RJM62
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2007
- Messages
- 13,157
- Location
- Upstate New York
- Display Name
Display name:
Geek on the Hill
A few days ago, I started experiencing occasional problems with my BlackBerry. It would appear to freeze up and become unresponsive, except that it did respond to the keyboard reboot command (alt - right shift - delete), so I knew it wasn't truly locked up.
Since I semi-retired to the boondocks, I don't have very many appointments anymore; so a calendar problem didn't occur to me. I thought it was because one of my clients sends me several very large pictures for his Web site every day, and I thought the comparatively slow EDGE data service I get at home was tying things up (although I must say, this is the fastest EDGE I've ever seen, probably because the tower's within walking distance).
Still, some of the raw pictures have file sizes in excess of 3 Mb (I crop, color-correct, and resample them before using them on the site), and he sometimes sends half a dozen at a time; so I suspected that they were bogging down my data connection.
So I disabled the automatic image downloads -- I need them on the computer, anyway, not the BlackBerry -- and thought that would solve the problem. It didn't. In fact, it got worse.
So I cast my suspicions at a particular call-filtering application that has caused occasional problems in the past, and uninstalled it. That didn't help, either.
Yesterday, the BlackBerry got unresponsive five times, and I decided enough was enough. I downloaded the OS from RIM and decided to reinstall it, thinking either something had gotten corrupted or that it had been infected by some BlackBerry bug. But to do the reinstall, I had to download the BlackBerry Desktop software, which took a few minutes.
While the software was downloading, the phone became unresponsive again, but this time I left it alone because I was chatting with a buddy of mine on Yahoo! Messenger. When I picked up the BlackBerry to connect it to the computer, it had an error message that the calendar app had become unresponsive and had been terminated. Other than that, the phone was responding normally again.
So I tried to look at the calendar, and every time I did, the BlackBerry got unresponsive. And when I tried to clear the calendar data using the Desktop software (there's not much in my calendar except birthdays any more), I was denied access because the filesystem was read-only.
Huh?
I scratched my beard for a while, which usually works when pondering things like this, and this time was no exception. I looked through my installed apps to try to find something that might be interfacing with my calendar somehow -- and there it was: Google Sync.
What the heck is Google Sync, I asked myself? I looked it up and learned that it basically synchronizes the calendar and contacts with my Gmail account. Well, okay, except that the BlackBerry does that automatically, anyway. Apparently I installed it (or maybe it installed itself as part of a package) when I installed some other Google apps.
The problem is that Google Sync doesn't get along well with the native BlackBerry wireless sync app (which has always worked flawlessly, in my experience). When the two of them are both enabled, duplicate appointments are created. How many? Well, as an example, I met my friend's fiance in August of 2011 and entered her birthday in my calendar. As of last night, there were 813 instances of her birthday.
Google Sync also seems to lock the BlackBerry calendar database so it can't be cleared. Once I uninstalled it, I was able to clear the calendar. I also logged into my Gmail account and deleted the entire calendar -- it was easier than manually deleting the tens of thousands of duplicate events -- and manually re-created it. Like I said, all I have are birthdays and such, so there aren't that many events to re-create.
I went back to the BlackBerry and re-enabled the native wireless sync for my Gmail calendar, scratched my beard a bit more, and voila' -- the native BlackBerry sync application had imported the dates to my BlackBerry calendar. And life is good again.
Now, why do I blame Google Sync for this problem?
Firstly, because it's a completely and utterly useless application. As far as I can tell, it does absolutely nothing that the BB doesn't already do on its own using its native apps. As far as I can tell, it exists merely as another opportunity for Google to get its logo in my face.
Secondly, because it conflicts with the native BB apps, and doesn't do anything to resolve this conflict. There should be some detection that the native BB app is also synchronizing the calendar, and at the least, a suitable warning should be generated.
Thirdly, because creating and storing duplicate appointments without a user prompt that there is a conflict is idiocy in any event.
Finally, because when I logged into my Gmail calendar, I could find no way to bulk-delete the duplicate appointments. As far as I could tell, my options were either to manually delete the tens of thousands of duplicates one-by-one, or to delete the entire calendar. An option to clear all appointments for a given day, or to multiple-select appointments, doesn't seem to exist (or at least I couldn't find one in the time I was willing to spend looking for it).
Quite frankly, the only reason I'm still using Google Calendar at all at this point is because my Ymail calendar doesn't sync at all with the BB. It used to, but Yahoo! changed something which made their calendar incompatible with the native BB sync app, and hasn't come up with its own workaround app yet. They say they're working with RIM to come up with one.
I know practically nothing about BlackBerry programming, but I'm seriously considering trying to build a Web app that consists of nothing but a Web-based calendar that will sync well with the BlackBerry, if no one else has done so already. I'll check SourceForge later on.
Now, just so Google doesn't take all the blame while RIM scoots away gleefully wagging its finger at Google, let me say this: If there's one thing about the BlackBerry that annoys me, it's that RIM has never included a simple calendar in their desktop software. They expect the user to either use Outlook (which I refuse to use because I think it's the king of bloated applications -- and I'm not a huge Microsoft fan in any case), or to use one of the few Web-based calendars that it has support for.
Would it really be that hard to include a blasted interface for the calendar in the BlackBerry Desktop software? It's just a lot easier for someone with older eyes and fingers to use a desktop calendar than to squint at and tap on the handheld itself. Would including a desktop interface for the device calendar really be that big a deal?
There. Now I feel better.
/rant
-Rich
Since I semi-retired to the boondocks, I don't have very many appointments anymore; so a calendar problem didn't occur to me. I thought it was because one of my clients sends me several very large pictures for his Web site every day, and I thought the comparatively slow EDGE data service I get at home was tying things up (although I must say, this is the fastest EDGE I've ever seen, probably because the tower's within walking distance).
Still, some of the raw pictures have file sizes in excess of 3 Mb (I crop, color-correct, and resample them before using them on the site), and he sometimes sends half a dozen at a time; so I suspected that they were bogging down my data connection.
So I disabled the automatic image downloads -- I need them on the computer, anyway, not the BlackBerry -- and thought that would solve the problem. It didn't. In fact, it got worse.
So I cast my suspicions at a particular call-filtering application that has caused occasional problems in the past, and uninstalled it. That didn't help, either.
Yesterday, the BlackBerry got unresponsive five times, and I decided enough was enough. I downloaded the OS from RIM and decided to reinstall it, thinking either something had gotten corrupted or that it had been infected by some BlackBerry bug. But to do the reinstall, I had to download the BlackBerry Desktop software, which took a few minutes.
While the software was downloading, the phone became unresponsive again, but this time I left it alone because I was chatting with a buddy of mine on Yahoo! Messenger. When I picked up the BlackBerry to connect it to the computer, it had an error message that the calendar app had become unresponsive and had been terminated. Other than that, the phone was responding normally again.
So I tried to look at the calendar, and every time I did, the BlackBerry got unresponsive. And when I tried to clear the calendar data using the Desktop software (there's not much in my calendar except birthdays any more), I was denied access because the filesystem was read-only.
Huh?
I scratched my beard for a while, which usually works when pondering things like this, and this time was no exception. I looked through my installed apps to try to find something that might be interfacing with my calendar somehow -- and there it was: Google Sync.
What the heck is Google Sync, I asked myself? I looked it up and learned that it basically synchronizes the calendar and contacts with my Gmail account. Well, okay, except that the BlackBerry does that automatically, anyway. Apparently I installed it (or maybe it installed itself as part of a package) when I installed some other Google apps.
The problem is that Google Sync doesn't get along well with the native BlackBerry wireless sync app (which has always worked flawlessly, in my experience). When the two of them are both enabled, duplicate appointments are created. How many? Well, as an example, I met my friend's fiance in August of 2011 and entered her birthday in my calendar. As of last night, there were 813 instances of her birthday.
Google Sync also seems to lock the BlackBerry calendar database so it can't be cleared. Once I uninstalled it, I was able to clear the calendar. I also logged into my Gmail account and deleted the entire calendar -- it was easier than manually deleting the tens of thousands of duplicate events -- and manually re-created it. Like I said, all I have are birthdays and such, so there aren't that many events to re-create.
I went back to the BlackBerry and re-enabled the native wireless sync for my Gmail calendar, scratched my beard a bit more, and voila' -- the native BlackBerry sync application had imported the dates to my BlackBerry calendar. And life is good again.
Now, why do I blame Google Sync for this problem?
Firstly, because it's a completely and utterly useless application. As far as I can tell, it does absolutely nothing that the BB doesn't already do on its own using its native apps. As far as I can tell, it exists merely as another opportunity for Google to get its logo in my face.
Secondly, because it conflicts with the native BB apps, and doesn't do anything to resolve this conflict. There should be some detection that the native BB app is also synchronizing the calendar, and at the least, a suitable warning should be generated.
Thirdly, because creating and storing duplicate appointments without a user prompt that there is a conflict is idiocy in any event.
Finally, because when I logged into my Gmail calendar, I could find no way to bulk-delete the duplicate appointments. As far as I could tell, my options were either to manually delete the tens of thousands of duplicates one-by-one, or to delete the entire calendar. An option to clear all appointments for a given day, or to multiple-select appointments, doesn't seem to exist (or at least I couldn't find one in the time I was willing to spend looking for it).
Quite frankly, the only reason I'm still using Google Calendar at all at this point is because my Ymail calendar doesn't sync at all with the BB. It used to, but Yahoo! changed something which made their calendar incompatible with the native BB sync app, and hasn't come up with its own workaround app yet. They say they're working with RIM to come up with one.
I know practically nothing about BlackBerry programming, but I'm seriously considering trying to build a Web app that consists of nothing but a Web-based calendar that will sync well with the BlackBerry, if no one else has done so already. I'll check SourceForge later on.
Now, just so Google doesn't take all the blame while RIM scoots away gleefully wagging its finger at Google, let me say this: If there's one thing about the BlackBerry that annoys me, it's that RIM has never included a simple calendar in their desktop software. They expect the user to either use Outlook (which I refuse to use because I think it's the king of bloated applications -- and I'm not a huge Microsoft fan in any case), or to use one of the few Web-based calendars that it has support for.
Would it really be that hard to include a blasted interface for the calendar in the BlackBerry Desktop software? It's just a lot easier for someone with older eyes and fingers to use a desktop calendar than to squint at and tap on the handheld itself. Would including a desktop interface for the device calendar really be that big a deal?
There. Now I feel better.
/rant
-Rich
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