Re: Slow Sync with Access Databases

• Previous message: AlanS: "Re: AS will not connect"
• In reply to: Jens Gesing: "Slow Sync with Access Databases"
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Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2004 23:59:40 -0700

Jens,

    A couple of suggestions. If the data coming from the PPC is the
"master" data, do you really need to sync all the tables you have selected?
If you need all the tables on the PPC, but are only writing to one or two of
them I would suggest removing them from the sync once you get them
downloaded to the PPC.

My second suggestion is to make sure you are doing regular, i.e. at least
weekly, compact and reapair of your .mdb on your desktop. Access is
horrible for "growing" when you are syncing to/from a PPC, and if you have
multiple PPCs syncing to the same .mdb you probably are in dire need of a
compact. The compact and repair function in Access is located under the
tools>utilities menu. If you want to know how much good this can do, check
out the size of your db before then after the compact. If you've never done
a compact before you will be amazed, and this should also drastically speed
up your sync as it allows ActiveSync to chunk through the db much more
efficiently.

A final suggestion for you is to eveluate the fields in your tables. For
example, by default Access will set a text field to hold up to 50
characters. If you only need 10, then set it to 10. This is a good
practice whenever you design a table, especially when syncing to a PPC.

As a reference point for you, I have a PPC app I use that syncs to a desktop
db with 4 tables. Each of the tables has over 20 fields and they routinely
contain anywhere between 13,000 and 24,000 records per table that are set to
sync. The initial download of all this data takes nearly 25 minutes, but
that's due to the slow USB 1.1 connection which is really just a glorified
serial when used by ActiveSync. Additionally, ActiveSync has a LOT of
overhead so you're lucky to get 1/3 of the throughput you'd expect for USB
1.1. Anyway, once the data is loaded onto my PPC I routinely add and delete
data to the .mdb, and complete partial records on the PPC. All of this has
to go back and forth on each sync, and my syncs are less than 45 seconds.
You don't mention how long you're syncs are taking, so I hope this gives you
a reference of where you should be. There is also tested and documented
difference in sync times between PPC vendors due to both hardware and ROM
differences. I have found different test results posted on the web in the
past, and just looked for a link for you but couldn't locate one in the few
minutes I had to spare. I personally have had the best success with HP
products, specifically the 2200 series. Avoid Dell Axims like the plague.
One last thought is to make sure you are using the most current version of
ActiveSync which is 3.7.1. If you need it, it is available for free
download from Microsoft.

Hope this helps.

"Jens Gesing" <jensi_man@gmx.de> wrote in message
news:ciac1h$t6r$03$1@news.t-online.com...
> Hello everybody!
>
> I have got a problem and I was not able to find a solution for it, so I
> really appreciate any help or tipps.
>
> What I am trying to do is to synchronize a access database on pocket pc
with
> the access database on a desktop PC in a fast way. The synchronizing
process
> alone works fine! The problem is the time it takes. The database has got a
> lot of tables and some of them got large. It seems that ActiveSync tries
to
> find any change in any table and this takes most of the time (when the
> database is synchronized at the very first time it usally does not take
> longer than a few seconds).
>
> Is there any way to speed up this process? I do not have to have
ActiveSync
> look for changes because the data which comes from the PPC is the "master
> data" - I mean, the data which has to be saved on the desktop - any old
data
> can be deleted. What I cannot do is erase the database on the PCC before
any
> new sync because there are about 8 to 10 PPC's, which have to be
> synchronized one after another in the most fast way possible!
>
> If you have any tipps or hints, please send them to me! It is really
> important for me.
>
> Thank you very much,
> Jens
>
>
>

• Previous message: AlanS: "Re: AS will not connect"
• In reply to: Jens Gesing: "Slow Sync with Access Databases"
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