PC Sync was unable to access a valid Outlook profile

Same problem here...please advise if you resolve it.

Since my Outlook profile synchs fine with anything... & any other application of the nokia pc suite behaves well... would that be possible that the error message is just completely wrong ("unable to access a valid outlook profile"😉 then misleading... and "simply" something is wrong with the PIM on my phone and not on Outlook???

I realized that since:

1 - any sych program I tried (Oxigen 2, Mobile Master) encounters problems connecting and retrieving (not just synching!!!) contacts from my phone

2 - nokia content copier results in an error when a I try selectively to copy the my contacts/notes&calendar on my PC ("an error occurred copying contacts..."; full backups indeed works fine!)

any clue?
(quite pissed off by the incompetence of Nokia HelpDesk & the inactivity of this list :-/ )

Yes. This all seems to be an ongoing problem and I think it is a fault in the PC Sync software...in that it appears to be very picky about the Outlook stuff.

At the moment, I have discovered a consistent (but very annoying work-around). Whenever, I get the "Failed to open Outlook" error, I use the "Detect and Repair" feature under the Outlook "Help" menu. Unfortunately, this requires the MS-Office CD to be in your drive to perform the Detect and Repair. Furthermore, Detect and Repair takes several minutes to complete.

However, immediately after "Detect and Repair" PC Synch is able to open the Outlook folders and synch.

Unfortunately, after a little while the problem reverts and I am back to getting the error again....but at least I have a way to synch....clumsy as it is.

I do have one other suspicion. I only use Outlook as a PIM and still use Eudora for my email. I have run into problems with MAPI access to/from Eudora since installing Outlook and I wonder if the Eudora MAPI component is interfering with PCSynch. I'm experimenting with disabling MAPI in Eudora to see if that alleviates this issue.

I'd already read your suggestion on the list, thanks anyway...
unfortunately it didn't solve my problem :-\

Few days ago I completely formatted my PC... reinstalled/upgraded anything, imported my backup outlook data... and... no way to synch.

Today I tried again "Detect and Repair", as you say, (I tried, with any combination of options checked... I tried making a new profile, making a brand new .pst file completely empty)... but same frustrating result.

If this is a Nokia PC Suite bug w.r.t. Windows XP service pack 2 + recent office upgrades... I'm surprised no one realized what's wrong with that.

On the other hand I don't know:
1 - why nokia PC sych keeps telling me that my outlook profile is invalid... if something else would be wrong
2 - how can I check/validate the contacts / PIM on my phone

For what its worth (probably not much), I run PC Suite with latest Office 2003 bits & pieces + Windows XP SP2. I haven't had any problems like that (with phones like the 6630, 6680 and 9300 most recently, but I've also used the same setup with a 7610).

Maybe it is something on the phone? Have you tried reformatting the phone, instead of the PC?

I'll definitely try (at some point) to reformat my phone... however it seems hardly plausible to me that this could be the solution (I don't think when we build a new Synchronization Profile and we select Outlook, the program checks the phone data before returning the error).

Moreover, I can synch easily with Outlook Express!
Today I'll try to reinstall the PC Suite on another computer... I whish to think that this is "simply" a problem with the configuration of my outlook.

But Nokia doesn't help me at all anderstanding what could be wrong :-]

Probably there was a misleading configuration with my Outlook Profile...
Name of the .pst file? Name I gave to the default "Personal Folders"? Don't know, anyway, if you use the "Save Settings Wizard" provided by Office 2003 your misleading configuration too will be imported and you won't synch anymore!

So, this is a workaround that should prevent you from formatting your PC (as I did) and get your data back&syncing again:

1 - create a brand new profile (e.g. "test"😉 from "control panel" > "Mail"

2 - leave Windows to create its default .pst file (it should be"C:\Documents and Settings\<user_name>\Impostazioni locali\Dati applicazioni\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook.pst" this is the "italian path"... mutatis mutandis)

3 (optional) - make a copy, rename it, move it wherever you want... then set the correct path from "Outlook" > "File" > "Manage data file" (redirect your mails on this file from "manage account" > select an account > on the bottom of the window select the default folders created within the new file)

4 - try synching with this new profile (choose "create a new configuration" from PC Synch and select your new profile from the profiles menu)... this should work... well, NEVER try again "create a new configuration" after this step!!!

5 - open outlook choosing the new (working profile)

6 - Select "file" > "import export" > "import data from other programs files" and choose the old .pst file you used to store mail/contacts etc.

7 - import anything, including subfolder...

8 - be happy! you should keep synching now

Little caveat... I didn't succeeded in importing my e-mail accounts :-/

Really hope someone take advantage of the days I spent solving this problem.

> Really hope someone take advantage of the days I spent solving this problem

I definitely did.

My setup is WinXP SP2, Office 2003 (my Outlook inbox resides on an Exchange server), Nokia 6230i, PC Suite 6.5.12.

I ran into the same problem in the middle of experimenting with some Visual-Basic-based sync helper scripts, when I was frequently syncing: One moment it worked alright, the next it did not -- and never started again.

Nothing helped: neither reinstalling Outlook, nor reinstalling PC Suite, nor reinstalling Office.

But just creating a new profile from within pcsync did.

I could even modify it afterwards: change from "sync both ways" to "outlook to phone only"; change the folders to use the helper folders for contacts and appointments rather than the default folders.
I am now (OK, lets say: currently) confident that I can repair the problem within two minutes, should it ever arise again (which I firmly expect to happen).
The PC Suite software is indeed abysmally bad.

Anyway, thank you very much for your post!
I had already invested about 6 hours before I found it, with no success whatsoever.

I had the same problem and the help desk today informed me of a new version being made available. At it works!
Try it out.
Good luck.

eTranslator

see:
http://europe.nokia.com/nokia/0,,72014,00.html
http://nds2.nokia.com/files/support/global/phones/software/Nokia_PC_Suite_66_rel_18_eng.exe

crisk wrote:...The message I get is always the same:

"Warning: PC Sync was unable to access a valid Outlook profile. Please run Outlook and configure your user profile."...

..."PC Synch cannot browse to the PC PIM database or locate the required user settings"....

My 1st connected device was "Nokia 9500" and synchronization was working as it should be.
After I'm changed that 1sf device for the new one, this 2nd device was named for the Nokia 9500 (2)" When I try to sync. my new device, Ive got the same Warning error message.

I found another workaround for this by editing string value:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Nokia\PCSync\MRSList
D0 value back to the "Nokia 9500" from the "Nokia 9500 (2)" value

and same step for the following path:
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1603618723-3093798729-XXXXXXXXXXX-54478\Software\Nokia\PCSync\MRSList

\\STEELcap