Make new phone think it is my old phone?

[alanhatcher]

What's odd is that ONLY the contacts were lost. EVERYTHING else stayed the same after doing the SPB backup thing. Here's my steps and observations so far:

Installed AS (it appears that MyMobiler must have AS to establish the link).

Connected dead-screen 6700 to PC and AS did it's thing and tried to open Novell Groupwise (it's what my work uses for email etc.) I must have once upon a time had GW on this PC and forgot about it and must have used control panel to remove it instead of the GW installer, so enough remnants remained for Active Sync to try to access it for Syncing contacts. I had to cancel out since the application was not actually there. With AS expecting to put the contacts somewhere and not having a place to put them....hmmm...I dunno; maybe that was the hiccup that caused me to lose contacts.

Next I installed MyMobiler and that thing is kinda cool. A re-read of the install instructions mention the need for Active Sync. [I have since uninstalled AS and MyMobiler cannot connect]

Next SPB and it worked great. I backed up the broken 6700, backed up the good 6700, then restored old onto new. I chose to "force" a ROM upgrade and that appears to have been a bad choice (no clue why but phone wasn't acting right). Restored the "good" backup to the good machine again (forced ROM upgrade to hopefully get it back to where it was), then restore old to new again, this time [hopefully] choosing the correct settings to avoid the ROM upgrade. All seems to be well but, alas, no contacts saved (the number one thing I wanted to save). Home screen, alarms, game high scores, email settings, wifi networks...it's all there.

So now I'm through with AS and Outlook and all that. I uninstalled AS and MyMobiler quit connecting (that's how I know it needs AS, plus the install text). SPB also quit. Tried an uninstall (control panel), registry clean on the PC, and reinstall, but SPB doesn't want to fully install or function. SPB is still on both 6700s and the backup files are saved on my 2gig card, so I'm good-to-go for a future backup and restore within the 15 day trial.

So anyone else going through this, if you already use AS (or similar), try MyMoblier first. If it will work with your nonAS manager and you can get your information backed up, you should be good to go with SPB for a full backup of the dead PPC and restore to the new PPC. Take care on the ROM option.

http://www.mymobiler.com/
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/backup/

Hope this helps someone.

[gambatte]

Originally Posted by alanhatcher

etc.) I must have once upon a time had GW on this PC and forgot about it and must have used control panel to remove it instead of the GW installer, so enough remnants remained for Active Sync to try to access it for Syncing contacts.

Just an FYI but AS won't access any other email client except Outlook 02?/03/07. Or Exchange Server OTA. Don't you have your contacts anywhere else on the net? Yahoo, Live, Google, etc??? There might be a way to import them from GW.

[alanhatcher]

Nope, nowhere else. But not so as of about a half hour ago. dashwire.com looks like my new friend that will be covering my arse from here on out.

I think what actually happened with the GW thing is this: Novell will let you use Outlook as your contact manager (or work has set it up that way). So a remnant of GW was trying to open Outlook (not installed at that time) and access the email server (which cannot be accessed from outside my work's intranet) so I had a double-whammy going on.

Semi-good news: call history was saved or backed up or restored....whatever, I have at least the last 300 calls made/received in the phone. Maybe I will recognize some of the numbers and can use that to start rebuilding contacts. Or I can give them a ring and ask "Who is this?"

[Keir333]

Originally Posted by alanhatcher

Dangit!

After using Active Sync to do a backup (and remembering that I don't have Outlook installed because I don't like it) I'm now using mymobiler to see what's goin inside the busted screen 6700 and all my contacts appear to be gone! There is nothing there; zero contacts. Surely my contacts and NOTHING ELSE would have been lost due to a hard drop of the phone?? Saving contacts was the #1 reason for installing Active Sync. All game high scores are there; home screen is exactly as it should be.

May mymobiler can't do phone operations, including looking at contacts?

Originally Posted by gambatte

I believe what has happened is that you have now synced your device to "data" that was on your PC, e.g. nothing. Usually it happens when you have an empty Outlook profile (a new PC) and syncing to the device. Erases contacts/calendar/tasks, etc. from the device. You probably have "replace items on device with PC" checked in AS.

I believe Gambatte hit the nail on the head with what happened to your contacts.

Active Sync will leave all of the game high scores and other things that you have, but it will try and sync your contacts, your appointments from your calendar and your tasks.

When I first got my Mogul I ended up erasing all my contacts and calendar appointments from my phone by hooking it up to Active Sync and unknowingly having it set to match my phone to my computer's Outlook(which was empty). I was literally on the verge of screaming when I realized what had happened. Luckily I was able to find an old Nokia phone that I owned that had most of my contacts and appointments(birthdays/anniversaries) still in it.

It is because of this reason that I don't even bother messing around with Active Sync as a way to back up important information in my phone anymore.

There are so many good free PIM back up tools to use for your contacts/calendar/tasks/etc. as well as SPB Back up to completely backup/restore your entire phone.

I'm glad to hear that you got most of the stuff you needed off of your busted phone and on to the new one. Sorry to hear about your Active Sync problems.

-Keir-

P.S. I believe the "Force ROM upgrade" option of SPB Back up is what you would use if you were wanting to restore your phone after flashing to a new ROM....for example if you just switched from Windows Mobile 6.0 to 6.1

[gambatte]

Originally Posted by alanhatcher

I think what actually happened with the GW thing is this: Novell will let you use Outlook as your contact manager (or work has set it up that way).

OK, saw where GW has an Outlook connector. Still weird it erased without the program(s) installed.

Originally Posted by Keir333

When I first got my Mogul I ended up erasing all my contacts and calendar appointments from my phone by hooking it up to Active Sync and unknowingly having it set to match my phone to my computer's Outlook(which was empty).

Sometimes you can find them in the "deleted items" folder in Outlook on the PC. But if you open Outlook and have it set to empty the deleted items on close, then they are goners. There are alot of irate accounts of this. Expecting to back up the contacts on the PC and doing the exact opposite.

[alanhatcher]

Well after all that effort to avoid swapping screens, the "new" 6700 seems sluggish and hangs a lot. Could be dashwire, but it seemed sluggish (but not as) before dashwire.

I may end up swapping screens anyway. Or by a third 6700 Me likes these little doo-dads.