Troubleshooting Skydrive on Windows RT 8.1 - Sync Problems

So many Windows RT and Windows users still complaining about sync problems on Skydrive after more than an year of Windows RT devices were launched.

The problems are not new and Microsoft seems to be "blind" to users complaints.

I'm not different to thousands of users having this problem.

If you look for a solution on Microsoft community and Support Forums, you will take hours to find a link to a troubleshooter application for Windows RT 8.1 (easier to find for Windows 8.1). So, after I found it, I decide to make it available here:

TROUBLESHOOTING SKYDRIVE 

On the page of the link below, click in the linked word "troubleshooter" under the paragraph "Note" and you will download a (.cab) file. RUN IT !

>>>>   http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/skydrive/folder-file-sync-error-faq 

Here is what you will see on the web page clicking on the link above.

Note

• For help with SkyDrive in Windows 8.1 or Windows RT 8.1, see SkyDrive: FAQ, or run the troubleshooter.

ps: there's no guarantee that running this (.cab) file, your problems will be solved, but it worth to try.

Solving many problems on Surface RT

Well,

Windows 8.1 Preview came to solve some problems BUT, brought some other annoying ones. I've heard that the definitive Windows RT 8.1 version won't solve all of them just by upgrading.

Sync problems on Skydrive, Search Problems, problems synchronizing mail apps, lock screen that doesn't work well and a few other issues.

I had all of them and there are so many posts on official and non-official Microsoft forums and some work and other definitely don't.

After trying many suggested solutions I did something that solved many of my problems: Just deleting and re-creating your user account again (but read ALL the instructions below first before deciding to follow them and it's your responsibility to follow them. It's up to you my friend.

• Make a BACKUP of your user data (/users/your_user_account)
• Take note of usernames and passwords you use to login into specific apps (ex: Foursquare, TeamViewer, PhotoShop Express, Box, any other cloud apps, recipe apps (almost all of them need a login)
• Add a new "Administrator" User (if you already don't have it) going on Control Panel > Settings Charm > PC Settings > Accounts > Other Accounts > Add a user
• Ps: you can't ADD a user on Control Panel/User Accounts, but you need to go there to check if you already have another Administrator account (it's weird you can't add a user here, but only on PC Settings)
• LOGOUT completely with your main account using "logout" at right/top account feature on Windows Start Screen and LOGIN with the new administrator account
• Turn OFF/ON using the power button keeping it pressed
• DELETE your MAIN ACCOUNT (usually related to your hotmail account or another email), BUT read below first
• 1- When you are deleting an account Windows ask you if you want to KEEP or DELETE your user data: PLEASE, chose to KEEP all your user data.
• 2- All the data related to your APPS will be kept if you chose to KEEP, BUT, the apps themselves will be all deleted and will need to be reinstalled but Windows will do it automatically when later on next steps listed here.
• 3- Wait till all the process have finished. Don't restart it during the process. 
• 4- Keep it connected to your power outlet all the time
• Restart it after your account is completely deleted.
• LOGIN with the new administrator account
• CREATE your account again (the main account you have deleted) and PAY ATTENTION TO:
• Use the same email you were using on the deleted user account
• Windows will ask you if you want to use a old deleted account as the base to your new account. It's SO IMPORTANT that you chose YES and select the account you have deleted as the base for your new account and Windows will use all your OLD DATA and will reinstall automatically all your APPS related to your user account.
• DON'T turn your Surface off or restart it during these process.
• LOGOUT from your administrator account
• LOGIN with your new re-created user account and wait...
• The user setup process can take hours. Windows will install all apps again, create user info, etc, etc. DON'T turn your Surface off or restart it during these process.
• Some apps will require new setups/reconfiguration again (as you were running them for the first time), including MAIL apps and Outlook. You will need to create email accounts on Outlook, configure options of MAIL apps and other apps, BUT if you did this right, you won't loose you data and will have them all back.
• Check if all the apps were installed. Check if all your user files are back.
• Go to Skydrive Apps and login on it.
• Now you have to WAIT ! Wait for Skydrive files to be synchonized, wait hours for the re-indexing of all your files and data.
• You will need to re-add your media files and documents to your libraries.

I really hope all your problems were solved at this point or at least the main ones.

Good Look !

Outlook 2013 RT - How to synchronize your Contacts, Appointments, Tasks and eMails

Windows 8.1 RT Preview brought Outlook 2013 RT to Surface RT and other Windows RT Tablets.

Many people was asking for Outlook and complaining about mail apps. I confess that afther the huge upgrade on mail apps, I was no missing Outlook that much. The only problem for me was about People apps having just some basic information and could not synchronize all contacts data from your live.com/outlook/exchange account.

Well, now that Outlook is available, learn hot to synch the data with other devices/Windows notebooks/Windows Phone.

1) On Outlook, go to "Account Settings"

Account Settings

2) Create a NEW account

create new account

 3) Choose to set the account manually

create account manually

 4) Choose Outlook / Exchange account



Outlook / Exchange account

5) Fill the account information with your live.com/Outlook.com/Exchange user name and password and write "m.hotmail.com"  on server name.

Warning: 1) Some users are complaining about contacts were not full synchronized, stoping after about 300 contacts, but for me it worked fine with 530 contacts
2) Check if the contact and appointment folders are set OK, if you have more than one, it will synchronize only the HOTMAIL account data (live.com)
3) Use Send/Receive to make Outlook sync after edit any contact, task or appointment information.

Windows RT and Windows 8 effective synchonization and integration

SYNCHRONIZATION ON WINDOWS 8 IS AWESOME !

One of the main concerns when I buy a mobile phone or tablet is about synchronization with my other computers. 

What kind of information we can share and synchronize, and how ?  I confess I was not aware of what I would get on this matters when I bought my Surface RT. Everything was a 'incognito" and there's still a problem for me, I had not moved to Windows 8 on my notebook. It was a new notebook, but because I had hundreds of applications on my Windows 7 old notebook, I was worried about this move.

Well, to make it short, I moved to Windows 8 because of my Windows RT. I was excited about to explore their integration.

Right after I've installed Windows 8 on my new notebook, It was a so great surprise to see how things got so synchronized. Below I will comment some of my experiences about the integration on my Surface RT versus my Windows 8 notebook.

OS Level Sync Configuration: Besides the sync of several apps, Windows 8 allows you to configure them to sync with other Windows 8/RT devices in many dimensions, including all the dimensions listed on the image below:

So, when you change desktop themes, images, colors, passwords on websites, networks and dozens of other configurations in the main device, everything is synchronized with other devices.

But this is just the beggining, many other metro apps have their configuration synchronized too. All your personal news configuration on Bing News, Bento News and other news apps, are all synchronized. For example: on Bing News or Bento News, you can create news sections from specific news sources, on Bing News you can also create "Topics Sections" where Bing get together all news from many sources with specified keywords you define. All these configuration data are automatically synchonized.

Mail, Calendar, People and many other apps are also synchonized. 

Besides that, Skydrive, the Microsoft cloud system with more than 200 millions of users, is used to store data from many apps, so, all the data is also kept updated with it.

Example: I use eWallet from IliumSoft, the best password manager for Windows RT. On eWallet Apps I  manage more than 200 sites passwords, credit cards, computer password and all kind of passwords I use on my day-by-day. All the data is always kept updated on all my devices.

You can choose to keep many other files (documents, music, photos, etc) synchonized using Skydrive. 

All these features make you feel as you are using the same computer when working with many of your apps on your Windows 8 or Windows RT device.

OneNote is another application that keeps all your data synchronized on all of your devices. And it's note and content sensitive, in other words, if you have OneNote opened simultaneously on your Windows RT Tablet and Windows 8 notebook, if you change a single word on a note on one device and another word on the other device, both contents are synchronized on both sides.