Palm Desktop Problem/Calendar Datebook Alternative

[thenrik]

Hi:

My sister is a real estate agent with years and years of contacts and even more appointments. She uses Palm Desktop on her PC to check previous appointments, i.e. an appointment with so and so from 2006.

Apparently she's maxed out the capacity of Palm Desktop as it's deleting old appointments from years past, i.e. all of 2006. She can restore from Nvbackup but needs an alternative.

She has a Blackberry for email on the go so syncing to Outlook won't work as the Blackberry has that monopoly.

Can she export the Palm Calendar to an excel spreadsheet or would Datebook by Pimlico be robust enough to retain all of her appointments?

Obviously, Palm Desktop is dead in the water with no further development.

Any suggestions for PIM alternative platforms?

She really likes the T/X but doesn't want to lose all of her data,

Suggestions?

Thanks,

Tom

[Josser]

. . . Apparently she's maxed out the capacity of Palm Desktop as it's deleting old appointments from years past, i.e. all of 2006.
. . .
Can she export the Palm Calendar to an excel spreadsheet
. . .
or would Datebook by Pimlico be robust enough to retain all of her appointments?
Why do you think it is maxed out? Palm® Support Knowledge Library article 24515 (http://kb.palm.com/wps/portal/kb/common/article/24515_en.html) "Maximum number of records the Palm™ handheld and Palm™ Desktop can store."

Palm desktop can not export calender as CSV, only DBA (Palm DateBook Archive), you would need a 3rd party app like Dimex.

Pimlico DateBk uses the same data file as Palms default Datebook, no gain there.

[JavaJiveJump]

Hi:

....
She has a Blackberry for email on the go so syncing to Outlook won't work as the Blackberry has that monopoly.
...
Tom
Are you saying she can't sync her blackberry with Outlook?

Make sure that you have completed the Configure Sync process in the BB Desktop Manager. Make sure the Address Book and Calendar is checked on the Select Device application screen. Or under Synchronization -->click the Sychhronization button next to: Configure synchronization settings for my desktop program. There you can choose Address Book, Calendar and other items and what you want to have happen.

I could have misunderstood you, but this is how it should work with Outlook 2003/2007.

[thenrik]

Hi:

My sister has Palm Desktop 4.2, the one recommended for the Palm T/x.

She can synchronize her Blackberry with Outlook but that precludes syncing the palm with outlook. I was just thinking about alternatives.

As for Palm Desktop being maxed out, she continues to get the following sync error:
Some handheld records were not copied to your PC. Your computer may be full or you may have reached the maximum allowed records on the desktop. To correct this situation, delete some records and perform a HotSync operation again.
Desktop = 858, Handheld = 856
- Some PC records were not copied to the handheld. Your handheld may be full. To correct this situation, delete some records and perform a HotSync operation again.
Desktop = 858, Handheld = 856
Calendar synchronization failed


This is a partial list of her records from Apps, info, records:
Address book: 3582
Calendar: 970
Datebook: 850
Memo: 337
Mobile Database: 4151
A5 215
Adobe 893
Ereader 1416
Eync 13015
Documens 307
Mobile profile2 636
PDF_CN_300_Min 1131

There is a limit of 10,376 number of records that can be synchronized to the Palm™ Desktop Address book application (for Windows), and a limit of 9,866 records you can manually 'enter in' the Desktop. After 9,866, you can no longer enter new records in the Palm Desktop; however, you can synchronize up to 10,376.

My sister finds as she syncs, more and more of her older calendar records are missing from both the Palm and Palm desktop.

Any ideas of what she might delete to successfully sync the Calendar?

Thanks for all the help,

Tom

[JavaJiveJump]

I don't know the answer yet, but I would try to backup everything by exporting to .csv files, to be safe. That way she can even print a permanent record for safe keeping, if necessary.

[Josser]

That error message just meens that some records are corrupted, using DBFixIt (http://www.pimlicosoftware.com/dbfixit.htm) should solve the problem. The limits are for each individual PIM data, i.e. 10k cal 10k addy 10k note 10k todo, 3rd party apps are different and do not count.

[Josser]

. . . also multiple devices can sync with the same profile in Outlook or each a different profile. It is all in the Outlook help file.

[thenrik]

Hi:

My sister found an older NVbackup set and did a selective restore with just the calendar on her backup T/X. Now she has two calendar sets, one with all of the older data but no new data and one with the newer data but no older data. Is there anyway to combine the two?

Can you export and then import or would a third party application like Datebook do the job?

Thanks,

Tom

[juggernaut#2]

This is a partial list of her records from Apps, info, records:
Address book: 3582
Calendar: 970
Datebook: 850
Memo: 337

as has been said before, these numbers do by far not match the maximum capacity of either the handheld apps nor the desktop. I have 900 contacts and 7.500 calendar records and no problems. (there is a slight chance that she overrun the max capacity by adding lots and long notes to calendar entries, but who would do that ...). the numbers you mentioned are those off the palm KB, and they are on a per-app-basis, not alltogether.

as also has been said before the error message she gets is caused by corrupt datebook records and/or an out-of-sync between the new PIM databases and the old ones. this could also explain missing records, as hotsync "cleans" up some corrupted records as well by deleting them. but if the problem is a wrong "chaining" of records, all it´ll find is a new corrupted record, thus deleting this one as well, and so on, eventually deleting all records and not finding the cause.

one of the possible cures is to set the hotsync option for the particular app to "desktop overrides handheld" or vice-versa, whatever device contains the newest data.

the message has nothing to do with reached max capacity (even though it sounds like that). I don´t know any user of a plam ddevice who has ever reached the limit.

all of the abovementioned problems (and more) can be solved by pimlico´s "DbScan" or - better even - "DbFixit", TealPoint´s "TealScan" and probably more apps for this purpose. have her run those and telll us what happenend.

as for your last question i suppose she did not restore the right databases for restoring the calendar database. most probably she only restored either the old or the new ones, but not all of them (no, on a TX the calendar records are not contained in "datebookDB").



BTW, you post ever new questions but don´t respond to questions and proposals ...

[thenrik]

Hi:

Thanks for all of your help. Please bear with me as I'm in San Francisco while my sister is in Albuquerque. I don't use Palm Desktop or sync and have limited calendar entries. I'm going to get my sister to join so she can post in a more timely manner.

She has DBfixit and it reports no errors. I'll post again later today and get her to post this evening.

Tom

[thenrik]

My sister has two T/X palms but only syncs her primary palm to her desktop and uses Nvbackup on both. About 6 months ago she synced her primary Palm to her laptop in a fresh Palm Desktop install. She only did this once and syncs to her desktop computer continued to work flawlessly until about 10 days ago.

On her primary Palm and Palm Desktop, she get's the error message:
Some handheld records were not copied to your PC. Your computer may be full or you may have reached the maximum allowed records on the desktop. To correct this situation, delete some records and perform a HotSync operation again.
Desktop = 858, Handheld = 856
- Some PC records were not copied to the handheld. Your handheld may be full. To correct this situation, delete some records and perform a HotSync operation again.
Desktop = 858, Handheld = 856
Calendar synchronization failed

She runs Dbfixit regularly and it reports no errors but clearly some kind of "wrong chaining of records" is occurring. Each time she syncs, she loses more calendar entries. Currently she has about 900 calendar entries on her primary Palm and 4500 calendar entries on her secondary Palm as a result of a NV backup restore from January of 2008.

Perhaps, Palm Desktop is now corrupted beyond repair. She is thinking about uninstalling Palm Desktop, reinstalling and then using handheld overwrites desktop, the default. Would this be the best way to eliminate the sync error?

We also tried Tealscan, the new March, 2009, version but the error message still comes up when she syncs. I'm wary of Tealscan as the Fixall button deleted many of my registration entries as well as causing other problems. I backed up my Palm before installing Tealscan and restored it soon after. My sister also had to restore after using Tealscan when her Real Estate software would no longer work.

As for Dbfixit, I have a reoccurring problem of having the Palm reset when selecting this or that memo. DBfixit reports no errors. The solution is restoring MemosDB_Pmem. Could there be a similar solution for my sister?

Ideally my sister would like to combine the calendar entries of her primary palm, 900, and her secondary palm, 4500. She could manually enter the 900 entries into her secondary palm, do a NVbackup and then do a selective restore to her primary palm. That would be tedious.

Is there a way to beam a range of entries, say a month, with any app or is it just one at a time?

There are apps like Dimex which can export Palm Desktop calendar entries or those that work with Outlook but Calendar doesn't seem to have an import or export feature. Palm Desktop 4.2 can export or import .dba archives.

My sister could export to Outlook or use Dimex to export to Excel or any other format but what's the best way to combine the calendar files from her primary and secondary palm with all of her entries?

Thanks,

Tom

[juggernaut#2]

first, your sister is well advised NOT to sync two palms with two desktops (except if they are used in a 1-1 and 1-1 situation). otherwise, errors like the ones you are reporting are prone to happen.

second, the problem reported by hotsync should usually be solved with a "desktop overwrites handheld" operation (or the other way around). maybe uninstalling palm desktop helps, but since palm desktop only displays records stored within the data directory, i doubt that ths will eliminate the cause.

to transfer records from one palm to the other is not trivial. besides beaming the records in question, preferrably with a beaming tool that allows for beaming of a whole bunch of records (see palmgear for this), I´d use datebk6 and it´s history function for this (and else as well).

[Greek]

MassTransit will allow her to choose which Contacts or entries in a Calendar to be beamed to another device. It's a list with checkboxes that allows to choose categories, all, etc.

Regards,

[thenrik]

Hi:

Syncing with Palm overwrites desktop solved the corruption and the sync error is no longer occurring. Thanks much!

Mass Transit seemed like the ideal solution but it lists datebook rather than calendar. The datebook category successfully brought up her calendar entries, she selected all but when she tried to beam between her primary and secondary palm, it bombed with the error message that it couldn't find Datebook.

Any ideas for a work around to get the T/X to accept mass beaming from Datebook?

She could also beam to her old 505 but then how to convert the Datebook category to Calendar?

Thanks,

Tom

[thenrik]

Hi:

We found a solution. Calendar allows beaming all records with a date range so she restored a Nvbackup calendar set with all of her old entries going to October of 2008 on her secondary palm. Then she beamed the newer records from her primary palm using the date range feature. At that point she had a complete set on her secondary palm. She then used NVbackup and then did a selective restore for calendar on her primary palm.

Thanks so much for all your help!

A couple of other questions: Any recommendations for software to remove duplicate entries? Would any of you recommend DDD, Datebook6 or PD duplicates cleaner? Any other apps?

Thanks,

TOm

[Josser]

For dups, I have had great success using RFTidy (http://freshmeat.net/projects/rftidy) .

A mass beam of the All category in any of the PIMs will put all received data into the Unfiled category. Beaming each category will retain the category.

[potter]

Re: Duplicate Records.

Since you sister syncs against Palm Desktop 4.2, she can use it to find and remove duplicates. (This feature appears to have been removed in Palm Desktop 6.X.) Do a menu Tools, Addins, Delete Duplicates.

[thenrik]

Thanks to all for your help!

My sister depends on the PIM apps and uses them daily. It's a great relief to have them all back on track.

She tried Rftidy on her secondary palm but only found three duplicates and dealt with them manually.

I'll pass on the Palm desktop 4.2 remove duplicates feature.

Again, thanks so much.

Tom

[PETERPNYC]

Re: Duplicate Records.

Since you sister syncs against Palm Desktop 4.2, she can use it to find and remove duplicates. (This feature appears to have been removed in Palm Desktop 6.X.) Do a menu Tools, Addins, Delete Duplicates.


Since I lost and recovered almost all my data, I have triple entries of all data in Datebook Palm ver 6.2.2 . Not as lucky as the person who had ver 4. 2 . What would you recommend to remove all the trips and some dupes going back to 2001 in datebook . Hopefully something free. I have a treo 650 with the desktop on Vista basic
Thx

[Greek]

I can't remember whether 6.2 has the feature as I am using 4.2. In PalmDesktop, Menu, Tools, Complements (something like that), Delete Duplicates.

Regards,

[PETERPNYC]

I can't remember whether 6.2 has the feature as I am using 4.2. In PalmDesktop, Menu, Tools, Complements (something like that), Delete Duplicates.

Regards,

Yiasou ree . Me too Greek LOL I can tell you it does not have the feauture. its a pain to delete them one by one as I have been doing in my spare time . Any suggestions anyone for ver 6.2.2 any free software ?
Kali Nixta ree

[PETERPNYC]

Now after running antispywrae my whole puter crashed and I had to do a system restore and I lost all my calendar book. I have imported it from my backup file on my desktop, but my favs in Internet Explorer have been changed and I can not find the other post I cretaed in this forum. WQhen I click on my name to see all the threads I have started it says I dont have access to that info . Whassup with all my electrical stuff going nuts in the last 3 days HELP How do I find th other post I made and the answer to this dupes problem Help

[martinloat]

Hi

you have 4 posts identified;
3 in this thread which you can obviously access and 1 identified as http://www.1src.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151431

If you made other posts they are not currently attributed to the login name you are using. :cool:

For getting rid of duplicate / triplicate entries you might try this:
http://www.stevenscreek.com/palm/undupe.html
Its not free but it does cost a lot less than most.

[PETERPNYC]

Hi

you have 4 posts identified;
3 in this thread which you can obviously access and 1 identified as http://www.1src.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151431

If you made other posts they are not currently attributed to the login name you are using. :cool:

For getting rid of duplicate / triplicate entries you might try this:
http://www.stevenscreek.com/palm/undupe.html
Its not free but it does cost a lot less than most.


Thank you ,
Since I lost and recovered almost all my data, I have triple entries of all data in Datebook Palm ver 6.2.2 . Not as lucky as the person who had ver 4. 2 . What would you recommend to remove all the trips and some dupes going back to 2001 in datebook . Hopefully something free. I have a treo 650 with the desktop on Vista basic
Thx

[martinloat]

I assume from your references to the Palm desktop v4.2 that when you talk of Datebook you are referring to Palms built in calendar and not DateBk6. This being the case then Undupe that I suggest above is $9 shareware with a 30 day trial from http://www.stevenscreek.com/download.html
It gets all sorts of good reviews and should sort you out on both your chunky PC and your Palm.

If you prefer to try and duplicate Palms desktop deduplicator then try PD duplicates Cleaner (also $9 shareware) from http://rbytes.net/mobile/pd-duplicates-cleaner-review/

I am not aware of any other freestanding applications of this sort that do not cost $39 and up.

[Josser]

Red Feline Tidy (http://freshmeat.net/search?q=rftidy) is a free, open source, duplicate deleter that I have used for years.

[martinloat]

Red Feline Tidy (http://freshmeat.net/search?q=rftidy) is a free, open source, duplicate deleter that I have used for years.

This looks good but I think they have moved it; as the down load link that your link points to does not work for me. (maybe the host down for servicing or something)

I eventually located a copy at:

http://www.dt002.titandsl.co.uk/software/rftidy.html

It also has a FAQ with this to say:

How do I know I can trust your program with my data?

I don't really think you should! It took me only six hours to write the 1.0 release of RFTidy, not much of that time was testing. You will find the program covered in :eek: warnings to backup your device before you run it. Follow this advice and make sure you keep the backups for a week or so before deleting them just in case you don't spot something right away :eek: . The best I can say is that it works great for me and is fairly simple so there's not a lot that can go wrong but as it says all over the program there is ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.


When I run the program it just scans the data and returns to the startup screen. Why?

That sounds like it is working properly! There is no separate dialog to ask if you want to delete something. The program always deletes any duplicates it finds during the scan.

If you still have duplicates left then this is probably because the program only deletes exact duplicates. These tend to occur due to failed attempts to synchronise and are especially common if you sync. your Palm with two different desktop machines and something goes wrong.

If you have inexact duplicates, for example, you have two entries but only one contains an e-mail address, these will not be deleted (or even reported).

[notmuch]

As I understand it, the issue with Vista and 4.1.4 is with drivers for hotsyncing.

You could "downgrade" the desktop to 4.1.4, use the duplicate remover feature (with no intention of hotsyncing), and then "upgrade" back to 6.2.

When I got my Centro, I mindlessly "upgraded" to 6.2. When I learned I didn't need 6.2 on XP, I did the 6.2 to 4.1.4 "downgrade" with no issues.

of course have a good backup of your entire Palm/userid directory, YMMV.

[kmoser]

Hi:

Can she export the Palm Calendar to an excel spreadsheet or would Datebook by Pimlico be robust enough to retain all of her appointments?

Obviously, Palm Desktop is dead in the water with no further development.
Tom

You can convert your Palm Datebook to CSV format using this website: http://www.kmoser.com/palm2csv/. It's fast, free, easy, and there's nothing to install or download. It all works from your browser.