The software is designed to offer wireless sync capabilities between your desktop PC email program, (in my case, OUTLOOK) and your PDA or smartphone device (in my case, TREO).  It does this by providing a conduit.  Outlook stays on and open all the time, and the sync program monitors it, updating a web-hosted email/calendar/contact/task account on the Verizon Wireless storage facility at www.wirelesssync.vzw.com.  That account pushes and pulls information to your TREO in almost real time. 

Pretty slick…until it doesn’t work.  The error messages are hard to decipher, and nobody, but nobody can really help you.  Call Microsoft to troubleshoot Outlook, Call Palm to troubleshoot your TREO, call Verizon to troubleshoot the PC Monitor…unless you get luckier than I did, you are on your own.

Often, when the communication between Outlook and the PC Monitor is down, for whatever reason, you will receive an error in your inbox, subject “SYNCLOGC”, text something like “SYNCLOGC:)V1/VZPg0wXH0e+Qvg94xv2nEw1tapvomcpV-h/Z(:CGOLCNYS”.  If you see this often enough, as I did, it gets annoying. 

You may be tempted to create a rule to send it directly into a subfolder, or mark it as spam.  This was my reaction, since I was receiving so many work emails that these repetitive error messages seemed like clutter I could do something about.  Only after creating an Outlook rule to remove the email from my inbox, did I discover the true nature of this error message.

WHAT IS THIS ERROR CODE? 

The “SYNCLOGC” error is actually a marker that a recent sync attempt has failed.  Who knew?  It is a message that actually TELLS the PC Monitor that you are out of sync, that changes are waiting on the server, and that it should try again.  The possibilities for the lack of communication have endless variables.  In one case, I changed a password on a synced email account and forgot that I needed to update the information at www.wirelesssync.vzw.com.  In other cases, it is more simple…your DSL connection is down, your router needs to be reset, Outlook is closed, stuff like that. 

A common problem for me was that I would walk away from my running computer, having given it certain instructions that were not so compatible with walking away.  Example:  I automatically downloaded important system updates, patches, virus definitions, etc.  If those required a reboot, I gave it permission to do so right away.  But after the reboot, I failed to tell my computer to start Outlook and the PC Monitor automatically, and in that order.  4 times out of 5, if I got the SYNCLOGC error on my TREO, that is what happened.   Conversely, if I got the error in Outlook, it was the TREO that was the culprit, needed the famous every-other-day reboot.

BUT, and the most important thing to remember is, you have a pathway problem.   Often it is at the user end, but if you troubleshoot and find nothing – don’t fret.  Leave the error messages in your inbox and it can sometimes fix itself.  This will be the case if perhaps the problem is with your account at www.wirelesssync.vzw.com, or maybe at your email hosting (Gmail, Yahoo, Sonic, AT&T, etc.).  One way to know for sure is to log in to these two places and compare their data to yours.  The site that has the most incomplete will be the one experiencing the communication problem.

NITTY GRITTY

So your troubleshooting path will be something like this:

Desktop Outlook  àß PC Monitor  àß Router  àß Modem àß www.wirelesssync.vzw.com àß Email Client àß Wireless Sync, TREO àß TREO email program (PIM)

These double arrows represent a two-way communication – it’s not enough that Outlook sends, it must be also receiving.

1. Check to see that Outlook is open.  If you’ve had a reboot you may need to start it.  Also, make sure you are not working offline.
2. Check to see that you have the PC Monitor icon in your tray, and that it doesn’t have the blinking X, indicating that it’s in error state.
3. Check to be sure that you have an internet connection.
4. Be sure that your Router and Modem both have active lights.  These may also need to be reset.
5. [Since you've done all that, and we're good so far] Open your internet explorer and logon to your vzw wireless sync account.  Go to the settings page and check the log for errors.  If there are errors, clear those now.  Check to see if the emails you find in the inbox there are matching and up to date with the ones you have in Outlook.  If not, and you cannot find an error to fix, your problem MAY be here, and you MAY need to contact Verizon.
6. Logon to your email internet interface – everyone has this, if you are unsure, check with your administrator or service provider.  Make sure the email you find in the inbox there match what you find at Verizon and also in your Outlook.  If not, and you cannot find an error to fix, your problem MAY be here, and you MAY need to contact your email provider.
7. [Usually you won't have to get THIS far] Make sure your Verizon cell phone bill has been paid.  Just kidding, but not really…it actually happened to a client of mine.
8. Then, be sure you have a cell signal.  Really.
9. Reboot your TREO or smartphone.  Occasionally I have seen that it seems like it’s functioning fine, but a process has stopped responding that a simple removing of the battery and reinserting, or other warm boot method, as described by the manufacturer, will restart that service.   

And that, my friends, is all I know about that.  One of these steps, or several, is responsible for a breakdown in your cycle, and if you follow these steps, you will identify which, even if you need help resolving it. 

Feedback?  Any trouble I can help with?  Write me here.

If you have seen this error, chances are you have read, called and otherwise researched everything you can think of to solve it, and discovered, as I have, that it’s a pretty common and unsettled question.  Until now. 

 I experienced this problem, and like most power-users, I messed around for a while trying to fix it myself.  I thought, “I’m smart enough, this shouldn’t be a biggie”.  After wasting a bunch of time, I started calling all the vendors involved (Microsoft, Palm, Verizon, my ISP).  They all suggested solutions that further frustrated me:  Reboot your computer, replace your router, check your external phone lines, restore your Treo, reinstall your operating system, and so on.  I am not kidding, sometimes I just had to say no.  I sit 3 feet from another computer configured exactly the same way, and the error is only haunting me.  So I just KNEW they were, for the most part, as clueless as I was.

I thought there might be hope at the Verizon Wireless support FAQ page (http://support.vzw.com/faqs/Wireless%20Sync/faq.html#item52), since they list my error code by name.  This is an exact reprint of the topic there:

What does “Error occurred sending changes – Communications Error 80040207″ mean?

This error means that the PC Monitor was unable to establish or complete communication with the Wireless Sync server.  To troubleshoot, first verify your proxy settings and also verify that the Monitor is able to connect to the Internet.

Verify the Proxy Information for the Windows user account:

• Open Internet Explorer and go to Tools-Internet Options, Connection Tab- LAN Settings.
• Verify that those settings match what is in PC Monitor.  If “Automatically Detect” is selected then no changes are required to the PC Monitor.  If “Use a Proxy Server for your LAN” is checked then copy those settings and enter them into the PC Monitor.

Verify that the PC Monitor is able to connect to the Internet:

• Log into the Wireless Sync WebPIM.  Go to View and select Activity Logs.  You are looking to see if any connection is made to our servers from your Monitor.  If so then you know they are getting outside the firewall.
• Alternatively, when the PC Monitor does its first initialization for a user, do you see blue arrows going in a circle during the initial first time sync?  If so, then the Monitor is able to communicate with the Wireless Sync server.  If you don’t, then it is not going outside the firewall. If it’s not going outside the network, you will have to troubleshoot your firewall timeout policy and the amount of simultaneous connections that can be made through the firewall. Also, check your company policy for this type of software to transmit large chunks of data through the firewall.

That’s all great, and I am sure that it will occasionally lead you down the path to resolve your issue.  But, for me, it was complete hogwash.  Yesterday everything worked fine, and I woke up this morning to this error.  I changed nothing, touched nothing, but SOMETHING changed to break the circle of trust.

What could that something be, if it’s not my Internet Options, which worked fine before, it’s not my sync connection, firewall, company policy, etc., which all functioned up until now? 

I will tell you:  Open the Sync software, which is sitting in your tray with a blinking X on it, telling you about your problem.  View your activity, and under the error message, READ the text of the error.  Could it be that simple?  Yes…unfortunately, it can.

The error description SAYS 80040207 – the owner sid on a per-user subscription doesn’t exist.  Assuming it SAYS what it MEANS, and some brilliant programmer planned the information to be helpful, but the guys answering the phones never got the memo (oh, in 2009, perhaps the programmer got laid off before he sent the memo, new company policies prohibit using resources to create a memo, help-desks are manned by new outsourced operators that didn’t understand the memo…), then it’s up to us to read the tea leaves.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Kenny Kerr has a brilliant discussion of SID over here:  http://alt.pluralsight.com/wiki/default.aspx/Keith.GuideBook/WhatIsOwnership.html.  Basically, and as it relates to our error message, he says “If I create an object, I become its owner, and ownership conveys certain inalienable rights: the right to read and change the object’s access control policy.”  These rights belong to the Owner SID. 

When PC Monitor notifies you that your Outlook did not sync with the Verizon Wireless Sync storage facility, www.wirelesssync.vzw.com, it tells you in this language:  The owner sid (as discussed above, in this case, is Verizon’s permissions to read/write/modify, etc.) does not exist on a per-user subscription (you, trying to modify something Verizon doesn’t give you permission to do).

Get it?  To use Kenny’s analogy, I own a car, and I have a set of keys.  One of them operates the car, and the other just opens the trunk.  Verizon gives its users a key to store junk in the trunk, but when you try to start the car with your key, you get an 80040207 error.  The thing is, you won’t know what you did – but back to the analogy:  when you need to store more junk than the trunk can hold, it won’t close.  You’ve reached it’s capacity, it knows something’s wrong and it’s telling you (with blinking lights, see?  Because, um, cars can’t talk) that you need to to fix it.  So…it’s up to you to remove some of the contents that you tried to store.  Hint:  the error didn’t really occur gradually, only when you just now attempted to stuff a baby elephant in there.

GREAT.  BUT WHY?

If you open the error in your tray application, you will notice that you can get details under the error code.  It may say “Subject of bad email: tool for hire”.  This is your clue…that email is jacking you.

There could be a variety of reasons that PC Monitor dislikes this particular email.  To find out, though, go to www.wirelesssync.vzw.com and log in to your account.  Go to the settings page and click on the performance option.  You should find the clues you need there, if you compare the rules of your account to the email indicated in your error message.  An example:  Perhaps the evil email, “tool for hire” sitting in your Outlook inbox has attachments and is over 9 MB.  Doesn’t pass the rules test, so the PC Monitorit can’t push it to www.wirelesssync.vzw.com.  OR, it’s only 2 MB, but your performance page tells you there is only 1MB of storage available in your inbox.  OR it’s a complete mystery and none of this gives you any useful information, and you don’t care and just want to get the problem fixed.

SO WHAT DO I DO?

Simple.  Delete the evil email from your Outlook inbox.  If you leave messages on your server (GMAIL, etc.),  you may want to log in and delete it there too.  Save it as a draft if you really can’t bring yourselve to hit the button.  Then, Re-Sync, sit back and watch the magic. 

Oh, and ask your sender to quit hogging your resources.

I will undoubtedly reveal, as I ignorantly break every PC rule, that I’m not a seasoned blogger.  More like a lurker.  But I have decided that I, along with a few trusted people that I actually know by Face, have some stuff to share that has not been conglomerated the way I have in mind.  So y’all help me learn my protocol, and I will, in return, show you some tremendously valuable and even habit-changing junk.

Example (teaser):  I spent a bazillion hours recently on the phone with Verizon, Microsoft,  and Palm to figure out why I couldn’t sync my Treo with Outlook one day, when I could the day before.  None of them knew what the error message “80040207” meant.  I eventually figured it out, after a recommended hard reset to my Treo, restore Windows XP to last known good configuration, unload, download, re-download Wireless Sync Software, then all over in safe mode, reinstall XP, and even more madness I’m embarrassed to admit I tried so I could have back my ”TRUSTED SYSTEM” (which I like to call my vampire – be the first to tell me why and I will reward you here on my blog).  No joke – not a soul could take me down the yellow brick road – not even my favorite blogs.  The last resort, at the most extreme top level of Verizon support, was to look for an ISP area outage…despite my objections that 10 feet from me, another computer that I set up the EXACT same way was working never better.  Even now, a dozen or so open trouble tickets bearing my name are surely bouncing around the X-Files.

Here’s the catch…the answer Was there, in the text of the error message, yet NOONE knew what it meant!  Even when I read it out loud, the text itself was dismissed as irrelevant and meaningless!

Don’t get me wrong – this isn’t a consumer-gone-postal (um) post.  If you stay tuned as we construct our site, I promise, within one week, I will give the answer to this elusive mystery,  causing extreme happiness and possible blushing. 

And then, oh-so-much more.