforsans]

Hi

It took me a very long time for the first sync. It looks like activesync goes through everything you'vbe got in outlook, then compares it with your vario. Don't rush, let it do the job -it took me 20 or 25 minutes first time. Subsequent syncs are much quicker -they perform as they used to do with Windows 2003.

I've got a problem with syncing avantgo. It does seem that the only possible way to sync avantgo channels is to do it from the wizard when connected via activesync - open avantgo on the wizard, then select "sync" on the wizard. Then it goes okay. Doing it via the PC on activesync gives me error message and leaves it as an unresolved item.

has anybody got the same problem with avantgo?

[Guest Exodia]

20-25 minutes? You know that unexceptable right? It takes less than half that time for my virus protection to scan 80,000+ files, i can burn 20 gigs worth of data in that much time. Something is seriously wrong with the latest activesync. It is way too problematic with the wizard, it seems everyone is running into all sorts of different problems. I myself have only managed to connect my phone once since ive had it. Im pretty pissed at that. ](*,)

[Guest MitchellO]

Mine took less than 10 minutes for the first sync, and all subsequent syncs have taken about 45 secs, including updating 7 RSS feeds.

[Guest The B.A.]

Hmmm, tried it again this morning but this time on Windows 2k with a fresh install of both ASync and Outlook. Left it for 25 mins but it was still stuck. It detects the device ok, and picks up that it is p/word protected (I have also taken the p/w off bit it makes no difference). Going to hard reset it tonite and try again.

I think it has to be a software problem rather then anything up with the Vario, any thoughts?

Cheers,

Ian

[Guest spacemonkey]

2 things I've found that aren't 100% related but maybe... I'm on win2k and outlook 2k.

Bring up explorer (the file manager not the browser) and choose tools-folder options, go to the offline files tab and switch it off.

Also try syncing with outlook closed.

This doesn't fix all my problems, but I've got more reliable behaviour now.

Hmmm, tried it again this morning but this time on Windows 2k with a fresh install of both ASync and Outlook. Left it for 25 mins but it was still stuck. It detects the device ok, and picks up that it is p/word protected (I have also taken the p/w off bit it makes no difference). Going to hard reset it tonite and try again.

I think it has to be a software problem rather then anything up with the Vario, any thoughts?

Cheers,

Ian

[Guest Phil Lee]

I got my Vario this morning (woohoo) and have successfully synced it using the supplied ActiveSync 4.0. After installing 4.0 I connected my Vario via USB to my laptop (it's an old Sony Celeron 333 laptop with USB 1 only). The phone was detected, a partnership created and the sync process started. I then stopped the process almost immediately when I decided not to sync everything at once. I then synced just the contacts then added the calendar, e-mail, tasks and notes one at a time, letting the sync of the new item finish before adding the next. This process took less than 5 minutes.

[Guest nforsans]

from what I understand it is an issue related to the firewall. I have not managed to sync at work with outlook calendar.

#Does anybody know what to do?

[Guest The B.A.]

OK, did some digging at dinner, could be firewall or anti-virus related - just turned both off and it connected first time, but did not sync everything. As suggested higher up the posts I am now doing the sync's 1 item at a time. Let you know in a min where i get to.

Edited...

It do be the firewall, mine is Sygate, if you exit it the sync works spot on. Note that you must exit it as simply allowing all traffic does nto work. There are some guidlines to adding rules to this at:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/hel...ync/sygate.mspx

but they have not worked for me, going to try and get the latest version of sygate to see if that helps.

Edited again...

Just updated to the latest version of Sygate Personal Fiewall but no joy at all. As soon as I switch the firewall off it syncs like dream ;)

So my question to you good gentlemen (and ladies) is what firewall are you running with active sync 4. Much apprec.

Cheers

Ian

Edited November 7, 2005 by The B.A.

[Guest MitchellO]

No probs here with Norton AV 2005 and Windows Firewall SP2 (yeah, but I have a hardware firewall so this one doesn't need to be that great).

[Guest Pondrew]

Running Norton Internet Security (Antivirus and Personal Firewall) 2005 with Activesync 4.1. No WM5 device though ;)

[Guest nforsans]

I found a post somewhere about the implications of the move from RAM into Persistent Storage - and what happens seems to be the result of the move.

Basically, because all data are now stored in PS, as opposed to RAM in Win2003SE, it takes lo nger to access the data.

First syncs, which consist in thousands of appointments nd contacts, are noticebly slower than before. However, I understand susbsequent syncs won't take as long.

Moving to PS offers big advantages such as much improved battery life. If your battery runs out, no data will be lost. However, PS also offers drawbacks. What's described above is one of those.

Here's what the article said about PS:

"Downsides? Yes, nothing is free. Flash is much slower than RAM. Reading and writing large amounts of data will take longer on a PS device than it did on a RAM device. That initial sync that pulls down 400 contacts and 5000 emails will take longer. Some write operations will seem a bit more sluggish. But I believe you'll find that the upsides significantly outweigh the downsides"

More about the implications of persistent Storage is here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archiv.../14/438991.aspx

Finally, be patient when doing a first sync. It took me between 30 and 45' to do it, and when I first synced my Vario with my work PC yesterday, it took longer than 1 hour to first sync the device -as I have 1000+ appointments.

Be patient, leave it do the job, it will do it fine.

The sync is in two phases. First the connection. It says "looking for changes", then it hangs for a very long time. Well, in fact, it does not hang. Behind the scenes it assesses how many appointments etc. need to be synced. This may last for a while.

Then it physically syncs the items. And here it it will take a while to do the job. But leave it do it, and it will be just fine.

Hope this helps. I only found out about it last night.

Thanks.

[Guest Cods]

You guys are probably aware that Activesync 4.1 has been released for download by Microsoft. I only mention it because I was having exactly the same problems as you guys (but with my iMate Jasjar), and uninstalling AS4.0 and installing AS4.1 solved 99% of my problems. I now get stable syncs, every time.

If only I could work out what the problem is with my appointments! AS4.1 says (all the time) that they've sync'd, but there was an initial error message about "custom forms", and none of the appointments actually sync. More tweaking required...

Cheers,

Cods

Hmmn, must change that sig...

Edited November 22, 2005 by Cods

[Guest adchaffey]

I've been happily synchronising my Vario with active sync 4.0 for a little while now. The first sync did take a bit of time, but it's all fine now....

Except, I just installed Active Sync 4.1. Oh why did I bother! Now Active Sync can't even connect. Just sits there trying for ages, then occaisionally tells me to re-connect the device.

I only have the XP SP2 firewall installed, and have even tried disabling that. Anyone got any advice?

[Edit] Might Have been a little hasty here, a couple of soft resets of the device and my PC and everything 'Appears' to be all good again! (touches wood) [/Edit]

Edited November 23, 2005 by adchaffey

[Guest Phil Lee]

ActiveSync seems to get a little flakey when there is a lot running on my Vario. if I sync straight after a soft reset it works fine.