HELP: Outlook Connector Problem - Can't Clear Follow-Up Reminders

[WebColin70]

[Note, if there is another newsgroup for Outlook Connecter issues, please
let me know. I couldn't find one in the list.]

I have asked about this before, but not received any replies. I don't know
if others are experiencing this, but for me it is 100% reproducible. It's a
serious problem that has effectively rendered the entire Outlook alarm and
notification system worthless, because I now have a hundred alarms that just
keep popping up, drowning out any legitimate reminders.

The Problem:

For messages on an MS Live account, accessed via Outlook 2007
(12.0.6514.5000 with SP2 MSO 12.0.6521.5000) connected with the Outlook
Connector (12.0.6423.1000), if I flag for follow-up and set an alarm/due
date, the reminder properly appears at the specified date. However,
dismissing it just clears it temporarily. It will be back the next day or
the next time my second computer also running Outlook (same versions) comes
out of sleep mode and re-syncs with the Live account.

Guaranteed. Every time.

But only with messages stored on the Live server. I also connect to our
company Exchange server. Those messages work as expected. Dismissing a
reminder on the Exchange account dismisses it.

I have run outlook /cleanreminders and outlook /cleansniff. Zero effect. I
have disconnected and reconnected to the Live account, re-downloading all
the messages. I have even tried uninstalling and reinstalling Outlook on
both computers, just to be sure Outlook on one of the computers wasn't
somehow the source of the problem.

It seems that the Live system or Outlook Connector is not properly tracking
dismissed alarms across both my computers.

If I open one of the affected messages and look at the header (Message
Options), they all have in them (date varies based on the due date I had
specified):

Reply-By: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 06:00:00 -0500
X-Message-Flag: Follow up

I had never requested a reply on any of these messages, so it's either using
that internally for me, or perhaps it's a symptom of the problem. Do all
flagged messages have that added? Should they still have these codes in them
after I've dismissed them?

Further information:

I can clear the flags from the messages so they don't appear in the To Do
list or when sorted by Flag in the mail view. This has no effect on the
immortal reminders. The reminder seems be independent of the Flag status
once its been set.

I access both a Live account via the Outlook Connector and an Exchange
Server account.

I use both a laptop and a desktop computer, both of which have the same
version of Office and the Connector and access the same set of accounts
(both Live and Exchange).


If there is further info needed or tests anyone would like me to run to help
diagnose, please let me know. I really need to get this fixed and am willing
to spend some more time troubleshooting if that will help.

Thanks for any help,
Colin

 

[Al B]

I was able to stop the reminders by disabling by going to alerts.live.com --> Your alerts and turning alerts off for Windows Live Calendar
I then went back and re-enabled the Windows Live Calenar alerts and have not recieved the old reminders thus far. If they return I'll just turn off Live Calendar alerts
I found this by configuring Windows Live Mail. Going to Calendar --> Menus (Alt+M) --> Deliver my reminders to... This will direct you to alerts.live.com

Hope this helps.

 

[WebColin70]

I'm using Outlook, not the program called Windows Live Mail (I have that
too, but I only use it for newsgroups, like this
microsoft.public.outlook.general on the MS newsserver). The Outlook
Connector does connect to the MS Live mail server, but that's different
(unfortunately named) than Windows Live Mail, which is an application.

That said, I'm still hopeful that you're on to something. Is there a way to
turn off the alerts from the Hotmail/Live/Bing web site? I couldn't find any
such setting.

Note that my problem has nothing to do with the reminder e-mails Live mail
sends to my account to announce an upcoming calendar event. This is the
Outlook Reminders window that lists all active reminders/alarms and
particularly seems to be limited to mail items I flagged in Outlook. I can
Dismiss All, but they come back as soon as my other computer syncs with the
Live mail server or the next day.

Thanks for any further help,
Colin

 

[WebColin70]

After some searching, I was not able to find anything on the Live Mail site
to address this.

I also tried upgrading to v14 (beta) of the Outlook Connector on both of my
computers, as I see that suggested as a common fix. I disconnected and
re-downloaded the Live account on both systems.

No effect. The reminders just keep popping up, all showing many weeks
overdue.

Note that I see other posters had a problem with reminders popping up before
their due date. That has never happened for me. They all come up at the
right time. The problem is that I can't dismiss them. They just keep coming
back.

And, as initially described, if I only used a single computer, I don't
believe I would have this problem. It seems related to using both a laptop
and a desktop regularly, with both logged in at the same time (desktop
system is up and running 24-7). Perhaps that's an unusual configuration and
why not many others are reporting this problem. When I leave the laptop off
for a few days, I don't have the problem during those days. (Though that
seems to lead to the blank-message problem on the laptop that many have
reported.)

Any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Colin

 

[Albert]

The only way I got it to stop was to not sync the live calendar.