BlackBerry Desktop Manager v. 6 and GroupWise 8.0.2 client woes

In addition to my distaste for Windows 7 and some bozo's choice to move to "libraries" rather than consider how the real world tends to work, I've run into a RIM generated issue that's causing me to improve the profit margins for the makers of Excedrin.

My work laptop was recently reimaged to Windows 7 (don't get me started on what a pain Windows 7 is to access a Windows XP machine in a workgroup) which meant I had to reinstall my BlackBerry Desktop Manager to sync my GroupWise calendar to my Curve.  I've been very happy with the RIM DTM product - until this change.  I decided to update my GW client to 8.0.2, even though we're still at 8.0.1 on the backend.  The GW update went just fine, as usual, and gave me the ability to help end-users who also have this one-off type of configuration.

I happily went on to download the latest version of the DTM, which happens to be 6.0 and was released on 8/10/10, so I figured it should work just fine with GW 8.  WRONG!  DTM 6.0 doesn't like GW 8.0.2 client and gives the "oh-so-helpful" error of "The operation terminated unexpectedly" when trying to sync for the first time.

After fiddling with it for a while, and having an end-user with the same issue state that it worked just fine until we did "something" to her machine a few weeks back, I knew it wasn't an issue with the server side of things.  A back rev of the client to 8.0.1 HP1 allows the DTM to work fine without the insidious error.  So, if you need to run the DTM from RIM, make sure your client is 8.0.1 HP1 or earlier to have it work properly.

Yes, we do have a BES. No, I'm not allowed to use it as I'm using a personally owned BlackBerry.  My employer expects me to support them, but won't provide me with one to provide support with.

And yes, I've reported the "bug" to Novell, even though I place the onous of this "bug" squarely on RIM's proprietary shoulders.

Now I'm headed off back to my MS AD self-study for the MCITP.  If you know who the author MaryJanice Davidson is, you'll understand when I say reading MS Press guides is kind of like reading the "Book of the Dead" for Betsy...only without the totally insane parts.