Database Users

alternative way to backup contacts?

Hi
Just got this thing the other day (O2 XDA Mini S) and am pulling my hair out with ActiveSync. A google and a look round these forums convinces me I'm not alone.
I'm now at the point where notes will sync, but Contacts and Calendar will not. This appears to be most likely because I'm not using an Exchange Server.
I give in. Can anyone advise whether this some alternative to ActiveSync that I can use to back up my contacts list? I'd hate to have to do it all over again.
I have a memory card, so adding software from that is no problem if necessary.
Thanks

You can try the backup tool Sunnysoft
in advanced mode is an option Backup PIM databases

lansalot said:
I'm now at the point where notes will sync, but Contacts and Calendar will not. This appears to be most likely because I'm not using an Exchange Server.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you just trying to sync with your pc over the usb link? You don't need Exchange Server for that - it sync's with Outlook directly. Have you set up what information you want to sync in ActiveSync's Tools->options?
Another possibility for not syncing is any firewall you are running - although, if it was that, you wouldn't even get Notes to sync.
John

yup
Thanks for that John, yep I've done all I can see that I need to do. Missing Exchange was about the only thing left I could think of. I think I might uninstall Outlook and reinstall it to see if that helps. Though I *hate* having to install that POS just so I can backup some settings !
Perhaps there's somewhere within the phone that will export the various settings somewhere. Or perhaps I should dig out VS2005 and attempt to write one myself. Backing up to storage card would be the best option I think, and from a look around the .net mobile CF, it would appear to be pretty well supported.
And I had to disable Zonealarm despite having all the appropriate configurations set up to allow it. I even put 169.254.x.x in the trusted zone, to no avail.
ActiveSync is a shocking piece of software - and I know from owning other phones that there's things like MobiExplorer and MobiManager that tends to work much better than the usual manufacturer-supplied stuff.
Chak, thanks for the lead with SunnySoft.

Copy the pim.vol file from the root directory of the device. This contains all your pim info (contacts, call history, tasks, calendar). You can't really make anything out of it if you try to view it, but when you hard reset, you can just overwrite the new one and soft reset to restore everything. I copy mine to my storage card every time i add something new that has to do with pim stuff.

guttrhead said:
Copy the pim.vol file from the root directory of the device. This contains all your pim info (contacts, call history, tasks, calendar). You can't really make anything out of it if you try to view it, but when you hard reset, you can just overwrite the new one and soft reset to restore everything. I copy mine to my storage card every time i add something new that has to do with pim stuff.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
in my case, pim.vol file is protected, so copying & replacing it after hard reset does not work. i have other workaround for backuping contacts (as my activesync with outlook simply does not work) - each contact via irda to computer. it saves contact as .vcf file that you can send to wizard back again after hard reset.

Try using total commander to get to the file.

I yust transfered the file via email inside my home WLan to the PC.....

Hey, is this a common problem for HTC devices or Windows mobile in general?
I just started searching because my calendar won't sync. (3 palm devices and 3 pda's later, I have 1,400+ contacts.)
Are there any workarounds that anyone knows?
I tried setting up the sync settings whilst the device was disconnected, but the calendar entry just disappears when I re-connect.
-Worried of Sheffield.

thanks
Thanks eva_d, I had already hit on the idea of bluetoothing all my contacts over (thankfully, there's not that many) from my nokia 6600. Luckily, the XDA didn't require my SIM to be in it during the transfer. It even took over the mini pictures I had for some of the contacts, quite smart.
But it would be some chore with more than the couple dozen I had.
I'm reading up on the windowsmobile classes in dotnet, I reckon the answer would lie in there somewhere. Writing an app in VS to back things up to some funky open format would be the ideal, even if it does just drop a directory full of VCF files for example.
Once I'm sure VS2005 is installed and working correctly (http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=41155), I'll throw some serious effort at it.

Re: thanks
lansalot said:
Thanks eva_d, I had already hit on the idea of bluetoothing all my contacts over (thankfully, there's not that many) from my nokia 6600. Luckily, the XDA didn't require my SIM to be in it during the transfer. It even took over the mini pictures I had for some of the contacts, quite smart.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
copying contacts to other handset is bit risky, because various producers are using various interpretation of .vcf file format. for instance, when i copy contact from siemens s65 to wizard, email field is always ripped off the contact and polish national characters are also absent. copying contacts to computer via irda is quite safe, however personal ringtones assigned to contact and voice dials are sacrified. all other data within a contact are still present, including contact picture.

A bit more info on the missing calendar link:-
I have one laptop using activesync V.4.1 this was where i first discovered the problem.
Just tried laptop #2 running a/sync v.3.7.1 which has an older copy of my appointments in outlook. Calendar doesn't sync to this either, so it must be something inside the MDA.
Tried to search microsoft support to find a solution, but no entries found. This seems to indicate that it is a HTC issue. I had a MDA Pro briefly sync-ed up which worked Ok. The problems are with my MDA compact running WM2003.

pim.vol not only saves the contact but also the assigned ringtone and pic. only way to do it is copy to storage card.
then after hard reset it won't let you overwrite the new one but if you rename it to pim.vol.old it lets you do that. then you can overwrite it.

laich71 said:
pim.vol not only saves the contact but also the assigned ringtone and pic. only way to do it is copy to storage card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
contact pictures are NOT saved in pim.vol. when i restore contacts via irda from .vcf files on my laptop, pictures are already there.

I know this thread has moved on a bit, but I've just got my calendar to sync. again and I'm soooo relieved!
Take a look at this forum to find out how:-
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.pocketpc.activesync
Look at 'Cannot get calendar to sycnhronise' and the second reply.

Backing up the Contacts with Mail2Web Live Mail Service
I basically use the mail2web live mail service, and use its exchange server as the server source in Activesync. I only choose synching Contacts with this server (but you can choose others).
This way, all my contacts are always up to date in mail2web servers, and even if I need to hard reset, I can reget all of my contacts back very quickly.
Highly recommended...
Fast

please use the search PLEASE! ....search for PPCBckpContacts.exe
damn it!

New App!!! Sync web iCalendar to pocket Outlook

After I couldn't find an app to sync iCalendars with pocket outlook, I decided to make my own. Note: it IS buggy and not complete (eg ALPHA). Use at your own risk but it works fine on my PPC-6700 using a google calendar.
It supports syncing normal events as well as all day and weekly recurring events (eg every week on m,w,f) I designed it so that it can run on a timer in the background and update whenever or you can trigger it yourself. I'm not a pro developer so its not the best in the world but it works for me!
Also, it doesn't delete anything from your phone, only adds new items or updates existing ones (keys off of the title of the appointment).
I plan on posting it up on a sourceforge site soon and making the code public.
Attached is a screenshot of the interface. Yes, very simple.
Instructions: To install, download the attached cab, copy the cab to your device and browse to it and tap it to install.
Then you can configure it with the url (I recomend copy and paste from a text message or something if the url is long) select if you want it to auto update or not and if so, how often. Make sure you save the settings so they are stored for the next running.

Very good idea !
I was just thinking how I could sync Google calendar with Pocket Outlook
A question before I try : which url do you enter ?
When I browse Google calendar on my PC I get : http://www.google.com/calendar/render
Is that it ?

I probably should've mentioned that. For google calendar, go to settings, calendars, then click the calendar you want to import, and under private address click ical. Then copy and paste the url it gives to a text message and send it to the device so you can copy and paste it into the app (thats what I did).

Ok thanks.
I'll test your app tomorrow morning

This is a great app. Do you think you can make an update on google side, ie pocket pc overwrite the google calendar. It doesn't need to be a full sync at the beginning, but this would be a great addition

At least being able to sync appoints from the device to the google calendar would be great, no need to necessarily wipe them. That is, a bi-directional sync, with no delete. If an appointment needs to be deleted, it would just need to be deleted from both locations.
Generally sync apps have the following types of options:
Local -> Remote (No delete)
Local -> Remote (Delete remote entries that are not present locally)
Remote -> Local (No delete)
Remote -> Local (Delete local entries that are not present remotely)
Remote -> Local / Local -> Remote (Do not delete any entries)
- Scott

Any news on this?

Posting code to sourceforge
Hi,
Could you please post your code to sourceforge. This way we could help you develop this piece of software. Would be appreciated.
Regards,
Gerard

Any word on this? I'm anxious to see/start working on it.

I was just looking for something like this! I will try it when I get home from work. Hope to see continued development.

This app is great and exactly what I was looking for. I have been using it for a couple weeks now.
One thing, I noticed that it only pulls in the first 50+ characters of the appointment's description. Is there a way we can get the whole description?
Is there any update on the status of this project? Is going to be put on Sourceforge? I would gladly contribute to working on it.
Thanks
Josh

cant run it on mine
says requires newer version of .net compact framework.
anyone know where i can get this ?
T-moblie - Vario II
Herm300
cheers

jtritton said:
cant run it on mine
says requires newer version of .net compact framework.
anyone know where i can get this ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same problem. I got the .net compact framework from below:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...6B-356B-4A2C-857C-E62F50AE9A55&displaylang=en

I wonder if the developer of this app is still around.
Chanced my arm and tried it with WM6 on a TyTn-II ... started and ran OK, but then got errors regarding file layout / format.
Not sure if these are because I am on WM6 and the app is written for WM5, or if the ics file ( from Google Calendar ) is in a format the app doesn't like. I think more likely the former, as the post seems to indicate it was written with GCal in mind.
So, has anyone else had any luck with this in WM6, or even know of something similar. Don't need two way sync with device, just a way to dump my GCal onto my handheld.
Cheers,
nwpsys

No matter, oggsync seems to work for me, as I have tinkered with my GCal calendars a bit to have all my key stuff in one, so I can use the freeware version of oggsync

Google Calendar Sync
5 March 2008 Google Calendar Sync allows you to sync events between Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook Calendar.
http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=89955
You can now access your Google Calendar account from your mobile phone! Just visit mobile.google.com/calendar/ with your phone's web browser and once you're logged in, you'll see your list of upcoming events with date and time information in an easy-to-browse format.
Cheers
Tom

Me too- Win mobile 6.1 on a Tilt, no good. Call method errors.

I just tried it on my HP iPaq 614C (wm6), and it worked great. Thanks!

OggSync
thaihugo said:
This is a great app. Do you think you can make an update on google side, ie pocket pc overwrite the google calendar. It doesn't need to be a full sync at the beginning, but this would be a great addition
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Take a look at OggSync http://oggsync.com/
Arnon

Tried it, got errors. I also would really like to see this come alive again, don't want to use Google Cal in any way. Using Rainlendar desktop cal on my 2 pc's with a common ics file on the ftp server. Works perfectly, but would also like to keep my phone up to date automaticly/semi automaticly.

Screen burnt, Almost dead XDA EXEC - help required obtaining phone contacts.

Right where do we start with this tragedy of a phone...
I basically need to retrieve my contacts from the phone, but unfortunately my screen has busted, and I can see very little of anything on the screen, I can just about decipher some words, and I basically need a way to "blindly" transfer contact details from the phone to a PC or another phone.
The methods I can think of are: Synching
I have tried an Active Synch connection but it hangs on the "Synchronising" stage. Another issue with the phone is the radio stopped working, so it was just a glorified personal organiser...So not sure if I need to enter anything on the PDA - as I can't see much of the screen.
Transfer each contact one by one:
My right hand hard key is "contacts" so I can enter my contacts screen. and therefore I know I am ON my contacts page, and I know clicking the right hand menu also gives me the context sensitive menu - but I CAN'T SEE IT, or very little, I can just about make out SOME options. So could someone go through what all the key presses would be required to either send via bluetooth - no doubt bluetooth is not on, and need to be able to "blindly" turn bluetooth on?
Or create a "Vcard"/business card? I think this is saved somewhere, which I can then access from synching and using my PC Window XP "explorer" to view the vcard from my PC. I am able to "sync" to view the folders from my PC, but not use the "Sync" to synchronise contacts, etc.
Can someone PLEASE PLEASE have a look at their XDA EXEC and figure out what key presses are required to save one contact person's details. I should be able to repeat the process for the rest.
Your patience and time is most appreciated.
Cheers,
Kasam

Edit 2: Is there a way to copy all contacts to a SIM card? I'm trying SIM Manager now, but I only seem to be able to go from SIM to phone. :/

Any ideas guys?
Another idea I had was if someone had a screen print software? And could send some print screens of the contacts menu with the options available?
Can't see how else to do this
If someone could be kind enough to contact me on abulkasam AT hotmail DOT com. most appreciated.

Can you install soft?
http://www.pocketvnc.com/projects/pocketvnc/index.php
Install that, and then try connecting to it from a VNC client on your pc...
Theoretically it should provide you full access to your pda desktop... using a window on your pc.
No guarantees here as i haven't actually tested it, just googled for Windows Mobile VNC Server

I managed to copy the PIM.VOL file over from the phone via Windows Explorer (on windows XP). So now that I have that file, can I copy it to a replacement XDA EXEC? Or does anyone know if I can open the file in any other way?
Many thanks.
Also unlikely I can "see anything" to install, unless someone can provide key presses for installation...
I can place files on to the pda through Windows pocket pc synch etc.

abulkasam said:
I managed to copy the PIM.VOL file over from the phone via Windows Explorer (on windows XP). So now that I have that file, can I copy it to a replacement XDA EXEC? Or does anyone know if I can open the file in any other way?
Many thanks.
Also unlikely I can "see anything" to install, unless someone can provide key presses for installation...
I can place files on to the pda through Windows pocket pc synch etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You will hit problems if you copy the file to another PDA. You can use an emulator to read the PIM file using XP - you will need to install some stuff though - see here:
Mobile Emulator for XP: (Or use visual studio 2005)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en
Related threads:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=1285640
Mike

That emulator is pretty cool. Managed to view my contacts on the emulator, but you can't send across contacts. So found some freeware to install on to emulator that saves contacts as CSV files, html etc. However does anyone know of a way of saving all the contacts in the business card format that keeps things like the "picture" associated with contacts? It stays when you beam a file, or send it as business card in any other form. It's not available on the emulator, so any program that replicates this?
I had issues synchronising the contacts with the emulator to activesynch. I used the "cradle" which lets Activesynch see it, but then it fails on the synchronization. Does anyone have any solution?
Many thanks for all your help.

Sync with Mac??

Hi,
Any Mac user here sync your Trinity with Mac OSX??
Kindly recommend some applications that sync your contacts and calender well with iCal and Address book in 10.4.9
Thanks in advance.
Mark

Take a look at Marks/Space as
The Missing Sync for Windows Mobile lets you easily connect and synchronize Pocket PCs and smartphones with your Mac. Sync with Address Book, iCal, Microsoft Entourage, iPhoto, iTunes and more. For work. For play. For life. It's really amazing what these devices can do for you when connected through The Missing Sync.
I found the program to be useful for dropping .CAB files to my PDA but I don't use that much anymore to intermittent issues and I prefer is to use an exchange server to sync my address-book, calendar, etc...
4smartphone offer this service and more for a fee (though you can have a two week trial). So I receive push email and I do all my editing of contacts etc which syncs with the server and my email app on the Mac (mail and entourage).
Hope this helps

missing sync F$%K up all my contacts birthdates...

missing sync
heya... just bought the missing sync... really cheap and quite cool... havent tested it deeply, but works quite well for me except i cant transfer files directly into the memory card, have to use the main storage temporarily. rest of stuff works quite well. i love the SMS archiver!

Yer SMS archive is a nice new feature......As to copying stuff direct to Storage card you should be able to perform this. Have you tried clicking on "Install" and then selecting the location from the pulldown menu?

Yer SMS archive is a nice new feature......As to copying stuff direct to Storage card you should be able to perform this. Have you tried clicking on "Install" and then selecting the location from the pulldown menu?

i kno it should work ;( but it seems kind of a conflict, as the memory card folder is seen erratically on the mounted directory: Either it is detected with no files on it, or with a partial list of files, or with "0 files, 2Terabytes free" ... as soon as I try to copy anything into the SD it says "the network drive has lost connection".... I've mailed MarkSpace about this... will post here the solution.

I know the missing sync for window mobile does sync your stuff, however, not correctly.
It messes up my whole contacts and calender with wrong mapping.
Omg, it took me a few good hours to fix up the mess.
Any other suggestions?
Mark

If youre not a radical mac user that would be offended by installing anything microsoft, Im using with success VMWARE with Windows XP on my MacBook Pro. I can then run Windows XP over MacOS, and ActiveSync (and many other apps) without problems.
I still dont have the guts to do a ROM Upgrade from it hahaa but i bet it works.
VMWARE FUSION is quite cheap ($60) and allows to install Windows XP, Windows Vista and Linux, and even run the three of them at the same time over MacOS. I do it.

i use parrallels desktop, vmware, along with missing sync also tried pocketmac...here are my finding......well when i plug my usb from trinity to usb port on mac pro 17" the computer crashes....ya no lie, cant find out why, also, this makes parralels not work for the phone as i have to select the usb port to use by that time comp has crashed.........vmware works better...pain to boot up though just cause i hate having windows running in the background.......missing sync is absolutely ****e..it sucks huge remapped my contacts and screwed everyhting up not to mention i got tons of foubles now as whne i sync with vmware it senses the changes and adds new contacts...arrrrggghhhhhhhh if only iphone had gps then and avoided these sync issues i would have gone to the dark side......as for pocketmac..dont make me laugh..that "lauren" is a fictitious person who just keeps harrassing me by email, yet never solving my problems...and i'm pretty sure that its their software that makes the usb crash my comp, thats why i always use bluetooth with missing sync which only works 1 out of 12 times..annoying as hell

markyeungcy said:
I know the missing sync for window mobile does sync your stuff, however, not correctly.
It messes up my whole contacts and calender with wrong mapping.
Omg, it took me a few good hours to fix up the mess.
Any other suggestions?
Mark
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd been using missing sync since early this year for my Trinity to sync with my MacBook Pro. MissingSync v3.3 with WM5 and MissingSync v4 with WM6. I din face much problem. It sync with the OSX Address Book and Microsoft Entourage Address Book plus my Trinity Contact perfectly. I notice it takes on the Microsoft Entourage Address Book format. Others like Calendar, SMS, Notes sync well between computer and device too.

They all suck. I used missing sync for a while but its buggy and clunky feeling and caused problems with my contacts. At one point it corrupted some of my data and just kept asking over and over how to resolve a conflict - I had to force quit it, and disable syncing of that database (calendar, I think).
pocketmac looks promising, because it integrates into iSync. But their website is ****e and I don't really know what I'm buying (should I get pocketmac Pro, or Pocketmac for Windows Mobile 5/6? They're the same?!)
I really wish their was an elegant, inexpensive solution for syncing address book, ical, etc.

p.s.
I have done many a flash ROM upgrade in parallels and vmware. Works just fine.
Oh - and I did just find this:
http://james.manners.net.au/2006/11/13/free-windows-mobile-activesync/
getting closer...

Sync Documents / Tasks...

I'm strongly leaning towards Android and the Hero specifically to replace my WM phone. I rely heavily on syncing contacts, calendar, tasks and documents. Active Sync works fine on WM, however I've pretty much sorted that by switching to google mail, I can sync my contacts and calendar. I've read tons of posts on this, but can't seem to find specifically about documents.
For example, if I modify an Excel file on my PC, it then syncs with my WM phone, and I always have an updated document on phone & pc.
Is this possible with the Hero?
Also, what about task syncing? I understand that google tasks don't sync, is there another way?

As far as I can tell there is nothing avaliable that is anything like the Windows Mobile Office Suite.
However.
I installed "GDocs" from the market place which gives me access to all of my Google documents. You can View Excel type files but you can edit Word type files. You can even create Word type documents straight from your phone.
I've been using it on & off since I got the phone & the app is pretty solid

Thanks, I guess I'll try out Google docs. I definitely like the idea of cloud based rather than Active Sync from PC to phone to laptop. Active Sync has been very flakey lately, losing connection, I've lost data a bunch of times and I'm just sick of WM and AS.