Windows Mobile Professional 6.1 Resets Sync Schedule to Manual Only

We have seen this behaviour on one client’s WM6.1 device and did not think much of it other than it happened twice in the last three months.

Today, the settings reset to Manual Updates only on my own personal WM6.1 device too. There are no behaviours associated with the reset other than perhaps the phone needing to be reset after it had locked up.

So, if a client calls stating their phone seemingly stopped receiving e-mail, the first thing to check before resetting it is the synchronization schedule and whether it has been reset recently.

It very well may have.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

HTC Touch Pro swap experience and OMA

One thing sure is apparent when it comes to swapping out a data enabled phone: It takes a long time and multiple syncs to get the data onto the new phone.

In this case, we are talking about the Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks folders with their default content.

The e-mail was set to synchronize the last two weeks of e-mail in about 30 sub folders and nested folders.

The whole process took at least 2-3 hours with the need to initiate a Sync from within the ActiveSync application on numerous occasions to get things moving again.

When working with client's data enabled devices, the amount of data to synchronize is something to keep in mind if there is a need to get another phone working for their SBS based Outlook Mobile Access.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

SBS 2008 - A couple of neat OWA features

The new Outlook Web Access (OWA) based on Exchange 2007 SP1 that we get with SBS 2008 is such a huge improvement over OWA in SBS 2003.

There are so many new client-side features that greatly improve a user's e-mail communication efficiency as well as their overall experience using Outlook Web Access.

One:

Deleted Items Recovery

Having the Deleted Items Recovery tool in the Outlook application when Exchange integrated is an administrator's life saver! Once a user has been shown that they can recover their deleted items, they take full advantage of it.

Now they can do so via OWA. They no longer need to establish a connection to a dedicated Remote Desktop to recover an e-mail, wait until they get back to the office to do so, or call us to help them out.

Two:

Remote Device Wipe

The time between a Windows Mobile device has been discovered missing and its being wiped by an administrator via Exchange 2003 can be absolutely critical ... and long.

With Exchange 2007, the user has control over the device. If the user's mobile device is somehow lost or stolen, they can remote wipe their own device quickly via OWA.

There is added security for Windows Mobile 6.x devices as the users would have turned on encryption for their add-in storage cards. So, barring any possible signal blocks or a dead battery, the device will wipe itself and any data on the card would be "lost" too.

These two features make SBS 2008 along with Windows Mobile device integration that much more attractive for clients with highly mobile workers.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.