Synching 5mx & Organizer 97

[mcampos]

I have been happily synching (is this a proper word?) my 5mx Contacts and Agenda with Lotus Organizer 97 ever since, well 1997 (first with the 3c then Series 5 now 5mx) and never had any problems.

Now, the database of contacts has grown close to 2000 + contacts. Usually there is no problem after performing the synchronization (a little background, in order to avoid the corruption of my Lotus file on the PC, I always delete the contacts.cdb file from the psion so the synchronization starts from scratch), except perhaps a difference of 5-7 contacts missing (as per the record count of contact and Organizer), which has never been significant, nor have I noticed a record missing.

In any event, ever since the database passed the 1700 contact mark, I have had problems carrying out the synchronization. Inthe final part of the synchronization process, when the software writes to the psion, the 10mb of free memory are reduced to 3 or 4k and the process stops.

I have retried several times, but always the synchronization is incomplete. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance,

[Jim Cooke]

I'm not clear why you delete your contacts database on the Psion before each syncronization. I'm assuming that you're using PsiWin 2.3.3. and that you installed the contacts update from the Psion web site. If this is the case, you should rarely see duplicates by simply syncing. Syncing an existing contacts database requires very little free RAM on the Psion since PsiWin only has to use enough RAM on the Psion to write any changes.

Rewriting the contacts database from scratch is another matter. This always requires at least twice the amount of RAM since the entire database has to be written to RAM. Since this is initially uncompressed, 2000 contacts could easily take 6 or 7 mb of RAM, meaning you'd need to have 12 to 14 mb free. there is an absolute limit to what can be synced based on available RAM and it sounds like you've reached that limit.

I would close down everything before you sync and see how much Ram is available. If it's not near 12-14 mb, either move some applications to your CF card or temporarily uninstall some apps until you get enough RAM. Try syncing again and see if the contacts now all come over. If they do, don't delete the contacts database in the future, just sync the contacts. The first sync after overwriting may produce some duplicates but subsequent syncs should be reasonably trouble free.

Another thing to think about is whether you really need to have all 2000 contacts on your Psion. I have two contacts sections in Organizer, one active and the other for reference. I only sync the active contacts, which is about 350. The reference contacts section has about 800 contacts, mostly business contacts that I might need at some point in the future but I'm unlikely to need now.

[mcampos]

Jim:

Thanks for the ultra-fast response. You are right that not all the contacts are needed on the Psion at all times. It's just a matter of how the database has been created. I am currently either trying to evaluate other software (which may be more powerful for follow ups, etc, but I do not want to lose Psion compaitibility) or play around with different ways in which to use Organizer. By the way, this might be off topic, but do you know of any message boards such as this where I could roam to gather ideas on how to use Organizer a bit better?

Again, thanks for your quick response,

Manuel

[Jim Cooke]

Manuel,

Well, it's hard to know what to tell you without understanding what you'd like Organizer to do. The first thing I'd sugggest is to upgrade to Organzer 6.1, which has many added contacts tracking and history options. It works fine with PsiWin 2.3.3 and the Organizer upgrade that's available at the Psion web site.

There are two places I know of (at least in English) that have ongoing discussions about Organizer. One is the Lotus-sponsored discussion group at http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/ssforum.nsf/CategoryAllThreadedWeb?OpenView&Start=1&Count=100&ExpandView&RestrictToCategory=Organizer . The other is at http://www.xpertss.com/ . You need to register at both sites to post messages but registration is free. There's also a Yahoo Organizer group but it's quite moribund at present. There's a very active German discussion group. I don't have the URL handy but, if you speak German, let me know and I'll get it for you.

[mcampos]

Jim,

Thanks for the response and I will look over those settings. I had a copy of Organizer 5 lying around, but couldn't get it to synch earlier in the year, and haven't had the time (even though I got the Psion plug in). I'll look for 6.1 and let you know how I fare.

So far I have built the Organizer contact databas solely on the Address tabs with multiple categories so that I can track people by events, organizations, etc. Maybe 6.1 would give me the ability to track contacts (when, how, why, about) in a similar fashion to ACT. I'll definitely have to play with the new version.

Thanks for your support and will bother you again if need be.

Thanks