How I finally sorted out that 0x80040fb3 error
 

Hey all,

I'm new to the forums and new to Blackberry. I had immense trouble migrating all my stuff from my old Treo 680 to my new Blackberry Bold, especially with syncing my contacts and calendar. Kept getting that annoying 0x80040fb3 error.

Well, after literally spending hours surfing the web, I finally found a solution. Just thought I'd share it with you all, because I know a lot of people have had trouble with this.

Situation: When syncing your Outlook with your Blackberry, the sync process stops halfway through saying "Error Encountered 0x80040FB3, Check Documentation".

The Actual Problem: Blackberry doesn't like the attachments in your contacts list or calendar entries (or both). What attachments? Photos (profile pictures) in your contact list, and attachments in your calendar events.

Solution: When you search error code 0x80040FB3 online, everyone will refer you to this not-so-helpful Blackberry support article [Link 1]. This will tell you to modify a few system files in your Blackberry folder to enable error logging, obtain the logs, stick them in an email, and then "send the email message to your technical support representative so that the synchronization log files can be analyzed."

Link 1: www[dot]blackberry[dot]com/btsc/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=KB14 818&sliceId=SAL_Public&dialogID=189220282&stateId= 1%200%20189216933

Riiiight. Not helpful. Here's what I did instead:

Photo Removal:
Thankfully I only had a few contacts with photos so I found them on Outlook and deleted them straight. If you have lots of contacts with photos or can't remember which contacts have photos, well things get a little trickier.

Two solutions I found online include: 1) exporting and reimporting your contacts list [Link 2]; 2) doing that whole logging thing I mentioned above, finding the finding the "corrupt" entries, deleting them, and recreating them [Link 3]. I started going through the second method here (the first one seemed kinda messy) but stopped as soon as I realized it was just the photos in my contacts that were the problem.

Link 2: www[dot]blackberryforums[dot]com/rim-software/137009-help-dm-sync-error-0x80040fb3.html#post1182052]

Link 3: forums[dot]crackberry[dot]com/f5/pearl-shows-error-code-0x80040fb3-during-synch-10653/#post191888

Calendar Event Attachment Removal:
This one I found much more tricky, and there's a lot less advice on the Net about this one. I use Outlook 2007 to manage my calendar so the following steps apply to that version, although I imagine similar principles apply in Outlook 2003.

To find out which events have attachments:

1. Open your Calendar in Outlook.
2. Click View > Current View > Events
3. Click View > Current View > Customize Current View
4. Click Filter... > the More Choices tab > select the "Only items with:" and set it to "one or more attachments".
5. Click OK > OK, and you should be able see the problematic events now.

When I did this, I had 150+ events with mysteriously hidden attachments that I couldn't find. I'm guessing it's something to do with faulty Palm - Outlook Hotsync conduits.

To remove the attachments without deleting the actual events, I found a neat VB macro someone posted on experts-exchange [Link 4]. I got desperate and signed up for the 7-day free trial to see the VB code, but everyone else's benefit the relevant instructions are here:

Link 4: www[dot]experts-exchange[dot]com/Hardware/Handhelds_-_PDAs/Blackberry/Q_23485790.html

1. Start Outlook
2. Click Tools->Macro->Visual Basic Editor
3. If not already expanded, expand Microsoft Office Outlook Objects and click on Module1
4. Copy the code from the Code Snippet box and paste it into the right-hand pane of Outlook's VB Editor window
5. Edit the code as needed. I included comments wherever something needs to or can change
6. Click the diskette icon on the toolbar to save the changes
7. Close the VB Editor
8. Close Outlook
9. Start Outlook
10. Select the appointments with attachements
11. Run the macro*

*You may need to fidget with your security settings here to enable macros. Try fishing around Tools > Trust Center, and reopening Outlook as the administrator.

Macro below:
After doing this I re-ran my blackberry sync and it sailed through smoothly (YES!). Btw, after doing all this you'll need to put your calendar views back to normal. For that, just go back into "View > Current View > Customize Current View" and hit the reset button. Then go to "Click View > Current View > Day/Week/Month (or whatever setting you like)".

Anyway, after all my hours of frustration I figured I would type this out to save everyone else the same trouble. Hope this helps!

Beej

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Note: BBForums won't let me post links because I'm a new user, so excuse the awkward link formatting. If a mod could edit my post for me that would be helpful.

Thanks for your help on this one, Beej.

I was getting sync errors in my contacts, calendar and keepass updating.

Since I only had three contacts with photos I thought I'd give your solution a try. It turns out that two of them were corrupt. When I looked at these two contacts in Outlook (2003) instead of the photo or the place-holder for the photo, there was just a blank. Deleting these two contacts and reentering them solved the Outlook sync problems.

I'm still having keepass sync problems, but I'll keep working on that one.

My fix to that annoying 0x80040fb3 error
 

Hey Beej,

thank you so much for posting such thorough instructions. After following your instructions, however, my sync was still getting interrupted.

I had no problems syncing my device with outlook on my Dell XPS the past several months, but I just bought a new Sony VAIO and installed Desktop Manager, and all of a sudden I have been experiencing the very same interruptions with the error you stated above.

I removed the photos from both Outlook 2007 and my Curve 8330 address book, not much of a pain as I fortunately had a select few.

After much fiddling with the sync configuration on the BB software under Calendar Setup, I synced using "Transfer all scheduled items" so both Outlook and my device exchanged as much data as possible before getting interrupted.

I verified that my device/outlook had indeed recorded some past items, then I Immediately input a few important dates that did not record into each program (yes, a pain, but only a handful for me). Next, I changed the Calendar date range from "Transfer all scheduled items" to "Transfer only future items", checked the "Remove alarm for past items" under Alarm Settings, and clicked next. Clicked "Finish", and synced again...VOILA...no more conflicts for me! (y):bb:(y)

Everything that I input in the device for today and beyond (as a test, items for today's date and random futures) showed up in Outlook...and of course, whatever I input in my calendar today input with a past date (as a test, an event I named "test from device" for yesterday) will not transfer. A small price to pay, but I'm okay with it. I really need it only for future appointments going forward, and I don't care to spend another few hours more toying with it, I've wasted enough time...if I really need to look back at all records, I will have to do so sifting through Outlook.

Hope that helps someone with a similar problem.

Found a "fix" for 0x80040fb3 error?
 

Wanted to share my epxerience and fix-to-date. I have been trying all the fixes mentioned in posts above and other threads with no luck. Decided to use the "reset configuration" option and set limits to calendar time (<10 days old, and < 120 days in future), removed the option to sync pictures on contacts and now it works (today anyway). Sounds too simple so I will write back if anything changes or problem reoccurs over time.

I am using DM version 4.7, by the way.

All I want to say is Wow! What an informative first post! Welcome to the forum and thanks for sharing your experience.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! You the man beej! I just started getting this error on my Curve and it was killin' me! I went through and deleted the pictures in Outlook and it sailed through the synchronization. Props!

I'd like to thank BEEJ for his very thoughtful write-up. I did everything that he suggested, but the problem persisted. I visited the two URLs that he supplied, and found the "magic bullet" answer at this URL:

forums[dot]crackberry[dot]com/f5/pearl-shows-error-code-0x80040fb3-during-synch-10653/#post191888

The solution proposed there, and the solution that worked for me, was to review the synchronization log generated by the DM. To view the synchronization log, press the "SYNCHRONIZE" button in the DM (this will bring up the synchronization details page), then select "CONFIGURE - SYNCHRONIZATION" from the menu on the left side, then press the VIEW LOG button.

The very end of my log contained the following line:

IGNORE = SMITH

This was the defective (corrupt) contact that was causing the failure. The only problem was that I had more than one contact with the name Smith. So, I went to my contact list and appended a number to each of the Smiths, so the last names read Smith1, Smith2, Smith3, etc.

Next time I attempted synchronization, I saw the following detail at the end of the log:

IGNORE=Smith4

I then printed out Smith4's details (so I would have them for later re-entry), then deleted Smith4's contact record. The next attempt at synchronization worked perfectly, no more problems.

So, based on several hours of attempting to solve this problem using the various fixes proposed here and elsewhere, I suggest that folks with the "error code 0x80040fb3" error first try looking at the end of their synchronization lot to see if there is a contact tagged with IGNORE, then deleting that contact. It is possible that by doing this first, you might avoid the need to delete all the contact photos, strip out the attachments to contacts, etc.

Lastly, my thanks to everyone here on this forum for sharing their experience. It is a real pleasure to visit a forum where everyone is so polite and articulate.

Just a post-script here:

I examined the corrupt contact in detail, and found that due to an error during data entry, I had the suite number of the contact (852) in the data field for the state or province. That was the only anomaly I could find in this contact. I wonder if that was sufficient to screw the synchronization up?

Thanks to everyone for the tips. I viewed my Log and found the troublemaking Event, but can't find it in Outlook itself (not in the list of events, nothing came up in a search of events).

Any ideas? Thanks in advance for any help.

I've figured out my problem. All events that were killing the Sync were in some way linked to Google Calendar Sync. Removing them all (one by one, thanks to the log stopping at the first troubled event) has worked.

Workaround error message
 

First, I set the synch options to only synch calendar and the calendars synched ok. Then I sent the option to synch only the mail and it failed. My wife had attached a number of Facebook photos to her BlackBerry contacts so seeing that photos could be a problem, I went to the field mapping in the advanced options for mail and disabled the photo synching. Now, mail and calendars synch fine.

Funny thing is that she did not have this problem in the earlier verison of the BlackBerry desktop.

A different fix to this error
 

I've just had this error, and the problem I found was it was erroring when it was syncing the email.
I checked through all the emails and all seemed ok, however in my Outlook 2007 it had moved one of the messages to the 'Junk E-mail' folder which the sync software really didn't like.
I moved the message back in to the inbox, and hey presto, it's all working fine.

After removing each image in about 150 of my Outlook contacts, the sync still failed. But this fix resolved the issue. Thanks!

Thank you Beez for the fix on error code 0x80040fb3
 

Beez,

I felt like there might be some issue with something in one or more of the Contacts in my Outlook 2007 address book that could be generating this message. It never occurred to me that images could be the problem.


Based upon you great feedback, I went back removed the images from the contacts and all is working great now!

Many thanks for taking the time to post this valuable information.

Six down.. What are they going to do on 11...

I have had the same problem with my new Tour 9630 (syncing with Outlook 2007 running on a Windows XP Pro netbook), and am using the steps outlined in here to take care of it. Seems to be working!

One thing I'm not worried about is if this is caused by some flaw in the BB Facebook app. I didn't add any photos to the contacts on my device; they were added automatically by the Facebook app the first time it synced up.

I have a Tour and was having the same error code problem while trying to sync. After seeing the above solutions, I decided to take a look at my contacts in Outlook 2007. I found two that I had no idea what they were. No names, no information other than each had a phone number. I deleted these and am now able to sync with no problems.

The solution to this for me, as Smocker99 pointed out above was to not have Intellisync copy the Contact pictures. Once I removed that in the map fields section the problem went away. Thanks Smocker!!!!

Ending the Pain
 

If you are having the error as stated above - (but it is effecting your calendar section only) Try this: Open DM. Choose Backup and Restore. Choose Advanced. Accept Mass Media as ok. Select calendar files (3 files). Move to Back up and don't forget to save under the "file" pull down. (THIS IS FOR BACKUP PURPOSE ONLY). Now for the fix: CLEAR your calendar files in your device using this module in Backup and Restore. (This will delete them from you device). Now go under synchronize. Select Sychronization configuration from left navigation pane. Choose Sychronization wizard. Change configuration for Outlook to sychronize ONE WAY to device. Exit utiltity. Pull battery on device. Restart DM. Sychronize. Viola! You are up and sychronizing again. Don't forget to change your settings back so you can sychronize both ways.

Here's another possible fix that has worked for me on two different occasions when all the other proposed solutions failed. The Blackberry Pearl has those odd memory issues from time to time, some of which can be fixed by taking the battery out for a couple of minutes and then restarting. When I tried this, all of my synch issues also resolved themselves.