Re: ActiveSync 4.5 and Microsoft's amazing ignorance of the true problem therein!

Tech-Archive recommends: Fix windows errors by optimizing your registry

At 15 Sep 2008 22:12:59 -0700 juliejennings@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Aug 10, 9:18 am, Richard <Rich...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Chris.

Thanks very much for your time and for replying.

Nothing personal in my reply here, but...I don't understand why
customers,
many of whom are complaining loudly on numerous websites (please Google
search this and you WILL see it exists!) would decide to request a
useful
feature be removed from a product! It behoves me that MS decided to
modify
(read ELIMINATE!) the conflict-resolution choice-button!

I take offence by the comment that "Microsoft has made these decisions
based
on their requirements" as well. Who's requirements? Again - Microsoft.
Odd
how the software writers set the product based on THEIR requirements.

Chris, I know you have to write according to the company's "line" but
really, why remove something that WORKED and leave us, your customers,
with
something that leaves us far than annoyed. Once again I urge you to do a
search to see how wide-spread the anger is about this decision.

I would also request, again, that IF it is not going to be available,
what
are the steps to uninstall this annoying new version of Activesync
(which has
caused me many hours of grief not to mention missed appointments and
lost
contact details) and install an older version that HAS this most welcome
feature??

Repeating myself - I (and many many others) look forward to this
conflict
resolution being resolved - soon.

Regards.


Have any of you seen the posting displayed on omgili (which I couldn't
find a way to post on - seems to be a compilation of many posts from
other places) :

http://www.omgili.com/newsgroups/microsoft/public/pocketpc/activesync/6C8FCF
02-D952-4437-9780-
50CE64507C49microsoftcom.html&q=no+internet+access+with+activesync

Omgili simply scrapes Usenet and presents in a web based format and adds ads.
That link is to THIS discussion!


- How ridiculous for this to have turned into a back-slapping process
when the MVP's on the listed postings haven't even listened to or
addressed the problem!


I'm one of the MVPs in that scraped thread- what exactly do you want to
address?

It has been explained to the OP what conflict resolution is, how it's
handled, the probable reasons Microsoft changed the handling, why MVPs
can't do any more about it than anyone else, and an Activesync alternative
was discussed.

What else would you like to add?

Bottom line: people aren't listening to the real problem here!

1 - it isn't a matter of wanting to manually manage a process that is
better handled in an automated fashion
2 - Microsoft's conflict resolution method is simple - if they would
just READ some of the well-documented problems stated by multiple
people, they would see that. Here is one example:

http://www.omgili.com/newsgroups/microsoft/public/pocketpc/activesync/6C8FCF
02-D952-4437-9780-
50CE64507C49microsoftcom.html&q=no+internet+access+with+activesync


That's the same example you just linked above. And again, links THIS THREAD.


Here's the Google archive of this same discussion, and you can post to it
from Google as well:

<http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.pocketpc.activesync/browse_
frm/thread/285dfefeabdd5752/44020c37de7b2ac3?>
HEY MICROSOFT - are you even listening to your customers?
3 - It is obvious to me that Microsoft doesnt even use their own
product here, because if they did (even someone lower in the foodchain
than Bill), believe you me, this would be fixed.
4 - Bottom line - the automation is great, BUT to delete appointments
and contacts and tasks and other items that people are relying on to
run their busy lives is just not appropriate - it's not a matter of
convenience and/or people trying to do things the old way or with the
old code - it just doesn't function properly - it's actually not
usable in its current state, and many of us will need to suffer
through it, missing appointments, dialing old phone numbers (even
after we have updated the contact record), or not tracking tasks
because they were altered or deleted without our knowledge.

This is not a problem of wanting an old release of the code - it's a
matter of wanting software that works. This doesn't.

Would somebody please please please look into this and let us know if
we are going to have a solution which doesn't delete or alter records
inappropriately?

Let me encourage you to try to duplicate the problem, using any of the
clearly documented cases on the web.
Thank you.


Just a quick thought- any accidental deletion of data,or one-way syncing,
etc. has NOTHING to do with conflict resolution- the topic that was
discussed in this thread.

Conflict resolution refers to how Activesync handles data items changed on
both the PC and portable device between syncs- that's it. Other issues,
like changes on a PC not syncing to the device (or vice versa) are a
different issue (bug) and yelling to Microsoft about the new conflict
resolution method won't fix a bug.

Activesync is a mess- no doubt about it. I have to hope it gets a major
overhaul soon, but I suspect it'll be put out to pasture instead, like XP
itself, with the majority of focus on Vista/WMDC.


As I posted in this thread earlier, I've switched to Funambol- it's sort of
like Exchange but open source (free) and handles syncing with non-Windows
Mobile devices as well.

.

Quantcast