For a long time, I’ve thought there is no way of relocating ActiveSync-synchronized Outlook mail (that is, mail that ActiveSync synchronizes from/with your desktop Outlook; not to be confused with mail you download straight from your POP3/IMAP mailboxes on your PDA without any ActiveSync synchronization!) to memory cards.

Now, the situation has changed – you can store all your mail bodies (not just the attachments) on storage cards! This is handy for everyone (to lessen the load on the main storage) and particularly for people that have upgraded their ‘legacy’ WM2003SE Dell or HP devices to WM5.

Importance for WM5-upgraded Dells and HP devices

This hack is of extreme importance to Dell Axim x50(v), HP iPAQ hx4700, hx2x1x and hx275x users that have upgraded to WM5. As I’ve pointed out several times (for example here), you MUST reduce writing/deletion to/from the Flash ROM for these devices to be usable (that is, to avoid the filesys.exe compaction ‘kicking in’). This also means avoiding synchronizing Outlook mail with WM5-upgraded devices because, by default, they are all stored in the main storage. Now, with this hack, you can freely and safely synchronize your mail on these devices without lengthy filesys.exe compactions!

And, of course, the hack is very important for anyone wanting to store more than a handful of his or her mails on his or her PDA to keep the built-in free memory as large as possible, independent of the Pocket PC model.

The solution



The solution is simply adding a String value named PropertyPath containing the new mail directory path to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\ MAPI in the Registry. This value should contain the directory on your storage card you’d like to store your synchronized mail on. The directory doesn’t need to be manually created; it will be automatically created upon the first mail synchronization.

Also, to relocate mail attachments, you’ll need to also add a String value AttachPath to the same key.

To do this, strictly on pre-WM5 devices, get for example MobileRegistryEditor (MRE):

Cradle your Pocket PC, let ActiveSync run, start MRE and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\ MAPI. Click the right pane, choose New and, then, String Value as can be seen in here.

Now, just fill in the two fields with PropertyPath /AttachPath and the directories on your storage card you’d like to use as can be seen in this and this screenshots.

On WM5 devices, you can’t use MobileRegistryEditor because it doesn’t have write/modify rights to most of the Registry. Therefore, on WM5 devices, you’ll need to use alternate registry editors like Resco Registry Editor (also see the Ultimate Roundup of Registry Editors for the Pocket PC for alternates).

Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\ MAPI and choose Menu/New/String Value as can be seen in here. Fill in the two (name and value) fields with PropertyPath (and AttachPath).

Soft reset your device after the registry hack!

You will also need to soft reset your Pocket PC so that Messaging (Pocket Inbox) also sees the changes – ActiveSync will see them at once, but Messaging won’t).

Note that on WM5 devices you will need to suspend (press the Power button shortly) before resetting. (For geeks, the explanation of the reasons for this can be found here.)

Compatibility

All Pocket Inbox / Messaging versions starting with the Pocket PC 2002 operating system. The hack works just great on all my Pocket PC 2002+ test Pocket PC’s (tested it on the PPC2k2 iPAQ 3660, the WM2003 iPAQ 2210, the WM2003SE Pocket Loox 720 and the WM5 iPAQ hx4700).

ATTENTION: You must disable the Messaging Today plug-in!

Due to the fact that Today plug-ins are initialized earlier than the storage cards become available, to avoid the Storage Card2 problem described for example here, you must disable the Messaging Today plug-in.

To do this, go to Start/ Settings/ Today/ Items and uncheck Messaging ('Inbox' in pre-WM2003SE operating system versions) as can be seen in here.

Storage card speed

Note that if you get hundreds of mails a day, you will want to optimize the speed of your storage card so that file creation speed is as big as possible. To do this, please read this tutorial.

When the hack is not the best

1. you absolutely need the Messaging Today plug-in. Then, you will need to stick to storing the mail bodies in the main memory.
   
2. if you want the best synchronization speed possible, you have a lot of mail to sync and you have a pre-WM5 device (where RAM is used to store files and not the much slower flash ROM), you may want to opt for NOT ‘hacking’ the mail bodies out of the main memory. RAM-based memory is far faster as far as file creation speed is concerned than even the fastest memory cards. Keeping mail bodies in RAM may result in tremendous synchronization speed increase. Again, this is only usable with pre-WM5 devices and will only have real effect when you have a LOT of new mail to synchronize regularly. If you only have 1-2 new mails to sync, you won’t see any speed difference.

Microsoft MVP - Mobile Devices, 2006, 2007. See my PPC & SP blog HERE.

    

That is awesome news. All you many in-depth articles are much appreciated, but this one is really something that's been on so many people's wish list forever!

Posted a link to your blog article, here:
http://justanothermobilemonday.com/W...storage-cards/

Thanks for yet another really informative piece ...

Just Another iPhone Blog
iPhone News, Views & Reviews

 

Hi!

I was wondering if you know what script to use to relocate ActiveSync-synchronized Outlook calendar, tasks, contacts, and notes to memory cards.

Thanks.

Hello All,
I didn't use the registery hack but did use SKTools, to change the Messaging Folder from "Windows" to "SD Card" and I noticed it coppied all my messages to the card, I did edit "Today plugin" before doing a soft reset.
But I still get the "SD Card 2" problem, is there something missing ..? or perhaps the Card isnt fast enough ..? but what causes the messaging folder to be allocated with the x50v startup ..? I used SKTools to relocate PIE cache and it worked no problem. (I am on WM5 A02)
Thanks,

aasoror, from \windows\startup folder usally loaded poutlook.exe application. This can be much faster than storage card driver initialize your storage card.
Poutlook read settings from registry and not see path for messaging files, so he create folder "SD Card\...". After this storage card driver see - "SD Card" name already used, so he assign "SD Card2" for your card.

Partially solution - remove "poutlook.exe" from startup folder. "Partyally" because if you remove/insert your card and any part of outlook started - you will get "SD Card2" again.

SKKV Software

Thanks for your reply SK,
Actually I did create a folder named "startup_disabled" moved the "poutlook.exe" to it, got the "application may not work" warning. used SK to change the messaging path, soft reset, ..
didnt work,
tried again moving the "poutlook.exe" to the SD card (just away from windows folder), soft reset,
didnt work,
Any thoughts..?

aasoror,
1) remove card!
2) disable poutlook.lnk in \windows\startup (you can do it with SKTools)
2.5) make sure you not have any other outlook and messaging items in startup
3) delete folder \SD Card (by file explorer)
4) do softreset
5) insert card

SKKV Software

Menneisyys, you are the greatest. Now I just might be able to do mail on my Ax again. Thanks.

Dotan Cohen

What is Email? - What Email is, and some problems associated with it. Also, a very brief history of email.