Verizon Wireless Sync with TREO 600 - Problems
:: Thursday, August 5th, 2004 @ 3:45:44 am
:: Tags: Computers
Verizon has a new feature from Intellisync called Wireless Sync that allows wireless synchronization of various PDA devices to a Microsoft Outlook and (optionally) a bunch of external POP or IMAP e-mail accounts. This sounds really great, but what is simply RIDICULOUS is that it only works with Outlook if you are running on Exchange (which i am not). So for exchange users, you get wireless, automated synchronization of contacts, calendar, notes, tasks, and external POP/IMAP accounts.
But for those of us who use Outlook and are not on Exchange, simply installing the wireless sync product can potentially wipe out all of your organizational data, so BE CAREFUL! Installation will proceed smoothly despite lack of Exchange-ness until you try to monitor an account on your PC, which will fail with the wonderful error message: “Unable to open Outlook Address Book.”
If you use wireless sync on your TREO 600 and select “Yes” to delete current PIM data and seed from synchronization, you will lose all of your calendar information and the sync of course won’t work since there is no data coming from Outlook to Wireless Sync.
Here’s what I did to maintain PUSH e-mail syncing, manual hotsync with my non-Exchange Outlook installation, and wireless synchronization from the TREO to Verizon Wireless Sync’s web interface (but no sync’ing from the desktop PC to Wireless Sync):
- Install Verizon Wireless Sync client from VZW’s website, with no PC monitoring (a client will get installed anyway).
- Hotsync once to install Wireless Sync and Mail on your TREO
- Run Wireless Sync. When it asks you if you want to clear its data to avoid duplication of data, select NO.
- Uninstall Verizon Wireless Sync Client from PC. Turning off Wireless Sync during Hotsync may also do the trick.
- Change all of Hotsync’s Outlook conduits to synchronize by default (they will all have been turned off by Wireless Sync’s destructive install).
Now you will have the following synchronizations in effect:
- Hotsync’s Pocketmirror synchronization of contacts, calendar, notes, and todo list between Outlook and TREO
- Wireless Sync installed on handheld for synchronization of e-mail, contacts, calendar, notes, and todo list between TREO and VZW Wireless Sync website.
This is a good thing, I think.
This means that if I make a change on a contact in Outlook, it will migrate to the VZW site after I Hotsync and then initiate a Wireless Sync on my TREO.
If I make a change to an appointment on the website, it will migrate to Outlook when I Wireless Sync and then Hotsync.
Making a change on the TREO should migrate both to Outlook after a Hotsync and to the Wireless Sync website after a Wireless Sync.
New POP e-mail is checked every 15 minutes by VZW’s website, and can easily be sync’ed with my TREO. HOWEVER, I believe that this only happens when the client is installed on the PC, which would mean that only new mail delivered to an Outlook inbox using Exchange will lead to a PUSH command. If it doesn’t do it automatically, then SnapperMail is probably be a better e-mail solution.
But I’m really liking that I can easily sync all my data from Outlook to VZW’s website so I can access all of my PIM data from any web terminal. Maybe it’s all stupid and useless, though, if it doesn’t auto-sync.
Yeah. I hate technology. Why can’t all this crap just work out of the box?
UPDATE My Mail app is reporting a synchronization action at 12:15am this morning (10 minutes ago). Perhaps it checks in daily or something, because it’s also reporting 0 PUSH messages. Strange…
UPDATE With each daily synchronization, the Mail app takes over as the default button for the Mail button. Very annoying.
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Hey, lemme know how the battery life is on the 600. D had a 300, and he got rid of it because the battery life was so dismal he may as well not have had a cell phone.
Kristin - battery life is fair. I get a day’s usage out of it — checking mail a few times, browsing the web a bit, and making my normal number of calls.
I read that turning Location services to 911 Only makes the battery last longer. I made the change yesterday, and it seems to be helping.
It’s definitely a phone you have to charge every evening. My old phone (LG VX6000) had great battery life, and I definitely miss it.
I’m not sure what you think about the Treo 600 camera, but seeing your photography, I bet that you don’t care too much for it. Check out this site, a gallery of surprisingly good photos taken with a Treo 600. http://www.wireless-doc.com/treoportfolio.htm
Jon
what is this about Location services set to 911?!?!? huh? Email me with details!!
PC Monitor is a component of the wireless sync service and is only compatible with Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Domino monitoring. It works very much like the Blackberry Redirector. Requirements are Win2k and later OS. On registering with the wirelesssync.vzw.com website, you have some options and if you are just setting up POP3 or IMAP email, you will need to select the third option, ‘Do not install the Monitor software on this PC’ and it will not install. Check the checkbox under the Internet-Based email monitor setup labelled ‘Configure an Internet-based email account’, do not check the box labelled ‘I also want to monitor an Internet-based POP3/IMAP email account’.
Currently, the intellisync software does wipe out the hotsync/outlook conduit settings but we are currently working on a solution and this work around will work.
thanks, vzw tech. that sounds like a better solution. but then the push still doesn’t happen, correct? it will only check when you ask it to, or… once a day? (I had mine checking randomly around midnight each day).
by the way, it’s cool that you found my site and actually responded. that’s service for ya. :)
Of course, the whole reason I upgraded to a smartphone was because the sales guy told me I could use wireless sync to sync with any PC that runs Outlook. I’m not really happy to find it doesn’t actually work that way.
Just found your website after doing a websearch on vivisimo.com for wirelesssyncing. Let me just say that I am a novice when it comes to technology, but I recently purchased my Treo 600 and am currently syncing through verizon’s wirelesssync website. The biggest disappointment I have is with updating contact information. I hate having to do double entry of contact information, appointments, etc. such as you do. Is there anyway I can contact you via phone to have you assist me to make sure I am doing what your message above says I should be doing.
I look forward to your response.
Regards,
Hal Conditt
Nashville, TN
echeng,
you should be getting updates regularly, not just once a day. if not, you must have done something wrong. if anything, you should at least be syncing when intellisync checks your pop server for updates and sees that you have new email. if you are confused by all this, back up your info, perform a hard reset. go to the wireless sync website, remove the device from the “configure account” page and then readd the sync device, but make sure you do a hotsync twice after pressing “finish” on the install shield wizard, just to make sure the program got installed on your treo. and PLEASE people, when it asks you to “refresh” or “merge” ALWAYS, AND I MEAN ALWAYS SELECT “MERGE”!!!! if not, than you will lose all your info and we don’t want to do that, do we.
if none of this makes sense, then call the WDTS group. they have their own number but i don’t remember it at this moment. or you can just call customer service and tell them you need the “WDTS”.
kevin,
what do you mean, “ANY” computer?!!! that’s just CRAZY! are you even on an exchange server?!! and if so, you can ONLY sync with your local machine. that’s why you must leave your machine on for it to be able to sync to outlook without being connected. yes, when on a domino or exchange server, you can sync your PIM info to your treo without actually hotsyncing which is one of the benefits of this software. the drawback, of course, is having to leave your machine on all the time, but you have to do that with most devices that you monitor your exchange or domino servers. this is where PC monitor MUST be installed. you don’t need it if you are using a POP3 account because you are obviously not using an Exchange or Lotus server. the drawback is that the only way to sync info to your outlook software is by actually doing a hotsync but that’s not the point of wireless sync. i think it’s more of an insurance policy. if you are out in town and make a new business contact or make a new appointment in your calendar and something happens to your treo, you always have it on the intellisync server and then when you get that replacement device, you can do a wireless sync and bring that info to your treo and then subsequently put it back in your outlook application.
i don’t know what you were thinking by “syncing with any PC” but that just plain sounds totally like a compromising of security if it were to allow you to do that on “any” PC. you may have meant something else so if i read you wrong, please elaborate.
hal,
how are you entering your contact info twice? you should definitely call the tech support line ASAP because it sounds like a simple configuration is out of wack. if you are using outlook, check your pocket mirror settings and make sure that’s all correct. if you are using the palm desktop software, right click on the hotsync application in your system tray and select “custom”. then make sure all that is good to go. if none of this makes sense, call the tech support for VZW. they are open 24/7 and i’m sure they can fix this with no problem.
seriously, guys, call the technical support line for VZW. when this software was first launched, it was a learning lesson for both the tech support and the customers but this software is so “old” now that everything you guys are experiencing can easily be “fixed”.
The problem I have seen (using Wireless sync with a Samsung) is that a) it doesn’t sync with calendar and contacts on the exchange server, only from the local Calendar and Contacts folder (as told to me by VZW TS). So it only does one facet of Exchange syncing. B) the push email is unreliable. Sometimes I get stuff, sometimes I don’t. No pattern I can see. C) I can’t set the sync settings in a customizable way- sync only Email but not contacts (then I could use activesync for contacts).
Why is there no manual for this?
eric, i just wasted a week with the same problem of wireless sync not supporting a non exchange backend. My back end is oracle collab suite with an outlook client. However, when I hit hotsync and wireless sync was enbedded in the hotsync and it worked. Is this approach sustainable for you, it keeps working?
Feh. I gave up, and just use POP mail.
Final update: I gave up on the TREO altogether.
I recieve a lot of junk email even with spam filter. Is their any way to do a mass delete rather than 25 items at a time? Thanks in advance!– Art