Tasks problem.- won't somebody *please* help?

[Steve Ball]

I've posted about this twice already and gotten no response. I realise this
probably means that no one has noticed this problem, which has completely
brought me to my knees, because Entourage 2004 is the only way I remember to
do anything, and now I can't rely on it to remind me.

Won't somebody - MVP, anybody - *please* perform the following test (it'll
take less than a minute) and let me know what happens. That'll at least give
me _something_ to go on. I checked the integrity of my database and it's
apparently fine, but If any MVPs can suggest and pref's files etc. I could
trash, I'd really appreciate it.

Here's the test:

Create a new task.

Set recurrence to, "8th (or whatever the current date is) day of every
month".

Close the task.

Re-open the task. You can see that the recurrence pattern reads "Day 8 of
every month".So far, so good.

Close the task.

Open *a different task*, then close it.

Open the original task again. For me, the recurrence pattern has now changed
to "Custom" and, if I click 'EditŠ' it shows the recurrence pattern as
'Daily' 'Every <blank> days' and 'End after 76 recurrences'.

If I mark today's instance as 'Complete', the task recurs tomorrow. If I
mark that one complete, it recurs the next day etc.

This has only broken since I upgraded to Leopard. It all worked fine in
Tiger.

This has completely broken Entourage's as a calendar for me. Am I really the
only one with the problem?

 

[Diane Ross]

This has completely broken Entourage's as a calendar for me. Am I really the
only one with the problem?

I'm not seeing this behavior. I tested using the steps you gave.

I suggest you find what is causing the problem.... Database, User's folder,
OS.

Quickly test, by creating a new User in System Preferences. Open Entourage
and test there. If the problem exists, then it's Leopard. Other than doing
an "Archive & Install" of Leopard I'm not sure what else to suggest.

If the problem went away, then go back to your User's folder and test in a
new Identity. Does the problem go away. If yes, then it's your database do a
rebuild. If no, then you'll need to test preferences. See this page for help
testing preferences. It could be something other than a Microsoft
preference.

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/troubleshoot/test_user.html>

Let me know what you find.

 

[Steve Ball]

Thanks Diane. I'll try the steps you suggest.

Out of interest. Did you test with Leopard?

Steve = : ^ )


Diane Ross:

 

[Steve Ball]

Diane Ross:

I'm not seeing this behavior. I tested using the steps you gave.

I suggest you find what is causing the problem.... Database, User's folder,
OS.

Quickly test, by creating a new User in System Preferences. Open Entourage
and test there. If the problem exists, then it's Leopard. Other than doing
an "Archive & Install" of Leopard I'm not sure what else to suggest.

If the problem went away, then go back to your User's folder and test in a
new Identity. Does the problem go away. If yes, then it's your database do a
rebuild. If no, then you'll need to test preferences. See this page for help
testing preferences. It could be something other than a Microsoft
preference.

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/troubleshoot/test_user.html>

Let me know what you find.

Here's what I've discovered. If I disable Sync Services in Entourage,
everything works as advertised. As soon as I enable Sync Services, task
recurrences break as I described previously.

The only thing that I might modify is that it may not be necessary to open a
different task to make the recurrence of a newly-created task break. It just
takes a little time for a task to be synced, and it's in the syncing that
the recurrence breaks. So you may be able to re-open a newly-created task
and see the correct recurrence pattern, but opening it again a few seconds
later will reveal the recurrence changed to 'Custom", 'Daily' 'Every <blank>
days' and 'End after xx recurrences'.

This happens in the main Entourage user, a new user with no data (except two
newly-created tasks), under my main Leopard user account as well as a new
user account with no extra software installed. For this reason, I haven't
re-built my database.

What next?

 

[Steve Ball]

Here's what I've discovered. If I disable Sync Services in Entourage,
everything works as advertised. As soon as I enable Sync Services, task
recurrences break as I described previously.

The only thing that I might modify is that it may not be necessary to open a
different task to make the recurrence of a newly-created task break. It just
takes a little time for a task to be synced, and it's in the syncing that
the recurrence breaks. So you may be able to re-open a newly-created task
and see the correct recurrence pattern, but opening it again a few seconds
later will reveal the recurrence changed to 'Custom", 'Daily' 'Every <blank>
days' and 'End after xx recurrences'.

This happens in the main Entourage user, a new user with no data (except two
newly-created tasks), under my main Leopard user account as well as a new
user account with no extra software installed. For this reason, I haven't
re-built my database.

I can think of one other variable here: at the same time that I upgraded to
Leopard, I upgraded to a full .Mac account, so now have an iDisk. I wonder
if something in adding the iDisk - Entourage's only calendar/task sync
options are "with iCal & .Mac" - breaks the syncing.

Disabling sync in the .Mac System Prefs. didn't fix the problem.

Is anyone else here running Leopard and an iDisk and able to perform my test
(listed earlier in the thread)? It only takes a minute.

 

[Diane Ross]

I can think of one other variable here: at the same time that I upgraded to
Leopard, I upgraded to a full .Mac account, so now have an iDisk. I wonder
if something in adding the iDisk - Entourage's only calendar/task sync
options are "with iCal & .Mac" - breaks the syncing.

I don't have a .mac account, but in Leopard I'm not seeing the problem.

If you have multiple hardware and software syncing to .Mac this can cause
problems. For example you have a Tiger install and a Leopard install both
syncing to .Mac. For example the same would happen if you had both Office
2004 and Office 2008 both syncing to .mac.

 

[Steve Ball]

Diane Ross:

I don't have a .mac account, but in Leopard I'm not seeing the problem.

If you have multiple hardware and software syncing to .Mac this can cause
problems. For example you have a Tiger install and a Leopard install both
syncing to .Mac. For example the same would happen if you had both Office
2004 and Office 2008 both syncing to .mac.

Diane. I only have one computer. I've actually disabled syncing in .Mac
prefs. I sync to my Nokia phone - occasionally. I've disabled calendar and
tasks syncing, which I can live without (it's contacts I'm mostly concerned
with), and hope everything will behave normally., which it did before I
upgraded to Leopard and full .Mac.

Steve = : ^ )

 

[Diane Ross]

Diane. I only have one computer. I've actually disabled syncing in .Mac
prefs. I sync to my Nokia phone - occasionally. I've disabled calendar and
tasks syncing, which I can live without (it's contacts I'm mostly concerned
with), and hope everything will behave normally., which it did before I
upgraded to Leopard and full .Mac.

Even users with one computer can have multiple volumes. Overall I find
Leopard to be stable and improved. Other than some weird problems I'm having
with the Dock not showing the white launched button and some applications
not showing up in the dock, I find Leopard very stable. Since no one else
has reported my problem, I have no clue what is causing the problem. It's
intermittent and seems to be tied to heavy memory usage. If I try to burn in
the background and work, everything seems to slow to a crawl and then the
weird Dock behavior starts up. Considering I'm on an old computer I guess
that's one of the pitfalls of upgrading. My computer barely made it into the
list of computers that you can install Leopard. G4 Dual 1.42 GHZ, Memory 2GB

 

[Steve Ball]

Diane Ross:

Even users with one computer can have multiple volumes. Overall I find
Leopard to be stable and improved. Other than some weird problems I'm having
with the Dock not showing the white launched button and some applications
not showing up in the dock, I find Leopard very stable. Since no one else
has reported my problem, I have no clue what is causing the problem. It's
intermittent and seems to be tied to heavy memory usage. If I try to burn in
the background and work, everything seems to slow to a crawl and then the
weird Dock behavior starts up. Considering I'm on an old computer I guess
that's one of the pitfalls of upgrading. My computer barely made it into the
list of computers that you can install Leopard. G4 Dual 1.42 GHZ, Memory 2GB

Interesting. Do you run iStat menus or similar? I've been trying to diagnose
a problem where, after it's been running for a while, my MPB's CPU spikes up
to near 100% every 10 secs. or so. The top process (iStat menus offers to
show you the top 5) at these times is a thing called 'DockSyncClient' and
it's CPU usage is 98 or 99%. This is on a dual core 2.4gHz Intel machine!
I've been trying to figure out what makes it start happening but, since I
disabled .Mac synching, and tasks and events synching in Entourage, it
hasn't happened.

I wonder if this is all related?

Steve = : ^ )

 

[Diane Ross]

Interesting. Do you run iStat menus or similar? I've been trying to diagnose
a problem where, after it's been running for a while, my MPB's CPU spikes up
to near 100% every 10 secs. or so. The top process (iStat menus offers to
show you the top 5) at these times is a thing called 'DockSyncClient' and
it's CPU usage is 98 or 99%. This is on a dual core 2.4gHz Intel machine!

How much memory do you have. I've heard that Intel Macs need 4GB.

I've been trying to figure out what makes it start happening but, since I
disabled .Mac synching, and tasks and events synching in Entourage, it
hasn't happened.

I check Activity Monitor for CPU usage.

I wonder if this is all related?

It would seem so.

 

[Steve Ball]

Diane Ross:

How much memory do you have. I've heard that Intel Macs need 4GB.

Where did you hear that? "Intel Macs need 4GB" to do what, exactly? I have 2
GB.

I check Activity Monitor for CPU usage.

Interestingly, in Activity Monitor if I sort by name, there is nothing
called 'DockSyncClient'. Yet it was showing up in iStat menus every few
seconds with almost 100% CPU usage.

It would seem so.

That's encouraging. I seem to have fixed the problem by disabling tasks and
events synching. I may re-enable .Mac sync and see if that affects anything.

 

[Steve Ball]

Steve Ball:

Diane Ross:


Where did you hear that? "Intel Macs need 4GB" to do what, exactly? I have 2
GB.


Interestingly, in Activity Monitor if I sort by name, there is nothing
called 'DockSyncClient'. Yet it was showing up in iStat menus every few
seconds with almost 100% CPU usage.


That's encouraging. I seem to have fixed the problem by disabling tasks and
events synching. I may re-enable .Mac sync and see if that affects anything.

Nope. The CPU spikes are back without any further alteration to my sync
settings. :-(

Steve = : ^ )

 

[Diane Ross]

Where did you hear that? "Intel Macs need 4GB" to do what, exactly? I have 2
GB.

Maybe the term "works best" is better than "needs". What Apple recommends as
required does not take in consideration running other applications. It's
just enough to run the OS and some Apple applications.