treo,  vista,  windows mobile

Windows Mobile Sync Troubleshooting

I went to sync my Palm Treo 750 with my Dell Optiplex 755 running Microsoft Windows Vista Business SP1 this evening and ran into trouble. (Imagine that!)

When I placed the Treo in the cradle, the Windows Mobile Device Center didn’t recognize that there was a device connected to the system. Sure, I heard that familiar “plink-plunk” when you connect a USB device to Windows, but the Treo and the PC just wouldn’t talk to each other.

Windows Mobile Synchronization Troubleshooting Steps

Here is a short list of the troubleshooting steps that I took to resolve the issue.

1. Soft reset the Treo. (Just pull the batter, wait 20 seconds, and put it back in.)
2. Reboot the PC. (Stopping and restarting the Windows Mobile services didn’t seem to work.)
3. Use the Windows Mobile Device Center to delete and recreate the partnership.
4. Resync the Treo with the Vista PC.

Upon initial resync wtih Windows and Microsoft Office, there was a sync error, however, performing a second data sync immediately after the first seemed to have cleared that error up.

Using the Treo to view the last sync status

You can check what the status was of the last data synchronization with your Treo was by using the ActiveSync application on your device. To view the last sync status:

1. Press the Start button (Windows flag key)
2. Select Programs from the Start menu (or press the “P” key)
3. Tap the ActiveSync icon
4. Use the right button (or tap the screen) to select the software Menu button
5. Select Status (or press “T”) to view the sync log