[Vaporbox]

Here is a more time efficient solution I figured out for addressing the dreaded Error code � 0x80040fb3.

Other suggestions for addressing "offending Outlook contacts" that trigger Error code � 0x80040fb3 recommend exporting your contacts to Excel to review and correct them, however there are drawbacks to that approach in that the Outlook Excel Exporter / Importer does not support all Outlook fields and the process is generally a pain.

I found that if I ran an Advanced Find in Outlook that returned all Outlook contacts and then used the "Field Chooser" to add columns to that search result, I can identify and fix the "offending Contacts" that trigger the Error code � 0x80040fb3, right in Outlook without the need for exporting and importing.

After running an "Advanced Find" that returns all Outlook contacts, access the "Field Chooser" by right clicking on the column headings. Click the drop down box arrow in the upper right of the "Field Chooser" box and select "E-mail Fields".

Drag and drop all the E-mail fields onto the column heading of the search result to add those E-mail fields to the search results. The fields are: E-mail Display As, E-mail Address Type, E-mail2; E-mail Display As2, E-mail Address Type2, E-mail3; E-mail Display As3, E-mail Address Type3. FYI, the field "E-mail" should already be in the column headings as a default field from the search results.

For easier reading, arrange the above fields in order and grouping by their respective email numbers, i.e., E-mail; E-mail Display As and E-mail Address Type next to each other, then E-mail2; E-mail Display As2, E-mail Address Type2 next to each other and so on for the E-mail3 fields.

Now you can scroll down the Advanced Find report and easily spot E-mail address, E-mail Displays and E-mail Types that trigger the Error code � 0x80040fb3. When you spot one, double click on that Contact record to make the fix to that record. FYI, once the offending Contact record is opened, many times the e-mail related data in the Contact record looks fine, but it still needs to be refreshed or retyped if it did not look right in the Advanced Find report.

Often the issue is a bad "E-mail Display As" entry, and the easy solution is once the Contact record is open simply delete the "E-mail Display As" text and click anywhere else in the record and Outlook will insert the corrected data in the field, then save the record and you will see the updated record in the Advanced Find report. Continue doing this for all records in the Advanced Find report that need fixing.

See the BB KB article for a description for what to look for in each record. But in addition to items listed in this BB KB article, you need to look for ANY of the E-mail fields above that are not in proper order. You may also want to clean up address fields just to be sure. KB14818-"Error encounter. Error code – 0x80040fb3. Check documentation” appears during a wired synchronization with the BlackBerry Desktop Software

I was looking for a solution to the dreaded Error code � 0x80040fb3 without having to deal with exporting and the related complications and shortcomings, the above saved a considerable amount of time.

It is inexcusable that RIM's DM syching routine is so rudimentary as to kill the DM sych when it runs across an Outlook Contact that has one field that is "non-compliant". Any decently written software would have the capability to "mark" the "non-compliant" record, complete the synch for the remaining "compliant" records and report on which records are "non-compliant" so the user can in a time efficient manner address such records.

This type of incompetency is par for the course for RIM's software development teams. RIM seems to be completely oblivious to the number of man hours, (measured in DAYS), its customers are spending trying to figure out how to solve or work around RIM's never-ending bugs and sub-par engineering!

[g.ortegas]

Hi... I was thrilled when I read your post but I have about 2000 contacts and it is really a time consuming task to review one by one to see if one of the emails it is not ok... I found one and correct it but it was not the "good one". Everything was working ok before yesterday when I did 20 updates and 9 deletions... I know which contacts changed and what I changed in each one but, even though I couldn�t find the error(s)... this is so frustrating... this is definitively my last BB ever... thinking in Android. Thanks anyway for your detailed post�

[g.ortegas]

Can't believe it! Try this. Try to synchronize several times, you will get the error each time BUT.... The error will be presented at a different record each time. So let's say you modified 20 records and delete 10... every time you repeat the operation the synch process goes further... Try this as many times as needed (it was like 20 times in my case) and problem "SOLVED"... man! Software development team at RIM should disappear! Try outsourcing for God sake!

[JCinPA]

Where can I find what "an offending email entry" is? I just left my last employer and am trying to synch my Outlook to the BBerry and obviously you folks are much more knowledgeable than I am about what triggers the error message. I am clueless.

What am I trying to "fix"? Can you point me to an explanation that does not assume the prior knowledge this thread does? Thanks very much.

JC