Active Sync MS Mobile 2005 Truncated Contacts Issu

Rhotic, Well I tried to up the settings over "Hex" = 5000,to 80k and work my way down. I figured out I need about 73K or about 33 pages in word. I would get errors (something like 8007057..???), but the point is I couldn't get over the "Hex" = 5000, which gives me around 20K of info. I even tried "Hex" = 6000, (wasn't sure if the number had to be in certain increments) but no luck. So while your idea helped a lot, it still has limitations. Any other ideas??? You're on the right track <G>.

ARGH!!!

Charis and others... I got it. The current limit on notes entries in Calendar and Contacts is 5k. I know this because it's right in the registry. The key below was in the 2003 models, but the OS didn't not pay attention to this key. In Windows Mobile 5.0, there have been development changes...
This is no guarantee and I bear no responsibility because a registry hack is involved (backup your registy and device), however this works on my UTStarcom 6700...
Get yourself a registry editor... I use Resco Explorer 2005 (include reg editor)
And apply this hack...

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\ActiveSync]
"BodyTruncation"=dword:00005000

this will get you 20 kB in your notes section instead of 5 kB. That was enough for me, I have not yet experimented with higher limits. Maybe someone else can (but backup your device). Maybe I'll get time.

So, I would upload a reg file but I don't think I can here.

So, use the above modification, that is, go to the above registry key and change the BodyTruncation key to "Dec" = "20480" or "Hex" = 5000, as you see above. The former value is "5120" (Dec), which is 5120 bytes. The new value will be 20480 bytes.
Save the value. Reset your device.

I recommend something like SoftReset 2003...check Google. Or if you're going to reset your device with the stylus, wait about 3 minutes or so before you do it. In the Win Mob 5.0 devices, it can take a couple minutes for the device to update the registry. I don't know. It can take a few seconds or maybe a couple minutes. A lot of the SoftReset programs (also like in Tweaks 2002), will make sure the registry is up to date before resetting, or so I've heard. Seems to work for me.

Once you've reset the device, use Activesync again, and sync all your data from the Desktop to the device and you will have (if you have less than 20 kB of data) ... you will have full details in your Contacts and Calendar in the notes section (not refering to Pocket Office Notes). If you're wondering how to update the data, you would have to have all the Desktop data copy over. I couldn't really think of another way other than go through them and make a small change on the desktop, such as adding a space, and then it would sync over the "new" data to the device, taking everything over. (Maybe there's a better, quicker way, especially if you have to do it 100 times. Of course, if you have this problem to begin with, you're NOT complaining at this point!)

If it still truncates your data, because you have more than 20kB, note whether this hack is working, because you will see that there is more data than before. If it's not working, check your steps again, because it works on mine. If it is working, but you need more, experiment with bigger numbers. (But backup your registry and data, upon each success.) Next enter 40960 (40kB)and then 81920, and so on. The more you use, the more memory it is going to consume on your device. There are limits either in the registry key or in the devices memory. Please post here if you find any limits or are successful in making higher limits work.
Later - God bless you all.

Another user with this Activesync issue... just changed from PPC6600 to PPC6700 and to Activesync 4.x. I have great need for the Notes section of the Contacts, on my phone, for my business. Wish I had something to add, other than to show Microsoft that there are more people with this problem. I need a fix for this too.

I am the Intellisync user who posted earlier. The version is 5.5.0 Build:89

I am MUCH older than MechTech and have been working professionally with computers for about 25 years. Now retired, I handle a much smaller volume of data with Outlook 2000 on my notebook.
ActiveSync, all versions, gave up the ghost with synchronising and after hours of work I gave up ActiveSync.
I find that Intellisync, inside the limitations mentioned in my earlier posts, works well and reliably for me. It is not quite perfect in that once in a blue moon it fails to update the occasional appointment from the notebook to the ppc, but with my smaller volume this is easy to see and a second sync fixes this. Also, just occasionally it subtracts one hour from one or two appointments in the previous week when syncing from my ppc to the notebook. I feel that this might have something to do with the daylight saving corrections not being applied. Maybe if I was to reinstall everything from scratch into both machines these minor problems, (for me!), would disappear, but I have become used to taking an image on both machines and fixing any serious problems that sometimes occur by copying back the last image and of course, this copies all the prior good and all the prior bad.
This process only takes a few minutes for each machine whereas reformatting, hard resetting, reinstalling takes many hours.
I suppose that the only sensible solution to these problems is to work from a web based data source, after all we all know that rule number one for data is to have only one source.
I did for a while have an access database on the notebook which I copied to and from the ppc which queried and read the data with DataOntheRun V3. This worked well but had the snag that only one machine could be edited at a time.

Cliff N.

Contact with Truncated Note Fields >>> Need REALWORLD Fix on this.
ALSO >>> Duplicate Calender Items created during SYNC of "ALL" calender items.

For you REAL power users here ... I have 1811 contacts ... and I have 14,500 calender items that need to be sync on Windows Mobile 5.0 w/Active Sync 4.1 ... I am using a new Dell Axim x51v ... and YES i have done the 2 Dell updates ! (there is a wireless keyboard / option fix ... and a bios upgrade ... check Dell .... it is on the wole x50-x51 series.
>>>>>
Looking for SERIOUS replies and communictions here and not guys that are newbies or flying by the seat of their pants. If you have a question about other stuff ... just ask and I'll answer.
>>>>>>>
Contact with Truncated Note Fields >>> Need REALWORLD Fix on this.
ALSO >>> Duplicate Calender Items (which I have not experienced since palm / Sony Clie 300 B&W
and a later incident with Amicus Attorney / Outlook Sync to Atty calender. (don't worry guys I am NOT an attorney but I have to use the program)
>> I just switched from Pocket PC 2003 on a Toshiba e755 to Dell Axim x51v. I too have note fileds .. (NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH the regular "notes" tab .. we are referring to the NOTE filed WITHIN the CONTACTS. I am an accident investigator and I rely on my PDA and my personal NOTES WITHIN my CONTACTS are valuable to me. Luckily I caught the error immediately ... and there has to be a solid fix. The Dell rep that tried to help me out did not directly state that it was inherent to either Windows Mobile 5.0 or Active Sycn 4.0 or 4.1 but I suspect if we all complain loud enough that there will be a fix / patch soon.
>>> I need to know ... in detail ... who tried the Intellisync .... what version Intellisync and what happened after that. Also if anyone else came upon a fix.
>>> I FEEL that the file allocation table and / or file size for each contact note is set too low or the sliding tables are not allocating enough space. I ran out and bought myslelf a 2.0GB CF card and I am going to try to sync the contacts portion to the CF card. In my older PDA's (which ones I dont recall) I think it was possible to transfer data to the memory stick or memory card ... Let's keep in touch and resolve this >>>

>>> REMEMBER the problem is the Note field IN THE CONTACTS Section ... not the ordinary "notes" ...

... the other problem I had and still have is synchronizing my calender which I instinctively did incrementally ... from 2 weeks .. then 1 month ... the 2 months .. then 6 months ( I think it was 6 months) ... then ... each time I tried to sync ALL ....the PDA went into a continuous sycn loop that accomplished nothing other than greying out the "options" tab. Before I contacted the Dell rep ... i was through 2 installs of Active Sycn 4.1 (newest from Microsoft) ... then 4.0 (supplied with unit) ... then as per Dell rep ... 4.1 installed over 4.0, and 3 HARD resets. The results were replications of older APPOINTMENTS .... (calender)... it seems that it never got to the part where it did a "clean up" at the end to remove duplicates or that is not an option in 4.0 or 4.1.

The Reps from Microsoft are a USELESS ... past 3 times I needed to call ( premium support on OFFICE products and Operating system glitches I got the help of some pretty nice, polite but NOT TECHNICALLY trained persons in INDIA !! ... yes, INDIA as in near the middle east .... INDIA as in between Europe and Asia ... what the hell is going on here ?
The rep from Microsoft took over my computer from India ... for 4 hours while talking to him on the phone ... and left me in worse shape than I started. he totally blew my Outlook folders and did not address Active Sync 4.0 or 4.1 or Windows Mobile 5.0 which I asked for TECH advice on this.

I am 51 years old with 17 years microsoft BS behind me and it seems a never ending road ahead. (I puchased a PowerBook out of frustration).

PS: ANYONE that copies web page contents to The NOTES field ... or to a Microsoft WORD document and then either directly or indirectly to your notes field should use EXTREME caution as you are brining over all the hidden "forwards" and "imbedded" items that are in there.

If I need to copy text over from the web ... or it has already been transposed FROM the web (with active contents) to a WORD document (you have not transfered the active contents to Word) TRY this next time....

OPEN up a new .txt document ... name it whatever ... I name mine "FILTERED WEB TEXT" or "SCRATCH PAD" .... A TEXT document in the simplest and purest from of text transfer, I have found. If you copy the and paste your text to a ".txt" document ... THEN >>>> copy it to your notes field .. you are cutting your risks and exposure way down.

Serious responses please respond here to keep the forum going and please also ... "cc" me at >>> Bookmakr22 [at] aol [dot] com

Still working out many bugs, but trying to make it work. Haven't returned my other phone yet just in case. Wi-Fi went very well and my network is pretty complex (shared mode; not broadcasting ssid; MAC addresses req'd, etc).

Haven't found a solution for contacts yet. Have been looking at 3rd party software but nothing stands out as of yet.

Good luck!

How are you getting on with this problem? For my meagre requirements all seems to work well.
I am shortly moving into a home Wifi Network and this might introduce some interesting new problems!

Cliff N.

I copied a large note from my PC's Outlook contacts to a word document. Next I sync'd the .doc to my PDA, and then copied the .doc contents into a new contact note. Guess what -- the contact held the data, sync'd to the pc, and allowed updates. BUT, as soon as I edited the contact on the PC, the note lost it's formatting and became truncated. So the issue is only with synchronization from PC to PDA, not the other way around.

Grace 2 U!

Thanks for this heads up.

I'm beginning to rethink this issue. I have had contacts with notes containing tens of thousands of characters right back through 2000. In fact, I'm currenly looking at a contact note on my Audiovox PPC-6600 (Win Mobile 2003 w/ Active Sync 3.8) which has the following specs:

4,191 Words
21,057 Characters
25,024 Characters w/ spaces

There is no truncation, and I can edit the note on the PDA with accurate synchronization on the PC. But the same contact on my Audiovox PPC-6700 (WM 2005 Active Sync 4.1) is truncated to the following specs:

845 Words
4,237 Characters
4,990 Characters w/ spaces

Supposedly the limitations are the same for all releases of Active Sync and PocketPC (cf.:http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.pocketpc.activesync&mid=0619bb53-f301-41ad-bffb-8c1decf0d783), if this is accurate, then I should be able to restore those notes that were truncated on my PPC-6700.

Interesting to note, I just realized that I lost all the formatting as well (underlining, bolding, colored fonts, etc) as well. It would appear that my issue has less to do with limitations on note size and more to do with a sync issue?

Grace 2 U!

I have found that my PPC, a ViewSonic running WM2003, limits the size of a Contact Note during sync with Intellisync. It runs out of memory. The last few lines synced are corrupted.
However, a note of 6 pages and 3,500 words seems to be ok. I tried this syncing two notes simultaneously and no problems. Fortunately this is well past my needs so I am alright Jack!
With critical data and larger volumes a backup prior to experimentation might be a good idea.

Cliff N.

Thanks for the intellisync info; I'll give it a look. I guess the issue is with Active Sync as opposed to WM2005?

Grace 2 U!

As a point of interest, I inserted a jpg graphic into a Note. That synced across to the ppc but does not display on the ppc.
<<>> indicates that it is there. I added a few words and synced back again, and voila, picture and the words are in the note on the desktop!

Cliff N.

Try Intellisync. I have just tested with a Contact Notes containing 3050 words and it syncs ok. I don't know if there is an upper limit but I have not lost anything yet.
How large do you want?

Cliff N.