From: Jon Glass (jonglass_at_usa.net)
Date: Sun Jan 01 2006 - 06:57:01 PST
John et al. I was in the same boat as you all. I used Action Names as my
primary contact database for several years, and synced Names with Now
Contact, so there was a bunch of garbage in the soup. In end end, because I
basically had everything in Now Contact, I simply deleted my names soup, and
reimported from the Address Book using NewSync. First, however, I had to go
through the Address Book, and delete most notes, as this was where my
problem was--that silly 100 char. limit on notes. Now, because I have my
main database in Now, it was no big deal to me to lose those notes. However,
before I did any of this, I went through my 900+ names and compared my
Newton to my Now database one by one, to compare. I ended up find all sorts
of inconsistencies, as Now's software didn't sync everything (emails, phones
beyond the first two or four--I forget which--and sometimes addresses, too).
I had to clean this all up first, and yes, it took a good while to do it.
But after that was done, I did an export from Now to a text file, and
imported it all into Entourage. From there, I created vcf cards, and
imported _those_ into the Address book. That was how I populated my Address
Book back in the beginning. Once I did that, I backed up my Newton and
Address Book. Next, I deleted my Names soup and ran NewtSync. The first
dozen times or so that I ran it, the sync would stop, and I would have to
find the record that killed it, and delete its notes. :-) finally, I just
went through the Address Book, and deleted most notes, and then I finally
got a sync. Yes, it took wiping my Newton. The upside of that is that you
have a nice, clean slate again. The downsides are these:
1. Any custom information you've added is lost. I forgot to add that before
I deleted my info, I also exported all the data using NCU. I had a text file
on my hard drive with all the data that I could export. I was able to create
a New Now file so I could reference it if needed, and have referred to it a
couple of times, but thankfully, no more than that. :-)
2. You lose your owner info by wiping the soup. You will have to reenter
_everything_ if you delete the soup in the Extras. If I had felt like taking
the time, I could have deleted all the names in the Names app, but that just
seemed like too much time and trouble for me. Before you do wipe the soup,
you will want to make sure you have all the passwords and software
registration numbers written out somewhere--you will need to reenter most,
if not all of them.
But in any case, this is how I did it several years ago, when I migrated to
X and the Address Book. Today, my task would have been much simpler. Since I
have been using Now as my primary contact database, and since Now has also
since then written an app to synch it to the Address Book, I'm able to
simply and quickly keep those two in sync. Just this past winter, I wiped my
Newton again, and imported everything again into it from the Address Book
using NewtSync. It went quite smoothly, but again, I had to delete notes for
it to work. I haven't tried keeping my Newton in sync with the Address Book,
and can't try it now, because my screen broke, otherwise I would try it this
afternoon, and see how it works. I had planned to do it over the holidays in
any case, and would have, had I not busted my screen.... It will have to
wait now until March, when we get back home, and closer to Frank. :-)
In any case, I hope this info helps someone.
I suppose I could add that I've been syncing a Palm with my computer for
kicks. I have found, unfortunately, that it doesn't sync all addresses! I've
got a bunch of names on the Palm that don't have addresses, but do in the
Address Book. I guess I add that to say this, the Palm world isn't a bed of
roses either! I can't wait to get my Newton operational again!
On 1/1/06, John <OceanCity_at_mac.com> wrote:
>
>
> hhhhhmmmmmm......
>
> ditto, me to. Also having difficulties using NewtSync.
> I have 900+ names.
> I too have been using more than just the stock "Newton Names Acpp";
> TiimeTrax(TM) and MoreInfo(TM).
>
> Richard speaks of "rebuilding" the Name Soup, possibly cleaning it up,
> reindexing, purging, etc.
>
> I really could use NewtSync if only it worked for me to transfer my
> contacts from my Mac to my Newton. I don't have the time to manually
> enter over 900 contacts so if there's ANY way to get NewtSync to do the
> work for me I'm all ears ;-)
>
> Does anyone know how to rebuild ?
>
>
> >I believe that the problem I had was unrelated to NewtSync. I have
> >evidence that the Newton soup holding my contact list and calendar
> >were both corrupted after 9 years of uninterrupted, daily use. I
> >regularly backed up, but I never had any tools to rebuild the data.
> >For many years, I was using Action Names, and I had quite a bit more
> >than the normal amount of data saved. The Newton was running my law
> >practice for almost a decade. So, it is quite possible that my
> >inability to use NewtSync was not the fault of NewtSync. But, I
> >cannot rule out that my copy may be problematic. I don't think it is.
> >But, it is a simple logical statement that it might be, since
> >*something* is keeping the NewtSync from working.
>
> --
> This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries
> Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/
> WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles:
> http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
>
>
>
-- -- -Jon Glass Krakow, Poland <jonglass_at_usa.net> -- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles: http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
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