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FinchSync A Sync-Solution for the Mozilla Suite |
Frequently Asked Questions | ||||||
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Support | FAQ | Troubleshooting | HowTo Frequently Asked Questions
1. A task/appointment/contact in Pocket Outlook does not synchronize with my PC. 2. Why does FinchSync not use the SyncML standard?
6. After synchronizing I get the warning 'Reminder adjusted' - what does this mean ? 7. What are time-zones and how is daylight saving handled ?
1. An appointment/task/contact on the Pocket Outlook does not synchronize with my PC.
2. Why does FinchSync not use the SyncML standard?Ever read the specification? SyncML is a good example for a 'we considered everything'-standard, which makes it complicated and nearly impossible to implement. Further most implementations in mobile phones are faulty, so you must build workarounds for the most models.
3. Mozilla Calendar uses VCalendar .ics fileformat. Can I synchronize with .ics files from other tools too?Theoretically yes. But the VCalendar specification is an other good example, like SyncML, for a 'we considered everything' standard. This makes it very powerful and so complicated, that most implementations only support those features used in their own user interfaces. While those programs write nearly correct '.ics' files, they ignore all unsupported features (which are a lot) while reading. FinchSync is optimize to read and write '.ics' files of the Mozilla Calendar application. You're welcome to test '.ics' files of other tools, but have an eye on recurrence, exceptions etc. ;-)
4. After starting the synchronization on my Pocket PC I get a message 'Account already in use. A session is already running using this login.' - what does this mean ?There are two reasons for this message to appear:
5. After synchronizing my log has an entry like 'Can't close PIM application: <errormsg>. Changes may not show at once.' - what does this mean ?Before making changes to the PIM database on the Pocket PC, FinchSync tries to close all PIM applications like Adressbook, Calendar etc. Changes will not show at once if those applications are running during synchronizing. Sometimes the calendar may show appointments with wrong dates or times. Because of this, all PIM applications should be closed before synchronizing. This is not as easy as it sounds, because 'closed' applications on the Pocket PC are still running in the background. To make sure, that an application is not running, select 'Settings' from the main menu, choose 'System'-Tab, select 'Memory' and choose 'Running Programs'-Tab. You might be suprised, how many programs are active on your Pocket PC. Stop 'Calendar','Contacts' and 'Tasks', if synced information is not shown correctly. (You may install one of the many freeware Taskmanagers, which are available for Pocket Pcs. With this tools you can manage and stop your applications from the taskbar.) FinchSync tries to stop all PIM applications before synchronizing. This may fail sometimes and produce above log entry. If this message appears only sometimes, it can be ignored. If you always have this message (and only then), a reason for this may be the missing DLL 'toolhelp.dll', which seems to be not part of all PocketPC Windows versions. You'll find this file in the download section for different processor versions. If this file is copied to the '/Windows' directory, the problem may disappear. 6. After synchronizing I get the warning 'Reminder adjusted' - what does this mean ?The reminder setting on the Pocket PC has a limitation for recuring events. The reminder cannot be set to values larger than the timespan between two recuring events. Example: Setting a reminder three days before an event starts for an event, which recurs every two days is not possible. In the cases FinchSync adjusts the reminder to the maximal setting minus 1 hour. This would be 47 hours in this example. This adjustment may sync back to the PC, if any changes are made to this event. To avoid this problem only use reminder for recuring events up to 23 hours. 7. What are time-zones and how is daylight saving handled ?First of all, there are two kinds of date & time settings: utc-based: The date & time of an appointment is stored internally based on utc-time. For Example: You live in Berlin, which has a time-zone offset of +1:00. If you add an appointment for 9:00 (local time), it will be stored internally as 8:00 (utc time). The Calendar shows 9:00 start time for your appointment, because the calendar adds the local time offset (from your PocketPC's time-zone setting) to the internal utc-time: 8:00 (start time utc) + 1:00 (time zone offset for Berlin) = 9:00 If you travel to London (time-zone offset 0:00 = utc) and you adjust your time-zone on your PocketPC, you'll find, that your calendar shows now 8:00 as start time for your appointment: 8:00 (start time utc) + 0:00 (time zone offset for London) = 8:00 floating: The Calendar stores all times in local time. Time-zone settings are ignored. If you add an appointment for 9:00, the Calendar shows 9:00, what ever time-zone you are in. So what kind of Calendar, utc-based or floating, makes sence, depends on the type of your appointments. If you have a wake-up Alarm in the morning at 8:00, you sure like to have this at local time. If you have an international phone meeting at 11:00, this is time-zone dependend, every attendee may have to take the call at a different local time. The VCalendar Standard & Mozilla Calendar supports both, utc-based and floating times. (If you add an appointment to Sunbird, 'floating' times are used.) If a time is 'utc' based, a 'Z' is added to the time in the *.ics file: DTSTART:20060301T100000Z ( 10:00:00 utc time) If you are in Berlin (+1:00), the first will show as 11:00, the second as 10:00. If you are in London (+0:00) , both will show as 10:00. Pocket Outlook always uses utc-based timing. If you change the time-zone on your PocketPC, all appointments are automatically adjusted. Daylight saving: Like the time-zone offset, daylight saving offsets must be added for utc-based times. THIS IS NOT DONE BY SUNDERBIRD, as I had to find out. From version 0.72e on, while syncing appointments between PC and PocketPC, the timing of appointments is changed from 'floating' on the PC to 'utc-based' on the PocketPC and back. This has to be done as workaround for the Daylight Saving bug in Mozilla Calendar. This means, that synced appointments will always show the same times in Mozilla Calendar as in PocketOutlook. If you change the time-zone setting on your Pocket PC, times will be adjusted in PocketOutlook which will also change the time in Mozilla Calendar after the next synchronisation. |