Removing duplicate recurring event calendar items

[Musawwir Spiegel]

I recently had to restore my C: drive after a hard disk crash. I had
pretty thoroughly backed up my data, including my outlook.pst file.
When I re-installed Outlook 2002 and restored my saved outlook.pst
file, I found to my dismay that each of the recurring event items in
my calendar was now accompanied with an identical calendar item, which
although not marked as a recurring item was nevertheless to be found
in each of the days in which the respective recurring item also
appeared.

To remove each new non-recurring iteration of the recurring items
would be a gargantuan task, since they extend infinitely into the
future. Is there a less onerous way to clean them out?

Musawwir Spiegel
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Musawwir Spiegel]

I left out one detail from my original posting -- how this corruption
first occurred.

During the four or five days when the computer was down and even after
I had restored the operating system (Win XP Home) and reinstalled some
apps, I had not yet gotten to re-installing my Palm Pilot desktop
software. During that time, I had made changes to my calendar on the
Palm Pilot and perhaps (I’m not sure) changes to the calendar in
Outlook 2002. Previously to the crash, I had my Palm Pilot and
Outlook data synchronized. When I reinstalled the Palm Pilot desktop
software, I once again set it to be synchronized with Outlook. When I
did my first hot synch of the two, I did not choose a custom synch
method (i.e., "Handheld overwrites Desktop" or "Desktop overwrites
Handheld") in place of "Synchronize the files." The only duplications
that resulted as far as I can tell were the recurring calendar items,
with the duplicates not set as recurring but appearing nevertheless in
all of the future dates.

I might be able to solve my problem by deleting all of my Outlook
calendar items, importing the calendar items from my last good
outlook.pst backup file, resetting the Palm to delete all data, and
then doing a Palm hot synch with the "Desktop overwrites Handheld"
setting. I am loath to do this, because it was a very difficult
process to restore the Outlook data in the first place, with problems
in getting my Outlook Contacts folder data to appear in my Outlook
address book. Thus, if I can clean out the duplicate entries from
the Outlook calendar rather than through once again restoring the
backup .pst file, I’d rather do that.

Musawwir Spiegel
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Musawwir Spiegel]

I have figured out the answer to this, so please don't bother
responding to my question.

Musawwir Spiegel
(e-mail address removed)

 

[JG]

Spiegal--Would you mind sharing what you did as I have a similar problem.

 

[SandyR]

How did you do it? - I have the same problem.

 

[JG]

Sandy,

This is JG, and Spiegle never responded to my request. However, I had to go
in to all my recurring items by opening them up in the catagory view as
recurring, and change all the end dates from no end date to one 30 years out.
I think the problem was with my Treo phone software, but this worked.

Another thing I did was go into view, current view, by catagory and delete
double postings.

I hope this helps. Take care.

 

[SandyR]

I think it was bad manners of Spiegle not to post his solution. Thanks for
your suggestions.

 

[Finner]

I have been having a similar problem: Every time I synch my Treo 650 with my
PC, Outlook adds another copy of all the birthday reminders that I have in my
Treo. Any ideas on this one?

Thanks,
Fin