Question: Windows Mobile & Vista (Windows Mobile Device Center)

[grivad]

Here's the situation, I need some pointers :)

I currently have my HTC Wizard partnered with my work laptop and my home PC. Work laptop is XP Pro with ActiveSync 4.2. Home PC is Vista Business with Windows Mobile Device Center.

What I'd like to set up is my Wizard to sync to Exchange through my work laptop (appointments, contacts), then for my home PC to pick up these items off the phone.

Currently, the phone is setup to sync with Exchange through my work laptop just fine, but when I take it home, it tries to connect to the Exchange server as well. I want my home PC to sync to the items on the phone locally, not from the Exchange server, when syncing with my home PC. I want the phone to pick up stuff from the Exchange server from work.

That is, ideally, the phone gets items from my Exchange server at work, then when I take it home, my home PC picks up these items and copies them locally.

Can someone please help? I'm sure this is an easy solution :)

[grivad]

Thanks for your help guys. Don't all jump in all at once.

Come on. Someone has to know how to do this. It must be simple. You can't take 30 seconds to post how this is done at least in ActiveSync 4.2 so I can figure it out in WMDC?

[frazell]

I don't have my phone setup to sync with an Exchange server nor do i have Vista so i don't know if my advice will be of any help at all...

When I hook my non-exchange partnered phone up to a PC it asks me to setup a syn partnership with that PC if i've never connected before. Seems i can do that with an unlimited number of PCs and it will copy the stuff in either direction so that they all end up synced to the same stuff.

Maybe a setup like that would work for you? Or does it only allow syncing with Exchange with an Exchange partnership?

[Avatar28]

I don't believe that what you want is possible. The phone can get email from another PC or an exchange server but it won't go the other way. Also, the phone can only set up email sync with one source. So you could sync to your exchange server OR the PC for email. What you might do is see if your employer has a way for your PC to connect to the exchange server as well. If not as an exchange server then using POP3 or IMAP (if the former, be sure to set it to leave messages on the server).

[grivad]

Good insight, thanks! Sorry to be rude earlier ;)

I'm not worried about email at this point.. all I really want is contacts and appointments.. what I'd like is for my phone to grab my contacts/meetings from work (Exchange) and sync to Windows Calendar/Contacts in Vista or locally in Outlook at home..

The contacts I care about are actually stored locally on my work machine.. I'm not too worried about getting the company directory. When I sync my phone with my work machine, it only syncs local contacts (ie: contacts that are already on my phone, my "personal" contacts), so that's good. That is, I had contacts on my phone, and it dumps them onto my work machine locally. If I edit them on my work machine, it then updates my phone. Perfect. It does this with my home PC as well, so this is good.

What I'm ultimately trying to figure out then, I suppose, is how to get my appointments from my work Exchange server to get dumped to my home PC locally, as I mentioned, in Windows Calendar or Outlook, without it trying to connect to my work Exchange server at home (meaning that I'll have to connect via VPN every time I connect my phone, ugh). That is:

Me at work: plug in phone, phone syncs appointments with Exchange, stores them locally on the phone

Me at home after work: plug in phone, WMDC notices schedules on phone that aren't stored locally, WMDC pulls them from phone and stores on my home PC in either Windows Calendar (default) or Outlook (if installed).

Is this possible?

[Avatar28]

Good insight, thanks! Sorry to be rude earlier ;)

I'm not worried about email at this point.. all I really want is contacts and appointments.. what I'd like is for my phone to grab my contacts/meetings from work (Exchange) and sync to Windows Calendar/Contacts in Vista or locally in Outlook at home..

The contacts I care about are actually stored locally on my work machine.. I'm not too worried about getting the company directory. When I sync my phone with my work machine, it only syncs local contacts (ie: contacts that are already on my phone, my "personal" contacts), so that's good. That is, I had contacts on my phone, and it dumps them onto my work machine locally. If I edit them on my work machine, it then updates my phone. Perfect. It does this with my home PC as well, so this is good.

What I'm ultimately trying to figure out then, I suppose, is how to get my appointments from my work Exchange server to get dumped to my home PC locally, as I mentioned, in Windows Calendar or Outlook, without it trying to connect to my work Exchange server at home (meaning that I'll have to connect via VPN every time I connect my phone, ugh). That is:

Me at work: plug in phone, phone syncs appointments with Exchange, stores them locally on the phone

Me at home after work: plug in phone, WMDC notices schedules on phone that aren't stored locally, WMDC pulls them from phone and stores on my home PC in either Windows Calendar (default) or Outlook (if installed).

Is this possible?

Hmm, mine does that as far as I know. I have a personal exchange acct with mail2web. Appointments seem to sync with that and my home PC. I will connect it in the morning and make sure. Only thing is that I made the appt on the PPC so it may not tell you exactly the same.

[grivad]

You know, now that I think about it, I had ActiveSync setup this way before I switched to XP -- at work it'd sync with Exchange, then at home it'd sync locally.. however, I can't remember how I set it up, and I can't seem to set it up that way in WMDC. In WMDC, I can choose to not sync with Exchange, but it keeps my Home PC grayed out so I can't select that as an option.. hmm.

[joihan777]

Hey,
You can "add" an extra account to Activesync.
That is how I got my Activesync to sync manually only, instead
of every so often without me knowing and sucking up resources.
(With only one account the connect box is greyed out)
Good Luck,
Johann