Database Users

MDA Vario II - no reminders

I use a MDA Vario II (from t-mobile) and, begining with a couple of days before, I get no reminders to appointments anymore. I suspect that it is happening since I have instaled PocketBreeze 5.0.11, but i am not sure that PocketBreeze is the cause.
Does anybody else face the same problem? What can be done, except a hard reset (I am not so thrilled by the ideea to install everything again)?

Have you tried checking your notification queue for duplicates and/or out of date entries.
You can try scarybear checknotifications, memmaid or sk tools for this (prob there are others too)
Try this first, see if there are any duplicates or out of date entries. Delete all these, soft reset and then try again. Don't delete anything if you don't know what it is (unless it comes up under duplicates).
I use a combination of the above tools as I find that they often find dups or out of date entries that the others miss. Try checknotifications first (free), and see if this helps.

Hello marisa,
thank you for the hint, it seems to be working now. To be true, I already bought SKTools yesterday, because I found some other post with a similar problem. But I only ran the "Invalid Registry Entries" and "Invalid Registry Values" utilities, being afraid to delete anything. But after your post I ran the "Notification Queue" utility and checked all entries that refer CALENDAR.EXE And for all birthdays there were duplicates.
How do they got there? I initially synchronized the calendar in my old PalmVx with the Outlook (there I had the birthdays as normal appointments, not in contacts). Than connected my MDA per USB and ActiveSync to my PC. I manually inserted all the birthdays in the Outlook's contacts, causing Outlook to automatically create a duplicate "all day event". Than I deleted the birthday appointments which I get from the old PalmVx. In all of this time my MDA was automatically synchronizing with Outlook, so practically when I deleted the entries, they also were deleted from the MDA's calendar.
Now the question: since Outlook, ActiveSync and Windows Mobile are all Microsoft products, why weren't the duplicates also deleted from the Notification Queue? Why the garbage that needs to be cleaned with 3rd party tools and hours of searching posts on forums? Whatever.
Thank you again anyway!
PS: so PocketBreeze was not the cause.

They don't call it Active Stink for nothing you know!
Regarding Pocket Breeze, Spb Diary, Ilauncher and Pocket Plus, I don't know if these have anything to do with the problem.
I would say they must do, as most of these problems seem to occur when or shortly after people have installed one or any of them (or similar).
However, there are some people who get these problems with just the standard pre-installed software.
I personally think it's the interaction of Activesync, the native operating system and these today plugins which sets up something unexpected.
It could also be that people install both (many versions) of one of these in order to compare them, and decide which to buy, and they interfere with each other.
I have even had both version installed at the same time (but only one activated) for quick comparison. So, it's really hard to apportion blame for this. The other day I actually had to remove 2 identical templates, which had the date 2999! How's that for weird?
Never mind. All's well now, and that's the main thing.

Hmm, i must say that PocketBreeze was installed while I was performing the previously described birthday synchronisations. Whether it had any blame - I don't know. Uninstalling PocketBreeze was the first thing to do by trying to solve the problem, didn't help, the damage was already done. What I know is that I will install it again, because it sure gives me a much nicer overview. And that I will watch the Notification Queue closely from nowone

billl said:
What I know is that I will install it again, because it sure gives me a much nicer overview.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think Pocket BReeze is related to my problem with appointments and alarms, I've had it installed all along and the problem only started very recently.

marisa4755 said:
I use a combination of the above tools as I find that they often find dups or out of date entries that the others miss. Try checknotifications first (free), and see if this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using MemMaid but I'm still a bit confused about the entries that appear in the notification queue.
Can I safely delete any entries that relate to calendar entries in the past without this actually deleting it from the calendar itself?
Also, I have a load of entries in the queue that start:
\\.\Notifications\NamedEvents\SCRIPT:0x0
The detail for these shows a date and a (fairly random) time. Most are in the future (and generally in the early hours of the morning.)
Can anyone tell me what these entries are?
thanks
Mark

Markmat
I'm no expert, but my rule of thumb is:
If I don't know what it is/does then I leave it alone.
there is quite a bit of 'stuff' that has to run at various times to make the system run properly - that's when these phantom notifications are supposed to get cleared up, but don't. So, leave these alone.
Regarding the calendar entries, it's just the notifications which come up under memmaid's notfications check. So, if 3 months ago you had a dentist appointment and set the reminder for this to a day before say, and for some reason that notification didn't get dismissed and now you see it in memmaid, you can delete this. It won't delete the appointment, just the notification which is of no use to you now anyway and is confusing your system.

Bill, I think I know what happened with your duplicate birthday stuff.
Are you using Pocket Informant? or another 3rd party diary application? Maybe even Pocket Breeze itself.
Basically, I think you have 2 applications creating calendar events from contact birthdays. One is Outlook, the other is one of the ones I've mentioned. The solution is to turn it off on one or the other.

I already solved my problem by deleting the double entries in the Notification QUeue.
I was using PocketBreeze. I currently uninstalled it, but I will install it again and test your theory.
What do you mean by turning Outlook off? I use the Outlook on my PC to create appointments and I expect ActiveSync to upload them on the MDA by synchronization, even if the one managing them there is PocketBreeze. And backwards, when I create them with PocketBreeze on the MDA - i expect them to be downloaded on my PC by synchronisation.
Do you mean that there is also the preinstalled so called Outlook Mobile on my MDA which conflicts with PocketBreeze? Shouldn't this be the main concern of the PocketBreeze developers, to ensure that their software is not producing redundant double entries?
Anyway, if you mean turning off the preinstalled Outlook Mobile on the MDA, how exactly should I do it, where do I find this setting?

Sorry Bill, I haven't been very clear.
I think there is a special extra function in Outlook and also at the same time in some of these other pocket pc diary applications which create birthday calendar entries from contacts.
I am fairly certain that Pocket Informant does.
I am not suggesting that you don't sync with Outlook, just that one of the third party applications may be creating a duplicate using this extra function and so is outlook.
In Pocket informant there is an option to turn this extra function off, so then you only get the outlook ones. Hope that explains better.

Added:
In the Pocket Informant manual it explains this quite well when discussing options:
Apply Contact Birthday/Anniversaries
If you save anniversary and birthday information with your contact data, this option can read and enter the events into your calendar for you. However, because Outlook will do the same, it is recommended that you leave the option turned off if you synchronize with Outlook, in order to
avoid duplicates or performance issues.

Nothing to be sorry about
I understand now what you mean, thank you for the explanations. I will search the PocketBreeze's options for a similar setting.
And probably I will take a look at the PocketInformant too.

HTC Calendar

Hi guys a question for you all. I work a four on and four off shift. And want to save my shift on and off day's nights to my phone only problem is when i set up an appointment ie day 1 the repeat drop box only offers 3 options and none are of use i need a custom one of every 16 days so i can set my shifts for the year is this possable or is there an easyer way i am over looking?
Thanks in advance.

Can be done but i do this via syncing to my PC, Outlook. With Outlook you can set a reminder / apt to this pattern and HD2 just imports this when synced.
Other way is use a calendar program. For instance i use Pocket Informant and it can set patters like what you describe for reminders etc.

Thanks had never messed with outlook before and thats worked out fine a shame you cant just tweek the setting on the htc set up though.

True but even without Outlook use an aftermarket cal app like Pocket Informant, im sure there are more out there that can do it as well. The inbuilt one is fairly basic so the other ones can usually offer more options as well.

speaking of which...
is it even possible to ripp the HTC Calendar off of the snese? I looked through the windows folder, but there's no HTC Calendar.ink/exe or any other file which could make me happy. I have the sense off, but would like to use the HTC Calendar.
Thanks for any info!

Custom Calendar Repeat Intervals

Hi Guys,
Love the work you've all been doing - I love tinkering with my HD2
One thing I've been looking for is some way to set appointments in the calendar to repeat every 3 weeks. I'm not much of an outlook user, so I'd rather avoid having to set it up and sync the appointments (as I'm guessing would be an easy solution) and I'd like to use the default calendar app if possible.
Anyone know if this is an easy fix?
Cheers
Ross
PS
I'm after a 3 week repeat as it'll allow me to schedule in my shift pattern!

hey mate, thats a tricky one.
in HTCs stock calendar, there are only 3 recurrence options (weekly, monthly and yearly). but if you chose to set your appointments using your PC, then sync your calendars... im pretty sure outlook will let you have more control. keeping in mind... successfully syncing a PPC with your PC using Activesync or Windows Mobile Device Center can be a serious challenge.
alternatively, you can try a third party calendar app (maybe ThumbCal) and see if they will let you have greater customization. if you dont want to USE the third party app, you can install it - set up your appointments - then uninstall. hopefully this will have saved your appointments into outlook mobile (which is what powers HTCs calendar).
the third option is to simply set each appointment manually... this may seem like a bit of a monotonous task, but if youre setting 3 week intervals... you could probably set 2 years worth of reminders within 5-10 minutes.
good luck man.
cheers.

Hi, if you are still looking for a shift rota app you should take a look at MobileRota, free to try it out for a month, it works well for me.

Complex appointments missing!

I've been running Windows Mobile (CE, PocketPC, etc) for years and have always used the complex appointments to schedule things like "Last wednesday of each month" and "2nd tuesday of November". I find that this capability is completely missing on WM6.5 on my HD2. Is there a way to re-enable it?
Marc

Sorry, I can only write in german, but these appointments are still there on my HD2.

if you need the 'complex' repeat settings forappointments which are not provided via sense, simlply make the appointment via winmo calander (somewhere in your start menu, and if you can't find it there then look in the windows folder). This will give you all the complex settings. Alternatively you can also make the appointments in something like outlook or google calendar and sync it wih your phone.

Thanks, I didn't even realize Outlook had that. Worked great.

Exchange/Outlook issues (email, tasks and calendar)

Ok, I've managed to get my 4 day old HD2 up and running pretty much how I'd like it to be (with a lot of thanks to the Cookie Monster for CHT), which means the Sense UI and everything "front of house" is looking good. However, behind the scenes, things like Exchange (IMO) are nowhere near as well integrated as could be. Here are my issues:
- Inbox is the only folder that shows any emails whatsoever - if I go into any subfolder and do a Menu > Send/Receive > I still don't get any mails appear - WTF?
- Even my Sent Items remains empty!
- Task and calendar reminder appears on-screen = great, but I can only snooze for something like 5 minutes - how can I change this?
- When a task reminder appears on the screen and I click it, all I get is a blank task, i.e. absolutely no info whatsoever. Which means I have to unlock the phone and go into tasks (currently something like 200+) and find the task that appeared, then go in a check out the notes, etc. How rubbish is this? Even on my Tytn II I could check reminders instantly.
- If someone calls/texts/emails and I want to add them to my contacts, they seem to go automatically into Exchange - this isn't good because if they're a friend then I want to keep their details separate - how is this possible?
- Folders appear to show emails from only the last 14 days or so - surely I can change this to 30 days or whatever? No ... ?
- Having come from Android, I'm used to having all my personal contacts in Googlemail - if I export this as a CSV and import into Outlook, will these contacts get lumped in with my Exchange contacts or will they remain "local" to Outlook? I'm hoping the latter because I DEFINITELY want to keep my personal contacts separate.
Bear with me - this is not a rant. I've dabbled with WinMo and Android in the last 2.5 years and the HD2 has the slickest front-end of any phone I've seen (now that I've got it running properly (excluding the faulty speaker which doesn't play any sound/ringing whatsoever - so it's going back for a return)). However, the backend of things like Exchange/Outlook integration seems particularly poor - especially for a Windows device. And this is holding me back from committing to the phone. IAW, I could spend all day playing with the Sense UI (CHT) but ultimately I need the device to serve me as a business tool, and it's just not happening.
Does anyone else have similar issues? How have you got round them?
TIA
SC
EDIT: Another issue with tasks = the options to sort them make it pretty impossible to manage them. I have about 50-75 reminders most of the time and in Outlook I won't use Start Date/Due Date for many of them beecause I'm be updating them all the time - which means I rely on reminders, and therefore sort them by reminder time. But the HD2 doesn't allow this, which means managing tasks - even just having a flip through to see what needs to be done over the next day or so - is unfeasible unless you spend ages updating your Start Dates or Due Dates. Even my Tytn II allowed me to manage them properly.

- Inbox is the only folder that shows any emails whatsoever - if I go into any subfolder and do a Menu > Send/Receive > I still don't get any mails appear - WTF? – Menu – Tools – Managed Folders – Click the ones you want to sync...
- Even my Sent Items remains empty! Tick it!
- Task and calendar reminder appears on-screen = great, but I can only snooze for something like 5 minutes - how can I change this? I don’t use exchange so I’m stuck on this one.
- When a task reminder appears on the screen and I click it, all I get is a blank task, i.e. absolutely no info whatsoever. Which means I have to unlock the phone and go into tasks (currently something like 200+) and find the task that appeared, then go in a check out the notes, etc. How rubbish is this? Even on my Tytn II I could check reminders instantly. Have you tried S2U2 – you can access the task from the lock screen and go directly to them – may not be the perfect solution.
- If someone calls/texts/emails and I want to add them to my contacts, they seem to go automatically into Exchange - this isn't good because if they're a friend then I want to keep their details separate - how is this possible?
- Folders appear to show emails from only the last 14 days or so - surely I can change this to 30 days or whatever? No ... ? The only way I can think of - at the moment – is through activesync – there is an option in the mail setting to the time for the sync’d mails.
- Having come from Android, I'm used to having all my personal contacts in Googlemail - if I export this as a CSV and import into Outlook, will these contacts get lumped in with my Exchange contacts or will they remain "local" to Outlook? I'm hoping the latter because I DEFINITELY want to keep my personal contacts separate. – From my dealings there is only one contact file – and you can only sync to the main contact file in outlook. I removed all of my business contact into a new folder in outlook – now they aren’t on the phone. If you want both I could only suggest using the categories. But even then you will get a very long list of all contacts. Not sure how else you could deal with this using the standard software.
Limited Help Sorry! But I hope some

Thanks for the tips Neville.
I didn't even see the Tools option for managing folders - everything is now sync'ing very nicely
Had a look at S2U2 but like you say, this isn't an ideal fix. I'm really looking for a better task manager - and at least one that lets me launch task info when the reminder alarm goes off. Is that too much to ask Mr WinMo/HTC?
Can't get Activesync to do anything other than sync 14 days or so. Ar5e, but not the end of the world.
I don't mind work and personal blended together in a single contact list - what I need to be sure of is that my personal contacts are not being dumped into my (Exchange?) works contacts. Like I say, Android managed this perfectly with Exchange and Googlemail, but WM doesn't seem quite so accommodating.
Cheers
SC

Neville.Holland said:
- Task and calendar reminder appears on-screen = great, but I can only snooze for something like 5 minutes - how can I change this? I don’t use exchange so I’m stuck on this one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you go into the options for the calendar there is an option for the default snooze time. Also you can set the reminder time on an individual basis when the entry is created.
Neville.Holland said:
- If someone calls/texts/emails and I want to add them to my contacts, they seem to go automatically into Exchange - this isn't good because if they're a friend then I want to keep their details separate - how is this possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not. simple as that. In the first thread you started before you even got the phone i did tell you this. I really don't like it when people don't pay attention!
Neville.Holland said:
- Folders appear to show emails from only the last 14 days or so - surely I can change this to 30 days or whatever? No ... ? The only way I can think of - at the moment – is through activesync – there is an option in the mail setting to the time for the sync’d mails.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It depends on your version of exchange. If it's 2003 it's hard coded to 7 days and can not be changed. IIRC, in exchange 2007 and exchange 2010 this can be changed. Ask you IT department to have a look at it.
Neville.Holland said:
- Having come from Android, I'm used to having all my personal contacts in Googlemail - if I export this as a CSV and import into Outlook, will these contacts get lumped in with my Exchange contacts or will they remain "local" to Outlook? I'm hoping the latter because I DEFINITELY want to keep my personal contacts separate. – From my dealings there is only one contact file – and you can only sync to the main contact file in outlook. I removed all of my business contact into a new folder in outlook – now they aren’t on the phone. If you want both I could only suggest using the categories. But even then you will get a very long list of all contacts. Not sure how else you could deal with this using the standard software.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It depends on how outlook is configured on the PC. If you have a profile for exchange and a profile for everything else or simply multiple mailboxes in the same profile you can create the divison there but you can only sync one mailbox over the air and this is always the defualt exchange mailbox.
EDIT: Another issue with tasks = the options to sort them make it pretty impossible to manage them. I have about 50-75 reminders most of the time and in Outlook I won't use Start Date/Due Date for many of them beecause I'm be updating them all the time - which means I rely on reminders, and therefore sort them by reminder time. But the HD2 doesn't allow this, which means managing tasks - even just having a flip through to see what needs to be done over the next day or so - is unfeasible unless you spend ages updating your Start Dates or Due Dates. Even my Tytn II allowed me to manage them properly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just set the start date for the day the job was created and really long due dates then set up a reminder for every 6 hours or something.
You do have a really large number of on going jobs and you really should be managing them better when they are created. I'm not defending WM6.5 here but it's not entirely a software issue, imo.