How to completely avoid Hotsyncing your Palm

Contributed by KabukiAssassin April 16, 2006  
Tagged: Uncategorized

Hate to Hotsync? Here’s how to only ever have to do it ONCE!

I came up with this method because I use a Treo 650, and as all Treo users know, it can be hard to sync these phones, and it is just a pain in the butt to do it everytime you want to install a program. Often you’ll get a reset before the sync completes, or it’ll freeze up. This recipe is ideal for Treos, but works for all Palms with a card slot.

Many people think that syncing is the only way to backup data & install programs, NOT TRUE. All you need to install apps is a little freeware gem called FileZ. You will need to download it from mytreo.net, its a direct DL from the site if you have a Treo or a palm with internet connectivity. Install it to your card so in the event of a crash, it’ll still be there. Now, pop the card into your card reader & create a folder on it called “apps” or whatever. This is where you’ll store all the PRC & PDB files for your programs from now on. So if you’re browsing the web from your PC & you find a Palm app you want to try, just download it & save the PRC/PDB files to the folder you created on the card. From there, all you have to do to install the app is open the folder with FileZ, locate the install files, checkmark them, and select “copy” from the dropdown menu & copy them to internal memory. Then, if you want to move them to the card to save space, simply go into the Palm launcher menu, select “copy”, and copy the app to the card & delete it from main memory. Keeping your program files on your card is also a great way to keep track of them & avoid having to re-download them later on. I also keep a text file on my card with all my serial numbers in it so I never lose them(but of course I write them down on paper too).

I have not hotsynced in so long, I can’t even remember the last time. And I’ve had numerous crashes away from home & have been able to completely restore my device & reinstall any apps w/o a computer. For data backups, I use BackupMan & set it to automatically backup every day at 9am. When I have to hard reset, I use the FileZ method to reinstall BackupMan & restore my device.

Hope this recipe helps some frustrated Treo users!