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P800 Outlook Synchronization Problems with New PC Suite Version |
Cunning Man
Joined: Dec 18, 2002
Posts: 40
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Firstly, apologies for the repost of this message - it was getting buried under the issues surrounding the old PC Suite.
Problems with The New PC Suite - Synchronization Works Only Partly
Not having been able to sync at all with the original version of the PC Suite software, I was delighted to hear about the new PC Suite version last Friday, and rushed home to download and install it that day. In fact, I reformatted my hard drive, installed a fresh copy of Windows XP and Office XP, went to Windowsupdate and downloaded all the updates possible - for Windows as well as Office XP (yes, even the latest update for Outlook 2002) - before installing the new version of PC Suite for the P800 (downloaded off the SE website).
All excited, I set up the synchronization settings (making sure to point syncing to the right Outlook folders), allowed access to Outlook when the window came up, and waited with bated breath...
At first, I was elated - for the first time since I bought the P800, the "Synchronization in progress" window actually had changes! It was so nice to actually see the progress bars move (from "Initializing", to "Analyzing", etc) and then that nice little window saying Synchronization was completed.
I looked at the contents of my P800 and Outlook... At first it seemed that everything had been synchronized... but sadly this was not so!
RANDOM, INCOMPLETE SYNCHRONIZATION
Approximately 1 in 5 of my contacts/events/notes are not synchronized. Even more troubling is that some new entries in Outlook are not only not synchronized over to the P800, but worse, are deleted from Outlook!
The annoying thing is that, at least after the last 2 days of playing around with different settings, it appears to be totally random with regards to which one of the contacts or events or notes are not synchronized. Very worrying indeed. A problem of this nature is going to worry a lot of potential purchasers, who like myself, was hoping for the P800 to be the reason I could retire my PDA+cellphone combination.
I have to say I am happy Sony Ericsson have come out with a new version of the PC Suite software. However, I hope that anyone who has problems with this version will also send emails to SE to let them know that we will need another iteration. Or maybe they need to hire some new engineers. I don't recall so many synchronization problems with even the first versions of my Palms/Treos/Pocket PCs.
Maybe SE just haven't tested their software in "real world" environments of PDA users. I will readily admit that I am perhaps a rather heavy user of Outlook (I have almost 4000 contacts, and currently about 8000 calendar items and notes), but these have never been a problem for my Palms or Pocket PCs.
OTHER PROBLEMS
Aside from the faulty partial synchronization of data, the process is also extremely slow. For example, it takes on average about 1 minute for my Palm to synchronize with Outlook. It's been taking my P800 about 15 - 20 minutes to (partially) synchronize! Definitely not suitable for use in office situations - there's no way I could hang around waiting for 20 minutes if I have to rush out for a meeting.
Other faults that have been noted before: Non-syncing of Outlook recurring-all-day items, too few phone number fields in the P800 and the inability to map the ones that are available, "Out of system resources" message with Outlook crashes...
In conclusion, I am really hoping SE get their act together soon regarding synchronization, or they will not make a dent in the lucrative enterprise market - who will continue to use Palms/RIM devices. This latter population have no use for the camera, and really just want a mobile phone with stable, heavy duty PDA functionality, and as these P800 faults become known, will naturally gravitate towards the new Blackberrys mobile phones, or Treos (new version out in mid-year) or the upcoming Palm Tungsten W (although the latter lacks a mike/speaker in the device body), or if they are more adventurous, the new Kyocera or Samsung phones with the Palm OS. Some might even go with the Pocket PC phones (XDA, SPV etc) until they realize these are far too slow...
I am sure there are some of you with a troubleshooter's bent who might want to offer some suggestions as to how I might be doing something wrong; please post your ideas here! Here is my current setup:
- IBM ThinkPad T20 (with latest BIOS update)
- 512 Mb RAM (I just spent US$200 on Saturday to upgrade it from 256 Mb because I thought that it might make a difference...)
- 60 Gb Hard Drive (with over 30Gb free)
- Windows XP SP1 (and every update on the MS website)
- Office 2002 (and every update on the MS website)
- The latest version of Sony Ericsson's PC Suite software (downloaded on Saturday January 25, 2003)
- No other software on the notebook (all above was freshly installed on Friday)
- Synchronization using the standard USB cradle (file transfers etc ok)
Many thanks in advance for any ideas as to how to get synchronization to work properly. Although my guess is that it will take an even newer version of PC Suite.
Best regards,
C
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masseur
Joined: Jan 03, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Sydney, London
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I have a SOny Vaio R600 with XP pro and Office XP with all updates done from Microsoft Update and did my first synch last night without issue, although, yes, a little slow.
While the synch does work I get an error starting outlook. It says...
The add-in "C:\WINDOWS\System32\XCOLExt.dll" could not be installed or loaded. The problem may be resolved by using Detect and Repair on the Help menu. Unable to load "C:\WINDOWS32\XCOLExt.dll". You may be out of memory, out of system resources, or missing a .dll file.
The Detect and Repair did not fix the problem but since the synch works I am assuming this only affects my abiltity to click a button in outlook that performs some sort of operation.
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jplacson
Joined: Apr 21, 2002
Posts: > 500
From: Philippines
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Well... the sync issues aren't consistent. From day 1, with the original Sync SW, I had no problems syncing with Outlook. All my contacts, calendar entries, notes, etc.. all synced perfectly.
I can sync over every available connection, BT, IR or cable.
You might have the T68i software still installed... it might be conflicting with the Comm port...or maybe your PDA sw is set for the same port. |
terrible
Joined: Aug 23, 2002
Posts: 36
From: Philippines
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@cunningman
You forgot to mention if you setup your synch station settings first and chose the Full Synchronization and checked the box for "Force Full Synchroniztion" and the "Keep all items in computer and override items in phone" below it.
Let me remind you that you have to check this the first synchronization. The system will uncheck this automatically after.
 *** I LOVE MY P800 *** |
jonnor
Joined: Dec 26, 2002
Posts: 29
From: Stockholm - Sweden
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Sorry to say but I tend to agree with cunningman...
I have written several times on Esato regarding the old PCSuite, but the new one is not better, as far as I can see.
I'm lucky though because I got my adressbook (1000 posts) correctly synced, and also the Notes and datebook (however still no categories in neither notes, adress or todo). Datebook still lacks all-day events, as cunningman correctly points out. However the todolist is randomly synced, which is very annoying.
There seems to be no rationality behing the behaviour of the sync??!!! I sure hope the SE engineers get their act toghether and posts a decent update soon!!!!! |
bojan59
Joined: Jan 21, 2003
Posts: 2
From: Stockholm
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I'd agree with jonnor and cunning man, this version of the SW is marginally better than the first.
I have managed a few sync's but most of the attempts fails because the sync application consumes all available memory (I got 256Mb) and then Outlook hangs with out of mem an resources problems. Also the time it takes to sync is ridicoulus (20-30 min) my old Palm III synced everything in less than 1 min. (~800 contacts, 400 calendar items, 100 notes and about 20 to-do's). I also had several issues where events in the calendar where duplicated, not synced at all and ended up at the wrong time! Anyone have a clue on what method for Outlook access the SE sync SW uses? The outrageous memory consumption indicates they are doing something strange!
I use Win2000Pro with Outlook 2000 on a HP Omnibook 500 with 256Mb.
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AllanMartinson
Joined: Jan 22, 2004
Posts: 1
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I seem to have the same problem with partial synchronization. When trying to identify the pattern of why some contacts are not being synchronized I discovered that all of them were created before spring 2003 when I started to use Outlook 2003 beta.
Contacts created after spring 2003 synced fine.
From one of the friends I got the following note:
The current PC – SW version 2.1.0 for P900 and P800 will not work together with MS Outlook 2003 and Lotus Notes 6.5. A new PC-SW release will be developed, implemented and planned for shipment during week 07 2004. It will also be available to download from www.sonyericsson.com. This PC-SW will support both MS Outlook 2003 and Lotus Notes 6.5. |
LkL
Joined: Feb 12, 2002
Posts: 99
From: Sweden
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maby wrong forum? |
vanquish
Joined: Mar 20, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Wor Newcastle Phone: V600i
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@lkl yeah totally
go to the p800/p900 forum where all the whizzkid smartphone people (like me  i like the z200 avatar!) can answer your problem bar masseur cos he answered it here.
best place for p800 help
DD
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Access the forum with a mobile phone via esato.mobi
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Posted: 2003-01-27 08:19
*** I LOVE MY P800 *** 
