Ovi is destroying Outlook 2010 Contacts categories

Question

Just bought a Nokia C2-02 and am running Ovi suite 3.1.1.90 and Outlook 2010 on Windows 7 (connecting via USB lead). I'm having problems getting the sync to function properly between the three of them. After several frustraing attempts and loss of data, I decided to start over from scratch — I deleted all contacts from the phone and from Ovi suite and backed up my Outlook contacts in a separate file. Then I sync-ed with Ovi suite with the phone connected. I have about 1,200 contacts in Outlook but unfortunatley the C2-02 only holds 1,000 contacts (wish Nokia could have mentioned that in all the bumf I read through about it on their website before purchasing!). They sync-ed, but stopped at 1,000 (alphabetically up to Ss). Since then, it's been sync-ed a couple of times, as I experimented with the Calendar feature. On the last sync, Ovi has destroyed loads of my Outlook contacts data. The Outlook contacts all have detailed categories assigned to them in Outlook. Ovi has wiped the categories from the Outlook contacts! Re-assigning them would take hours in Outlook. Luckily, I backed up the Outlook file, but now I have this problem... how can I prevent Ovi from damaging my data again?
I don't ever want either Ovi or the Phone to update my Outlook data in any way. I just want to be able to sync my contacts and calendar appointments to the phone via ovi.
Any ideas about where I'm going wrong?
Many thanks

Answer 1

It could be that the limitations of the phone are the reason for your problems. How many categories do you have and how many contacts are assigned into those? The sync engine in Nokia Ovi Suite turns the Outlook categories into contact groups and Series 40 devices (like C2-02) can have 40 contacts groups and 100 contacts in a single group. If these limits are exceeded, sync results are rather unpredictable and some data is lost.
Since you cannot have all your contacts synced to your phone, you must decide which contacts you want to sync. Once you have made the decision, create another contacts folder on Outlook and split your contacts into two groups: the ones that are to be synced and the ones that are not. Once you have done this, go to Tools --> Options --> Contacts on Nokia Ovi Suite and choose the Outlook folder you want to sync with. Now you should be able to sync the selected contacts to your phone without further issues and data loss.
Regards,
Tommi