Syncing converts all Annual Events to Once Every 12 Years

[BPB]

I have Windows XP/Professional, Outlook 2007/Activesync 4.5.0 on both
desktops and Windows Mobile 6 on my PDA. Syncing has always worked very
well. But all of a sudden, all my annual events/yearly recurring
appointments just
"converted" themselves to once every 12 years, so they disappeared from my
2010 calendar. I received the info that "That's a bug - see
http://www.slipstick.com/problems/recur12yrs.asp. The fix is to set an end
date. So I deleted and recreated all events using the default end date of
2019. First sync converted all again to Once Every 12 years. What can be
done?

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]]

I have Windows XP/Professional, Outlook 2007/Activesync 4.5.0 on both
desktops and Windows Mobile 6 on my PDA. Syncing has always worked very
well. But all of a sudden, all my annual events/yearly recurring
appointments just
"converted" themselves to once every 12 years, so they disappeared from my
2010 calendar. I received the info that "That's a bug - see
http://www.slipstick.com/problems/recur12yrs.asp. The fix is to set an end
date. So I deleted and recreated all events using the default end date of
2019. First sync converted all again to Once Every 12 years. What can be
done?

Didn't you read the web page you cited? The solution is there.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

According to a WM user, the problem is related to the ability to set an
appointment's recurrence to "every N years". This recurrence setting is not
available in WM's calendar. I don't have a WM unit to test it, but I wonder
if setting yearly events to recur every 12 months would fix it. My logic
says it should, but Outlook's logic is often different. <g>

The WM user also believes the problem is likely to happen only when a WM
device is synced with more than one computer running Outlook 2007. I have
no idea if that is true. Anyway, he posted VBA scripts at
http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/.../thread/8dbfde6c-9788-4ff9-a4b8-6b5751b765da/
(about halfway down) to fix the appointments automatically.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]

Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com/

Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

How many email accounts are in your main Outlook profile?
http://forums.slipstick.com/showthread.php?t=36602

 

[Jim5941]

There is a long thread over here:

http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/.../thread/8dbfde6c-9788-4ff9-a4b8-6b5751b765da/

and shorter one:

http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsmobile/thread/0f221f6f-ad65-4335-91de-900b3885a71c

Netting it out:

Office 2007 SP2 seems to have broken things, Office 2010 Beta
"retains" the bug.
No response from Microsoft.
I'm monitoring the above threads for some official answer, short of
that ... slipstick seems the best fix.
There is a longer more complete version of the VB script posted in the
thread....

sigh............

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

FWIW, it's not just Outlook's fault - yes, it changed how it did recurrences
(adding a year option) but it's windows mobile and/or activesync that can't
handle the results of that change.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]

Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com/

Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

How many email accounts are in your main Outlook profile?
http://forums.slipstick.com/showthread.php?t=36602

 

[Jim5941]

Thanks Diane!

This must be harder than it appears (and lots of things are that way),
I've done my fair share of programming, and it sure seems like this
kind of problem would be caught by a reasonably well designed QA test
plan ;-/

Jim

FWIW, it's not just Outlook's fault - yes, it changed how it did recurrences
(adding a year option) but it's windows mobile and/or activesync that can't
handle the results of that change.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Outlook Tips:http://www.outlook-tips.net/
Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center:http://www.slipstick.com/

and shorter one:

http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsmobile/thread/0f221f6...

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

It's possible it was tested and given the choice of adding an option that a
large number of outlook users requested and could benefit from but breaking
a feature that a tiny % of outlook users used, they choose to add the
feature and let WM fix it on their end.

I don't know what % of outlook users sync with a smartphone or pda, but I
thought I read that WM share is 6% of all pda/smarthpones users. Since the
bug only affects those who use WM, Outlook 2007, and sync WM with 2
computers - the % affected could be be under 1% of all outlook users.


--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]

Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com/

Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

How many email accounts are in your main Outlook profile?
http://forums.slipstick.com/showthread.php?t=36602

Thanks Diane!

This must be harder than it appears (and lots of things are that way),
I've done my fair share of programming, and it sure seems like this
kind of problem would be caught by a reasonably well designed QA test
plan ;-/

Jim

FWIW, it's not just Outlook's fault - yes, it changed how it did
recurrences
(adding a year option) but it's windows mobile and/or activesync that
can't
handle the results of that change.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Outlook Tips:http://www.outlook-tips.net/
Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center:http://www.slipstick.com/

There is a long thread over here:

and shorter one:

http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsmobile/thread/0f221f6...

 

[Jim5941]

I thought I had read that some people had the problem only sync-ing to
one computer,
but the 12-year part might only be for multiple-sync'ers ;-)

I personally don't have that problem, I only have the "repeating
events that repeat forever don't sync"
problem.

I agree, it might be a fair trade-off,
but I would have hoped MS / WM would warn users of this decision if it
was intentional....
by putting a warning in the "known limitations" section of the read-me
but sometimes my expectations are too high ;-)

Jim