One of the things that I decided to get a PocketPC for was the synchronisation with my Work PC and specifically the Outlook Calendar. Unfortunately, the ActiveSync (version 4.2) software was giving me an error – 85010014 – every time I tried to sync the calendar. I had searched the web extensively but did not find a solution that worked for me. Thankfully, I found a way round it: don’t setup the sync to talk to Microsoft Exchange. Instead, follow these few steps to stop getting the error:

1. Disconnect your device and delete it from ActiveSync (File-> Delete Mobile Device)
2. Reconnect the device and let ActiveSync bring up the Setup Wizard. Click next until you reach the ‘Synchronization Options’ screen.
3. Select all the ‘Information Type’ items you want
4. To the right of the items that have ‘Microsoft Exchange’ as their source by default, select ‘Windows PC (This PC)’ instead of ‘Microsoft Exchange’. For me, this was just the Calendar.
5. Complete the Wizard.
6. Synchronize with your device
7. Voila!

This worked for me, and continues to do so. I have meetings automatically synced to my device within seconds of them being added to my Calendar. Just what I wanted!

Note: this was done with ActiveSync 4.2, which can be downloaded here.

I hope that helps someone, as the lack of a sync’ing for a PocketPC renders one of its biggest features completely useless.

Why can’t a multi-billion dollar, international company such as Microsoft just get things right for once?