Duplicates, Triplicates...when syncing iCal and Entourage

[Diane Ross]

I have just installed Entourage 2008, replacing Entourage 2004. On install, my
mail and contact information transferred over but my Entourage 2004 calendar
items did not import -- or rather they did momentarily and then disappeared
before my eyes. I have tried to manually export the calendar items from
Entourage 2004 and then reimport them into Entourage but the same thing keeps
happening and I get an "unknown error 16008" message and the MSFT Daemon then
advises that it has encountered a problem and shuts down my calendar, and/or
freezes all Entourage applications. Possibly related, prior to installing
Entourage 2008, I was cleaning up iCAL which I don't use, and deleted a
calendar called "Entourage" that I had set up long ago in hopes of syncing
both calendars and my handheld. I gave up because of all the
duplicate/triplicates and turned off the sync but I'm wondering if something
is still trying to sync. Any suggestions?

In Startup Items in System Preferences, delete all Microsoft Database
daemons. Entourage will create a new one when launched.

Turn off Sync Services in Entourage. It's possible that you have set to sync
with Address Book and if it's blank, it will erase the new entries.

From Error Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/error/page.html>

Error 16008 This error is related to several different problems with
different solutions.

Symptom: Accessing your Microsoft User Data folder from a network volume
sometimes caused problems. Sometimes, when you tried to access the folder,
you received an error message that is similar to one of the following:

Entourage cannot access your data. To try to fix the problem, rebuild your
database. An unknown (16008) error occurred.

Symptom: Mail could not be retrieved from POP account. Could mention error
with Microsoft Database daemon.

Try deleting this preference: com.microsoft.OfficeNotifications.plist

Make sure you have only one daemon in your Startup Items. If you see more
than one Microsoft Database daemon delete them all and let Entourage
recreate a new one.

Symptom: If the problem is that it can't be copied in the file system, and
he is getting I/O errors, this indicates a corrupted disk. I *strongly*
suggest reformatting his hard drive. (Entourage developer tip)

User reported this fix.

File>Export. Export all items to an Entourage archive. All items. Entourage
creates a file with .rge extension.

Use Remove Office

Install Office 2004 and Update

File. Import. Import information from your Entourage archive.

 

[Kerry]

I am on 08. I don't want to go back to 2004 since beside SyncService
issues, I still see Entourage 08 as a nice improvement over 04.
If anything, the embeded Spotlight searches are enough to make me never
want to go back to 04.

I just stopped syncing Entourage with my Palm. I can live without having
my calendar there.

Corentin

--
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       http://www.mvps.org      -    http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
    MVPs are not MS employees    -    Les MVP ne travaillent pas pour MS
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Interesting. I couldn't live without sync'g my calendar to Entourage
on my Palm as I don't bother taking my Macbook Pro with me anymore
when I go to a clients, travel etc. I just take my Treo 680 and/or my
TX if there is WIFI. I've been working like this for over 2 years and
it has worked extremely well - until the sync issues with ENT2008. Not
sure yet what my answer is as I too don't want to go back to 04 (I
supposedly can get a refund for 08). I'll have to think about this
carefully. At the moment its sync'g but I always find it inevitably
breaks so.........

 

[Kerry]

I am on 08. I don't want to go back to 2004 since beside SyncService
issues, I still see Entourage 08 as a nice improvement over 04.
If anything, the embeded Spotlight searches are enough to make me never
want to go back to 04.

I just stopped syncing Entourage with my Palm. I can live without having
my calendar there.

Corentin

--
            --- Mac:MS MVP  http://www.cortig.net/wordpress/---
       http://www.mvps.org      -    http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
    MVPs are not MS employees    -    Les MVP ne travaillent pas pour MS
 Remove "NoSpam" to e-mail me    -      Retirez "NoSpam" pour m'écrire

I would agree with you that 08 is a nice improvement - cleaner and
zippier UI, faster searches and some little quirky bugs that were in
04 are gone.

 

[Ernie]

Just adding my voice to those who are getting dups in their calendars.

I am really disappointed by this as the sync feature was one of the big reasons I upgraded from Office X. At least it is a known issue and not something 'new'.

Hopefully we won't have to wait too long for the fix.

 

[Ernie]

I upgraded from Office X to 2004 in order to get the free 2008 upgrade. I did not see these sync issues in Office 2004 and thought it was a great feature.

I'm now running Office 2008 and seeing the duplicate problem. Hoping for a fix soon.

Thanks

 

[btn]

Is there a utility to remove duplicate events in Entourage 2008 (on Leopard)?

My Palm is the last calendar standing without duplicate events so I was hoping to overwrite Entourage from my Palm, but it doesn't look like iSync will let me do that.

Thanks.

 

[Diane Ross]

Is there a utility to remove duplicate events in Entourage 2008 (on Leopard)?

To get rid of duplicates use one of the scripts to remove duplicates.

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

 

[btn]

My Palm is the last calendar standing without duplicate events so I was hoping to overwrite Entourage from my Palm, but it doesn't look like iSync will let me do that.

Nevermind. It turns out that iCal does not have duplicate events either so I used Entourage to completely overwrite its data from iCal. (I gather from earlier posts in this thread that there's no way to set Entourage to always sync one-way from iCal.) The only side effect of this workaround is that my Entourage Categories were lost.

I think I may switch to using iCal only until Microsoft fixes the bug discussed in this thread.

Thanks.

 

[btn]

On 3/10/08 3:44 PM, in article (e-mail address removed)9absDaxw,

:

&gt; Is there a utility to remove duplicate events in Entourage 2008 (on Leopard)?

To get rid of duplicates use one of the scripts to remove duplicates.

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

Thanks Diane. I tried the script by Jolly Roger, but it was processing one duplicate event about every 2 minutes. Fortunately, I was able to overwrite Entourge's data from iCal.

 

[Randy Rowles]

Has anyone tried using GroupCal from Snerdware? We have used the product to sync directly from Exchange to iCal without any duplicates being created for almost 3 months now. Its an extra cost - but it works and would allow you to handle all your exchange calendar options from within iCal.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Has anyone tried using GroupCal from Snerdware? We have used the product
to sync directly from Exchange to iCal without any duplicates being
created for almost 3 months now. Its an extra cost - but it works and
would allow you to handle all your exchange calendar options from within
iCal.

I've never tried it or even heard of it until now.
I just took a look at their site and it looks interesting, but $54.95???
That's pricey for a workaround for a falw/limination in Entourage :-(


In addition, the applciation refuses to launch in Leopard. It simply
says it's not compatible.


Corentin

 

[btn]

I applied the Office 2008 for Mac 12.0.1 Update today. It fixed the message flag bug so I decided to see if this "duplicates" bug was fixed too. Microsoft seems to have fixed it by deleting every event in my calendar.

I returned from a meeting to find that both my Entourage 2008, and iCal calendars are completely empty! Make sure you have a backup of your Entourage DB before you apply the update.

I have backups, but I think this experience (plus the iPhone) has finally motivated me to switch to iCal + Mail.

 

[gregory]

I agree, this is unacceptable. How they would release such a broken product is beyond me.

 

[Kerry]

I agree, this is unacceptable. How they would release such a broken product is beyond me.

I don't think anyone can understand how this got out the door in this
state as it is just so obvious. They knew the problem existed in
2004's implementation but in 2004 (unlike 2008) we at least (for Palm
users) had a conduit we could use that caused no problems, was fast
and reliable.

 

[mb]

I have a similar problem except with contacts. I use my iphone, and sync with entourage & ical. Any advice?