title: What should Connection Settings in Windows Mobile Device Center/Active Stync be when connecting to a handheld device?
body: <p>As of today, I am no longer connecting to my handheld device.</p>
  
  <p>According to Windows Mobile Device Center, it can't even see it. Doubtless for this very reason, the device doesn't show up in Windows Explorer, either, anymore.</p>
  
  <p>Some of the settings had been changed externally somehow - see <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23203903/how-can-i-prevent-windows-mobile-device-center-from-arbitrarily-changing-my-sett">this post</a> for more details.</p>
  
  <p>So I got to fooling around with it to see what would make it work again:</p>
  
  <p>I warm-booted the devices several times.</p>
  
  <p>I rebooted the PC a couple of times.</p>
  
  <p>I changed the Connection settings (from "Bluetooth" to "COM1") and, although it seems illogical, toggled off "Allow USB connections"</p>
  
  <p>I even changed out all the hardware: the cradle, the usb cable, and the power cable; I even put a battery in the cradle (it didn't have one before that). Nothing helps. Now Windows Mobile Device Center looks like this:</p>
  
  <p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/rl7Yz.png" alt="enter image description here"></p>
  
  <p>Is it my settings? What should they be to connect to a (Motorola/Symbol) handheld device?</p>
  
  <p>Or are those (the settings) not even necessarily the problem?</p>
  
  <h2>UPDATE</h2>
  
  <p><a href="http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/sync-with-a-device" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Here</a> it says:</p>
  
  <p>"In the left pane of Sync Center, click Set up new sync partnerships. If your device doesn't appear in this list, then it doesn't support Sync Center."</p>
  
  <p>It does appear, but this is how:</p>
  
  <p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZtqEe.png" alt="enter image description here"></p>
  
  <p>"View sync conflicts" shows nothing, nor does "View sync results"</p>
  
  <p>When I try "Set up new sync partnerships" it doesn't seem to offer me what I need:</p>
  
  <p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/APsC2.png" alt="enter image description here"></p>
  
  <p>(I need to connect to a handheld device, not an old SQL Server DB nor an offline file)</p>
  
  <h2>UPDATE 2</h2>
  
  <p>It finally connected again.</p>
  
  <p>Since nothing was working, I disregarded the advice and hints I had seen on the interwebs, and set the values to what seemed most logical:</p>
  
  <p>I have all the following tickboxes checked, have "COM1" in the first dropdown, and "Work Network" in the second. When I accpeted those changes, WMDC (nee ActiveStync) shut down. I then manually restarted it, and joy of joys and wonder of wonders, it finally connected again.</p>
  
  <h2>UPDATE 3</h2>
  
  <p>Now the device lost its connection again "all of a sudden" - and the "Connection Settings" dialog of ActiveStync (Windows Mobile Device Center) somehow grew back its vestigial checkbox, "Allow data connections on device when connected to PC":</p>
  
  <p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/cOBDL.png" alt="enter image description here"></p>
  
  <p>What the Deuce!?</p>