Assigned Tasks Problems (desperate!)

[rldjda]

I have been using outlook 2003 SP2 to assign tasks. It worked fine a week
ago, but now when the person I assigned the task to send me their reply of
accepting or denying, my task list doesn't automatically update as it did
previously. If I go to the task in my task list, it still shows as "waiting
for a reply from recipient" even though I already received the reply in my
inbox.

Also, when someone else assigns a task to me, I am no longer able to
successfully click on the "accept" or "decline" button. When I do, nothing
happens. I am not even able to open the email. This is happening to 3
other pc's in my small network.

FYI. I installed a folder sharing software (ShareO -
http://shareo.4team.biz/?pcode=409220071fmbb2r) prior to these problems
occuring (b/c I can't afford MS server exchange - only 3pc's to share here),
but
ran through diagnosis steps with their customer support rep that included
uninstalling software and using the "detect and repair" feature in help.
They said it was an outlook issue especially since one of the pc's didn't
install the ShareO software. I also, downloaded whatever
updates were available for microsoft office today, yet the problem still
persists.

Short or removing & re-installing outlook, what can I do? someone please
help.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

I have been using outlook 2003 SP2 to assign tasks. It worked fine a
week ago, but now when the person I assigned the task to send me
their reply of accepting or denying, my task list doesn't
automatically update as it did previously. If I go to the task in my
task list, it still shows as "waiting for a reply from recipient"
even though I already received the reply in my inbox.

Also, when someone else assigns a task to me, I am no longer able to
successfully click on the "accept" or "decline" button. When I do,
nothing happens. I am not even able to open the email. This is
happening to 3 other pc's in my small network.

FYI. I installed a folder sharing software (ShareO -
http://shareo.4team.biz/?pcode=409220071fmbb2r) prior to these
problems occuring (b/c I can't afford MS server exchange - only 3pc's
to share here), but
ran through diagnosis steps with their customer support rep that
included uninstalling software and using the "detect and repair"
feature in help. They said it was an outlook issue especially since
one of the pc's didn't install the ShareO software. I also,
downloaded whatever
updates were available for microsoft office today, yet the problem
still persists.

Short or removing & re-installing outlook, what can I do? someone
please help.

I don't believe task assignment & tracking works well without Exchange -
I've never been able to make it work. Even meeting invites sometimes don't
work.

 

[RH]

I have had the EXACT same problem....

been using task assignments for years and then about a week ago, they
stopped working properly.

For me this has been limited to one machine (a primary one). There has been
nothing new installed to cause the issue (that I am aware of).

Between three other machines, there is no problem with receiving a task or
sending a task.

I have noticed that the machine that fails shows (in the email list) the
item as a "Task Request" (with the proper task request icon) AND it also
shows an attachment. The working machines do NOT show an attachment.

Here is what I have done:
- I have completely uninstalled Outlook (Office in this case) and
reinstalled...no change.
- I have tried this under different accounts on the same machine...same
problem.
- I have cleaned the PST file...no change
- I have started with a completely different PST file...no change

The only clues so far are:
- In a particular case of a task (sent from a working machine), it was
sent without outlook determining the best format and arrived as an
attachment (8k total message size)
- It was then resent (from a working machine to the non-working) and the
option for outlook to determine was changed to "rich text", and it arrived
with a 18K total file size.
- The same task was sent from a working to a working and the size was
10K total.
It seems like the determination of how to deal with the task request chose
both types??? Or in other words, it put both the request and attachment
together.

I am completely baffled by this one. I have run file and registry
monitoring tools between the working and non-working and have found no
problems when opening (trying to) a reqest. I believe it has something to
do with the logic at the time a request (IPM.TaskRequest) is received. I
will look further, but I have exhausted the options at this point.

We too rely on this feature...and NO you don't need Exchange to do task
assignments and status. We have been doing it for years. Since OL 98 to be
exact.

RH

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Some, but not all, people who installed the recent security update for Outlook are seeing this problem. Microsoft would like to get support incidents filed so they can try to narrow down the problem. (It is *not* easily reproduced.)

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers