Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 242

I know that I can back up, do a hard reset and then resync my Visor to a different computer without duplicating all the data from my PIM. OK. Let's say for various reasons I'd rather not.

So, I carry home my Lotus *.0r4 file, and now I want to make my home computer the main place to which I'll sync without getting dupe entries all through the lotus file. It seems to me there must be a set of files I can put on a floppy and transfer from my work to home computers that will tell Palm what was backed up, what wasn't, what needs to be synced, what doesn't. Etc. True? And if so, which?

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Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Modesto, CA USA
Posts: 599

Mark
The files located in the Palm/SR/Backup directory is what is what's synced each time and only the files that have changed since the last synch are modified. Because they'll be a time lag between when you copy the files to floppy and install on the desktop they are going to synch all when you get home.
You can chose the options to have the desktop overwrite the handheld from the hot sync manager but I'm not certain how that will be handled by Lotus on the address book side. It actually looks for changes in the individual contact within the address book so if your addresses are identical between work and home you shouldn't have a problem. If they are different you still shouldn't get a bunch of duplicates if you force the hot synch to have the Desktop overwrite the Handheld but you'll lose any changes in the data on the Visor.

If you want to avoid duplicates in the address book then you'll probably need to delete the contacts from either your desktop or handheld...once. Then syncing between home and office shouldn't cause duplicates after that. But, if I were you...I'd force a sync to your lotus program first by having the handheld overwrite the desktop and start the Lotus program with no records. This insures that the info on the Visor which has your Office info will be the same on your home desktop.

Then you can just start synching back and forth from home to office and both machines will be identical.

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 242

>>>...I'd force a sync to your lotus program first by having the handheld overwrite the desktop and start the Lotus program with no records. This insures that the info on the Visor which has your Office info will be the same on your home desktop.
<<<

I thought of using the handheld overwrites options, but two problems occurred to me. One, the fields are a little different. I suspect it will muddle up by Lotus file, which is a lot more detailed than the Visor. Second, when I thought I'd do a trial run (with a backup created) and switched the home hotsync manager to "handheld overwrites" I could not get Visor to sync any more. It did once at home in "sync" mode, but just stopped working in "overwrite mode." BTW, I don't nec. want to continously sync both to home and office. I see no point to that; I have the Visor itself around to give me any answers that a secondary, infrequently used computer doesn't have. (Actually, it's not home computer to which I'm going to change my main sync; I'm just simplifying this.....) I just want to change my primary sync computer.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Modesto, CA USA
Posts: 599

A complex issue:
Why not transfer all of your files to your home computer and then hard reset the Visor and start anew.
Adding the files from the backup directory one at a time or in small groups by simply double clicking on them from within Windows Explorer and having the Palm Installer Tool add them as a new application.
This will add any databases that are necessary for "other" programs.

If you look at the files in the backup directory you can figure out what resident application they are stored to or for the Visor and simply remove them from the backup. Then when you sync the first time the data from the desktop will be "clean" going into the Visor....therfore no duplications.

I know this sounds like a pain but if there is data stored on the Visor and you sync to a "new" computer there are going to be duplications.

Application files are usually .prc extension and the databases are usually .pdb. If you just load the prc file you'll only load the app and not the database provided that it has two files of similar name on your hard drive. If there is only one file type and it's .prc it may have the database built into it.

All of this is a mute point if your using the resident programs that came with the visor and no secondary programs. As I mentioned, hard reset the Visor and have it act like a first sync, then the data from the home PC will be the only thing installed to the Visor.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Modesto, CA USA
Posts: 599

A complex issue:
Why not transfer all of your files to your home computer and then hard reset the Visor and start anew.
Adding the files from the backup directory one at a time or in small groups by simply double clicking on them from within Windows Explorer and having the Palm Installer Tool add them as a new application.
This will add any databases that are necessary for "other" programs.

If you look at the files in the backup directory you can figure out what resident application they are stored to or for the Visor and simply remove them from the backup. Then when you sync the first time the data from the desktop will be "clean" going into the Visor....therfore no duplications.

I know this sounds like a pain but if there is data stored on the Visor and you sync to a "new" computer there are going to be duplications.

Application files are usually .prc extension and the databases are usually .pdb. If you just load the prc file you'll only load the app and not the database provided that it has two files of similar name on your hard drive. If there is only one file type and it's .prc it may have the database built into it.

All of this is a mute point if your using the resident programs that came with the visor and no secondary programs. As I mentioned, hard reset the Visor and have it act like a first sync, then the data from the home PC will be the only thing installed to the Visor.

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 242

Well, I could certainly copy to the backup or addon directory all of third party software. That's easy. (If it hadn't been for the issue cropping up below...) But the key part is the dupes. I do have a little utility called "undupe" that helps with the Visor, but doesn't help Lotus any.

And then, while I was mulling this all over, my work computer died completely, incl. the addon directory. So now, my only copies of third party programs, etc are on the Visor--that won't sync due to the USB sync issues others have reported, so I can't do this even if I want to.

Sheesh.

I'm going to go back to syncing to my work computer if I can ever get my Visor to sync, but of course now the issue is the same, i.e., the *.or4 lotus file is now newly transferred to my new work computer....!

I tried sending Handspring an email for their suggestions. Of course, they never answer...

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