hotsync username vanished

Where is the hotsync username kept? I thought it was in Saved
Preferences, but it seems to have moved..

A week or so ago I got an error while hotsyncing that the
saved_preferences was corrupt. After that, I had no hotsync username
any longer. I'm running a lifepad with the 2.n upgrade.

I've been trying ever since to put it back. I deleted the
saved_preferences file out of my backup did, wiped the palm, and let it
restore. It restored without a hotsync user, even though I did select
the user I've been syncing to all along. I tried a couple of times,
also deleting the connection50.pdb file, because of an out of date note
on the palm os knowledgebase about a similar issue, and deleting the
old connection mgr db, which was called something else.

So, today, desperate, and inventive, I moved my entire userdir to another
location, and let the desktop create me a new, empty, one. I wiped the
palm, and did an initial hotsync. It acquired my username just fine.
I took *that* saved_preferences file, put it into the old backup dir,
put the directories back where they belonged, wiped again, and synced,
figuring I'd have a hotsync name now, and no preference settings.

Nope. After it finished, I had no username again.

How in (#$* can I get the damn username back? I've run out of ideas.