ForumsDevelopersOutlook Sync creating Duplicates when Due date is changed


Outlook Sync creating Duplicates when Due date is changed
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Manel

Posted: Dec 08, 2008
Score: 0 Reference
Keef:

First, thanks for the tireless work and for the support through the board.

I am using outlook 2003 with your app and also with the Toodledo sync app.

When I don't complete tasks in a day, I simply drag them in an outlook view (grouped by date) to today from yesterday's date. This process updates the due date for all the tasks at once. The problem that I am having is that instead of changing the date on the original task, I get a duplicate task in Toodledo with the new due date (the first instance retains the old due date). I have had this problem with the current version and the previous one.

Have you seen this before? Any suggestions?

Thanks Manel
keef

Posted: Dec 09, 2008
Score: 0 Reference
Hi Manel,

I am not sure if there is much I can do about this one. It looks like Outlook is actually replacing the old tasks instead of updating them. If that is the case then the client is correctly treating them as new tasks.

I will check into this and get back to you

keef
Manel

Posted: Dec 09, 2008
Score: 0 Reference
Keef:

Sorry I wasn't clear. In Outlook the tasks are not duplicated, the date is changed and there is only one copy of the task. However, in Toodledo a new task is created with the new due date and the old task is retained.

The odd thing is that with the two way sync the duplicate task is not created in outlook, which I would have expected. I was trying to see if there was a way to see the task Id in toodledo to try to diagnose.

Any info I can provide to help?

Thanks Manel
Manel

Posted: Dec 11, 2008
Score: 0 Reference
Keef:

Follow-up thought... could the volume of changes in a short period of time have something to do with it?

I have found that if I update 4 or 5 tasks by dragging them to a new due date that they all sync ok.

However, when I drag 25+ tasks (the equivalent of changing the due date on all of them almost simultaneously) that is when I encounter the problem of creating the duplicate tasks.

What I find baffling is that the duplicates then don't create duplicates in outlook?

Your thoughts on this, and how to avoid it other than moving them in smaller groups, would be helpful.

Thanks Manel
keef

Posted: Dec 11, 2008
Score: 0 Reference
Hi Manel,

I haven't had a chance to experiment with this yet, sorry. I will try and look into this issue this weekend

keef
Manel

Posted: Dec 23, 2008
Score: 0 Reference
Keef:

I have now replicated the problem. I did some controlled experiments and this seems only to happen when I update a large number of tasks in a short period of time. It is not limited to the due date. In other words if I also update the Task Description on a task and change the due date on a large number of tasks, then on the next sync some of the tasks are duplicated with the new date and if the one of those is one in which the description is changed then I will end up with the task with the new date having the new description but a copy of the old task with the old new date will remain in Toodledo.

I have not deleted these duplicate tasks in case there is some information that can be used to debug. Please let me know how I can help resolve this issue.

Thanks Manel
keef

Posted: Dec 23, 2008
Score: 0 Reference
Hi Manel,

It sounds like an error is occuring during your bulk sync that is causing the application to lose track of the sync state of some of your tasks. One thing to do would be to inspect the diagnostic panel trace output during such a sync and check it for errors. This might shed some more light on the subject.

Another thing to try would be to delete all of your completed tasks. The Outlook API has issues with the number of tasks it can operating against at once and thsi can sometimes mitigate the problem

Hope that helps

keef
Manel

Posted: Dec 24, 2008
Score: 0 Reference
Keef:

Thanks for the pointers. An initial review of the trace output has me wondering if this is the problem:

SyncApp.exe Information: 0 : SynchLib:performPartialSync() creating contexts
SyncApp.exe Information: 0 : SynchLib: createContexts() processing 60 sync records
SyncApp.exe Information: 0 : SynchLib:performPartialSync() linking outlook items to contexts. Finding new items
SyncApp.exe Information: 0 : SynchLib:addTaskItemsToContextList() processing 102 outlook items
...
[lists the 102 tasks]
...
SyncApp.exe Information: 0 : SynchLib:addTaskItemsToContextList() found 42 unmatched outlook items
SyncApp.exe Information: 0 : SynchLib:performPartialSync() finding new toodledo items


I also had 41 of these lines:
SyncApp.exe Information: 0 : StateCreatedOnOutlook(): IgnoreExistingCompletedTasks enabled. Skipping


In reference to your comment about completed tasks, is that too many?

Thanks and great app!!!

Manel
keef

Posted: Dec 24, 2008
Score: 0 Reference
No, that looks quite normal. An error should be pretty obvious, but if you want to mail me a complete trace - developer(at)chromadrake.com - I can have a look at it for you.


keef
Manel

Posted: Dec 27, 2008
Score: 0 Reference
I have emailed you the complete trace and some additional info. I am surprised no one else had had this issue.

Thanks again for all the support.

Manel
Manel

Posted: Jan 06, 2009
Score: 0 Reference
Keef:

Were you able to get any further insight from the additional info I emailed last Friday?

Thanks Manel
keef

Posted: Jan 06, 2009
Score: 0 Reference
Hi Manel,

Sorry fo rnot getting back to you . I haven't managed to find anything obvious from your trace logs so I need to schedule some time to try and replicate your issue myself.

I haven't forgotten about it though.

keef
home

Posted: May 19, 2009
Score: 0 Reference
I have the same issue: duplicates when the due date is changed. (using 9.9.6). What happened since January???

Chris
clthornton

Posted: May 19, 2009
Score: 0 Reference
I am having the same problem. Thank you for any advice.
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