Registered: Apr 2000
Location: Chapel Hill, NC
Posts: 25

I have just scanned the postings looking for an answer to my syncing problem, and I have noticed a lot of reports of the exact same thing: it used to work, now hotsync is flaky.

This is across USB/serial and Mac/Windows!

I hate to be a conspiracy theorist, but is it possble something is hapenning to a lot of our Visors? Hm...

For the record, I'm losing the connection about 80-90% of the time I do a USB sync w/ my Mac. It worked fine for almost 2 months.

= Ruby

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 144

rubyji:
Try cleaning the contacts both of the Visor and the cradle, that worked fine for me. Also disable all Hacks and do a soft reset.
The cradle and the contacts of the Visor tend to get a little dirty over the time, and although syncing with Hackmaster and Hacks enabled works first, it sometimes creates problems after some time (at least in my case).

Hope this helps!

P.S. I do not think that all the syncing problems are due to bad units... I guess some faulty third party software or a bug in the syncing software itself sometimes creates these problems. One fact seems to be the more Hacks and launcher programs you run, the more it is likely that you get software conflicts.

At least that's what I think.

Good luck,

mc9

Registered: Jun 2000
Location: Jackson, Mississippi
Posts: 51

I was having chronic synching problems and did three things: deleted all hacks and apps that I rarely used, got a new serial cradle, and ran dbScan to clear out all (in my case 350) duplicate shortcuts. Now it syncs like a charm.

Registered: Apr 2000
Location: Chapel Hill, NC
Posts: 25

Here's a new twist: I got a brand-spanking-new computer (still an iMac, now OS 9.0.3 instead of 9.0.4) and it worked once, and now it won't sync anymore!

Also, I copied all the exact contents of my old Palm folder to the new one, but the new conduits do not show up in Conduit Manager. Maybe I need to look for a Prefs file...

I am going to call HandSpring, this is driving me insane.

= Ruby

Registered: Apr 2000
Location: Chapel Hill, NC
Posts: 25

Well I got a response from HandSpring and it works - at least for now. Here's what they had to say:

quote:

---

1. Bring up the HotSync Manager setup screen. Click the "Disable" radio button. Close HotSync Manager. Unplug the USB cradle. Start up HotSync Manager again. Click the "Enable" radio button. (If an error message occurs, set it back to "Disable"). Plug in the USB cradle again. With HotSync Manager's USB connection enabled, try another HotSync operation.

2. If step 1 does not help, disable the backup conduit. Do this by clicking Instant Palm Desktop icon | Hotsync (Handspring) | Conduit Settings..., double click the Backup conduit, select the "Do nothing" radio button, also click the "Make Default" button and then the OK button. Try another HotSync operation.

3. If step 1 and 2 don't work, remove the backup folder from the user folder. Try a HotSync operation.

---

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: College Station, TX
Posts: 143

Did you upgrade the Mac OS between the time when it was working and when it stopped?

I only have OS8.6 on the mac I synch with (its HD is too full to install OS9), but I recall there was a problem with synching using OS9.04. This was a problem for both Visors and Palms.

I think the newest version of HS Palm desktop fixed the problem. HS got the patch out faster than Palm, btw.