FJ Software

I’ve been trying to perform an initial sync of my contacts and appointments using MPE 1.8.1 over USB for the past 2 days. I’ve commented in a few other threads about this, so here is a recap and my eventual workaround. I hope that this detailed recap of my steps can help FJ’s development effort.

My Phone: Samsung Captivate i897 (GT-i9000)
My ROM: Continuum 4.0 (Froyo 2.2.1)
My Carrier: AT&T
Version: MPE 1.8.1 over USB
Laptop OS: Windows 7 pro
Sync type: one way, Outlook > Phone

My initial install of MPE and initial sync effort did not go well. The first attempt last night resulted in about 20-30 contacts being added at ½ second per contact, then they started taking about 20 seconds per contact. So I let it run overnight. The next morning about 1,000 of those contacts were actually added (I did not save the log file at this point, my mistake). I clicked Sync with Outlook again, but got into a vicious circle of contacts being added at 20 seconds per, then receiving the “Connection to phone not possible” error. I had “avoid stand-by” selected on MPE client per FJ’s advice on another thread but that did not help. I received the error every 20 seconds, or after every contact was “added”. I put quotes around “added” because I did not know it at the time but the contacts were not being added to my phone. After a few hours of this, I got frustrated and needed a break.

When I came back, I uninstall then reinstall MPE. For the next steps, please note that Outlook is closed during this entire process.

I first synced MPE with my phone (no outlook) to see what was actually added during my past syncing efforts. The results were that 1389 out of 1806 contacts were loaded on my phone. There were some triplicates due to the last few rounds of sync attempts, so I deleted the extra contacts on the phone. After re-syncing between the phone and MPE one last time, I configured the sync options to sync with Outlook (one way sync) and gave it a try:

• Clicked on Sync with Outlook.
• Initiating Sync message came up
• After a minute or so, I was prompted to “Allow access”, and chose 10 minutes
• An Outlook Reminder window popped up 20-30 seconds later
• The confirmation window popped up showing all of the contacts that needed to be added. I clicked OK to start the process.
• I counted 46 contacts created @ ½ second per, but on the 47th and 48th, the phone took 20 seconds to create each of them. On the 49th, I got the “connection to phone not possible” error.
• Closed MPE client. Disconnected phone. Forceclosed MPE.

Restarted MPE, and connected my phone. In the Contact list, the 47th and 48th are starred as needing to be synced. EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE SUCCESSFULLY ADDED TO MY PHONE (I check the contacts app on the phone to confirm this). These were the ones that took 20 seconds to add. The 49th contact, the one where the connection error occurred, was NOT added.

I then clicked on Download Entries, and clicked OK after getting the warning that changes in MPE will be lost. The updated contact list confirmed that 1437 out of 1806 were now loaded on the phone. So I started the sync cycle again:

• Clicked on Sync with Outlook.
• Initiating Sync
• Allow access for 10 minutes
• Outlook Reminder window popped up
• Confirmation for sync (Force Outlook -> phone), clicked OK
• This time, 290 contacts were created @ ½ second per, but on the 289th and 290th, the phone took 20 seconds to create. On the 291th contact, I got the “connection to phone not possible” error. A pattern is forming.
• I repeated the steps above (closed client, disconnected, force closed MPE, restarted MPE, Downloaded Entries).

I restarted MPE, connected my phone, and again the 289th and 290th contact, which were successfully added, are starred as needing to be synced.

I clicked on Download Entries. The updated contact list confirmed that 1727 out of 1806 were now loaded on the phone. So I started the sync cycle again:

• Clicked on Sync with Outlook
• Initiating Sync
• Allow access for 10 minutes
• Outlook Reminder window popped up
• Confirmation for sync (Force Outlook -> phone), clicked OK

This sync was very strange. 34 contacts were added @ ½ second per contact. The final 45 went through the process of being added at 20 seconds per BUT WERE NOT ADDED TO THE PHONE (I checked after he process completed). I never got the “connection to phone not possible” error.

After the 45th 20-second contact went through the entry process, the “check entry” sequence was initiated. Each “check entry” took 20 seconds to complete.

This was conducted for ONLY FOR THE CONTACTS THAT TOOK ½ SECOND TO ADD TO THE PHONE. None of the 20-second contacts went through the “check entry” process. After the last ½ second contact was checked, the contact list DID NOT REFLECT ANY OF THE ½ SECOND CONTACTS BEING ADDED. Moreover, the 20 second contacts were all starred (just like in the earlier attempts).

This is where it gets weird. I clicked on Download Entries. And received an error message that the MPE could not communicate with the phone. I checked the phone and MPE client was still reflecting that it was connected. So I tried to Download Entries again. It worked AND NOW ALL 1806 CONTACTS WERE ADDED. Somehow the 45 “20-second” contacts that didn’t show up on my phone after the sync with Outlook, were now there.

The updated contact list confirmed that 1806 out of 1806 were now loaded on the phone, and a visual check confirmed no duplicates.

I clicked Sync with Outlook one more time to test. Everything worked.

I then initiated a sync of my appointments with Outlook, and that process (for 112 entries) was also successful.

So after a day of attempts and troubleshooting, my Captivate is finally updated with all of my current contacts and appointments. I hope that this long post can help FJ’s development efforts, and give other Galaxy series owners some tips on getting past possible initial frustrations.

Thanks,
Forrest

Thanks for your recap.

The probelem is known on some Samsung phones but really ahrd to find. MyPhoneExplorer does not care about speed, he does work alsoways as fast as possible. He just inserts the contact-data to the database. It seems that the contact/calendar provider in samsung does iterate the whole database on every insert and so it does crash after xxx inserts. Currently i have found no way to overide the problem. For the Galaxy the problem was fixed with the newest firmware.

Your "way" to get a initial equal state was exactly correct. Its important to press "Download entire" after a failed sync.

Please keep in mind that some phones does break network-connections if they move to standby.

I appreciate the reply. I'm tempted to upgrade to gingerbread, but am pretty happy with the speed and battery life I'm getting from the custom 2.2 ROMs over on XDA.

We are still without an 'official' gingerbread release for At&t in the U.S. Sigh.

Thanks to all for their information. I ran into a similar problem when first syncing my Photon. I ran into the "connection to phone not possbile" error as well. I had to hit OK for every contact, and it was indeed very slow and painful. So I aborted the sync. I went into the system tray on my Win7 laptop and exited MPE. MPE had managed to enter most of my contacts on my phoneCuriously, it showed that MPE was not connected. In the phone app, I checked Avoid standby mode in the settings.

I then re-started MPE. The sync worked just fine.

Can any body answer that samsung smartphones are good enough or not as i am reading so many comments that they are dropeed once and now they are not working proplerly is it true.