Motorola Phone Tools and Outlook

I've got the latest version of MPT (4.2.1a) installed on my newly rebuilt XP
SP2 PC and am trying to sync with Outlook 2003 SP2.

I've tried this on two different PC's without success. When I click on the
Phonebook button, it briefly displays the following:

"This function is unavailable because another function or data connection is
open or the phone is still initializing"

MPT then displays the contents of the phone's memory but can't display the
contents of my Outlook Contacts folder (Exchange Server based).

The annoying thing is that I had this working perfectly on the same machine
with the old installation before I rebuilt it cleanly from scratch!

Anyone any ideas what to look for? This is really annoying.

Please don't suggest using Bluetooth!

Alan

---

› See More: Motorola Phone Tools and Outlook

When you rebuilt this PC of yours, did you restore some backup of your
Outlook PST file to pick up where you left off before rebuilding the PC?
Does Outlook get some sort of folder added for synchronizing, like Palm
Pilots do? Did the re-installation of your MPT software add another one of
these folders?

I'd do the following:
1. Uninstall MPT
2. Uninstall the Moto drivers/hardware in Device Manager
3. Reboot
4. Run Norton Utilities' WinDoctor to clean the registry
5. Re-install the MPT software suite
6. Connect the phone to the computer
7. Try to synch to Outlook

Norton SystemWorks only for WinDoctor is worth the money. It gets the crap
out of you registry with integrity.


"Alan Wortman" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I've got the latest version of MPT (4.2.1a) installed on my newly rebuilt
> XP SP2 PC and am trying to sync with Outlook 2003 SP2.
>
> I've tried this on two different PC's without success. When I click on the
> Phonebook button, it briefly displays the following:
>
> "This function is unavailable because another function or data connection
> is open or the phone is still initializing"
>
> MPT then displays the contents of the phone's memory but can't display the
> contents of my Outlook Contacts folder (Exchange Server based).
>
> The annoying thing is that I had this working perfectly on the same
> machine with the old installation before I rebuilt it cleanly from
> scratch!
>
> Anyone any ideas what to look for? This is really annoying.
>
> Please don't suggest using Bluetooth!
>
> Alan
>

in 125054 20060915 164518 "Alan Wortman" <[email protected]> wrote:
>I've got the latest version of MPT (4.2.1a) installed on my newly rebuilt XP
>SP2 PC and am trying to sync with Outlook 2003 SP2.
>
>I've tried this on two different PC's without success. When I click on the
>Phonebook button, it briefly displays the following:
>
>"This function is unavailable because another function or data connection is
>open or the phone is still initializing"
>
>MPT then displays the contents of the phone's memory but can't display the
>contents of my Outlook Contacts folder (Exchange Server based).
>
>The annoying thing is that I had this working perfectly on the same machine
>with the old installation before I rebuilt it cleanly from scratch!
>
>Anyone any ideas what to look for? This is really annoying.
>
>Please don't suggest using Bluetooth!
>
>Alan

I find the MPT package incredibly temperamental to the point of being useless.
It is constantly claiming to have lost contact with the phone while correctly showing
the status, and some things work more often than others.
I always get the message "This function is unavailable ..." when starting Phonebook,
Synchro or Multimedia though it then often goes on to start it successfully.
Some days I switch on and it will work perfectly all day. Other days I spend up to an
hour trying to get things going before giving up.
It is not the computer - identical results on two desktops and a laptop - and it isn't the
USB cable, as I've tried 3 different ones. Could be the phone I suppose?

"Alan Wortman" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I've got the latest version of MPT (4.2.1a) installed on my newly rebuilt
> XP SP2 PC and am trying to sync with Outlook 2003 SP2.
>
> I've tried this on two different PC's without success. When I click on the
> Phonebook button, it briefly displays the following:
>
> "This function is unavailable because another function or data connection
> is open or the phone is still initializing"
>
> MPT then displays the contents of the phone's memory but can't display the
> contents of my Outlook Contacts folder (Exchange Server based).
>
> The annoying thing is that I had this working perfectly on the same
> machine with the old installation before I rebuilt it cleanly from
> scratch!
>
> Anyone any ideas what to look for? This is really annoying.
>
> Please don't suggest using Bluetooth!
>
> Alan

A simple thing you can try is deleting and recreating your outlook.pst file.
This solved an otherwise intractable problem for me. If necessary export
your contacts and backup any email you want to keep. Good luck.

in 125061 20060916 160053 Pegleg <[email protected]> wrote:
>On Sat, 16 Sep 2006 07:39:17 GMT, Bob Martin <[email protected]>
>wrote:
>>Could be the phone I suppose?
>
>Yep, good possibility! That was the one important point you left out.
>
>What phone are you using?

Well, I didn't leave it out, did I? ;-)

The phone is a V220, and is the only part of the equation which I have
been unable to substitute.

Bob Martin wrote:
> I find the MPT package incredibly temperamental to the point of being useless.
> It is constantly claiming to have lost contact with the phone while correctly showing
> the status, and some things work more often than others.
> I always get the message "This function is unavailable ..." when starting Phonebook,
> Synchro or Multimedia though it then often goes on to start it successfully.
> Some days I switch on and it will work perfectly all day. Other days I spend up to an
> hour trying to get things going before giving up.
> It is not the computer - identical results on two desktops and a laptop - and it isn't the
> USB cable, as I've tried 3 different ones. Could be the phone I suppose?

Don't know what connector is on the V220, but the connector on my V710 is
a constant source of trouble. Many times I have to disconnect and reconnect
it a dozen or more times before I get a good connection.

--
More abuse of eminent domain!
http://www.villagelandgrab.com/

Bob Martin <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> I find the MPT package incredibly temperamental to the point of
> being useless.
> It is not the computer - identical results on two desktops and a
> laptop - and it isn't the USB cable, as I've tried 3 different
> ones. Could be the phone I suppose?

It could very well be the computer as well as the phone. Some software
doesn't "play nice" with other software. MPT has never ever hiccupped
for me.

Is there anything installed on the two desktops and the laptop that's
the same? Antivirus? Firewall? A system tools suite? Any software
known to have compatibility problems such as AOL, Norton/Symetec,
ZoneAlarm or McAfee?

In article <[email protected]>, Pegleg
<[email protected]> wrote:

> What is the issue with McAfee?

It's crappy software that doesn't do anything useful?

Bob Martin wrote:

> I find the MPT package incredibly temperamental to the point of being useless.
> It is constantly claiming to have lost contact with the phone while correctly showing
> the status, and some things work more often than others.
> I always get the message "This function is unavailable ..." when starting Phonebook,
> Synchro or Multimedia though it then often goes on to start it successfully.
> Some days I switch on and it will work perfectly all day. Other days I spend up to an
> hour trying to get things going before giving up.
> It is not the computer - identical results on two desktops and a laptop - and it isn't the
> USB cable, as I've tried 3 different ones. Could be the phone I suppose?

I've had the same experience with MPT. Often it all works fine.

Sometimes the phone will display "unauthorized charger" even though the
USB cable is a genuine Motorola cable (not that the phone can tell!).

Sometimes it claims that it is unable to initialize, then I close MPT
and restart and it all works fine.

With the V220, I'd worry about the cable connection to the phone, as
that type of cable is flaky. Try cleaning the contacts on the phone. It
could be that the rebuilt PC was coincident with the connector not
making good contact.

Pegleg wrote:
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>><[email protected]> wrote:
>>> What is the issue with McAfee?
>>
>>It's crappy software that doesn't do anything useful?
>
> And what does?

Linux. BSD. OS X. My V710.

--
More abuse of eminent domain!
http://www.villagelandgrab.com/

Pegleg <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> On Sun, 17 Sep 2006 16:57:36 -0700, XS11E <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>
>>Is there anything installed on the two desktops and the laptop
>>that's the same? Antivirus? Firewall? A system tools suite?
>>Any software known to have compatibility problems such as AOL,
>>Norton/Symetec, ZoneAlarm or McAfee?
>>
> What is the issue with McAfee?

A very long history of compatibility issues with other software.

In article <[email protected]>, Pegleg
<[email protected]> wrote:

> >It's crappy software that doesn't do anything useful?
>
> And what does?

McAfee is useless software that does neither protects nor rids your
system of viruses.

But then, I use OS X, so I really don't give a ****.

Randall Ainsworth wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>, Pegleg
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>> It's crappy software that doesn't do anything useful?
>> And what does?
>
> McAfee is useless software that does neither protects nor rids your
> system of viruses.

The best anti-virus software these days is AVG from Grisoft, and there
is a free version for home users. It protects against viruses, it isn't
a virus itself like some of the other "suites" on the market.

I spent hours on a relatives PC trying to figure out why she could no
longer go to secure web sites. It was old install of a Norton suite,
that had expired long ago, but was not totally uninstalled. All of a
sudden it decided to block secure sites.

I tried installing McAfee a few years ago, and I could never get it to
install. Hours on the phone with their support group didn't help. It was
some sort of an ActiveX problem.

In article <[email protected]>, SMS
<[email protected]> wrote:

> The best anti-virus software these days is AVG from Grisoft, and there
> is a free version for home users. It protects against viruses, it isn't
> a virus itself like some of the other "suites" on the market.

The best anti-virus solution is OS X.

Randall Ainsworth wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>, SMS
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> The best anti-virus software these days is AVG from Grisoft, and there
>> is a free version for home users. It protects against viruses, it isn't
>> a virus itself like some of the other "suites" on the market.
>
> The best anti-virus solution is OS X.

OS X is not immune from viruses, but it is a better choice in terms of
virus immunity since few virus writers bother with writing viruses for
Apple products.

I'd love to be able to use OS X, but unfortunately I have several
applications for which their is no OS X version, and for which the
closest equivalent program (if any) is not acceptable due to the
requirement to share specific formats of generated output.

Also, with the dropping of the PC Card slot on all new Apple notebooks,
I can't use several required add-on cards, for which there is no
Express-Card equivalent.

I'm thinking of a dual boot Sony Vaio running OS-X and XP. This is what
a lot of users in the film industry are using now, since they need a PC
Card slot, but they want to run Final Cut Pro under OS-X, and AVID under XP.