(aka how to sync a Sony Clie to an .OST file instead of a .PST file)
Archival Note
This page is retained for archival purposes. While I no longer have a Sony Clie, I know that others do and still reference this page. If you’re one of those people, then I hope you find it useful..
My back story…
My wife bought me a second-hand PDA a few years back as a gift for me after I destroyed my Xircomm REX (boy that thing was so nice and small!) … She bought my brother-in-law’s Sony Clie so that he could upgrade (I think he got a Treo of some sort) … Anyway, the Clie has been useful for years … having my contact list with me on trips, having it beep at me when I was supposed to be somewhere, you name it .. I’m positive that I’m not using this PDA to its full potential, but it’s been invaluable in meeting the “wants” I had for a PDA … The software that it came with was clunky (hey, it was already several years old even when it was ‘new’ to me), but it installed the necessary Intellisync Lite software to sync the PDA with Outlook… I was off and running and happy for years..
Fast forward a few years to 2008 when my employer moved us to an online managed Exchange server (small companies cannot afford full-blown Exchange servers and maintenance costs of their own) … Without getting into all the technical issues, in short my Outlook file on my computer went from a .PST file to an .OST file, and the “old” software that came with the PDA no longer worked. Akk! What do I do now?
Teaching an old dog new tricks…
I figured I had several options available to me:
- Write scripts to export the Outlook information to a .PST file and sync it that way… but then any changes I made on the PDA would not easily make it back to my primary .OST file..
- Sell my PDA and upgrade to a newer one … but we have a very modest budget with one income and three children, so that probably wasn’t going to happen..
- Buy one of the newer Sync softwares … but once again — we have a modest budget, and the “better” softwares are $50-100! So that, too, probably wasn’t going to happen..
- Figure something else out..
So, option (4) it was.. I spent about two days scouring the web for forum posts, software updates, hints, tips, and tricks of any kind to help me figure out how to get the “new” outlook configuration sync’ing with my PDA … and the Rosetta Stone was discovered in an obscure post on some forum .. Specifically Reply Post #3 to a thread titled “Problems with Intellisync/Exchange2003” on the 1src.com forum.. I’ll quote the post here:
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Reggie
1src Founder Here’s a tip. If you ever get a palmOne Tungsten T3/E or Zire 21 install CD, run in on top of your current Clie desktop installation. What it will do is use the native Outlook conduits (no need for Intellisync or PocketMirror anymore). Then, download the Outlook 2003 update from palmOne. It should work. |
AWESOME.. Someone has already figured this problem out for me! I just had to find it … Now I just wanted to clean things up a bit … So I did some testing… I removed ALL of the Sony Clie files and applications, and installed JUST the PalmOne software, but it didn’t recognize the Clie device when I attached it.. No big surprise, I thought, I just need to figure out which of the drivers from the Clie’ installation CD I need to recognize the Clie over the USB bus when PalmOne’s HotSync connection is initiated…
Pretty quickly I found on the Sony Clie’ installation CD two different sets of SCSIDriver folders .. one just had two files (an .ini and a .cab I think), but installing the .ini didn’t help any … The other was buried a little deeper on the installation CD, and actually had a “setup.exe” installer associated with it … I installed that one and then tried sync’ing again wth PalmOne (v1.4.1E, by the way), and viola! Success! … well, kinda. I suppose since it was a different PIM manager, it didn’t realize that all the data in my contacts list and all the data in my Clie were actually the same, and it created duplicate entries on BOTH sides … (now THAT was frustrating!)
But changing the views in Outlook to “By Category” I could then add the field “Created” to the header list and sort based on “created” date and select all of the entries created “today” and just delete them from Outlook.. No big deal there.. But now I have all these dupes on the Clie … Simplest fix? A hard-boot to clear everything out. Had to re-add several of the games and tools that I had installed, but I had them backed up so no worries there…
The final story (aka Instructions To Follow)…
- Just go ahead and perform a hard-reset on your Sony Clie … This can be done by depressing the “reset” button on the back of the device using the stylus, pulling the “on” switch down, releasing the “reset” button, but still holding the “on” switch down until a screen comes up on the Clie that asks if you’re sure you want to perform a hard reset of the device… This just makes life a lot simpler..
- Also just go ahead and un-install ALL of the Sony Clie software that you previously installed … just rip it all out … No need for all that junk anyway…
- Install the Sony Clie SCSI drivers from your installation CD …(I’ve made available here the version I use: v1.00.030819.01) (NOTE: this turns out to actually be a driver for the memory card slot, I think.. not the Sony Clie PDA itself.. more below..)
- Download and store the Sony Clie USB Driver somewhere. Even if you go ahead and try to “HotSync” from the PDA and Windows asks you for a driver for the device, when you install Palm Desktop it seems to “undo” that software diver and you’ll have to do it again anyway … so I don’t think you need to with this step.. just download it and hang on to it until the next step…
- Download and install “Palm Desktop and HotSync Manager 4.1.4E” from Palm… The installation procedure should have you plug in your PDA and “Hotsync” to make sure communications work fine … When you hit the “HotSync” icon on your PDA and Windows attempts to recognize the PDA device, even if you previously installed the Sony Clie USB Driver (previous step), it won’t be found. You’ll have to tell Windows to look in the location that you stored the Sony Clie USB Driver (previous step) files (hint: just unzip them to your desktop or something temporarily).. Your Sony should then be recognized, proper drivers installed, and the Hotsync operation should then go off without a hitch..
(NOTE: If you haven’t yet hard-reset your Clie, then this step will cause you all the duplicates to be generated both in Outlook and in your PDA … you have been warned!) - Enjoy syncing in style now with your good old trusty Sony Clie and your fancy new Outlook Exchange Server’s .OST file …
Software Installation and Updates Notes!
- If you’re using Outlook 2003, you might want to download and install “Outlook Conduits for Palm Update v1.01” followed by “Outlook Conduits for Palm Update v1.02” to update the sync conduits for Outlook 2003.. Palm’s website is kinda funky in that both refer to each other (the v1.01 instructions say at the end “proceed to install v1.02” and the v1.02 instructions warn you to have previously installed the v1.01 update), so if you follow one of the above links and follow the instructions properly, then you should be fine… I just included both individual links for completeness.
- If you’re using Outlook 2007, you might want to download and install “Outlook® 2007 Update for Palm OS Devices” to update the sync conduits for Outlook 2007. Note that you do not need to install the 2003 updates beore installing the 2007 updates. The conduits apparently are completely different and you only need install the appropriate update file(s).
- I wish I could include all of the software (Palm Desktop, OL2003 Updates v1.01 and v1.02, and OL2007 Update) on this site but they’re just too big. The Palm Desktop software alone is just shy of 50MB in size … Sorry. If these links ever go bad and you need them, drop me a note and I’ll see what I can do to help you out…