sync with outlook created dups

[dmahling]

Hi,

I am synchronizing my tasks between outlook and UR. I have a folder called TASKS that has my outlook tasks as URL. Every time I sync i adds another copy of the tasks. Why?

Dirk

[kinook]

Apparently the Outlook task's URL/GUID (unique identifier of an Outlook object and what UR uses to match up the same item when syncing) is changing between syncs (compare the URL attribute of the duplicate items in UR). I'm not sure what would cause Outlook to do that, but I think a couple other users have reported something similar (after moving items in Outlook IIRC). In order for UR to properly identify the same task when syncing, Outlook needs to keep the task's URL/GUID the same.

[dmahling]

I am using the GTD plugin for outlook. I aslo add a REFERENCE field in UR to the task template. So you have some fields that are unique for UR and OL. Maybe that creates new instances?

[kinook]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'add a REFERENCE field in UR to the task template,' but UR will never change a synced Outlook item's GUID. It's possible that an Outlook GTD add-in/plugin could be changing it, I suppose. The Outlook item's URL/GUID is actually the PR_ENTRYID property, which should never change, but apparently sometimes does.

[dmahling]

I ran a little experiment. I switched off all GTD plugin fields. Created just one task in OL. synced. comes over. synced again. now I have 2 of the same in OL. synched again. now I have two of the same in UR. sync again. 3 in OL etc etc.
obviously the URL gets warped. but how?

[dmahling]

I just checked; both tasks have the same URL! so the URL does not change, still UR keeps adding the same task with the same URL every sync.

[kevina]

I assume you have a folder item in Ultra Recall that corresponds to a "tasks" folder in Outlook.

You then create a new task in this folder in Outlook, then sync this folder with the linked "Tasks" folder in Ultra Recall and a new linked (or stored) task is created in Ultra Recall. So far as expected.

You then sync the "Tasks" folder item in Ultra Recall (again), and another duplicate task is created in Outlook. If you then sync the "Tasks" folder item in Ultra Recall yet again, it then creates a matching duplicate task item in Ultra Recall. This behavior continues as you continue syncing in Ultra Recall?

This is certainly not expected or intended, nor can we guess what could possibly cause it since duplicate outlook urls should always be identified/handled...

Please create a new .urd file, then do the same steps to recreate the issue by creating duplicate Info Items with identical Outlook url values. Zip and email this .urd file, as well as the info from Help | About | Install Info, to support@kinook.com for our analysis.

If I have misunderstood the situation, please provide more detail so we can assist further.

[dmahling]

OK sending the zip file right now.
Observation:
as the sync happens the message identifying the synced item shows to different paths;
First the sync paths start with Mailbox://...
then sync goes thru the list again but without the Mailbox prefix in the path.

[kinook]

The URLs are not actually the same:

just one task

first:
outlook:EF000000EBFB679DB21F58408E3E146FC0D2AFA744 502700

second:
outlook:00000000EBFB679DB21F58408E3E146FC0D2AFA707 0083BA6989657ED846B8C50E0056E6CCDF000000E558AA0000 83BA6989657ED846B8C50E0056E6CCDF000000E5AF9E0000

third:
outlook:EF000000198262C0AA6611CD9BC800AA002FC45A06 0005000100000000E558AA0400000006666401


second task in OL GTD

first:
outlook:EF000000EBFB679DB21F58408E3E146FC0D2AFA764 502700

second:
outlook:00000000EBFB679DB21F58408E3E146FC0D2AFA707 0083BA6989657ED846B8C50E0056E6CCDF000000E558AA0000 83BA6989657ED846B8C50E0056E6CCDF000000E5AF9D0000

third:
outlook:EF000000198262C0AA6611CD9BC800AA002FC45A06 0005000100000000E558AA0400000006666402


third OL task

first:
outlook:EF000000EBFB679DB21F58408E3E146FC0D2AFA704 522700

second:
outlook:00000000EBFB679DB21F58408E3E146FC0D2AFA707 0083BA6989657ED846B8C50E0056E6CCDF000000E558AA0000 83BA6989657ED846B8C50E0056E6CCDF000000E5AF9C0000

third:
outlook:EF000000198262C0AA6611CD9BC800AA002FC45A06 0005000100000000E558AA0400000006666403


I doubt it will help for this problem, but I highly recommending updating to the latest version of UR (v3.2.6).

[dmahling]

OK, installed 3.2.6.
behavior still the same.

again from the top.

1. create a task in OL
2. I sync to UR
3. task appears in UR
4. I sync again; no changes to original task in OL or UR
5. OL now has two tasks.

Why? How to make UR stop putting dups into OL?

[kevina]

It sounds like one of two problems is occuring:
1) Ultra Recall is not obtaining a immutable (permanent) PR_ENTRYID value for the contact when you initially import/link it into Ultra Recall. When you later sync the item, it doesn't find the corresponding task in Outlook, so it consequently recreates the task (since the url it stored does not actually match that in Outlook).
2) Ultra Recall is obtaining the correct PR_ENTRYID value from Outlook when the item is imported/linked into Ultra Recall, but Outlook is later changing the PR_ENTRYID so the relationship (via the stored url attribute value in UR) is no longer valid.

If the problem is # 1 above, you should get exponentially increasing duplicates as you continue to sync (1,2,4,8...) and there may or may not be anything we can do about it (we will research further).

If the problem is #2, we can't fix Ultra Recall to address the problem since Outlook is changing the PR_ENTRYID value, which is a showstopper.

One thing you can do to test is use the Windows Linker (free) utility from Team Scope: https://kinook.com/Download/LinkerForWindowsSetup.exe Download and install, then choose the Outlook GUID format, then select the task in Outlook, and use the Linker tool to paste the "url" somewhere (maybe notepad). Then import the task into Ultra Recall, and finally compare the url attribute value of the imported tasks in Ultra Recall to the "url" saved in notepad.

If they are the same, then it would appear that Outlook is later changing the url for task (you can confirm by syncing the task in UR then using the Linker tool to re-obtain the "url" value. If it is different than Outlook changed the value).

If they are different than the issue must be #1 above.

[dmahling]

the sync seems to use two different paths.

for an item called Task1 I can see the following messages:

first: Outlook://Mailbox - Dirk Mahling/Tasks/URD Synch Tasks/Task1

then: Task1

thus resulting in 2 items in OL

[dmahling]

1. GUID for task1 in OL
<p><a href='Outlook:00000000EBFB679DB21F58408E3E146FC0D2 AFA7070083BA6989657ED846B8C50E0056E6CCDF000000E558 AA0000DC45CF376AAF6B4FAC50E10585C6F70F000006666404 0000'>task1 in OL</a></p>



2. Sync into UR
outlook:EF000000EBFB679DB21F58408E3E146FC0D2AFA744 792700

the UR "url" is much shorter but seems to be a subset of the OL "url". Is there a switch in UR that governs URL sizes/representations?

[kinook]

1) Exit UR
2) Download and extract http://www.kinook.com/Download/URDebug.zip to the UR installation path
3) Start Windows Explorer and navigate to/double-click C:\Program Files\UltraRecall\UltraRecallDbg.exe to start UR
4) Create a new database in UR, add a URL attribute to the Tasks item with the URL of your Outlook Tasks folder (typically Outlook://Personal Folders/Tasks)
5) Record the Outlook task's GUID using Windows Linker
6) Sync the Tasks item in UR
7) Record the Outlook tasks' (for the original and new task) GUIDs using Windows Linker
6) ZIP and send to support@kinook.com:
a) %TEMP%\ks_trace.txt (literally type %TEMP% into a Windows Explorer address bar to navigate there)
b) the .urd file from above
c) a screen shot capture of Outlook showing the Tasks list
d) the before/after GUIDs as recorded above
e) the version+SP of Outlook being used

Thanks.

[dmahling]

Thanks for the instructions. The file was sent this morning. Enjoy. Hope to hear from you soon and thanks for the prompt, competent, and courteous support.