Pilot HotSync FAQ

July 3, 1997

This collection is provided as a service to the Pilot community. It makes statements that are probably too risky for USR to make. However, USR is the ultimate authority; any statement made by USR supercedes anything said here. For USR information on HotSync, see:
General Tips: http://www.usr.com/palm/custsupp/hotsync.html
Using 2 PCs: http://www.usr.com/palm/custsup/duplicat.html
Where is My Data: http://www.usr.com/palm/custsupp/lostdata.html
HotSync 1.1 Info: http://www.usr.com/palm/custsupp/hs11rdme.html
Network HotSync: http://www.usr.com/palm/custsupp/csnetsyncfaq.html
Mac HotSync: http://www.usr.com/palm/custsupp/macfaqs.html


PC

What is HotSync 1.1?

See above. HotSync 1.1 is an upgrade from the original version of the HotSync code. It replaces the original HotSync 1.0 code that most of us got with the Pilot.

Why change from HotSync 1.0 to HotSync 1.1?

What is HotSync 2.0?

HotSync 2.0 is the sync system that comes with the Pilot Professional and the Pilot Personal. It fixes most of the bugs known in HotSync 1.0 and 1.1.

Compatibility

The chart that was here has been superceded by http://www.usr.com/palm/custsupp/softcomp.html

What are .prc files? What are .pdb files?

The .prc files contain programs that are intended to be sent/installed on the Pilot. See the next item for "how". A .prc file has all the program, menus, strings, pictures, etc. that it needs to run. Usually a .prc file is self contained, but sometimes you must also install an associated .pdb file.

The .pdb files contain data that can be sent to the Pilot. These files only contain data. You can send them to the Pilot using the same techniques as you would use for .prc files.

If you look around on your PC under the c:\pilot directory, you will see several files.

If you want to see what's in a .prc or .pdb file, try this app.

How do I deal with installing things onto the Pilot?

What about backing up the entire Pilot memory?

The Generic Conduit System (ver 2.0) includes the ability to pull all the data out of a Pilot and save it on the PC. Certain data files will not reinstall back to the Pilot, so be careful.

Problems:

HotSync won't start. Never did.

HotSync won't start. It used to, but now it won't.

My memopad doesn't sync; everything else is fine.
My todo list doesn't sync; everything else is fine.

HotSync starts up, but stops before any data is transferred.

HotSync 1.1 runs, and appears to backup installed 3rd part apps, but only backs them up once.


Mac

The MacPac from USR now allows sync's to occur directly from a Mac app. At this point, only the big 4 apps are sync'd (notebook, address, datebook and todo). There are enough problems designing a conduit system that the USR people decided to release the MacPack without it.

Mac users who wish to sync other databases can either:


Unix

Unix users are actually in quite good shape, despite the lack of code from USR. There is a substantial coop effort going on, and the resulting code is at ftp://ftp.pfnet.com/pub/PalmOS.

So far, this project has code to:


Other FAQ's

Please, if you have any more information on HotSync that people may find interesting, please send it to me.