Google and ActiveSync – 0×8600050C Sync Error
January 30, 2010 Windows Mobile
Since replacing Outlook with Google’s services a few weeks back, I’ve had the luxury of synchronizing my contacts, calendar, and email on my PDA while on the go without relying on a two-step approach involving POP or IMAP. It’s been working great for the most part, but I’ve had a small problem for the last few days: a 0×8600050C Sync Error.
The 0×8600050C Error seems to be directly related to GMail, and not the calendar or contacts. However, when we suffer from this problem, it’s impossible to sync anything. Luckily, there is a painless workaround for this problem that takes less than a minute start to finish. The instructions I’ve included are assuming that you’re syncing with Google right from the PDA and not through the desktop application.
Step 1: Open ActiveSync
Step 2: Select Options
Step 3: Clear the check boxes in Contacts, Calendar, and Email. (You should never have Tasks checked, as Google does not yet support this function).
Note: By unchecking these three items, any contacts, calendar events, and GMail messages that you have will be deleted from the device. Be sure to click “OK” to all the prompts asking if you’re sure you want to delete the data. You’ll get it back when you sync the next time.
Step 4: Check the checkboxes you want to synchronize again.
Step 5: Sync the Device.
Done and done. That’s all there is to it. It’s annoying as heck, but relatively painless to fix. It took me less than a minute to do this and resync to get my 180 contacts, 534 calendar items, and 112 email messages restored to the device.
Have you had this problem before? Does it happen with iPhones or Palm-based systems? I hope Windows Mobile isn’t the only platform experiencing this problem.
Comments (9)
I have a Samsung Omnia 2, with WinMo 6.5. Syncing with google had been working like a charm for a week or 2 (just to the phone), but now am getting this error. If I turn off mail, and just leave calendar & contacts on, no error. The moment I turn on email syncing, back to 0×8600050C. Unfortunately, performing the steps you mention have not cleared my issue, other than to know to turn off email syncing. But thanks for pointing me in the general direction. I can live without email on my pda, but contacts was a deal breaker!
I’d never be able to go without mail, as that’s the main reason I switched from Outlook to GMail in the first place. Without the ability to sync my mail without doing the POP or IMAP thing everywhere, the service is almost completely unnecessary.
That said, I’ve heard that people have had to do the “Win95 Solution” in order to fix your problem. By eliminating the exchange account, resetting the machine, and then setting up the account again, you can sync Contacts/Calendar/Email records without a problem. That said, it’s annoying as heck that we still need to go this route in 2010 … you’d think we would have learned how to write software better by now
Glad I could help you out.
I’ve had the same problem for a couple days, but I found a solution that worked for me. I went into ActiveSync -> Options, removed the checkbox from “E-mail”, synced the phone, rebooted the phone, went back into ActiveSync -> Options, re-checked “E-mail”, and re-synced the phone. All told, about 3 minutes, grabbed everything.
I found that it’s the re-boot after unchecking e-mail that seems to be the trick. I tried a couple different variations on it before (uncheck – sync – re-check, or delete and re-enter server info, etc.), and didn’t have any luck. But, since it’s Windows, I guess you gotta reboot to make it happy…
BTW – that’s for my Q9H / WinMo 6.1.
Rebooting after uncheck and before re-check worked for me. Thanks for the trick
This fix worked from 2 hours to 2 days for me, and then I had to start over since the same error message keeps coming back. Thanks for the help. Hope that someone finds a permanent fix for this problem soon.
Eric Woodward’s solution fixed mine! I read on XDA that the problem is setting up google sync on two devices, I have a Touch Pro and I boot into linux on it sometimes, and my email stopped syncing right around the tie I setup Android with my google account…
That’s good to know. I haven’t tried to sync two devices to the same account, but I am looking forward to getting my hands on a NexusOne as soon as it reaches Japan
fox
Glad it worked out for you. I haven’t had to repeat this process, yet, so I hope you won’t have to, either