Skip to content


How to sync your Windows Mobile device to a Windows Vista PC

ADVERTISEMENTS
Office Windows Windows Mobile

This article will take you through the steps to set up and sync your Windows Mobile device with a PC running Windows Vista.

Before you get too far into it, make sure that you meet the following requirements:

System Requirements

  • Windows Vista Ultimate
  • Windows Vista Enterprise
  • Windows Vista Business
  • Windows Vista Home Premium
  • Windows Vista Home Basic
  • Windows Vista Server “Longhorn”
  • Microsoft Outlook 2003 or Microsoft Outlook 2007 are required for synchronization of e-mail, contacts, tasks and notes to your PC.

    Supported Devices

  • Windows Mobile 2003
  • Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition
  • Windows Mobile 5.0
  • Windows Mobile 5.0 with Messaging and Security Feature Pack
  • Windows Mobile 6
  • Windows Embedded CE 6.0
  • As long as you have one of the above mentioned versions of Vista, and a mobile device/PDA running one of the above listed operating systems, you should have no problem setting everything up.

    Setting Up the Windows Mobile Device Center in Vista

    1. When you plug your Windows Mobile device into a PC running Vista for the first time, you should be notified the device drivers are being installed, and eventually a window similar to the screenshot below will pop up. Just close this window if it appears.
    2. syncing a smartphone in windows vista
      click to enlarge

    3. Navigate to your Control Panel and double-click the Windows Mobile Device Center icon. If it’s not there, don’t worry – just skip down to step 4.
    4. syncing a smartphone in windows vista
      click to enlarge

    5. When opened, you can set a couple (not many) of the Windows Mobile device connection settings. Make sure at least one of the connection methods is enabled.

      If you’re not presented with the window below (Connection Settings), scroll down and see if the window similar to the one in step 6 is displayed. If it is, that means you have the full Windows Mobile Device Center already installed, and can continue on at step 6.

    6. syncing a smartphone in windows vista
      click to enlarge

    7. In order to sync your email, notes and calendar from Outlook, you’ll want to download Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 for Windows Vista. Save the file to your desktop (or any folder) and once the download has completed, run it.
    8. Follow the few installation steps (which mostly consist of clicking ‘Next’ a few times).
    9. Now go back to the Control Panel and double-click on the Windows Mobile Device Center. Make sure your Windows Mobile device is plugged in and the status is set to Connected. Click the Set up your device button.

      syncing a smartphone in windows vista
      click to enlarge

    10. Select the elements you want to sync to your mobile device and then click Next.
    11. syncing a smartphone in windows vista
      click to enlarge

    12. Give your device a name, and if you want to quickly access the Windows Mobile Device Center from your desktop, leave the Create a shortcut option selected. Click Set Up to continue.
    13. syncing a smartphone in windows vista
      click to enlarge

    14. Your mobile device and PC will now start to synchronize.
    15. syncing a smartphone in windows vista
      click to enlarge

    16. And once completed, you’ll be presented with the Device Center ‘home’ screen.
    17. syncing a smartphone in windows vista
      click to enlarge

    18. You’ll know when your device is synchronizing by the small ‘green arrows’ system tray icon (very similar to the Active Sync icon you may have seen/used in previous versions of Windows).
    19. syncing a smartphone in windows vista

    20. From the Windows Mobile Device Center ‘home’ screen you can change your device settings, upload and download files to/from your device etc. Select the Change content sync settings in the Mobile Device Settings window.
    21. syncing a smartphone in windows vista
      click to enlarge

    22. Below you’ll see the options for changing the sync settings. Select the Sync Settings link in the E-mail section.
    23. syncing a smartphone in windows vista
      click to enlarge

    24. From here you can customize exactly how you want your email to be synchronized. Make any changes you wish, and then click the Save button.
    25. syncing a smartphone in windows vista
      click to enlarge

    26. Repeat step 13 but choose the Calendar settings. Again, make any changes you deem appropriate.
    27. syncing a smartphone in windows vista
      click to enlarge

    28. Clicking Save will make the changes immediately.
    29. syncing a smartphone in windows vista
      click to enlarge

    Posted in Office, Windows, Windows Mobile.

    Get Simple Help tutorials just like this one in your email inbox every day - for free! Just enter your email address below:

     

    You can always opt out of this email subscription at any time.

    75 Responses

    Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.

    1. Bill says

      Same problem as Mattia Filander 12.15.08 at 1:28 am and others. Elements to synchronise (contacts etc) each say ‘Outlook not installed’ when it is. Any workaround yet?

    2. Patricia says

      The OS for my PDA device is
      Microsoft Pocket PC
      Version 4.20.1081 (Build 13100)

      Will this setup work with my HP device? It uses ActiveSync 3.7 to sync with Outlook 2003 on my desktop computer. The new laptop OS is Vista.

    3. William says

      I have managed to connect my pocket PC “Samsung Omina i900″ with my computer using Vista 32 bit ultimate, but there is an error when sync with Outlook 2007. Any help?

      William

    4. Bill says

      When the error message appears on my system I hard reset my HTC TyTnII – seems to work!

    5. Paul says

      Programma werkt perfect op een onderdeel na.
      Iemand een idee hoe het komt dat als ik mijn e-mail in wil stellen ik de mappen niet te zien krijg als ik bij stap 14 de betreffende optie aanklik. Krijg alleen ongewenste e-mail en RSS kanalen te zien. Gekke is wel dat hij mail synchroniseerd alleen de verkeerde map ???

    6. BillK says

      I have an old iPAQ. For years I’ve synced between two computers running XP. I just bought a Vista machine and now have to sync between a computer running XP and one running Vista. I’ve downloaded Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 for Windows Vista to the Vista machine. The device synced but it changed all my Word documents to pwi documents and all my Excel documents to pxi documents, none which open. How can I simply have the documents remain Word and Excel files?

    7. Klein says

      il faut arrêter de dire que windows mobile 6 est super sur Vista.
      Avec activsync on pouvait a volonté passer des fichier Word ou excel sur notre mobile. A présent c’est terminé.
      Quant au transfert des fichiers adresses ou calendrier sur Outlook c’est une galère pour supprimer les doublons . Merci Microsoft.

    8. Teodor says

      Hej! Jag har följt alla instuktioner på den här sidan, men när jag synkar min X1 så ser allt bra ut tills det är klart, detta händer:
      Telefon skärmen: åtgärd krävs (och inget överfördes)
      Outlook 2007: det ända som överfördes från Mobile center var anteckningar.
      (allt som man överför ska hamna i oulook eller hur?)
      Mobile Divice center: Synk klar, anlsluten

      Kort sagt: allt som överfördes till outlook var antekningar.
      Hur kan Jag fixa detta?

    9. Gonçalo Carvalho says

      PARABÉNS! Procurei muito até encontrar este blog. Tenho o Vista Home, um pda com win mobile 6.1 e o outlook 2003. Afinal o “win mobile device center que vem de origem, não sincroniza automaticamente o outlook com o pda! É necessário fazer o download e actualizar o controlador :
      http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=46f72df1-e46a-4a5f-a791-09f07aaa1914&displaylang=pt-br&Hash=W0TQ3r6%2fFughJi9ca0caoKT%2bHTXQX3IACf4i%2f%2beuvhh%2fwgFTm871x%2f6OQvc%2feDUTrQ6Nmpr%2bgt5DZau2LWDkYw%3d%3d

    10. jeanmatta says

      Synchronize with vista failed.Please advice solution.
      my phone is imate jamin please send sophtwere

    11. Beverly says

      Have Verizon SMT 5800 smart phone and am running Vista Home Premium 64 bit on my laptop. I also Outlook 2007. For the life of me the phone and calendar will not sync. I have gone thru most tutorials and uninstalled and reinstalled and still nothing. The only time they will “talk” is when phone is plugged in (usb) and I manually put something in outlook calendar. Then and only then will it go to the phone. The phone appointments will not upload to office and office will not download to phone. Am I missing the boat on this one??

    12. Bart says

      Hi,

      As you correctly mention in step 1 ‘you should be notified’. Unfortunately I’m not and I sick and tired of sitting behind my new laptop each night for hours without being able to sync my Palm Treo 500v.

      Can someone please tell me what I’m doing wrong, or better, tell me what I can do to solve my problem (besides throwing everything in the garbage).

      Greetings,
      Bart

    13. Sebastian says

      How can i sync the time between the PC and the Mobile Device, so that my WM Device gets the time from the PC? On Active Sync there was an option for this, but not under Sync Center…

    14. Gökhan AKAR says

      Very good explanation. God bless you, and I hope you get eternal happiness!

    15. Simo says

      Ik kan mijn telefoon (HTC Touch Cruise) met windows mobile 6.1 niet verbinden met mijn pc. Ik heb van alles geprobeerd:
      - WMDC opnieuw geïnstalleerd
      - soft en hard reset op telefoon
      - help stappen op telefoon en op website van microsoft opgevolgd
      Kan het een probleem zijn dat ik mijn telefoon eerst op xp heb gesynchroniseerd en nu op vista probeer? Heeft iemand een idee?

    16. tony pestana says

      bom

    17. Roland says

      I really frustrated – for many days I try to sync my HTC Touch Diamon WM6.1 with Outlook 2003
      ( Windows 7 WMDC 6.1 )
      The connection seems to be ok. Mobile Favorits and Notes can be synced, but as soon I config the wmdc for contacts or calender, the syncronize center never comes to an end.
      I created an empty PST file to avoid corrupted entries but it dídn’t helped.

      Any guess?
      Thanks in advance Roland

    18. jarmil82 says

      zdravim , mam htc hd2 a mam problem so synchronizaciou suborov. vsetko mi funguje v pohode (kontakty, ulohy,poznamky,kalendar……) ale potrebujem synchronizovat aj jednu zlozku ktora sa nezmesti do internej pamete.tz ze som ju dal na kartu ale neviem nastavit synchr. aby brala aj kartu. ked som oznacil tu zlozku z pc vo win.mob.centre zacalo ju tahat do internej ale tam sa nezmestila . neviem co s tym . vedel by mi niekto poradit?pls!!!!!!!!!

    19. jarmil82 says

      hallo, I have HTC HD2 and I have problem with synchronizing files. me everything works like it (contacts, tasks, notes, calendar, … …) but I need to synchronize the one folder that will not fit into the internal memori. that I gave her the card but I setup Sync. to take the card. when I described the the component of the PC in win.mob.centre started to pull her into the folder but there is full. I do not know what can. Can anyone advise me? pls !!!!!!!!!

    20. diogo says

      parabens pelo post ficou bom e me ajudou a resolver um problema que eu ja achava que nao tinha soluçao… nao entendo muito dessas coisas mas achei que o post ficou muito bem explicado. muito obrigado mesmo

    21. Jan Carel says

      Ik hoop dat iemand mij met een handig antwoord kan helpen, Ik heb een HTC Diamond telefoon met Windows Mobile 6.1 Ik maak daarmee oa videotjes die volgens het toestel MP4 zijn.
      Ik breng de video’ naar mijn laptop en daar kunnen ze niet herkend worden in Media Center of welk Windows of Microsoft programma dan ook (ik heb Vista).
      Vreemd want eigenlijk is het vanuit een Windows Mobile omgeving weer naar een Windows omgeving. Ik heb mijn Vista geherinstalleerd. Daarvoor deed mijn PC ook het geluid niet van deze videotjes en op de een of andere manier -ik weet niet meer hoe- is het probleem toen wel verholpen.

      Ook in het wel bekende VLC programma draaien ze wel beeld, maar geen geluid.

      Wie kan mij helpen?
      Dank,
      JCvD

    22. Phatana Hakimi says

      I have to try first, but sofar the setting is very simple after follow the instruction above.
      Thanks

    1 2

    Continuing the Discussion

    1. Windows mobile, mobile configuration, mobile review, mobile configuration blog linked to this post on November 23, 2007

      [...] Outlook 2007 are required for synchronization of e-mail, contacts, tasks and notes to your PC. Read more …  Posted by kj [...]

    2. How to install the OS X Leopard skin on your Windows Mobile Smartphones - Simplehelp linked to this post on April 28, 2008

      [...] your Smartphone via ActiveSync, Windows Mobile Device Center or by whatever method you use to transfer files to your Smartphone. Upload the two files to the [...]

    3. Dashwire.... - Southern Maryland Community Forums linked to this post on January 19, 2009

      [...] Mobile 5.0 with Messaging and Security Feature Pack Windows Mobile 6 Windows Embedded CE 6 How to sync your Windows Mobile device to a Windows Vista PC – Simple Help Last edited by Danzig : Today at 10:46 [...]



    Some HTML is OK

    or, reply to this post via trackback.