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SmartPhoneToday > News > Microsoft to Fix Windows Mobile 6/Vista Synchronization Problem

Microsoft to Fix Windows Mobile 6/Vista Synchronization Problem

By James Alan Miller
May 16, 2007

Yesterday, we reported on how Windows Mobile 6 Standard devices like T-Mobile's Dash cannot synchronize files with Windows Vista-run PCs. In an official statement, Microsoft has now promised to correct this problem.

Long available to Pocket PCs, file synchronization allows users to drag a document, for example, into a folder and have it automatically synchronized back and forth between a desktop and a handheld or smartphone.

Interestingly, file synchronization works fine between a Windows Mobile Standard device and a Windows XP computer. That's because XP uses ActiveSync 4.5, which offers the feature, to enable a smartphone to communicate with a PC.

Vista on the other hand leverages a new application called Windows Mobile Device Center to perform this function. And the problem lies with that software, as Microsoft somehow neglected to add file synchronization capabilities to Windows Mobile Device Center for Windows Mobile Standard smartphones.

File synchronization under Vista works fine with Windows Mobile Professional and Classic (formally Pocket PC Phone and Pocket PC) devices, however.

According to Brighthand, here's what Microsoft had to say about a fix:

Currently, Windows Mobile 6 users can synchronize files between PCs and smartphones with Active Sync 4.5. Microsoft will update Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC) on Windows Vista PCs to support file synchronization with Windows Mobile 6 by mid-June. We appreciate our customers continuing to use ActiveSync 4.5 for file synchronization until this update is available and are looking forward to offering the WMDC synchronize option very soon.

So if you use a computer running Vista, you're out of luck until June. That's because ActiveSync does not run on Vista PCs, only Windows Mobile Device Center does. At least Microsoft gave an estimated time of delivery for the fix.



Related Links:

  • Windows Mobile 6 Synchronization Runs Into Problems Under Vista
  • Our Experience Upgrading the T-Mobile Dash to Windows Mobile 6
  • Tip: How to Personalize Windows Mobile Device Center
  • Microsoft Pre-Announces Windows Mobile 6
  • Microsoft Updates ActiveSync

     
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