All PIM info deleted after Syncing

[herrlip2000]

Hi guys,

Can you help me?

I synced my T-mobile Vario 3 for the very first time with Outlook 2003 on Windows XP. Done the usual install and plugged in device. The sync wizard appeared and ticked all PIM info contacts calendar ect ect - it stated that all was synced and connected. Went into outlook and no info was there. Disconnected and checked the partnership on the phone and noticed only files were ticked as an option to sync. Re-plugged the device into the PC and said syncing and it wiped my device of all my contacts and calendar entries. Its like the partnership removed options from the phone partnership after first contact was made and when I disconnected contacts and calendar became unticked in the options and second connection deleted them off the device. I see this happening with WM6 devices, this is happening quite regular on my friends MDA touch plus. Any ideas on this guys?

[bapssystupr3m3]

hmm did u do a pimbackup on ur phone before syncing? cuz if u did u can always restore it back to ur phone...and outlook shouldnt delete any contacts...play around with the settings

[ryncppr]

The settings on activesync are defaulted to put whatever you have on your computer onto the device.

I use Vista so its a little different, but you need to go into settings and make sure you have activecsync to replace items on the computer and not on the device.

[herrlip2000]

Thing is there wasnt anything on the PC to begin with, its like the partnership that was set on the wizard didnt take because when I disconnected the device and checked the partnership on the device after I lost everything Contacts and Calender and tasks changed from ticked to unticked on its own. So when I reconnected it wiped the details off the device because they were unticked as this is what happens if you untick an option in the partnership and re-sync. However i never unticked these, it happened on its own, decided to replicate and it happened again tonight.

[branko.savic]

Thing is there wasnt anything on the PC to begin with, its like the partnership that was set on the wizard didnt take because when I disconnected the device and checked the partnership on the device after I lost everything Contacts and Calender and tasks changed from ticked to unticked on its own. So when I reconnected it wiped the details off the device because they were unticked as this is what happens if you untick an option in the partnership and re-sync. However i never unticked these, it happened on its own, decided to replicate and it happened again tonight.

And that is why I never use outlook!
Next time, before experimenting with anything make sure you copy the "pim.vol" file located in the root directory of your device, that is the file that contains all your contact and calendar info!

Then if something like this happends again you can just copy the file back to the device and do a soft reset, and all your contacts and calendar info will be back!

Also the file is only about 3 to 400 kb so it is really no sweat to copy!

[herrlip2000]

Thing is there wasnt anything on the PC to begin with, its like the partnership that was set on the wizard didnt take because when I disconnected the device and checked the partnership on the device after I lost everything Contacts and Calender and tasks changed from ticked to unticked on its own. So when I reconnected it wiped the details off the device because they were unticked as this is what happens if you untick an option in the partnership and re-sync. However i never unticked these, it happened on its own, decided to replicate and it happened again tonight.

[herrlip2000]

And that is why I never use outlook!
Next time, before experimenting with anything make sure you copy the "pim.vol" file located in the root directory of your device, that is the file that contains all your contact and calendar info!

Then if something like this happends again you can just copy the file back to the device and do a soft reset, and all your contacts and calendar info will be back!

Also the file is only about 3 to 400 kb so it is really no sweat to copy!

Thats a great idea - I didnt think of that - are tasks part of this file also? One other thing - Do I copy the pim.vol file onto the PC or put it somewhere else on the device such as documents folder on the MDA?

[branko.savic]

Thats a great idea - I didnt think of that - are tasks part of this file also? One other thing - Do I copy the pim.vol file onto the PC or put it somewhere else on the device such as documents folder on the MDA?


I am not sure if the tasks are a part of that file, have to test that first :-)

To be sure I would recomend you to save at least one copy of the "pim.vol" file to your PC, that way if something should happend to your device you still have it!

Also, you can copy the file to other wm5 and wm6 devices and get all your contacts to that device too!

It is a much quicker way of transfering contacts to othe devices then to copy one contact at time! And all your contact pictures is imbeded in the "pim.vol" file, so you will still have the contact pics without having to copy the pics too!

[herrlip2000]

Mmmmm... Just tried that - Went to Start>File Explorer>My device seen a file called pim without a file ext around 648k it allowed me to copy it to my documents on the device - then tried to replace it after deleting all contacts off for an experiment and got the following error when trying to copy the pim file back to where it was. Cannot copy pim access is denied - Be certain that there is enough free storage memory, that the destination is not write protected or not in use.

Any ideas?

Cheers

[branko.savic]

Mmmmm... Just tried that - Went to Start>File Explorer>My device seen a file called pim without a file ext around 648k it allowed me to copy it to my documents on the device - then tried to replace it after deleting all contacts off for an experiment and got the following error when trying to copy the pim file back to where it was. Cannot copy pim access is denied - Be certain that there is enough free storage memory, that the destination is not write protected or not in use.

Any ideas?

Cheers

Oh yes, that will happend becouse windows is using the file!
What you need to do is to simply rename the "pim" file to something else, let´s say "pim1" then you can try it again!

Remember that you have to reboot your device before you can see the contacts again!

[herrlip2000]

Is there anyway I can transfer that file to my PC so I can hard reset the device and then transfer it back to the PC or is my only option is to copy it to the memory card for safekeeping so I can wipe the device and then restore the file?

[branko.savic]

Is there anyway I can transfer that file to my PC so I can hard reset the device and then transfer it back to the PC or is my only option is to copy it to the memory card for safekeeping so I can wipe the device and then restore the file?

As I mentioned before you can copy the "pim.vol" file to your pc, then you will be able to restore it if you have to format your device and even copy to another device so you can have your contacts there too!

Also "pim.vol" holds all your contact pics, so you dont have to take new pics again or even copy the pics if you only use them as contact pics!

You can copy the file using activesync or if you have a card reader you can copy the file to your memory card and to the pc from there!


Hope this helps!

[herrlip2000]

Thank-you guys for all your responses - you've all been very helpful