This article explains the process of the Handheld Contact and how the syncing takes place.

If you have Handheld Contact set up correctly, the following points will discuss the process for syncing on the handheld as well as the PC/server.

Changes made on the handheld device:

If you have made changes to HHC on the device and want it to appear in Act!, this is what is needed.  Once the changes are made the Handheld Contact application on the handheld MUST sync first.  If you go to Act! and look for changes without syncing, you will not see any updates.  The data that was changed will sync from the device to our server.  It will remain there until the Handheld Contact app on the PC/server syncs.  At this time, the data will get synced from our server and into the Act! database files.  Since we sync with these files there is another step that may be necessary.  In order to see these changes within Act! you need to refresh the database.  If Act! is open during the sync, click on View and choose 'Refresh' or press the F5 key.  If Act! is closed, simply load the database and the changes will be present.

Changes made on the ACT! database:

If you have made changes to the Act! database and you want to sync this to your handheld, here is what is needed.  The first thing that is needed after the changes in Act! is that the Handheld Contact computer application MUST sync first.  This will take place every 30 minutes automatically (by default) as long as the system is working.  Opening the app on the PC/server may be necessary.  Once the data is synced from Act! to our server using Handheld Contact, the info will remain on our server.  At that time, you will need to sync on the device.  The default schedule for syncing is every 15 minutes.  All devices cannot run background services for Handheld Contact.  So if Handheld Contact is not open and present on the screen, syncing is not taking place.  You may need to manually sync.  Open the Handheld Contact app, click on Sync Status and choose 'Sync Now'.  This will connect with our servers, download the data and remove the info from our servers.  There is no refresh that is needed and the updates will appear immediately.

Another outline with more information regarding the Handheld Contact application and syncing and how things work (with images) can be found HERE.

At any point if you are syncing on the device and receive an error message, please REPORT A BUG from the Handheld Contact application.  This goes the same for the application on the PC/server.  Error messages on the PC/server can be solved by going HERE to search the error.

Here is a visual implementation of the Handheld Contact syncing model:

http://admin.handheldcontact.com/downloads/HHC_Network_Communication_Models.pdf