BS won't stop synching with Outlook

If BirdieSync 1.x constantly replaces your girlfriend's phone number with your mother's one, this forum is for you...
Post Reply
ChairMonkey
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2009 9:15 pm

BS won't stop synching with Outlook

Post by ChairMonkey »

I use Vista and a Moto Q phone. I've been syncing to Outlook for email, contacts and calendar with no issues. However, I'm totally fed up with Outlook and switched to a combo of Thunderbird/Lightning. I now want to get my phone to sync too, so I installed BS.

For installation: I ran the backup utility (PPCPimBackup) and saved my phone's data. I then connected the phone via USB. I went through installation for BS until I got to the step that says to open Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC) and unselect all the items i previously sync'd with Outlook (in other words, deselect everything). Theoretically, this would cancel the connection between Outlook and my phone. The next step of the BS installation 'wizard' says to do the opposite of what i just did! In other words, it tells me to re-open WMDC and re-select everything. What? Ok..I'll follow directions and see where it takes me. To skip to the end of this process: my phone still wants to sync with Outlook, not Thundebird/Lightning.

So, i started over. I uninstalled BS from the phone and from the computer. I went to WMDC and unchecked all the items that were sync'ing. I then removed the relationship between my phone and my computer. In this process, my phone even wiped out all its data too (which is ok with me since I just finished backing up all that data in the step above). So, at this point, I have a phone that has no data, and my phone has zero relationship with the computer, and the computer has no Birdie installed, nor does the phone. So, its a fresh clean slate.

I start over: install birdie, following the install directions. Again, I'm perplexed by two steps in the process that are directly contradictory (in WMDC I'm unchecking all items to sync in one step, followed by going to WMDC and rechecking them all...wtf?). I then perform a sync to establish a relationship between the phone and the computer. I then go to the phone and re-instate the backed up data so it has the right info. I then go to Lighting and create a calendar event called 'test'. So now, my phone has its full calendar (of the real calendar) and Lightning has only one calendar event called 'test'. I then perform a sync. The result is that my phone is still syncing its calendar and contacts to Outlook (althoguh I'm not sure how). The 'test' I put in Lightning doesn't show on the phone's calendar.

In other words, my phone is stuck talking to Outlook. The install wizard for Birdie has a step to fix this, but it contradicts itself and I'm not sure how to get around it. I've spent the last 24 hours (not including 5 hours of sleep) working on this and am at my whit's end :x . Any help you can give would be great. And please be explicit on your advice...thanks to anyone who can help!

Birdy
Site Admin
Posts: 3118
Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2006 11:43 am
Contact:

Re: BS won't stop synching with Outlook

Post by Birdy »

Hello ChairMonkey,

I'm sorry you spent so much time on this.
I went through installation for BS until I got to the step that says to open Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC) and unselect all the items i previously sync'd with Outlook (in other words, deselect everything). Theoretically, this would cancel the connection between Outlook and my phone. The next step of the BS installation 'wizard' says to do the opposite of what i just did! In other words, it tells me to re-open WMDC and re-select everything.
Actually, during the installation, the selection of categories to be synchronized is split in 2 screens.
The first one regards Outlook. It is written: "You must unselect OUTLOOK Contact, Calendar, Tasks and E-mail categories to avoid getting unresolved items during the synchronization".
Then the second screen regards BirdieSync. It is asked to select BirdieSync categories (Cards, Events, Tasks and Mails which are different from Outlook ones). There is no mention of Outlook categories. You should keep them unselected.
So BirdieSync asks you in the first screen to unselect Outlook categories (Contacts, Calendars, Tasks and E-mails) and in the second screen to select BirdieSync categories instead (Cards, Events, Tasks and Mails).

Note that if you unselect Outlook categories again, the WMDC will erase your data on your phone (as it did previously).
So I suggest you to read this FAQ topic.
Birdy

ChairMonkey
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2009 9:15 pm

Re: BS won't stop synching with Outlook

Post by ChairMonkey »

I think the install wizard could be more specific to better define what you just said. It wouldn't take more than a few specific words to make the point clearer (i.e., some options are outlook specific and some are not). But now on to the good news.

First, I uninstalled everything, removed the connection between WMDC and my phone and started over from scratch (following my steps detailed above). I then reinstalled everything, following all instructions, including what you said above. The problem now is that WMDC wouldn't sync to the phone. In my 'Sync Center', the status of the sync process was "Sync failed".

On my phone, I saw a popup that said:
"XYZ email did not sync because it is not set up on the mobile device. You must setup the email account on the mobile device for the emails to synchronize" (or something to that effect, I'm paraphrasing).

Keep in mind that I asked WMDC to sync 'Mails' between my phone and 4 different email addresses in Thunderbird. So, I went into the phone and set up all 4 email addresses. I then did the 'sync' again...and it worked! The gist is this: if you set up "Mails" to sync, you must FIRST manually set up the email address accounts on your phone for the sync to work AT ALL (including calendars, tasks, etc.). IMO, this too should be made clear in the install/setup wizard.

Post Reply