As the pic above says, it turned out to be quite elementary in the end. But what is “it” actually?
The Problem: Since the beginning of time (read launching of WM6), millions of WM users (ok ok, will not exaggerate from now on) have been facing a very peculiar issue. The issue is that people tell them all the time that they are avoiding those people, and not taking their calls. But as the perplexed WM’er flips through his calls log, he can’t find any sign of a missed call. Yes, the issue is that many times, the phone will go into a state where the caller will hear the ring go, there will be no sign on your phone of the same, not even a missed call. People all around the world have been after the solution with all their might, suggesting:
1) To change over to Radio Rom x.xx.xx and swear it solved all their issues but we have had equal number of people in both camps (fixed and non-fixed) for every radio rom.
2) Various kinds of flashing techniques and orders but no concrete solution here either.
3) Standing on their heads and chanting “OM” for 10000 years (I’m at it again 
)
Anyways, the long and short of it is, they didn’t get anywhere. But worry no more, the messiah is here to save you all from social embarrassment. Click on Continue reading to find the solution.
What To Expect: This will fix the missing call issue, plus on the phones I tested, the following issues were also fixed:
- Signal strength meter remains stuck at whatever the strength was when the phone was booted.
- The phone LCD turns on for no reason sometime.
- I personally found the signal quality to be better. Previously I wasn’t able to take/make any calls in my office cubicle but now I can.
- A solution so simple, obvious and the fact that you already know it.
The Disclaimer: Though I’ve promised you almost everything (except the kitchen sink), and I’m pretty sure that this should work for you (as I’ve tested this on three different HTC wizards, running different variations of WM6 ROMS), but still YMMV. (Just to save my skin from a disgruntled user who didn’t get it fixed and turned into a blood sucking psychopath, or even worse, a lawsuit-happy Jeff Thomson).
Another thing to be noted is that if you use ActiveSync to sync with an exchange server, you’d probably not be able to solve your problems. Read on to find about it [Thnx to Alex, vboyz103 for reminding me to put it here]
The Reasoning: Let me take you through my journey of discovering the solution to the problem. There are a lot of events that happened, many things I saw that led me to the solution:
- Once I saw my phone light up for no reason and then after a few seconds I received a call on my landline saying I was not picking up my phone. I then tried calling up my phone again and again, every time I didn’t get any notification on my phone “except” a momentary flash up.
- Another day I was tapping away at my keyboard, with my phone nearby. Then suddenly again there was a flash up, no call notification, BUT my speakers started humming, for a long time, i.e., as if in a call and not due to those momentary SDCCH transmissions. This meant that the radio ROM was indeed receiving the call, but somehow it could not notify the OS to tell me. Something was breaking the notification mechanism.
- All times this happened, and I came to know, I checked to know what all tasks were running and somehow Active Sync was always there.
- I tried killing active sync and then calling. Active Sync would be there again. But if I kill it and dont call, then it won’t be there. Hmmm..
- I had heard that switching off and flight mode solves this issue temporarily. I tried it. Flight mode could be switched on but was not able to switch off. That is my phone didn’t come back, until I tried killing active sync and voila, phone could be turned on again.
The Solution: Now, I was pretty sure that it had something to do with Active Sync. Another thing was I never had the missing calls issue, until this december when I switched to a new ROM. Was the new ROM bad? Couldn’t be because people had reported issues on earlier ROMs as well which I had used but never faced the problem. Then it suddenly dawned on me in zen-like-fashion. The legendary “Fake Server Trick”. In all my flashes, it was part of my initial rituals to do (along with the customary sacrificial goat) this but this time I had forgotten to. I immediately did it and when I reached the Active Sync schedule settings it was selected to “As Items Arrive”. Voila! I did the trick at a time when I was missing calls and immediately saw the results. Called from another phone and I got a ring 
. Somehow, it was eating up the notifications thinking they are some “items” meant for it. Since then, I tried it out on two more phones of friends with different WM6 ROMs and they havent seen the problem ever since, plus they got all the other benefits too as listed in “What to Expect”.
The Trick: Most of you who came here must be knowing the fake server trick, but if you don’t, then here it is:
6. Go back into the Menu, and tap “Schedule”
Well this prolly won’t work if you are syncing over the air with Microsoft Exchange Server. You want to have the item available upon arriving, so changing the schedule to manually that you have to sync it yourself.
Just a thought.
How about someone who has to use Active Sync for exchange push-email???
Yeah, you are right. I had thought about it and meant to write it in the disclaimer, but somehow forgot to… Will add it in tonight…thnx for the reminder
Awesome post yar !
Bow to Shantz !
Thanks
Thanks. ActiveSink==Enemy
Do you know how to permanently disable push-mail on WM6? That thing is also been spotted on turning on the screen when it is not needed…
Will editing the ROM and removing ActiveSync.exe gain that task?
ps. don’t care for these corporate losers with their Exchange and MS
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please give a clear explanatiion of the procedure..what to be unchecked?what to be given as server address..domain name..?my phone is often trying to connect to gprs..and also showing active sync often in the opened programs…or else tell me which rom to be flashed… iam usin bluerom v3.0 by swiftblade now on my htc touch..please help me iam dying using this phone…
abhimanyu, put anything in the fields, e.g., in all fields you can fill in “fake”.
sorry it is not working on my phone…any other things i can do..please help…
hey abhimanyu, can you let me know what exactly you did and after that did u still miss calls? or is it something else? do u dont get even a single call even after restarting? cuz then it might be some other issue altogether..
i set the server address as fake..checked the box(this server requires an encrypted connection)..user name fake…password fake…domain fake..checked the box (save password)..unchecked everything (contacts calender email tasks)..peak times..every 5 minutes off peak times..every 5 minutes..checked the box(send recieve when i click send) then pressed ok…
my problem is still the same..iam missing calls and messages..the task mannager often shows active sync..my phone is trying to connect to gprs often…
abhimanyu, what you are doing wrong is selecting “every 5 minutes”.
in both the boxes, you have to select “manually”. try this and lemme know.
Thanks! It worked for me! No more missed calls and no more random ActiveQuirk!
I appreciate your help!
Actually, everything works better now!
Robert, glad it helped you out.
Hi, I tried and unfortunatelly it didnt work for me. I still have missing calls all the time. I would like to delete this “fake ” configuration and be able to sychronice again but I cant do it. Would you please tell me how to do this?
Thanks
Andres: To delete the config, just open up active sync, click on menu->options. Then select the config and press delete.
Hi, thanks for answering my last comment. Unfortunately I can not delete the fake configuration. I have not that option on the phone. It allow me to change configuration as we did but not to delete, so I can actually reconfigurte but I dont know how to get the server adrees and the other things we deleted. Is there anywhere else or anything else I can do?
Thanks
Andres: Did you delete your original exhange server settings? You cud have just made a new one..Anyways, you can get them from the service that you use. Is it public service or your office’s?
Hi, I didnt delete anything, all I did exactly as you said. I went to the menu, config, wrote a word on the spaces for server and password and all other spaces that were blank before. My phone works with sprint in US.
Hi, I forgot to tel hat the phone seems to be working better now, although the sync thing appears sometimes without reason. I configurated as manual but well I guess its better now, at least Im having my calls. thnks
Thanks Shantanu Goel! Almost took my HTC Touch back for a different phone.
Hey Shantanu, It worked! Was almost gonna chuck my Touch..But there is a slight problem. It doesn’t work when it is getting charged! I don’t know how that is related to ActiveSync!
Anyways, Thanks a lot!
Great advise Shantanu! I thought it was a hardware issue. In my case, I’m not syncing with a corporate exchange server, i’m syncing with windows live. I sent my sync schedule to “every 15 minutes” instead of “as items arrive”. I’m not 100% confident that this will work. I tried the fake network thing but could not get through all the steps. Can u please provide some thoughts on this or some more detailed steps to walkthrough. Thanks a billion:)
@Neil: Which step did u falter on? BTW if you are using active sync for OTA syncing with anything, you probably shouldn’t do this…
Thanks for the reply
I got it set up shortly after using a more detailed walktrough that I found by goggling the “fake server trick”. I havent’ heard of any missing missed calls since the changes. However, I notice that activesync still shows up mysteriously in my task manager. Why should I not be using active sync for Over The Air? As far as I know, this is what activesync is designed for, the other kind of sync (through a USB wire to the PC) is known as DesktopSync. Are you refering to the difference between using Wifi and a data network. I am with Bell Canada and I have an unlimited data plan with my touch. I also read somewhere while researching that in Power settings, my device should not be set to turn off after “x” minutes. Can anyone comment if they see a difference between selecting this checkbox because it’s becoming a pain to switch off the display instead of letting it turn itself off (I know I’m lazy).
hi Shantanu Goel
i thank for the solution of this issue , but iam wondering , my phone is eten x600 i had the problem also , some times miss calls , some times recive calls , and the thing is the active sync does not appear in the task manager its closed , so what do you think about that ??? many regards
@suspect_zero: sorry buddy, no idea. don’t have an eten with me. Did you check at the eten users forum?
hi Shantanu Goel again ,
i think the problem solved , i follow the steps you mentioned , and i guess it work fine . thanx again for yr time
Hello. And Bye.
Hi,
This didnt work for me. Followed instructions precisely (set schedules to manual). Deleted the config after, tried to call myself this morning to test and kept getting voicemail. Killed the activesync task and call got straight through. any help appreciated
Lee
very intresting
Thank you so much, this worked!! I know this original post is almost 2 years old, but I’m so glad that I finally found it. I’d been struggling with my HTC Touch for over a year with this very issue. Now, the phone actually functions. Calls are getting through, text messaging seems to work, and overall, it is faster and much more responsive.
The only time ActiveSync runs is when I start up my phone in the morning. That’s when I close it, and it never reappears until the next time I restart the phone.
I’d done many web searches to find a fix for my previously-useless phone. This time, I added “ActiveSync” to the search and found your post. Thanks again.
Hi Expert
I have htc p3300 and i have the exact symptom like wot you said…sometimes even in normal mode.. rest everything works awesome…
However, followed your steps exactly but never worked
Any idea ????
I just got a phone with Windows Mobile 6 and had the very same problem.
Your tip solved it though, so Thanks a lot!
Have a good day and nice Holidays, Alfred.
[...] PDA site which people might find useful. The full instructions are at the bottom of the page. Windows Mobile 6 – Case of the Missing Calls: Solved | My Technophilic Musings Have set it up myself but haven’t had any calls yet to test it! However, if you use MS Exchange [...]