ForumsDevelopersThoughts on Outlook Client First Sync


Thoughts on Outlook Client First Sync
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RC-DC

Posted: Nov 06, 2008
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After a lot of research, spurred by replacing my Palm with an iPhone/iPod Touch, I've settled on Toodledo and the Outlook sync client (still haven't decided which iApp to use yet-I like the Toodledo app because it may sync/display better, but the Appigo looks a little nicer visually and talks to Appigo notebook-which syncs to the Toodledo Notebook).

In the ReadMe, we are recommended not to manually import tasks as this will cause duplication. The first sync is giving me some interesting results and I'd be curious to hear other experiences.

1) so far, so good. No errors on the Outlook side (using Office Pro 2003)
2) it only seems to sync about 1-30 tasks per manual sync operation in this first run-up. I have 423 total tasks in 5 categories/folders; in the end I think I hit 'manual sync' more than 20 times to bring Toodledo online up to the same number of tasks in my Outlook folder. The ReadMe does mention the first sync will take some time because of Outlook goofyness
3) I installed the security add-on to Outlook to give better control of the access notices, and I'm getting a very large and strange collection of programs that claim to be accessing Outlook - from the login software to an XP theme addon (Rich Text Edit Control? Really?). The number of programs wanting access declines with each sync, but I'm telling it to remember the settings. It's possible that it's bringing up any program that connects to the Outlook API and they really aren't trying to access anything. 4) Since installing the security app and the Outlook client I've been experiencing strange startup and slowness problems, but that could honestly be our network
5) I was having an issue where the final total didn't match 423 in Outlook and 422 in Toodledo, but I discovered I had one task in Outlook without a subject/title – so that wasn't syncing

In the end, it might have just been faster to manually import all the tasks, delete them all from Outlook, and do a down-sync. If I didn't have custom data in the Outlook tables I might have done that.

So far a success. If a little time consuming at the start.


This message was edited Nov 06, 2008.
keef

Posted: Nov 07, 2008
Score: 0 Reference
The sync client is rate limited to prevent excessive load on the Toodledo API. The client will only sync 25 new Outlook tasks per sync run.

The best thing to do is just to leave it running in the background overnight, and eventually all of your tasks will be copied.

The startup/slowdown issue may actually be being caused by the security add-on. If it is monitoring the Outlook API it may be slowing things down.

keef
RC-DC

Posted: Nov 07, 2008
Score: 0 Reference
Great advice - thanks. I may try the other security add-on link from your site. This one seems to be slowing Outlook down in all aspects.

So far though it's all syncing perfectly.
RC-DC

Posted: Nov 10, 2008
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Just an update: I uninstalled the security add-on and that has so far eliminated all the problems I was having. The sync took fewer than two minutes to update from the weekend and Outlook 2003 has not locked up, crashed, or otherwise failed.

I think I can live with the reminder to allow access to the program for X minutes (I had to with my Palm). I don't change my tasks enough to sync so often.

Maybe an option to sync after opening Outlook and upon exiting Outlook for a future update?
Justinearl

Posted: Dec 27, 2008
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The guy above that suggested a syncing option for when outlook is opened or closed is a great idea. Every x minutes seems to be a bit annoying.
Manel

Posted: Dec 27, 2008
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RC-DC:

I also initially tried the security add-in and it is a junk program as far as I am concerned, I let run long enough that it started to crash my machine. The other link to the "Click-Yes" program works pretty well although if you leave your machine running long enough it seems to get out of sync and freezes up outlook.
keef

Posted: Dec 28, 2008
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If you don;t want it to stay resident and sync regularly then the latest version of the client has a command line option that tells it to sync immediately and exit.

keef
keef

Posted: Dec 28, 2008
Score: 0 Reference
Posted by Justinearl:
The guy above that suggested a syncing option for when outlook is opened or closed is a great idea. Every x minutes seems to be a bit annoying.


You can turn off the auto sync and only sync manually if you prefer.

keef
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