Help restoring Outlook DB (MSN Connector and Pocket PC)

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My sister got new laptop and setup MSN Outlook Connector and her Pocket
PC (actually 2 PPC's Axim (Windows Mobile 2003) and PDA Phone (WM5). It
was all working except 2 annoying problems.

1) If she hard reset the PDA and sync it's contacts would not sync the
first time, it magically became unchecked. Had to check it again and it
was ok 2nd pass.

2) Notes (not lotus notes, Outlook notes) would also get a nasty error
every time and had to remain off. Sorry I for get the error.

Then she bought a Bluetooth adapter. Had it working on Axim but could
not get PDA phone to work. She gave up, she hates it now. I know
exactly what she means bluetooth stuff never goes smooth. So now in the
process of placing with the bluetooth she ended up with duplicate
contacts.

I told her to delete all contacts on PC and sync. That was really dumb,
I don't know what I was thinking, half asleep. Anyway on the Outlook
side you can restore them, they just ended up in the deleted folder. So
we dragged them to the Contacts and they seemed ok (dupes and all).

So to clean up dupes we tried a tool called Contact Scrubber. Seemed to
clean some, but got errors on writes on others and didn't like anything
with pics attached. So she cleaned them by hand.

Now they refuse to sync. If I create a new contact on PDA or PC it will
sync. Just the old ones won't sync.

Hard reset PDA. Still won't contacts. Everything else sync's fine.

Time to use hammer on PC side. Exported entire outlook to backup.pst.
Renamed database (outlook.nst) to old_outlook.nst. Restarted Outlook
and it immediately started sync'ing with MSN and building new DB. The
few contacts in MSN still would NOT sync with PDA. New contacts would.
I tried to restore some stuff that didn't sync from MSN (like most
contacts) from the backup.pst, it accepts the file for import and then
just does nothing.

I thought this MSN Connector thing might be cuase of all trouble. So I
uninstalled it (I should have just removed the profle, never used it
before). I created and standard POP database (outlook.pst) and tried to
import and it does nothing.

Now I'm digging to reinstall Outlook MSN Connector (which apparently is
only on the MSN9 CD) so I can restore her orginal outlook.nst (which
appears to be a "Connector Profile"). She does not have a MSN
subscription but uses MSN free mail.

What a nightmare.

Why won't the backup.pst I made restore anything (ideally into seperate
folders)

Will it allow me to recreate her MSN Profile and slip the old
outlook.nst back in place (or will trip a security instance thing).

I'm at a loss how to repair this mess.

 

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Anybody?

Help

 

[Diane Poremsky]

"free" msn does not support the connector. The connector will want to create
a new file. Open the backup pst using file, open - does it contain anything?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/
Outlook 2007: http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/ol2007/

 

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Turns out my sister did have MSN subscription, free with her new DSL
service.

Anyway, I wiped EVERYTHING (Deleted Outlook Directory that has pst or
ost files and deleted all profiles) on PC and Hard Reset Phone.

Setup a Pop based Outlook profile and everything worked.

If I tried to restore Contacts from a PST export of just contacts they
would not Sync to PDA.

So I exported them to Excel and Imported and they would Sync to PDA.

Notes got no Network errors and would also sync.

Then I wiped EVERYTHING again and this time tried to setup the Outlook
Connector Profile. Everything Sync'd with MSN fine. Restored Excel
Backup of Contacts and those uploaded to MSN fine.

Hard Reset the PDA again and ALL the orginal problems are back again.

Contacts refuse to Sync.
Notes refused to Sync.
Notes (I think it's notes) Network Error.

So she has a Choice Sync PC with MSN or Sync PC with PDA she can't seem
to have both (at least under a single profile).

I also tried installing Active Sync 4.5 Beta.

Also once I used the MSN Profile the Contacts checkbox on the PDA is
Grayed out.

I could setup both Profiles (Pop and MSN Connector) but that gets too
confusing.

All I can think of is that she orginally had 2 profile and the PDA was
syncing with the Pop or Http profile and MSN was syncing with the MSN
connector.

This could also explain why she saw duplicates because I think you can
view both. Although I'm not sure.