Desktop Manager fails to synch with Yahoo Address Book on my 8300

Question

I have been synching both Yahoo Address Book and Yahoo Calendar successfully for months.  Suddenly, Address Book no longer synchs.  Yahoo calendar still works.  The problem occurs aftew Desktop reads all the contacts.  It halts while "Synchronization Progress...reading from Yahoo Address Book" displays.  That message has displayed for up to an hour with no progress.  I then disconnect and halt Desktop.  I can still synch Yahoo Calendar.  I have not updated desktop or device software.  Anybody have any suggestions?

Answer 1

No Sync with Yahoo Address Book Workaround:
Work Around for Blackberry to Yahoo Sync when Address Book Sync Gets Stuck:
I've had the Address Book on my Yahoo Sync hang on two different occasions.  The first time was late 2009 and the second was late Jan 2010.  The first time the problem fixed itself. This time, no such luck yet.  So if you are having the same problem, here's a work around that will allow you to update both your Yahoo and Blackberry Contacts and keep them in sync.
Step 1: From Yahoo, EXPORT your contacts to Windows Contacts (I did this in Vista and it also works for Windows 7 -- it should also work for XP, but the export may be a different expension).  You will want to export using the 'vCard, Zip of .VCF files'.  his will create a zip file of all your contacts with in the vcard format: (.VCF) 
Step 2: Some manual labor in this step, but you will only have to do it once OR you can try a .vcf to .contact file converter program like:
http://www.vcardconverter.com/ that will cost you 19.95. Open each contact in the zip file. It will show you the contact data and there will be a button that you can click to ADD TO MY CONTACTS.  Do this for each contact in the exported zip file. Or but the program. 
You now have your Yahoo Address Book converted over to Window Contacts.
Step 3: In the Blackberry Desktop Manager change your synchronization setting for your address book from Yahoo to 'Window Address Book/Mail'.  Leave the Calendar, MenoPad, and Task to sync with Yahoo.  So you should have:
Calendar sync to Yahoo
MemoPad sync to Yahoo
Address Book sync to Windows Address Book/Mail
Task sync to Yahoo
Step 4: You now can perform a sync to you Blackberry Device. (But read the notes below first)
SOME IMPORTANT NOTES:
This allows you to get your contacts into your Blackberry and to sync them with your Windows Contacts.  You can make this a three way sync where you also keep your Windows Contacts and Yahoo Address Book in sync.  It just adds an extra sync.  NOTE: If you are going to do this then pay the 20 bucks and buy the program above or find a program to convert .contact files to vcf (vcard) files. I've decided to buy the program above because it allows me to import and export all the contacts at one time, which is what you will need to use the import / export tools in Yahoo Contacts
I did the sync of the address book in steps.  I was lucky / unlucky because I tried to do a Blackberry software upgrade that failed and it wiped out all of my contacts, calendar, tasks, and memos; so when I did my first sync, I when only from the Blackberry Desktop Manager to my Blackberry.  I then changed my sync to be a two way sync.  I only mention this because I don't know if going from Windows Contact to Blackberry would create duplicate entries in your Blackberry and Windows Contact Manager.  Maybe someone can check this out and post. Anyway, I would suggest trying the sync with only a few contacts to check it out.
You don't need to worry about the folder that the Blackberry Desktop Manager will store the contacts.  It assumes the 'Contacts' folder on you machine.  As far as I could tell, there was no way to change this destination anyway.
ALTERNATIVE APPROACH:
If I was to do this all over, and I had my contacts still on my blackberry, I would most likely do the following (in theory):
Step 1.
Change the sync for contacts to be with Windows Address Book, not Yahoo.
Step 2.
Sync the contacts so they would appear in the Windows Contacts.
Step 3. Then worry about syncing Windows Contacts with Yahoo (see above)
Good luck,