PingBack from http://www.techaddress.com/2007/05/29/windows-mobile-device-center-61-coming-soon/

Hi nick, I'm a screen reader user who also uses a mobile device. In the past, ActiveSync has been easily useable by me, but Windows Mobile Device Center is much more difficult for screen reader users to operate. Many of the buttons have no text labels or cannot be tabbed to, requiring a lot of use of mouse emulation keys. There don't seem to be standard controls used anymore, and all in all, this product is far below today's standards of accessibility excellence we normally get from Microsoft. I truly hope this will be addressed in the 6.1 release of Mobile Device Center, as this is the only thing that has made me regret upgrading to Vista.

Keep up the great work.

Jonathan

I hope this fixed my reoccuring error with WMDC. I haven't been able to sync my Smart Phone since upgrading to Vista. I keep getting an "unhandled exception" error (whatever that means).

Já esta confirmado que dentro de poucas semanas teremos uma nova versão do WMDC . O WMDC foi projetado

Will WMDC finally be able to sync calendars with Windows Calendar in Vista? It seems absolutely ridiculous that it doesn't, and would make all the sense in the world if it did.

Same for a user's "contacts". Seriously, why can't a device sync with Vista's built-in stuff? Ohh, wait... must be for Outlook sales... :/

Hi jrronimo,

Currently, Windows Mobile Device Center only supports synchronization with Outlook or Exchange.  We currently do not support synchronization with Windows Mail, Windows Calendar or the Windows Address book.  This is under consideration for our future roadmap but we do not have a release date yet.

Jane

kcarson97404,

Can you send a screenshot of your exception to dcinput@microsoft.com?  Include the steps you took to get the exception.  I'd like to investigate this further.

Thanks!

jmosen,

WMDC 6.1 does include Accessibility fixes like tabbing support.

Thanks,

Jane

Will it be posible to handle synchronization conflicts by the user? With version 6.0 only "Outlook overrides Mobile Device" or "Mobile Device overrides Outlook".

In the next few weeks, the Windows Mobile Device Center team will be launching an update to Windows Mobile

Thanks for the reply, Janely... it's about what I figured. I really think that WMDC syncing with the built-ins would be a huuuge benefit for customers, so while it's under consideration now, I really hope to see it. I had to buy a copy of Outlook to do something that a bunch of built-ins already do, but not in a convenient way for my device... it was aggrivating, really. As it stands, I really have no reason to use Windows Mail, Windows Calendar, or the Contacts folder since they don't do anything with my device.

I'm glad to hear it's under consideration, at the very least.

Why are you having to buy Outlook?  Windows Mobile comes with a CD with ActiveSync and Outlook on it.

Please Microsoft, consider a out-of-band updated release for the collaboration apps to make them work with each other (integrated) and sync with WMDC. This feature is requested by 99% of Windows users who use them and waiting for the next release of Windows for such trivial but useful features is crazy. Please add an API for Windows Calendar and make WMDC sync with Calendar, Contacts etc.

cdrider: I bought my phone on eBay and it did not come with such software. Admittedly not a common situation and perhaps it's bad on me.

More importantly, it's redundant: Outlook does exactly the same things as already present Windows Vista programs -- which is the waste of space? If I have Outlook I don't need Windows Calendar/Contacts installed... Contacts is a "Special Folder" right in my user-folder and a Windows-Powered device with syncing capabilities can't talk to that? That seems a little ridiculous to me.

I hope they fix the sync problem too. I had a file that was not changed on Vista since May 15th, I made many changes to it on my PPC.  On May 30th I did a sync and lost all changes on my PPC. With Active Sync I never had this problem. If both were changed it would ask me which to replace.

I really like using Windows Live Mail on my desktop at home and would like to be able to synchronize my WM5 (or WM6 whenever Verizon releases an updated phone) device with my email account, Live contacts, and calendar.

I just bought a new system with Vista business and i'm having much difficulty with syncing my phone (HTC P4350).  On XP Pro, i worked great.  I can sync to Media, but in the WMDC, it doesn't even recognize the phone.  I can't even use my ipod either...it can't find the driver (i do have the disc and installed it).

Any help would be absolutely wonderful!

Thank you! paymon

I just bought a new system with Vista business and i'm having much difficulty with syncing my phone (HTC P4350).  On XP Pro, i worked great.  I can sync to Media, but in the WMDC, it doesn't even recognize the phone.  I can't even use my ipod either...it can't find the driver (i do have the disc and installed it).

Any help would be absolutely wonderful!

Thank you! paymon

I most certainly hope that you'll be able to have a look on file synchronization and calendar synchronization.

I use Spb Finance, and sync files with my PC as a backup; my Spb Finance datafile regularly gets overwritten with the obsolete one on the PC, forcing a reentry of transactions entered and forgotten days ago. It really gets irritating after the fifth occurrence.

Calendar sync error occurs when for whatever reason (ie new Windows install) new device partnership has to be established; WMDC smartly  copies all calendar info on the PDA to Outlook, duplicating or even triplicating every entry. It's boring to delete hundreds of entries manually, while watching out not to delete the odd entry that hasn't been duplicated.

I've Windows Mobile 2003 (no R2) iPAQ 3970 PDA.

Apart from this, I really like Vista, tho.

I own a Dopdod 838pro and the new WM6 Dopod 730, both have been configured to have activesync with an exchange server. It works nicely using wireless connection but when I sync with my PC, it always show error that it failed to connect to exchange server. Would this update resolve this connectivity issue? It is very frustrating.

vaio6,

I am having the same problem on my Atom Life (WM6) with the current WMDC.  Everytime I sync via WMDC, the system can see the Atom Life (I can copy files across) but WMDC and the device reports error in connecting to the Exchange server.  OTA sync works fine on the device......

Very very annoying!

I just got a Moto Q and it's working fine with Vista and WMDC. Is there any way to change the default Outlook Contacts folder for sync? I created one in Outlook specifically for mobile but can't configure the device to see it.

Thanks,

Hi pfarhadieh,

Windows Mobile Device Center only connects with Windows Mobile devices.  As for your connectivity issue, please email dcinput@microsoft.com.  I can help you troubleshoot there.

Thanks,

Jane

Hi betaman,

Windows Mobile Device Center does support syncing with Windows Mobile 5 devices.  Is it not working for you?

Jane

I just installed WMDC 6.0 (on vista home) to sync my treo 700w to outlook 2002 (that came with my treo) I'm able to sync but every time I open outlook since then I'm getting that annoying message "A program is trying to access e-mail addresses you have stored in Outlook. Do you want to allow this?" then I can click yes - allow for ten minutes - or no but I have to click it hundred of times until it goes away and sometimes I am lucky that can I click yes just a few times.

I tried almost everything but nothing helped, I even tried to create a new profile then I didn’t got the message but then I was unable to sync. I googled around for 2 days with no luck I hope you can help me...

Ely

Greetings.  Here is my dilemma and I havent been able to fix it since I first got Vista 32 bit.

I have an Axim 30 and I am dependent on this PDA.  When I had Windows XP I was able to use it and synchronize to it perfectly.

However, with this new software all I get to do is download the driver update.  Where's the original main .exe?  Whenever I log onto my Windows Mobile Device Center all I get is a green screen and no way to log in.  Now, my PDA is connected properly with my USB but I cannot get any other connection ... nothing... no .exe or anything.  I have the icon and the options to conenct but that's it.  Ive tried to get this thing to work since Jan 07 and Im about to go back to XP on this one issue alone.

Any suggestions??  Microsoft only seems to be given me a driver update...and not the .exe file.

Hi Enigma,

When you install the driverupdate.exe, you are installing two things: Windows Mobile Device Center Driver Update and Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC).  Can you open Control Panel and see what programs you have installed.  Can you confirm that ONLY Windows Mobile Device Center Driver Update is installed?  If so, then for some reason your install isn't complete.  Please uninstall Windows Mobile Device Center Driver Update and reinstall the package.  Monitor the entire install and allow when prompted to allow the install of both programs.

If you need more help, email me at dcinput@microsoft.com.  Let us know if your problem gets solved.

Thanks,

Jane

It stated that WM 6 feature will be part of the upgrade. Can you list out those feature? Will Get certificate feature be available on this update and will the IRM activation be there as well? Appreciate if you are able to provide more information for this update. :)

Just noticed that the Windows Mobile Devices Center has been updated today. http://www.microsoft.com

CDRIDER - you may need to read the CDs a bit more carefully. The version of Outlook that comes with the vast majority of devices is actually a TRIAL version which is time crippled.

Hey ITLALA:  take a look at our announcement from yesterday for details:  http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsexperience/archive/2007/06/06/windows-mobile-device-center-6-1-now-available.aspx.

Thank you Nick. Installed WMDC 6.1 and play around. Just figuring how does the IRM activation works as there is no option to activate the IRM feature.

Hi ITLALA,

After you create a partnership with a Windows Mobile 6 device syncing e-mail, navigate to the Mobile Device Settings bucket where you will see an option to Activate IRM.

Thanks,

Jane

Hi, I am using Vista Home Premium and have WMDC 6.1 and am having problems syncing my iMate JASJAR. It worked ok to start with but then for no reason stopped working and from then on stops syncing and says there has been a Sync Error. Active Sync has encountered a problem on the desktop. I have no idea what is causing this.

Can someone help me please.

Many thanks

Steve

6.1 fixed my issues so far. 6.0 didn't work well with my Verizon xv6700. Thanks! I am an IT consultant in the SMB space, mostly SBS users. I have one universal complaint across my client base, admittedly myself included. Devices can't sync with public contact folders. Ouch. Small businesses especially rely on these shared contact folders so they don't have to duplicate shared contact info, but it renders mobile devices unusable, unless they have a Blackberry or Palm OS which allows them to sync to public contacts. Exchange 2007 didn't fix this, but if you could do it at the desktop that would still be good enough. My clients want Email and Calendar in real time. Contacts once a week or so is good enough. Right now my clients are buying 3rd party software just to sync their public contacts. What gives?

Syncing has always been problematic for me.  I have a Treo 700w.  I had so many sync errors on WinXP I finally just gave-up and stopped syncing mail entirely.  So disappointing.

Now I'm on Vista.  The Sync Center is not very well conceived, I must say.  The systray icon doesn't always give me the confirmation that my device is sync'd.  (I only have one device.)  Plus, now I have to click through 5 or 6 clicks to find settings... whereas before I get there in 2 or 3 clicks.

I still have sync issues.  Once I installed Mobile Device Center 6.1, duplicates were created of all my tasks.  I was left to sort-through them manually (about 900 in all.)  Needless to say, I was not happy.

Hi Mr. Dimpy/Steve,

I will need your ETL log files to diagnose the problem.  They are located here: %windir%\system32\logfiles\windowsmobile\.

Please send them to dcinput@microsoft.com with an explanation of your problem.  We can go from there.

Thanks!

Hi Jane,

I am sure e-mail is sync to my device and i still doesn't see any feature or option to activate IRM on Mobile Device Setting. I only able to see Get Cert feature.

Besides, i do have a question about the feature "allow data connection on device when connected to PC". I am trying the feature and yes the GPRS connection will not be shutoff eventhough i connect my device to PC and WMDC connection is extablish. But the problem here is when i trying to browse a website and i am not able to. It just doesn't seem using the GPRS connection at all. The connection setting on my WMDC is set to Automatic. I am sure that the GPRS setting is correct as when i disconnect the device from PC then the browsing just works fine. Is there any setting i need to setup in order to make this works? Or is there any guide on how this works?

Regards,

Ryan.

Am I having the following problem with Outlook AND WMDC due to installing the WMDC software??

After a couple of times trying to start Outlook 2007, and seeing nothing happen, I checked the Task Manager. There I found that there were several instances of Outlook.exe running (not in applications, but only in process tab). I then stopped all the processes and started Outlook again, and it started normally.

Unless I am starting Outlook after a reboot, I now simply start Outlook and then go to the Task Manager and see two processes, and then stop one. Here I learned something else... if you stop the right one Outlook pops right up and runs normally. If you choose the wrong one you get the message that Outlook should start in Safe Mode. What I have discovered is that you need to stop the instance which is using the larger amount of memory to get the "fresh" instance to start.

My unsatisfactory workaround gets me into Outlook, but no sync is ever successful. Are these problems related - - the unsuccessful sync and the incorrect Outlook shutdown? Actually the sync problem occurs whether or not the Pocket PC phone is in the cradle.

It starts to sync and fails, then starts all over again until I get tired of looking at it and cancel the sync. This all ran properly with XP Pro, Outlook 2002 and the "old" sync software. I now run Office 2007 Enterprise on Vista Ultimate... no addins other than what came standard ... and the WMDC.

Hi mbamcse,

Can you tell me exactly what sync error you get?  Please email me at dcinput@microsoft.com with steps on how to reproduce your problem and exactly what error you see.

Thanks.

Hi Jane

I run vista/WMDC6/WM latest version on pocket PC. I’ve been monitoring the forum windowsvistablog.com and wanted to feed back two issues:

1. I also have lost much data when syncing, my data on either mobile device or outlook simply disappears. This is business critical and has legal implications. I now have had my pocket PC dead on the desk since these troubles began with vista, I am back to using notes on my desktop and pen and paper with a client! I hope the conflict resolution can be improved – with my old Palm system, there was the option to duplicate, with user control, so I never lost data and was always alerted via a log, and then knew to manually resolve. This was acceptable, losing data is not.

2. Something is wrong with the sync software as I now have 12 copies of some of my outlook notes, all with slightly varying titles assigned by WMDC, before Vista I had only one copy, other notes have 11 copies, or 10, or 9 for others etc.

3. When I make changes to a note in Outlook, that note simply disappears until I perform a sync, then it returns. The notes that disappear are not even accessible via advanced search. Because I have given up with WMDC until updates are released, my data is being held hostage until a sync happens. Why does my data have to disappear in outlook and is this issue fixed in the forthcoming 6.1?

I do appreciate that managing this kind of complexity is not easy, but we all know that WMDC was released below par, a friend of mine personally knows people in that team and they weren’t happy with the release.

A brief reply to this address would be appreciated.

With my kindest regards

Ian Lawson

Hi Janely,

Any updates for my previous question?

Ipaq 5455 Pocket PC 2003 and Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1, cannot get to work on Vista Home Premium. USB drive not recognized. Any suggestions out there? Many thanks.

Ihave been using Vista with my Dell Axim X51 since Vista Beta 2. I now have the commercial Ultimate Vista.

There were problems along the way but the worst problem has no occurred when I installed the latest driver update Windows Mobile Device Center 6.

I get two error messages - one that  svchost.exe has closed down and one that the Windows mobile 2003 based devices service has closed down. These events occur when I try to connect the device in it's USB cradle.

When the upgrade runs, the first thing it does is install an unknown device (at first this took ages but after various tries this goes faster now in the preconfigured folders.)

All I can do now is to choose the device connection type (excluding bluetooth) and then the whole Device center crashes and generates error messages when I try to connect.

Vista synced perfectly with the device prior to the upgrade.

I read the blog here and tried uninstalling the upgrade (WMDC) and booting and then re-installing. No change. I tried uninstalling and then installing each of two previous upgrades I still had - one from December and one from feb. No change.

Any help available? I could send the ETL log files to dcinput@microsoft.com if someone there would recieve them and look at them.  

Forgot to say that the Axim has WM5.

PPC 2002

I ordered a new Vista PC today and prepared the way by downloading drivers for my hardware. I was stunned to see that my Mio168 GPS (ppc 2002) purchased just two years ago isn't supported. One of my main uses requiring connection, is for daily aviation (Nav, weather,NOTAM) updates. It doesn't appear that the Mio can be upgraded to PPC 2003. HELP Please !!!!!UK

Hi Everyone,

If you need troubleshooting help, please email dcinput@microsoft.com with your situation.

Thanks,

Jane

I just purchased a laptop that has Vista Business and I have a treo 700wx that I'm trying to sync and I'm just not getting it. When I install Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 and I follow the steps during the Device Driver Installation I'm getting an unidentified device. In says unidentified device installed successfully but the WMDC does not start. When I manually start it and does not see anything.... Can anyone help?

Hi

I have a problem with an ipaq 2490 running wm5 through vista ultimate and wmdc 6.1

Basically wmp11 and media centre are not picking up the ipaq. WMDC syncs fine for contacts, calendars, tasks and emails.

Device manager shows the ipaq under usb connections and also portable devices, but thats about as far as it goes.

Really annoying as I want to sync recorded tv shows and mp3 files.

Janely wrote: If you need troubleshooting help, please email dcinput@microsoft.com with your situation.

I have done so a few days ago  - but have not had a reply from them.

My situation is this:

I have been using my my Dell Axim X51 (with WM5) on XP and then on Vista

since the betas and RCs and now have the commercial Ultimate Vista (English)

with the Danish Language Pack.

There have been issues along the way with various versions of the OS –

mainly that there was never an automatic upgrade when these were available

and needed ( you had to hunt for them or find references to them on blogs and

newsgroups). The other big headache was that it couldn't recognize Outlook

2003 for a long time.

Since I installed the latest driver update to Windows Mobile Device Centre

6.1 the longtime well functioning connectivity with my Axim was destroyed and

I get two error messages - one that svchost.exe has closed down and one that

the Windows mobile 2003 based devices service has closed down. These events

occur when I try to connect the device in its USB cradle. The Axim shows that

it is about to connect and then the two Windows error messages pop up on the

host Vista machine.

When the upgrade has run, the first thing it did was to install an unknown

device (at first this took ages but after various tries this goes faster now

in

the pre configured folders.)

On the Vista Blog I read a suggestion that it might be an idea to try

uninstalling the upgrade (WMDC) and then boot and re-install the package. No

change. I tried then uninstalling and then installing each of two previous

upgrades I still had - one from December and one from February. No change.

When I discussed the above problems with a Windows Mobile Device Center

staff member and sent him the Event Log references for wcescomm and/or

rapimgr events and the etl logs and the full msi logs he asked whether the

machine had been booted, and whether there is anything left in my

\Windows\WindowsMobile folder after uninstalling (both) of the Windows Mobile

Device Center 6.1 entries in the program control panel applet? I replied that

I had rebooted numerous times and that there were still many files and

folders left in the WindowsMobile folder.

The staff member commented that it looks like the some of the files are

still the old (wmdc 6.0) version and that's causing the problem.

I have since manually uninstalled the remaining files in the

\Windows\WindowsMobile folder (besides those of other programs installed)

after uninstalling the package and rebooting, which I was able to. However,

the folder en-us and four main files (all version 6.1) still remained and I

was not able to delete them, even after a boot.

I have also used all the suggestions on the Windows Mobile Device Center

Troubleshooting Guide page (uninstalling the "Microsoft Windows Mobile Remote

Adapter" and ensuring that there is firewall access etc.).

I have also uninstalled (and rebooted) and then installed as administrator

(though I am the only user of this machine and administrator).

I have run out of good ideas.

It is vital for me to be able to synchronize my data for meetings etc.

Hey JJ28,

At the end of March, WMP released a hotfix on Windows Update.  This hotfix allows WMP to recognize devices using the RNDIS device driver.  I would suggest connecting your device and searching on Windows Update for a WMP hotfix.  If that doesn't work, ping me at dcinput@microsoft.com.

Jane

Updated the Notebook to Vista in March.

Installed WMDC 6.0.

My imate Pocket PC (WM2003) still synced to Office 2003 Outlook OK.

However . . . the latest update of WMDC to 6.1 last week has completely wiped my PDA contacts and calendar. I can browse the contents but get Sync Failed if I try to sync.

I've deleted partnerships, checked all the forums . . . I've tried everything I can think of.  HELP PLEASE

Stretch

Hey Stretch,

I need more information to help you troubleshoot.  We need all the logs located here: %windir%\system32\logfiles\windowsmobile.  You can email dcinput@microsoft.com with your logs and a description of your problem.

Thanks,

Jane

A user reported on 20 June

"I just installed WMDC 6.0 (on vista home) to sync my treo 700w to outlook 2002 (that came with my treo) I'm able to sync but every time I open outlook since then I'm getting that annoying message "A program is trying to access e-mail addresses you have stored in Outlook. Do you want to allow this?" then I can click yes - allow for ten minutes - or no but I have to click it hundred of times until it goes away and sometimes I am lucky that can I click yes just a few times.

I tried almost everything but nothing helped, I even tried to create a new profile then I didn’t got the message but then I was unable to sync. I googled around for 2 days with no luck I hope you can help me...

"

This exactly describes my problem, except it's not my trio I'm trying to sync but my Dell Axim PC2003, and my Dell Notebook. I keep getting that warning message, and I have to click it hundred of times to make it go away.

Colm

I have the same issue with my Axim x50 PC2002 and outlook 2002. I get the message "A program is trying to access e-mail addresses you have stored in Outlook. Do you want to allow this?"

I can click yes - allow for ten minutes - or no but I have to click it hundred of times until it goes away. But now I have a added problem with this after I click yes it tells me "Outlook has stopped working" and closes outlook. I now cannot use outlook 2002.

Please help!!

Thanks

Kerry

I have had the biggest headache with winvista! please help!

My device is a hphw6915. I am able to synch with WMDC 6.1 fine and it says connected. When i set it up i ensured all boxes for the outlook03 items where ticked but it hasnt seemed to synch anything.

With winxp everything was fine and it synched beautifully with my outlook03 items which are on an exchange platform.

now, i cant get my emails, calender or contact in synch at all!

its deff not my pda as it still works fine with xp on other pcs. i must conclude that it is at the fault of the winvista WMDC. please help!

thanks

My windows mobile 5 phone will not sync calendar with my new vista laptop running outlook 2003.

attempting a sync crashes outlook. contacts, tasks, notes all sync fine but not calenar.

Ideas anyone?

Mayth,

Can you try recreating the partnership?

Jane

Mike13205,

Can you try rebooting and see if that helps.  Also, do not open the Outlook application while syncing.  Maybe that will help.

Jane

Howdy folks...

I am a Windows CE fan. I started with VELO 1 and ever since, I have used all of the versions of this OS.

After upgrading to Vista/WMDC/Office 2007 my nightmares started... Sync status bar gets stuck somewhere between 50% and 90%. After at least 3 hours of waiting (I patiently left it syncing more than once to make sure it was not a temporary issue) I decide to "pull the (USB) plug". THe devices becomes sloooooow. I then do a soft reset. The device no longer goes beyond the third splash screen (usually the Windows Mobile one, either it is a WM5 or WM6 device). Only a hard reset solves the problem.

I have 3 WM devices, plus an extra one that doesn’t count:

  1 x  iMate PDAL (WM 5)

  1 x Qtek 9100 (WM 5)

  1 x HTC Touch (WM 6).

  1 x Qtek S200 (WM 5) – wife’s device. According to her, I have to stay 100 yards away from it, LOL. She only syncs it at work with Exchange and Office 2003.

Also, I have about 700 Calendar entries and 500 Contacts. I do not assume it is way too much data.

Here is what I have tried so far...

1) Uninstalled and re-installed WMDC

2) Turned off OneCare Firewall, also allowed access to WMDC to firewall

3) Soft restart and hard restart of phone

Repaired all .PST files that Outlook is using Scanpst.exe

4) Used the Outlook 2007 Diagnosis tool, found no errors.

5) Disabled Advanced Network Functionality in Phone USB to PC settings

6) Removed partnerships and created new partnerships with WMDC several times

7) When I turn off all sync options it works perfectly (Duh!)

NOTHING WORKS FOR ME...

Then I started to do some crazy stuff in order to see if the spell would leave my devices’ souls alone:

1) Started a blank PST file and renamed the existing ones to ORI_xxxx.pst

2) Let the first sync succeed

3) Copied/Pasted the contacts from the ORI file to the blank one (by opening a PST file under Files/Open)

4) Waited until the Connected status showed up after Syncing

6) Changed the Calendar view to All events and sorted by name

6) Started copying blocks of 50 entries a time. Believe it or not, it works up until 90%, when it finally crashes and I have to start over. As I mentioned before, I have about 700 entries in my Calendar.

7) I have also tried, with no success, to get the device to first sync to the Exchange, delete the exchange partnership and then sync to a blank PST, after setting “Device Overwrites PC” on  WMDC.

Preliminary conclusions:

1) I cannot start a PST with both Calendar and Contacts entries together. I need to first sync Contacts and then Calendar (few at a time). Even though, before I complete 100% my sync hangs again…

2) Sync never completes if I am working with a "populated" PST file.

3) Sync goes well when my PST files are empty. (Duh! Again…)

4) Sync goes well when I copy/paste all my contacts from a backup PST file to the currently used one (initially empty).

5) When I copy, say, 50 calendar items a time, from the same backup PST file to the "production" one, sync stops when ~90% of the work is done and says "Syncing" forever.

6) When I unplug the USB cord before the sync status goes to “Connected” on WMDC 6.1, the devices response to commands become veeeeery sloooooooow. I do a soft reset. The device locks on the third splash screen (the one with the Windows Mobile logo). Then, only a hard reset will help.

The exact same behavior happens on all three devices.

Curiously, if I sync the devices to my exchange Mail2Web account, they work perfectly. All of them get all the contacts and calendar data and sync takes no longer than 4 minutes.

Extra Info:

1) I have a notebook and a desktop running Vista Ultimate and Office 2007.

2) Both Vistas are Ultimate running a language pack for BR_PT (Brazilian Portuguese). My desktop is running Office 2007 Home & Student + Outlook 2007 standalone (with SLP for BR_PT). My notebook is running Office Standard 2007 in Portuguese.

3) I have been nagging iMate on this for about 4 months now, because I did not want to buy the HTC Touch, but wait on the WM6 ROM to go out. They say it is a known issue between WM5, Vista and Office 2007 and that they are working on it. But, I honestly doubt it. Especially because I am experiencing the same with a native WM6.

As you can see, I have been toasting neurons on this for quite some time…

QUESTION:

Is there a way of activating either a trace file or log for evaluating what is going on? :-)

-Feaps

Hello,

I have a problem synchronizing my Vista Home Premium notebook running WMDC 6.1 with my HP ipaq hx4700 running Windows Mobile 2003 2nd edition.

The set-up works great, but it does not synchronize all the contents I want it to. I have a personal folder in Outlook which contains email, contacts, calender, etc. and an Exchange folder which contains different email, contacts and calender data. WMDC only synchoronizes the exchange folder, but not my local personal folder. I tried adjusting the sync content, but it does not even give me an option to select different folders/files to sync. Does anyone have a solution? Thanks!

referring to my earlier post on sync problems, rebooting and not starting outlook does not help.

currently at every sync I get a crash report on outlook. (I don't use outlook anymore other than to keep my contacts backed up.

(too bad Microsoft windows live and outlook teams can't share their contacts since I use windows live mail now.)

I am running Vista and trying to sync a T-Mobile Vario II. Has been working fine until recently. Sync Center reports - Last sync successful and I receive no error messages and all seems well. However, nothing does actually sync...eg add a new contact on desktop - sync runs - all appears fine - no new contact on phone. Can anyone help?

Hey nick,  thanks for the info this place offers, it is nice and it is exciting to hear about new ways to use Vista. You answered a point earlier about Sync and vista native apps.  It is not fair to tell someone that just spent a lot of money on a version of vista that they have to pay for an extra application to do something that operating systems like OSX do beautifully natively.  We struggle to understand why anyone thought it would be a good idea to take away sync from Vista's calendar and contacts, why bother with them,? what is the use of those applications if I can't sync them with my devices or even with my online contacts in Live mail? (you would expect at least THAT) at the moment you have to use outlook for sync with your ppc, Windows live mail desktop to sync with your online contacts and pray to God you remember which is which. c'mon guys, simplicity, out of the box experience, common sense! it is a shame and to simply reply it is something that you are looking for future releases makes us wonder about how well was Vista thought out and if MS is at all interested in making my life easier or making me buy Outlook, maybe you can shed some light of why such a monumentally silly decision was made?

I just simply cannot sync my smartphone to WMDC. I have a Samsung Blackjack smartphone, model SGH-i321n, which is the Brazilian equivalent of the i320 with minor changes. I have a Windows Vista Home Premium running on a HP Pavillion notebook. I downloaded WMDC 6.1, installed it on my computer easily, but when I try to set up my device, I get an error message saying "WMDC encountered a user-defined breakpoint" and I am forced to close the program. Besides that, Vista recognizes my phone as a i320, not a 1321n. On some occasions it doesn't even recongize the phone at all. I can connect and access the smartphone folders and files but withtout establishing any kind of partnership or synching. I can't install programs or anything.

When the message first apeeared, there was also an option to "debug". But I clicked on it, nothing happenned and the icon disapeeared, remaining only the "close program" option.

I searched the net for some help on this but found nothing. Only one similar complaint with no solution given.

I would appreciate to get some assistance on this one. It's amazing how Vista just keeps giving users problems with its successive errors and annoying incompatibilities.

Tks,

GWMR

Have a feeling this is going to start getting repetitive but...

I have a casiopeia ppc2002 device that will not sync with my outlook 2003 under Vista yet works perfectly under Vista. My pocketpc is perfect for my needs and i am totally happy with it.  Yet now in one fail swoop it's pretty much unusable.

When i purchased my new pc with the OS preinstalled i had a choice of XP or Vista.  I was hesitant about selecting Vista but at the same time quite excited to try out the new OS.  Just to be safe i used all the Vista advisor tools etc available from Dell and Microsoft, pda plugged in and synced plus all my other hardware.  The message i received from the MS advisor tool was that my version of activesync needed to be upgraded.  Nothing else - no 'the pda will not work under Vista' 'your pocktpc 2002 device is not compatible with Vista '  - why did it say you must upgrade activesync when there is no version of activesync that works with Vista?  Why didn't it say 'there is no version of activesync that is supported by Vista and your pocketpc device will not work'  if i had been given that accurate and honest info i would have selected to stay with XP and been a happy user of MS products.  Now i'm stuck with a lame duck.  I shouldn't have to go out and purchase a new £200 pda, especially considering the fact that the MS vista advisor tool didn't flag this as a problem.

Is it really possible that with all Microsoft's resources that it is too difficult or too much effort to make Vista compatible with earlier pda devices?

here's an interesting quote from a bbc report

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6407419.stm

-----------------------------------------------

A top Microsoft executive, who does not want to be quoted by name, tells me that "the refresh rate on [mobile] devices is typically 18 months, from our research - hence the view that most Pocket PC 2002 devices would no longer be in use.

"Our view (which may be incorrect) is that those people using the latest Desktop [operating system] would potentially also be using later devices as well."

Well, I have a surprise for Microsoft: They are wrong, not least judging from the discussions on various forums I've been to while hunting for a solution.

While Microsoft leaves me out in the cold, Dell is no help either.

Delving into a Dell support forum, I realise the company practises tough love. Very briefly, a couple of years ago, Dell offered X5 customers an upgrade to Pocket PC 2003. Not anymore.

So I can either throw away my Axim and invest another £200 or £300 (for a PDA and webcam), or roll back to XP and wave Vista goodbye.

----------------------------------------------

Couldn't say it better myself.

The only thing i am glad about is that Vista was preinstalled, i did actually consider purchasing it in a shop!  And so far i've managed to save 3 people from buying Vista and having the same problems.

It' also stopped my purchase of Office 2007.  What are my lines of thought at the moment?

Do i really need office2007?  it doesn't work with my pda?  Might give Openoffice a try?  actually while i'm about it perhaps there is some open source software that can sync with my pds?  How's Sunbird, Lightning, thunderbird looking these days?  Wonder if there is any 3rd party software that can sync my pda with those apps?  Might give linux another dabble?

is this the way that MS wants to push people?  I've dumped my plans to purchase office 2007 and planning to use open souce apps and maybe Linux.

Crazy situation.

Well we all have sad tales to tell, mine is no different.  My Treo600 would not work with my new DELL Laptop with Vista.  I went out and bought a new Treo700wx and found my Windows Mail, Calendar and Contacts will not sync with WMDC.  I have now purchased Outlook 2007 (another 162.87) and still cannot sync.  I am about 23 hours of my time trying to get this to work.  

Microsoft Support replied to my email telling me to contact Palm support.  They of course send me back to Microsoft.  

I keep getting a sync error "http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=72544" that goes no where.

I really do not want to go back to XP, but Vista is not ready for the plug and play user.

Vista is a money pit!

I noticed that suddenly there is little feedback from the MS folks in this blog about the complaints.  Look, they are happening, you guys seem to have gotten many things wrong with Vista (don't even start defending yourselves, let me point to the length of time it took to get Vista out and that the Vista we have is not the original code you worked on because MS could not hack it in time). Don't give us lame corporate lines, talk to us, we are the ones paying for Vista, treat us intelligently and engage us in conversation, these are real issues for us, we don't have bottomless pockets you know.

Hi diabulos ,

This is actually an old blog posting.  There is another blog posting announcing Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1. If you need troubleshooting help, please email dcinput@microsoft.com with your situation.  It can be difficult to troubleshoot on the blog forums.  One on one troubleshooting is much easier.  

Thanks,

Jane

Hey diabulos:  I read every comment posted to every entry in this blog; when it comes to WMDC, that's a client handled by a differnt part of MS, outside Windows.  That's not an excuse, just a fact that means there is another measure of coordination involved in fielding feedback.  I work with them to ensure they're getting customer feedback from comments left here, and will check with them to see if there's anything more they can do to help the users who've posted questions recently.  Do note the [dcinput@microsoft.com] address that Jane has mentioned in other responses.

I fixed the problem problems I was experiancing with WMDC 6.1 and am now

running with WMDC Version 6.0, which runs flawlessly.

Since I installed the the Windows Mobile Device Centre 6.1 update the well

functioning connectivity with my Dell Axim X51 (with WM5) was destroyed and I

got two error messages - one that svchost.exe has closed down and one that

the Windows mobile 2003 based devices service had closed down. These events

occurred when I tried to connect the device in its USB cradle.

When the upgrade ran, the first thing it did was to install an unknown

device (at first this took ages but after various tries this goes faster now

in

the preconfigured folders.)

On a Vista Blog I read a suggestion that it might be an idea to try

uninstalling the upgrade (WMDC) and the boot and re-install the package. I

tried this many times and there was No change. I tried then uninstalling and

then installing each of two previous upgrades I still had - one from December

and one from February. No change.

I had been using my Dell Axim on XP and on Vista since the betas and RCs and

now have the commercial Ultimate Vista. There have been issues along the way

with various versions of the OS – mainly that there was never an automatic

upgrade when these were available and needed ( you had to hunt for them or

find references to them on blogs and newsgroups).

Several months went by......

I was getting very frustrated by these lengthy problems and tried:

1. every possible combination of uninstalling and reinstalling either the

6.1 Driver Update or the Device Center etc. etc. and have tried going back to

version 6.0, which had worked fine, to no avail.

2. I tried establishing a new Administrator account and tried installing the

version 6.1 updates there - to no avail.

3. I observe that the C:\Windows\WindowsMobile folder is populated with a

number of files and one folder ([en-US]) that I cannot remove. These are all

owned by Windows Trusted Installer. I try finding a way of taking ownership

of these files/folders to remove them - to no avail.

4. After backing up my PIM data to the SD card, a hard boot of my Dell Axim

Device and a re-install of WM5. While it was  time

consuming to re-establish my settings, it had no influence on my ability to

sync. I attempted a re-install of WMDC Version 6.1 without luck.

5. I uninstalled my Belkin Bluetooth F8T009 dongle as that seemed to be

having problems as the PDA started with Bluetooth running ( I

don't use the Bluetooth). I suddenly could delete some of the locked files

in the Windows Mobil folder. I attempted a re-install of WMDC

Version 6.1 without luck.

But, this is what worked:

I found a program named Unlocker 1.8.5 at

http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

which gave me the ability to unlock

and delete the locked files in the Windows Mobil folder. After doing

so I now attempted to re-install the WMDC Version 6.0, still available on

the Microsoft website, which had worked fine. After the usual legthy delay it

installed the "unknown device" UMBus enumerator ( why isn't this just

included?) and found Pocket PC at Windows Update and we were in business

again! [If anyone has the Belkin Bluetooth F8T009 dongle I suggest

uninstalling and reinstalling it before doing the above.]

What a relief!!!

I think I will keep using Version 6.0 for the foreseeable future! I don't

want to experience this sort of heartache again!

I have sent in a post about problems i was having with WMDC on 13 June and i was told on the 18 June to send in my ETL log files so the pro