Duplicate Events in Entourage Calendar

[amz1]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I am new to Entourage and for the second time in a week Entourage has mysteriously created duplicates of almost all of my events. The only events that do not appear to have been duplicated are All-day events.

I am running sync services to sync Entourage with iCal and Address Book (neither of which I am using), which then sync with iTunes, which then syncs with my Contacts and Calendar on my iPhone. Ideally, I want to be able to change an appointment or a contact in either Entourage or my iPhone and have the change synced in either direction.

It appears that instead, Entourage is copying - rather than syncing - the events (but not the Contacts) in both directions. What makes me think this is that the only events that were not duplicated are a) events that had been newly added to Entourage but were not yet on the iPhone or b) events that had been changed on Entourage but not yet synced to the iPhone (in this latter case, Entourage now has two events, one reflecting the change that had been made, and one without the changes).

PLEASE HELP! This is driving me crazy and if I can't fix it I'm going to have to stop using Entourage.

Many many thanks for any suggestions you can provide.

regards,
Abe Z.

 

[Kerry]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I am new to Entourage and for the second time in a week Entourage has mysteriously created duplicates of almost all of my events. The only events that do not appear to have been duplicated are All-day events.

I am running sync services to sync Entourage with iCal and Address Book (neither of which I am using), which then sync with iTunes, which then syncswith my Contacts and Calendar on my iPhone. Ideally, I want to be able to change an appointment or a contact in either Entourage or my iPhone and have the change synced in either direction.

It appears that instead, Entourage is copying - rather than syncing - theevents (but not the Contacts) in both directions. What makes me think thisis that the only events that were not duplicated are a) events that had been newly added to Entourage but were not yet on the iPhone or b) events that had been changed on Entourage but not yet synced to the iPhone (in this latter case, Entourage now has two events, one reflecting the change that had been made, and one without the changes).

PLEASE HELP! This is driving me crazy and if I can't fix it I'm going to have to stop using Entourage.

Many many thanks for any suggestions you can provide.

regards,
Abe Z.

This is a very common problem and there are extensive posts in the
forum on the problem with sync services and what happens when a third
party app such as Entourage uses it. I just posted this for another
user today but it includes a workaround that is pretty well 100%
reliable but not ideal. I'll just paste in this post and if you follow
the workaround steps you should be fine.

---------

Your tasks probably disappeared because of sync services. I'm
guessing
you have two or more modules for sync turned on in Entourage sync
services prefs. This should be fine but sync services is problematic
and it creates numerous issues for Entourage sync that leads to a lot
of bizarre sync results including affecting tasks.
To workaround this issue only have one module turned on at a time. In
my case I run Calendar sync primarily. When I say want to add or
modify a Contact/s I go into Entourage prefs sync services and turn
off Calendar and turn on Contacts, make my changes be it on the
handheld or wherever, let everything sync and then switch back to
Calendar.
Having one module on at at a time will give you almost 100% reliable
syncs. The only problem is that since this requires human
intervention
(switching modules) it is prone to error e.g. leaving two modules on
at a time accidentally.
The way to get this going well is to:
1. Sync all 3 modules as Entourage over writes the Apple apps
2. Turn off all 3 modules for sync'g
3. Turn on just one module say Calendar
4. When you hit OK at the prompt choose combine
5. Anytime you switch modules always choose combine
This should work as I've had good success with it since March of
2008.
It will be nice when sync services is sorted out and people are
hoping
Snow Leopard will do this although I did hear from one developer
who's
had a heck of a time with sync services (not Microsoft who has too)
that he's not overly optimistic. But, here's hoping.

 

[Diane Ross]

Let's address the dupes first. Download one of the remove duplicate scripts
available.

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq_topic/duplicates.html>

Next, set a category to every event even if it's a generic category like
"current". All dupes will have the category "none" assigned so you can sort
by category "none" an delete those.

Next, some users have found that only checking one items at a time to sync
in Entourage preferences have helped. Since contacts don't change as often
as events, leave it unchecked, then toggle the events off while you sync to
your Address Book. Uncheck Address Book then check events to sync.

Let us know if this helps.