Before raising an S.O.S. on this thing, I'm hoping to get support from those of the PDAforum, who are true to its PDA roots, or at least who see PDA functionality, first and foremost, as THE criterion for buying a cell phone. This may be my own epiphany over why I should have avoided Windows Mobile as a viable PDA product.

Right now, my Outlook Notes on my PC are corrupt, I've backed up the .pst and deleted the contents of the corrupt folder. I need to set the PPC to over-ride the PC and repopulate the Notes strictly from the PPC. Sounds simple? It would be in Palm. If I connect over USB, I expect my freshest copy of PPC notes will be wiped out.

ActiveSync will take place the moment I reconnect the device. I can't access PC settings for the process w/o the PPC connected. If I connect, do I immediately 'stop' the sync? How do I get it to permanently sync over USB only when instructed. Not possible? OK, never mind that. It seems like every two minutes, or less, Activesync will auto-launch when the PPC is tethered, making software navigation to get the connection settings established, a frantic race.

I go to an MS Activesync support forum and see "unchecking the Settings>Connections>USB to PC>use advanced network" is a popular fix to version 4.5 (Our HTC Diamond) problems, yet all there is within my ActiveSync interface is File/Connection Settings and this box does not feature anything about 'advanced network', or even the 'USB to PC' interface. I remember once finding something about USB to PC settings, PC to PPC, etc, but that was only when the device is free to torch itself on the USB tether. Sort of a shoot first, fix later, way of managing data if I'm not misstaken.

Help, or please, just bitchslap me if you think another PDA would have been wise.

__________________
15 years, 2 phones: Motorola DPC550, Samsung SPH i500

see attached image. you uncheck the usb connection and ASync will not connect. you can choose to use BT to sync as well.. which is what i use.

you can also set the time when ASync auto fetches... you can set it to auto or manual sync...

Attached Thumbnails

 

thanks, however "manual" isn't the case considering as soon as one messes with the settings, such as 'replace item on desktop', the sync still occurs automatically once you click OK. This happened to me even with 'internet' selected instead of 'automatic'.

But I'm grateful you posted this because at least I got a chance to set the PPC as the winning device when a conflict occurs. Honestly, I wasn't sure if ActiveSync would still have deleted the PPC notes, since deleting notes on the desktop isn't an activity it should see 'conflict' in carrying out. -Know what I mean?

__________________
15 years, 2 phones: Motorola DPC550, Samsung SPH i500

im not sure what you have happening on your computer, but if i have Async set to manual sync, it will not sync unless i manually click the button. again if you uncheck USB connection and plug up your device, ASync will NOT start sync since you unchecked the USB option.

again, manual sync will not let Async automatically update.... i would recheck your connections...

Just a follow up. I've since learned ActiveSync does not "torch" notes on the handheld once they've been wiped off the desktop.

For others, here's a problem / solution: It may be unique to the Diamond's way of opening a 'draw' note when your cheek hits the screen.

My sync crashes have never happened without 'Draw' notes polluting the others. All my others are qwerty. The icon for a 'Draw' note is yellow.

So, I've been:
-Exporting notes and backing them up as .pst on desktop (See Outlook PST)
-deleting ALL notes from Outlook
-deleting ALL notes from PPC via exploring through ActiveSync
-then checking the PPC, itself, to be sure ALL notes are gone
-deleting any, by using the PPC, if they remain
-Importing / restoring the .pst on the desktop
-then, editing the desktop notes free of duplicates (often, all 150 will get duped with a '(1)' suffix)
-deleting any 'Draw' notes
-plug in the PPC and it will pull in the new batch

My notes aren't big and they aren't anything notepad couldn't do. The above has saved me every time the HTC sync has failed, so far. YMMV. Beware and rename your pst backups with a date stamp, since they don't overwrite old ones and are cumulative unless a new file is created (I was reintroducing problems until I figured this out).

If anyone knows how to get the phone notes to default to qwerty, please chime in. My regular notes already default that way.

__________________
15 years, 2 phones: Motorola DPC550, Samsung SPH i500

This is one area that I really have a problem with in Windows Mobile when compared with PalmOS. Over 10 YEARS ago, PalmOS debuted with a simple but great system for taking notes and memos. It was FAST and efficient and did the job (the only "big" problem was that it was limited to 4kb notes). Perhaps most brilliantly, it was coupled with the system's GlobalFind function so you could find a "string" in a pile of memos (or other files, emails, contacts, appts, etc) VERY VERY FAST, *and* be plopped right into the correct file *and* app (e.g. into the relevant memo and memo app).

Here it is over 10 years later and WM *still* doesn't have a comparable feature. The WM notes system is SLOW, SLOW. It doesn't even have a simple FIND function. And the system SEARCH program is SLOW, SLOW, SLOW (running through 100 notes takes MINUTES) and the best it can do is tell you which note has the hit... it cannot tell you WHERE in the note (nor can the note app tell you where either). ITS TERRIBLE...

The best substitute I've found so far, which is not great but better than nothing, is a simple, freeware program that is no longer supported, called TOMBO. It does maintain a set of text files (good so that you can freely move content around as simple ASCII text) and it does have a global find function that will plop you into the right file at the point of the search hit. But its pathetic that the WM world or MS can't even match this most basic function in PalmOS, maintain an efficient, fast, streamlined system of notes/memos...