Tuesday, March 9, 2010

The Missing Sync

Plugging in...

Syncing is typically done between two items to make them contain the same information on both items. In this case the syncing was from a laptop computer to a Blackberry. Usually an almost mindless activity once it has been set up properly, but it doesn't always go smoothly.

Outlook is a powerful and popular email program made by Microsoft and it handles just about any personal information to manage that you throw at it, including calendars that sync appointments to "smartphones", of which a Blackberry can claim allegiance to that genus.

To sync, one merely plugs the cable into both the computer and the phone, and with little fanfare, the comparison and updating takes place immediately. And it did, except for the calendar. The client's Blackberry had many appoinments that didn't make it over to Outlook on the laptop. And why the reason for the missing appointments?

The client mysteriously and accidentally created 4 additional calendars in the Outlook program and the appointments were not always added to one main calendar. Poor Mr. Blackberry can only sync to the calendar with the check mark next to it, and in this case, the check mark wasn't in the same location each visit to Outlook.

The client was going crazy trying to understand where were the appointments that were painstakingly typed into Outlook just yesterday? They were there all righty, on three different calendars and two calendars were blank. Once the calendar culprits were removed, the syncing bewteen phone and computer went flawlessly.

ALWAYS REMEMBER: before calling for help - is it plugged in, is there ONE calendar in use in Outlook, and is it turned on?

Unplugged

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