Palm Desktop for X: Sync lockfile problem

billbaloney

House pianist
So, I was happy to get the new beta for Palm Desktop X because it was the last reason I had to boot up Classic! In general, it works fine -- but every four or five syncs Palm seems to leave a lockfile around for my user name.

This means that it thinks it can't access my "User Data" and related files, because it sees someone else using it. I can erase all my data, create my user over again, and then sync successfully, but I'd rather figure out where that lockfile is so I can kill it (until Palm releases a final version, which I hope will solve this dumb problem).

Any ideas? So far, I haven't found a lock anywhere.

BTW, I am using a Visor Handspring, not a Palm PDA. But I doubt this is affecting the sync process in this way.

Thanks,
Matt (billbaloney)
 
After hours of attempts I found a way to retrieve lost data from a locked/corrupted file.

My father's Kyocera palm/phone, which he had to replace, couldn't sync and his profile wouldn't display either. So his info was lost.

I found that creating a new profile (and removing the old user folder from ~/Documents/Palm/) and merging the new profile with the corrupted/locked user file would import all of the data. Importing alone resulted in only a couple of addresses being transfered, however merging worked like a charm.

Hope this helps someone.

Cheers,
BD
 
That sounds like a good retrieval method once you've got the locked-file problem, but I'm more interested in saving a perfectly good profile from having to be recreated. I don't think anything got corrupted; I think the program is buggy, and keeps thinking it doesn't have access to the data file.
 
Originally posted by dixonbm
I found that creating a new profile (and removing the old user folder from ~/Documents/Palm/) and merging the new profile with the corrupted/locked user file would import all of the data. Importing alone resulted in only a couple of addresses being transfered, however merging worked like a charm.

Yes! I, too, have the same problem (I thought I was alone). This fix works for me too (for now -- Palm sucks! Release a final version AND Entourage X conduits already you lazy SOB's!).

I have a slightly less involved fix:

Simply select "New" (profile) from the File Menu; select "Merge" (give the new data file the same name as the original one BUT DO NOT SAVE IT TO THE SAME FOLDER -- SAVE IT TO YOUR DESKTOP OR SOMEPLACE ELSE). Then, once the merge is complete, quit and simply drag-n-drop the NEW User Data file into the same folder as the corrupted one. And re-load Palm Desktop. Waahala! No need to throw away your whole User Folder!

At least we're not alone with this. ;)
 
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