Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 now available!

You wicked ppl, can't you add simple Windows Calendar and Windows Contacts syncing to WMDC?

Hi,

I have just acquired my first Windows Mobile 6 powered phone. I was absolutely amazed, shocked, appalled (and so on) to discover that it is not possible to synchronize my Windows Contacts (from Windows Vista) to the phone.

I simply cannot believe that this is not possible, now that I've been good and chosen the "narrow path of purity", in relation to only chosing Microsoft products. I really expected them to integrate such things for me in a smooth, transparent manner.

I do not accept the fact that I have to type every single person from my personal contacts in Vista, into the phone by hand (there's a lot of them...)

Please tell me that I've missed something!

Please, Microsoft, guide me down the path of the righteous man, I'm losing faith here!

br//

inkognito, Follow the instructions here...

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/devicecenter.mspx

Hi Brandon,

Your suggestion seems like it could be worth a shot, I'll try it out soon.

If it turns out to work, I'll consider it as a workaround for now. I hope the MS team will be able to develop the feature for the next release.

BTW: Thanks for constructive input!.

I have installed the latest version of wmdc 6.1 and I'm still not able to sync my Dash smartphone. The pc sometimes sees it and it syncs and then next time I try, it isn't even recognized as being plugged in. Are there more known issues with WMDC?

I have been using Vista with my Dell Axim X51 since Vista Beta 2. I now have the commercial Ultimate Vista.

There were problems along the way but the worst problem has now occurred when I installed the latest driver update to Windows Mobile Device Centre 6.1

I get two error messages - one that svchost.exe has closed down and one that the Windows mobile 2003 based devices service has closed down. These events occur when I try to connect the device in it's USB cradle.

When the upgrade runs, the first thing it does is install an unknown device (at first this took ages but after various tries this goes faster now in the preconfigured folders.)

All I can do now is to choose the device connection type (excluding Bluetooth) and then the whole Device Centre crashes and generates error messages when I try to connect.

Vista synced perfectly with the device prior to the upgrade.

I read the blog here and tried uninstalling the upgrade (WMDC) and booting and then re-installing. No change. I tried uninstalling and then installing each of two previous upgrades I still had - one from December and one from February. No change.

Any help available? I could send the ETL log files to dcinput@microsoft.com if someone there would receive them and look at them

Forgot to say that the Axim has WM5.

dear all,

i had just recently bought a laptop with window vista home basic, and found out the window mobile device center can't sync with my pocket pc 2002.

I know the best solution is upgrade my pocket pc, but i don't want to throw away my pocket pc 2002, anyone know how do i connect my pocket pc 2002 to window vista?

appreciate your help or any suggestion for me?

thanks in advance

Deric

I have a new sony vaio  with vista. I also sync with my microsoft mobile xda. Everything works except the notes that are on pwi files. They will not open in vista in any program. I cannot transfer this data. For some reason the title of the note transfers but not thre content. Any help please!!

My situation is this:

I have been using my my Dell Axim X51 (with WM5) on XP and then on Vista

since the betas and RCs and now have the commercial Ultimate Vista (English)

with the Danish Language Pack.

There have been issues along the way with various versions of the OS –

mainly that there was never an automatic upgrade when these were available

and needed ( you had to hunt for them or find references to them on blogs and

newsgroups). The other big headache was that it couldn't recognize Outlook

2003 for a long time.

Since I installed the latest driver update to Windows Mobile Device Centre

6.1 the longtime well functioning connectivity with my Axim was destroyed and

I get two error messages - one that svchost.exe has closed down and one that

the Windows mobile 2003 based devices service has closed down. These events

occur when I try to connect the device in its USB cradle. The Axim shows that

it is about to connect and then the two Windows error messages pop up on the

host Vista machine.

When the upgrade has run, the first thing it did was to install an unknown

device (at first this took ages but after various tries this goes faster now

in

the pre configured folders.)

On the Vista Blog I read a suggestion that it might be an idea to try

uninstalling the upgrade (WMDC) and then boot and re-install the package. No

change. I tried then uninstalling and then installing each of two previous

upgrades I still had - one from December and one from February. No change.

When I discussed the above problems with a Windows Mobile Device Center

staff member and sent him the Event Log references for wcescomm and/or

rapimgr events and the etl logs and the full msi logs he asked whether the

machine had been booted, and whether there is anything left in my

\Windows\WindowsMobile folder after uninstalling (both) of the Windows Mobile

Device Center 6.1 entries in the program control panel applet? I replied that

I had rebooted numerous times and that there were still many files and

folders left in the WindowsMobile folder.

The staff member commented that it looks like the some of the files are

still the old (wmdc 6.0) version and that's causing the problem.

I have since manually uninstalled the remaining files in the

\Windows\WindowsMobile folder (besides those of other programs installed)

after uninstalling the package and rebooting, which I was able to. However,

the folder en-us and four main files (all version 6.1) still remained and I

was not able to delete them, even after a boot.

I have also used all the suggestions on the Windows Mobile Device Center

Troubleshooting Guide page (uninstalling the "Microsoft Windows Mobile Remote

Adapter" and ensuring that there is firewall access etc.).

I have also uninstalled (and rebooted) and then installed as administrator

(though I am the only user of this machine and administrator).

I have run out of good ideas.

It is vital for me to be able to synchronize my data for meetings etc.

hi

trying to download version 6.1 on my laptop(vista home premium)but it goes on the loop for ever as the running of the program downloaded refuse to kick in.laptop is new,any ideas welcome

siegfried

Thanks for the update; I'm sure people were looking for the new and improved functionality of this release.

However, I think it's a bit of a let down because the update does not include something that's made WMDC unusable for me and hence has me favoring XP instead of Vista:

Will it ever be possible to allow us (the user) to decide what to do in case of a conflict instead of ALWAYS replacing the items on the PC or the Mobile device.  I had high hopes that this update would resolve this issue, because it seems so unrealistic that there will never be exceptions.  I just don't see how this makes sense after Activesync has had this feature since I began using a Windows Mobile Device about 4 years ago.

The option in question is found here (in the WMDC window):

Home -> Manage a Partnership | If there is a conflict...

Replace items on device

Replace items on desktop

**WOULD LOVE TO HAVE:** Let me decide

I'm using Windows Vista Enterprise synced to the Axim X50v PDA running Windows Mobile 2003.  Perhaps you can recommend a workaround for this or add it to the list of features for future updates.

I look forward to the day this feature will be available, but it seems I'll go back to XP for the time being.

Cheers.

Hi,

thanks for the rather complicated guide of synchronizing Mobile 6 with Vista Contacts. But whats with all the people who use Mobile 5 or 2003 and dont want to throw wawy their PDA after they bought a new PC?

What about the Mobile-Calendar and the Vista-Calendar, Mobile Notes and Word or One Note...

regards

optimist

I have exactly the same problem and behaviour as Copenhagen - updated to mobile device center 6.1 from a working copy of 6.0, the installation didn't behave well and crashed scvhost.exe.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled 6.1 several times now.

When I installed 6.1, in device manager, I can see it adds a network connection called Microsoft Windows Mobile Remote Adapter #4.  It also adds an "Unknown Device" in the "other Devices" category, and when I click on properties for the unknown device it says it is a windows-mobile based device support and points to the bluetooth radio.  This device goes away as the install completes - it disappears from the device manager window.  I had expected to see another windows mobile device installed but none gets installed.

I tried this install several times. Uninstalling leaves a bunch of files in windows/system32 and in windows/windows mobile.

I tried reinstalling after a vanilla installation and also after manually deleting all the files in the windows mobile directory, and the rapi related fives dated 5/31 from the windows/system32 directory.  This was a big pain in itself - had to go to a command prompt and use takeown, cacls and icacls to delete the files since they are all owned by the new windows vista Trusted Installer account and even an administrator can't delete them.

Net is no joy - the re-installation completes without errors but the device won't connect.

The uninstaller clearly isn't doing it's job - the registry is full of entries related to windows mobile (which I didn't touch) and as above tons of files are left in the windows mobile and system32 directories.

Where I am now is an installation that completed with no errors, but the phone won't connect or synch.

Any ideas?

One more piece of data.  If I connect the phone, and in device manager manually delete the "Network Adapter "Microsoft Windows Mobile Remote Adapter #4" Device manager then goes on to install an "other device" called "Pocket PC USB sync". Device manager keeps doing it's thing, and then this new other device "Pocket PC USB sync" disappears after a minute or so, and Network Adapter "Microsoft Windows Mobile Remote Adapter #4" comes back again.

I have a verizon XV 6700, and syncs seamlessly with Windows XP running Active sync Version 4.2.0.

However, I have been unable to get it working at all with Windows Vista Business and WMDC 6.1

Is Windows Vista and WMDC truly production material, or are we still in beta?

Sometimes the device is recognized, sometimes it is not. Even when it is recognized, I somtimes get  a error in WMDC, while the device shows a status of "Waiting for a connection"

The numerous errors encountered in trying to get it working appears to be reminiscent of an application/OS that is/should still in/be in  development.

I am really disappointed that with WMDC 6.1 I still can't sync my pocket pc with vista contacts and vista calendar.  i am in search of a new laptop which i will need to purchase in the next month or so.  With the experience I have had so far with Vista and microsoft I have finally decided to make the switch to Mac. Apple as a company just seems to make products that are easy to use, and work together.  I know I am only one consumer, and as big as microsft is, they probably don't care that i am going to buy a Macbook pro, but if the competetion continues to manufacture products taht works and easy to use vs microsoft which continutes to sell products that don't work well with each other and is always looking at sellin more rather then the customer experience, then i think eventually consumers will take note and switch, because there are choices out there now.  hope you (microsft) will start listening to the needs of your customers and create products that can be intergrated and function together.

The fact that I now have a redundant Mobile PC that I cannot synchronise with Vista (it's a 2003 O/S model) is annoying to say the least. Equally, synchronising with Outlook 2007 would be ok if this wasn't as slow as a snail (which is why I ditched using it in favour of Windows Mail).  Outlook 2007 is unusable, so why on earth force people to sync with it?  Doesn't anyone at MS know Outlook is a disaster?

hi,

nice blog, i've allready learned much about Vista here, but I have a question:

I have a mobile phone (Sony Ericsson k320i) and i'd like to synchornise it with windows calendar and windows contacts. Can i do that with Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1?

thnx!

I just simply cannot sync my smartphone to WMDC. I have a Samsung Blackjack smartphone, model SGH-i321n, which is the Brazilian equivalent of the i320 with minor changes. I have a Windows Vista Home Premium running on a HP Pavillion notebook. I downloaded WMDC 6.1, installed it on my computer easily, but when I try to set up my device, I get an error message saying "WMDC encountered a user-defined breakpoint" and I am forced to close the program. Besides that, Vista recognizes my phone as a i320, not a 1321n. On some occasions it doesn't even recongize the phone at all. I can connect and access the smartphone folders and files but withtout establishing any kind of partnership or synching. I can't install programs or anything.

When the message first apeeared, there was also an option to "debug". But I clicked on it, nothing happenned and the icon disapeeared, remaining only the "close program" option.

I searched the net for some help on this but found nothing. Only one similar complaint with no solution given.

I would appreciate to get some assistance on this one. It's amazing how Vista just keeps giving users problems with its successive errors and annoying incompatibilities.

Tks,

GWMR

I just simply cannot sync my smartphone to WMDC. I have a Samsung Blackjack smartphone, model SGH-i321n, which is the Brazilian equivalent of the i320 with minor changes. I have a Windows Vista Home Premium running on a HP Pavillion notebook. I downloaded WMDC 6.1, installed it on my computer easily, but when I try to set up my device, I get an error message saying "WMDC encountered a user-defined breakpoint" and I am forced to close the program. Besides that, Vista recognizes my phone as a i320, not a 1321n. On some occasions it doesn't even recongize the phone at all. I can connect and access the smartphone folders and files but withtout establishing any kind of partnership or synching. I can't install programs or anything.

When the message first apeeared, there was also an option to "debug". But I clicked on it, nothing happenned and the icon disapeeared, remaining only the "close program" option.

I searched the net for some help on this but found nothing. Only one similar complaint with no solution given.

I would appreciate to get some assistance on this one. It's amazing how Vista just keeps giving users problems with its successive errors and annoying incompatibilities.

Tks,

GWMR

WMDC 6.1 not recognizing the device and/or sometimes recognizing it and sometimes not.

I just spent 2 long hours with Cingular/ATT and Samsung because my i607 just moved from being a smooth smart phone to something I wanted to throe away.

Turns out it is a Vista problem. Here is the solution:

Vista always is in conflict with the device IF you either are on a wireless network or a LAN and that network is firewalled. So even if you have disabled firewall protection on your system (in your frustration to find the problem...like I did), IF YOU ARE STILL CONNECTED TO THE NETWORK WMDC 6.1 will not recognize the device.

SIMPLY TURN OFF THE WIRELESS NETWORK OR DISCONNECT FROM THE LAN and Bingo! WMDC recognizes the phone.

Is someone at Microsoft listening???

Ashvin Lima

ashvin.lima@gmail.com

All you have to do is open port 990 (tcp) in the vista firewall and it connects fine...

I just bought a Mogul and connected it to my Vista using WMDC 6.1 and works flawlessly after I used the Firewall Connection Tool and saw that MS had the forethought to add a check box for "Active Sync/WMDC".  

o.O

I fixed the problem problems I was experiancing with WMDC 6.1 and am now

running with WMDC Version 6.0, which runs flawlessly.

Since I installed the the Windows Mobile Device Centre 6.1 update the well

functioning connectivity with my Dell Axim X51 (with WM5) was destroyed and I

got two error messages - one that svchost.exe has closed down and one that

the Windows mobile 2003 based devices service had closed down. These events

occurred when I tried to connect the device in its USB cradle.

When the upgrade ran, the first thing it did was to install an unknown

device (at first this took ages but after various tries this goes faster now

in

the preconfigured folders.)

On a Vista Blog I read a suggestion that it might be an idea to try

uninstalling the upgrade (WMDC) and the boot and re-install the package. I

tried this many times and there was No change. I tried then uninstalling and

then installing each of two previous upgrades I still had - one from December

and one from February. No change.

I had been using my Dell Axim on XP and on Vista since the betas and RCs and

now have the commercial Ultimate Vista. There have been issues along the way

with various versions of the OS – mainly that there was never an automatic

upgrade when these were available and needed ( you had to hunt for them or

find references to them on blogs and newsgroups).

Several months went by......

I was getting very frustrated by these lengthy problems and tried:

1. every possible combination of uninstalling and reinstalling either the

6.1 Driver Update or the Device Center etc. etc. and have tried going back to

version 6.0, which had worked fine, to no avail.

2. I tried establishing a new Administrator account and tried installing the

version 6.1 updates there - to no avail.

3. I observe that the C:\Windows\WindowsMobile folder is populated with a

number of files and one folder ([en-US]) that I cannot remove. These are all

owned by Windows Trusted Installer. I try finding a way of taking ownership

of these files/folders to remove them - to no avail.

4. After backing up my PIM data to the SD card, a hard boot of my Dell Axim

Device and a re-install of WM5. While it was  time

consuming to re-establish my settings, it had no influence on my ability to

sync. I attempted a re-install of WMDC Version 6.1 without luck.

5. I uninstalled my Belkin Bluetooth F8T009 dongle as that seemed to be

having problems as the PDA started with Bluetooth running ( I

don't use the Bluetooth). I suddenly could delete some of the locked files

in the Windows Mobil folder. I attempted a re-install of WMDC

Version 6.1 without luck.

But, this is what worked:

I found a program named Unlocker 1.8.5 at

http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

which gave me the ability to unlock

and delete the locked files in the Windows Mobil folder. After doing

so I now attempted to re-install the WMDC Version 6.0, still available on

the Microsoft website, which had worked fine. After the usual legthy delay it

installed the "unknown device" UMBus enumerator ( why isn't this just

included?) and found Pocket PC at Windows Update and we were in business

again! [If anyone has the Belkin Bluetooth F8T009 dongle I suggest

uninstalling and reinstalling it before doing the above.]

What a relief!!!

I think I will keep using Version 6.0 for the foreseeable future! I don't

want to experience this sort of heartache again!

i have a pocket pc mobile 9100 and have tried maybe 10 times to install uninstall, shut down, restart , my laptop and my phone... and still the synchronization doesn't work.

my pocket pc has windows 5.0

it is recognized but the synchronisation doesn't proceed...

thanks for your help... and by the way it is not great to have to uninstall most of our programs because they are not compatible yet with vista.. loosing a lot of efficiency :(

thx for your help

geeg

I am having some predictable issues regarding Active Sync in Vista Business. I have a lot of laptop users with vpn clients installed on all. Up until now I have had the laptops setup with XP Pro, a vpn client, and Folder Redirection enabled for their My Documents folder. Some of my users get very confused when offsite with the icons that show up in the task tray when they turn on/off thier vpn client (little terminal icon that tells them they are offline, terminal with exclamation point telling them they are online, but need to click ok to get the connection to stick, etc.). Not all of my users are computer savvy and despite numerous trainings and 1-on-1 session, I still get lots of complaints about this. I had heard that Vista really cleaned this up, so I have been holding out for Vista to solve this.

I have started rolling out Vista Business x32 with a vpn client. I have configured them with the following thinking:

-> Sync Partnership between local My Documents and corresponding directory on SBS server

-> instruct laptop users to ALWAYS leave these files Offline (thinking here is that the files will always be quickly available to users even if they just close the lids on thier laptops and run as is thier habit)

-> set up a scheduled sync for whenever the machine is idle for over 30 mins (thinking here was that at sometime during the day, the user will take a break/lunch and the machine will get sync'ed at least once a day - good enough for us)

-> with this configuration, the user should never have to explicitely do anything

This seemed to end complaints and made me a hero -- until...

-> I started getting complaints that the sync never happens; i.e., even if a machine was hooked to the network untouched for days, the "sync when idle" schedule never seemed to fire. I have a desktop at home inside our firewall that I have configured as above with a sync if idle for over an hour schedule and just noticed that it has not synced in the last couple of days. I have worked on the desktop, changed files, but they never showed up on the server. I have also played with various options (computer running on external power, computer is awake, etc.) with similar results. QUESTION? Does anyone know how to set things up so that it will sync on idle - perhaps a policy setting?

-> on the laptop side, occassionally a user will just shut the lid and run with a file open, putting the machine in hibernate mode (brand new HP nx9420 laptops). When they get home/coffee shop/etc. and open up the machine, they find thier My Docs (Documents) pointing to a directory down in the System32 directory. It is my guess that this is the hidden store for offline files. A couple of attempts to open Documents from a file explorer reconnects things properly, but with my unsophisticated users, it causes a lot of insecure feelings and eye rolling. QUESTION? Could this be a problem with my software, or is it just a user modification problem I am dealing with?

-> when a user leaves the office after properly closing things down, go home and work outside the firewall, and come back to the office an unintended condition occurs. When they boot up or log on in the office (inside the firewall), they find themself working Online with thier Documents folder without ever explicitly going Online. It appears that Vista senses that they are connected to the internal network and sets the folder(s) Online. I do not want this. Another rub is that this does not seem to be consistent. I want thier sync'ed folders always offline. QUESTION? Does anyone know how to take the unpredictability out of this scenario and leave the sync'ed folders always Offline?

Thanks

Pat

Hello. I hate to continue the same sad theme...but I am so frustrated and don't know where to turn for help - so I am trying everything. I purchased a new PC a few weeks ago with Vista as the operating system. My IPAQ 6315, which synchronized perfectly with XP, suddenly stopped working. As everyone else has mentioned, no one could help - not Microsoft, not HP, the manufacturer of my PC and not T-Mobile, although they have tried valiantly. Yesterday, I purchased a new smartphone and MS Outlook 2007. Sync now works fine, but there are no options for manual conflict resolution - will this be changed in future versions of WMDC?

I hate to say it but this, WMDC, is the worst piece of junk Microsoft has put out.

I used the older microsoft sync for years and never has so many problems. Okay you sync the thing and its set to replace the PDA with files and stuff on the desktop but what happens when you jot something on your PDA? It gets wiped out like it never existed. I mean give me fricken break here at least the old one gave you the option of replacing which one you wanted. So, what are suppose to do hook your pda to the dock and immediately stop the sync proccess then set it to replace items on the computer? I have a 6700 and its just not working right, maybe I don't have it configured who knows. But if the above is the case its a piece of junk.

I have a new Samsung i760 (Fantastic phone!), but no way, no how, can I get Vista to accept this phone.  I keeps saying there are no drivers for the phone that are correct.  I got Samsung Level 3 tech on the phone, we re-installed WDMC 6.1, we tried to update the drivers ("drivers are current"), we even hard reset the phone (we all LOVE to do that), we turned off all firewalls, all virus detection, etc.  NOTHING makes a difference.

I was able to sync right away on Active Sync on my laptop, running XP, so no phone problems, this is ALL VISTA.  I DO have the Vista SP1 Beta running, but I don't think that is where the fault lies.  I formerly was able to sync a WM5 Smartphone using this Vista PC.

HELP!!!

Hi, I obtain an error trying to sync my h6315 with de WMDC; I can explore my pda but can't sync, it says that couldn't install the driver, try again.

Any idea?

Thanks

I used Vista since the retail launch.  My PPC6700 worked flawlessly out of the box until I got fed up with the OS rot and reinstalled.  I don't think I had the 6.1 update on my old install, and used my HTC Touch to sync with 6.0 with no problem.  A few days ago I reinstalled Vista and saw that I had the 6.1 version and realized that I couldn't get my PPC to sync.  I did a hard reset and uninstalled/reinstalled WMDC about 10 times.  Eventually, it worked for some reason.  I used it for a day and was happy just to finally have my calendar updated on my phone.  This morning I went to sync and I was getting the Code 10 error again (Driver could not load).  REALLY frustrating...so I went into the connection settings to play around (Start > Settings > Connections > USB to PC) and unchecked the 'enable advanced networking functionality'.  Problem seems to be solved!

The "advanced" functionality seems to be that it won't let your device sync.  Pretty sweet feature!

Does anybody know what the advanced networking functionality gives me that the standard mode doesn't?  Besides a headache?

When will MDC be able to sync Windows Mobile 6 contacts and calendars with windows calendar and windows contacts?

Thanks.

I cannot change the settings for my Contacts sync option. How do i solve this?

After two days of trying to get Outlook to talk to my smartphone (something that took me all of 30 seconds on XP), I finally found a fix! Buy an I-Phone and a Mac.

Seriously, I work in IT for a national company (tens of thousands of employees).  Our Regional  Director was visiting our offices, and noticed I had a smartphone.  Our Blackberry contract is about to come up, and I think they are shopping options.  I can't say that the experience I shared with him tipped the scales much, but it definitely fits a pattern of having "new and improved" software/OS's that don't work.

It is utterly and absolutely ridiculous that these guys would remove a basic fundamental functionality like syncing a phone book and calendar.  Forcing "upgrades" on the market while at the same time disabling core functions that people rely on just doesn't make any sense.

I recently received a new laptop with Windows Vista (I installed SP1 after WMDC 6.1.6965 was installed). I also upgraded my phone (ATT Tilt) to WM 6.1. I started having a problem on the phone where the battery backlight was getting reset to 10 secs when I had a device password set and the phone would wake up before the lock timeout (2 hrs). I re-installed the phone to determine what was causing the problem. With WM 6.1 and no other software installed, I was able to set the password and battery backlight timeout without any problems. The next step was to sync the phone with my laptop - running WMDC 6.1.6965. Then the problem started - when I wake the phone up before the lock timeout, the battery backlight timeout gets reset to 10 secs. What is WMDC doing that caused this to start after syncing the phone? Has anyone heard of this? This is becoming a big issue on a lot of other blogs. Any help resolving this problem would be greatly appreciated.