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Old 03-16-2009, 12:20 AM   #1
paulblackberry
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Question Slow User Activation/Synchronization of BB Device and Missing E-mails on BB Device

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Hello, I wonder if anyone could offer advice concerning problems we're having with user activation and missing messages on his BB device.

To set the scene, below is a description of our BB infrastructure:

A. BB device: Model 8807 with O/S v4.22.208
B. BES server: Located in Hong Kong; Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition SP1 w/ BB Manager v4.1.2.25
C. Exchange server: Located in Tokyo; Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition SP1 w/ Exchange Server 2003 SP2
D. Outlook client: Windows XP SP2 w/ Outlook 2003 SP2
E. The BB user's mailbox size is about 500MB with about 15,500 items
F. Traceroute from the BES server to the Exchange server takes four hops (though with a few timeouts), but the pings are going through. From the Exchange server to the BES server takes seven hops.

We were able to complete activation and synchronization of the user's BB device (apart from an incomplete contacts sync) last week. However, for several hours last Friday, there were messages in the user's Outlook client inbox that were not in the user's BB. Also, there were no further new messages in the user's BB device after Sunday evening (one day ago).

We have wiped the device and started reactivation again. The BB device is activating and is "synching service desktop", but it has been at 0% for about an hour and is initializing the following items: email folders, email settings, password keeper settings, and spell check systems. However, the calendar is being populated with the user's appointments even though the progress of the calendar population isn't shown on the BB device (I expect to see something like "x/y items complete". The MAGT log shows many entries of the "filtering old exception appointment" type. I am also seeing "Worker Thread: **No Response**" entries.

I assume that activation/synchronization is ongoing. Could anyone advise as to:

1. How to track the progress of activation/synchronization? As mentioned above, although activation is at 0%, the calendar is being populated with entries. Is the MAGT log a better indicator of progress than the BB device screen? Is there a way to determine what item in the service desktop is causing the sync to proceed slowly?

2. What could cause the absence of some e-mails on the user's BB? The user has no filters set up on BB and other users' e-mails are passing through the BES server with no problems.
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Old 03-16-2009, 05:50 AM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by paulblackberry View Post
1. How to track the progress of activation/synchronization? As mentioned above, although activation is at 0%, the calendar is being populated with entries. Is the MAGT log a better indicator of progress than the BB device screen? Is there a way to determine what item in the service desktop is causing the sync to proceed slowly?
IMHO when it's slow but working, you don't get much useful info from either. TBH the stuff we mentioned in your similar post last week is about as much as you can get. Yes the logs do show a bit more than the BB but generally there isn't tons you can do with that data if things are progressing. Searches on here for most of those working messages will result in the same responses "be patient and evetually pull the battery if you feel the need". I don't think you can determine exactly what the cause is at a deeper level, as usually the service book delete fix or battery pull is suggested and works, which says to me that you can't get that granular (but I could well be wrong).

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Originally Posted by paulblackberry View Post
2. What could cause the absence of some e-mails on the user's BB? The user has no filters set up on BB and other users' e-mails are passing through the BES server with no problems.
TBH it's usually not a BB fault, it's a perception fault. The BB will sync a copy of the mbx from the mail server, based on watching that mbx using standards. If the email client (outlook) is used to change the contents in a non-"standard" way, the BB can't sync that change. What you describe is always down to hard deletes, moving/delivering to PST or similar (assuming we are talking about the inbox here).
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Old 03-16-2009, 06:13 AM   #3
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Have you checked the following RIM KB article

"Identifying and troubleshooting enterprise activation issues"
View Document
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Old 03-17-2009, 09:08 AM   #4
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Thanks for the advice stuwhite and freakinvibe. I've been on the phone with docomo blackberry support a few times today in addition to scouring this and other forums. I'll post tomorrow concerning the various ways and means we've been trying here to get this user's bb device in working order.
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Old 03-18-2009, 06:21 PM   #5
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Well the BB device in question has been working for the past day now

Here are the details of what I did:

1. Used a spare BB device that was assigned to another user (BB 8707, O/S version 4.1.0.360 (English-language)).

2. Run the Erase Data and Disable Handheld from BES Manager (the device had been assigned to another user).

3. Delete and recreate the user.

4. Applied a policy to the BB device with the setting "Disable Wireless Bulk Loads" set as "False" (previously it was not set to anything).

5. Initiated wireless activation.

This time the activation completed in about four hours. Actually, all items completed synchronization except for contacts (believe that's because the user has photos attached to some of his contacts), so no "sync complete" appeared on the BB device itself, but I did see the *** SLOWSYNC COMPLETE *** log entry in the BES server's SYNC log.

I am still not 100% sure what made the sync work this time around. The only things that were different were the O/S version (but activation with the same O/S had failed before) and the wireless bulk policy setting. The article that freakinvibe provided referred to the wireless bulk policy setting, but I thought that the default setting (that is, no explicit setting=enable bulk sync) was sufficient. It would be nice to have something like a "gpresult" tool for BB devices...

In any case, docomo BB support said that they would escalate this case to RIM support. I suspect that we will be advised to improve connectivity between our BES server and our Exchange servers (as the ping times between the two are in the 70-80ms range). Something else that we'll look into is upgrading the BES Manager (currently at v4.1.2.25).

I'll update this post again as we get more info from BB support.
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Old 03-19-2009, 09:51 AM   #6
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Normally, a normal OTA sync takes about 10 to 20 minutes for us. I find 4 hours very long.

The "Disable Wireless Bulk Loads" is "False" by default if nothing is set, so I don't think this was your problem.

Is there a specific reason why your BES is so far away from your Exchange Server?
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Old 03-19-2009, 10:39 AM   #7
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Originally Posted by freakinvibe View Post
Normally, a normal OTA sync takes about 10 to 20 minutes for us. I find 4 hours very long.

The "Disable Wireless Bulk Loads" is "False" by default if nothing is set, so I don't think this was your problem.

Is there a specific reason why your BES is so far away from your Exchange Server?
To be fair, we have OTAs which can take hours and it's known issue if the user has "complicated" calendar or contact entries (photos, attchaments etc). I am not saying >20mins is great but I think you should also have clear expectations and may never be able to get activations for some people (due to complexity or geography) down to a nice quick time.

And as for the exchange server again I am not saying you are wrong freakinvibe, as we all know the Exch and BES boxes should be close, but I have one BES in the UK and one in the US and don't see OTA EA time issues caused by the distance (it's usually down to the individual's cal/contact entries).

Again, not saying freakinvibe is wrong but I just wanted to point out that a 4 hour activation can sometimes be as quick as you can get (there are a few threads here about long but successful activations).
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