Suddenly I cannot synchronize 8820 with Outlook. Help! Calendar is vital to me.

When I connect USB, bring up BB Desktop Manager and select synchronize, I get NOTHING. When I select "configure synchronization" I get this message: "Unable to connect to handheld device. Verify that handheld is ready and retry."
While this message is displaying my BB shows a screen "connected to desktop" AND the Blackberry Desktop Manager dialog box says "connected" at bottom.

I re-installed Desktop Manager v. 4.2.2. Also, I tried Backup & Restore. I got this: "Could not establish communication with the device. A required application is missing from the device." How could that be? I've not deleted anything from my device and it worked fine before.

The only thing that's changed on my desktop is a Java update? Could that be the culprit?

What O.S. are you running on your PC. XP or Vista

Running XP

Have you rebooted the machine? Also, I had this problem in the past, I tried other ports as well. I know these may be obvious, but worth a try. Also, do you have this plugged into a hub or directly in the computer. Try it in the computer if it is in a hub.

Also try another usb port if you have one. If that dosent work, uninstall everything restart your computer and re-install...

Thank you for your kind reply. I have rebooted both my desktop and handheld. No luck. I changed to COM1 and got even less response than with USB connection. The USB cable/port is not an issue because it works with other devices. I also tried disengaging my security software to make sure it wasn't blocking something.

Have you tried updating your DM to 4.5 and see if it works.

https://www.blackberry.com/Downloads...93E4F3BB068C22

I just installed the new software as you suggested. I'm still getting the same messages about "unable to connect" while I can see on both the handheld and desktop that the connection is good. Ugh!

When I tried Backup and Restore again I got: Failed to connect to the device. Please make sure device is properly connected and try again.

It's an AT&T device, what do you expect? :X

Really though, have you tried to uninstall the DM and delete the directory, then reinstalled?

This may sound silly but I had trouble when a song was paused on the media player. Make sure the media player is completely closed and not holding a song. I would also check the picture viewer.

Blackberry.com says that it's a problem with corrupt data on the handheld device.

Doing a battery pull worked for me. (i.e. pulling out the battery while the blackberry is still on then waiting several seconds and reinserting the battery.)

If it's a corruption issue, then a security wipe is the key, methinks.
From the main screen go to Applications > Options > Security Options > General Settings.
Push the menu button then Wipe Handheld.

Then try to resync everything.

That sounds a bit drastic. Definitely try a battery pull first!!!