[Paulak1953]

I am continually having to get our institution's IT guy to come and work on sync problems I am having with my BB Curve 8310. Most recently, I get some error message about "unexpected termination" when trying to sync. At first, I could reboot and sometimes it would sync, but now that won't even work.

Also, after this happens my BB screen goes white with the "working hourglass" icon displayed for maybe a minute or so. Then I get some "error code xxx" (I can't read the numbers they are so small) and then it finally returns to my home screen. I have to say that I never had these syncing problems with my Palm so I am about ready to toss this BB out the window.

Has anyone experienced this kind of problem? Help!

Paula

[tcpetersesq]

No - don't throw in the towel yet.... take a deep breath, and let's figure this out...

I assume since you reference an IT guy, you have BES at work, yes? I also assume that you are syncing via USB, correct? Have you made any changes recently (upgraded your OS, upgraded your DM, etc.)? Have you changed what is being synced (i.e., have you tinkered around with the configuration dialog in DM)?

Has your curve ever synced correctly? What are you trying to sync? Calendar, address, memos, etc.? Much of what you need to sync can be done wirelessly if you have BES. If you have BIS, then there are some other things that might work too. Personally, I've never liked syncing with outlook, and instead I use google calendar and google sync. They work great, and with google calendar sync, you can have the best of all worlds by syncing with your outlook too.

[Paulak1953]

LOL...yep Macgyver would be able to show us how it's done, for sure! In the meantime....I am not sure what BES/BIS is, but yes I am syncing with a USB and I have not make any changes.. recently. Got Office 2007 about two months ago but my BB worked fine after that. And it has synced correctly about half the time.

In terms of sync-ing, I really only sync my calendar. contacts and tasks. I don't use the email, messenger, etc functions...just the simple ones I need. I don't have an option to use anything other that Outlook for my calendar at work since we use it intra- and inter- departmentally...if I can sync w/ Outllok and BB that would be great! Any ideas?

[tcpetersesq]

BIS is short for BlackBerry Internet Service. BES is short for BlackBerry Enterprise Server. I was actually asking about your OS for your handheld, not for Outlook, but that's helpful information too. Quick way to tell if you have BES - go to options/advanced and see if you have something in the list called "Enterprise Activation." If you do, then you may indeed have BES and not even know it. If it's not there, you probably don't have it. The BES would also have to be set up by your IT person - it is integrated directly into your office network. From the sounds of things, it appears that you don't have it.

So - assuming you have BIS, then yes, you would be stuck with synchronizing via USB as opposed to wirelessly. That's a pain I know - I had to do it for years until we upgraded and got the BES in place. There is something you can try - and that is google calendar as mentioned in my initial response. My office uses Outlook also. So here's my "fix" - I downloaded google calendar sync which will sync your outlook with your google calendar. All google calendar is - is a simple web-based calendar. The nice thing is, you can access it anywhere. You can have it sync both ways, or just one way. (This means you can have it so that you can make changes to google that will actually go on your outlook, and vice versa, or you can just have it so outlook is the master, and changes to google are disregarded.)

Next - download google sync on your BB, then go into options (on the BB) and tell it you want to sync 24 weeks (I think the default is 4). Also tell it to do the sync automatically. Now you're set. Anything going onto your outlook will get synced to your google calendar, which in turn will get synced to your BB. Nice.

Precautions - if you do this, make sure to go into configure settings on DM (desktop manager) under the synchronize function, and make sure that you do NOT have it set to sync your calendar. If you don't change this, you will end up with duplicates. You will still need to do a manual (i.e., USB) sync to get your tasks and contacts to sync with your BB.

See, that wasn't nearly as bad as you thought, right?

[Paulak1953]

My BB does have Enterprise Activation on it...I'm assuming that changes things...?

[tcpetersesq]

Well - there's yet another step. Just because you have it on your handset doesn't mean you have the server in place. Two things have to happen first. One - you have to have your IT person install the server (it's actually software that he/she will need to get from RIM); and two - you will need to confirm with your carrier that you have the proper data plan. Since you are with AT&T I can tell you that the Enterprise plan runs about $50/month. If you are paying less than that, you probably don't have it added. It's easy to add - just call them up, ask for it, and pay your bill.

The headache will come from your IT person who will probably gripe and moan like mine did. The learning curve is steep, but not insurmountable. It took some armtwisting, but my IT guy finally made the calls, and got it up and going. RIM gives you a one-free-user license I believe. Additional users are $100 bucks each (one-time fee).

Trust me - it's worth all of the effort, because once this is done - you NEVER (and I do mean never) have to do a manual sync again. Your calendar, contacts, tasks, memo pads, all get synced automatically.

[Paulak1953]

Wow, that does sound great....thanks for ALL the help. You've been very helpful. Maybe I won't toss this thing after all!
:-)

[tcpetersesq]

No sweat. Good luck, and feel free to PIN me should you have any other problems.

[JasonHDD]

No sweat. Good luck, and feel free to PIN me should you have any other problems.

that was totally awesome tcpetersesq!!! awesome!! thats why this site is what it is!!!

[tcpetersesq]

thanks Jason -

I'm certainly no expert like some of the other masters on this site, but I've spent my time in the trenches and learned many things the hard way - much of which has been through trial and error - so if I can help someone else along the way, that's a great thing...

And yes, this is a GREAT site because of us all!