iPad 2 & Exchange 2003 = Losing contact information / data

[arveey]

Setup is : Exchange 2003 + iPad 2.

Problem is : data from within certain contacts is being erased. Seems to happen on contacts that have multiple email addresses (work/home) and phone numbers (business/home/mobile). So far email address have been lost from existing contacts, along with phone numbers. On some even the Notes: field has been wiped of lots of useful information.

User in question has 6000+ contacts and has 3 assistants that all manage the contacts. I originally thought user error but it would take a long time for people to erase this amount of data. And this time after looking at the active sync logs the iPad sent data regarding the contact names in question and that matched with the time modified date stated in outlook within the specific contacts. Strange! So now I’m thinking the iPad is doing something but I’m not sure exactly what is causing it.... (admittedly it could be purely down to the iPad was sync'ing the change back to itself - initiated from elsewhere... hard to tell).

Although I am suspicious of the iPad as we have nearly 2000 users and no one else is affected. (300+ BB's and 100+ iPhones). Only 3 iPads so far, and the other two are iPad 1's - unaffected.

Has anyone heard of similar issues relating to contacts from exchange with the iPad ?

We have had two occurrences of this issue now. Same user had the same problem approx. 4-5 weeks ago.

I look forward to hearing your suggestions.

Thanks,
Mark

 

[twerppoet]

I know that contact databases don't always match exactly. When this happens the extra data is usually dropped when synced. This is especially true if someone uses unusual or custom labels for the fields. I suspect the randomness of the data loss depends on where the contact was entered, and later edited.

For instance, if you started the contact in the Exchange data base with a field or custom label not supported by the iPad, it will probably remain the same in Exchange. But if you then edit it on the iPad the update probably removes the data on both sides. And vice versa, of course.

But that's all I know. I noticed a little of this when my Google account was set up as an Exchange account. Since that's gone I have no recent experience, nor the ability to experiment.