Troubleshooting Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 client for Microsoft Office Outlook

This problem occurs after you install security update 925398. For information about how to resolve this issue, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article “931270: Error message when you use the Microsoft Dynamics CRM client for Microsoft Office Outlook”.

You can import your Outlook contacts into Microsoft Dynamics CRM with the Bulk Import Wizard. We have recently published an article that explains how the process works: Import your Outlook contacts into Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0

If you are are using Microsoft Office Outlook with Business Contact Manager, you will need the Data Migration Pack. You can download the Data Migration Pack from the following Web page: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Data Migration Pack

E-mail messages sent from the Activities area of Microsoft Dynamics CRM or as part of a workflow rule do not appear in the Outlook Sent Items folder. Microsoft Dynamics CRM e-mail messages that are sent using the Outlook form and tracked in Microsoft Dynamics CRM will appear in the Outlook Sent Items folder.

The Help topic in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 was incorrect, but has been corrected in an update. The latest update is available from the Microsoft Download Center: Microsoft CRM 3.0 Online Help Update

Only appointments and service appointments appear in the Outlook calendar.

The reminders for service activities and tasks created in Microsoft Dynamics CRM are set automatically to 15 minutes and cannot be changed.

Pop-up reminders are only available for tasks, e-mail messages, appointments, and service activities. Phone calls and other activities are not integrated into the Outlook calendar. If you need a reminder, create a task to make the phone call, and then create a phone call activity when the call is complete.

This usually occurs if you do not have a network connection or the Microsoft Dynamics CRM server is unavailable. Wait a few minutes, and then attempt to go back online and get a connection. If this condition persists, contact your system administrator.

The folder does not display correctly if too many custom entities are added to the Navigation Pane. Remove some of the custom entities from the folder.

This could occur for several reasons, including:

First, check if you are offline. If you are offline, some data, areas, and features are not available to you. You can tell if you are offline if any of the following appear:

If you are offline, you can go back online by clicking the Go Online button. You can set up local data groups to define what data you take offline.

Usually Microsoft Office Outlook appointments do not show up in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM calendars for a few reasons:

This error occurs if the Microsoft Dynamics CRM laptop client for Microsoft Office Outlook was synchronized with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and one or more appointments and service activities referenced attendees that are not in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The appointment or service activity cannot be resolved for the calendar views and causes this error.

The solution for this issue is to remove the Required Attendees from the view of the Appointment entity.

You must have the System Administrator or System Customizer security role to complete the following task. For more information regarding customizing entities, see the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Help.

This error occurs when Microsoft Dynamics CRM starts before MSDE is completely started. These events appear in the event log but can be safely ignored.

There are multiple reasons why this error occurs. For information about how to resolve this issue, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article, “916165: Error message when you try to go offline in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM laptop client for Outlook: "Failed move data for entity <EntityName> during action saInsert, countRows=<CountNumber>. Contact your system administrator for assistance".

This error occurs after you install Microsoft Outlook security update 925938, or hotfix package 921562. (These updates may have been installed as part of an auto-update.) For information how to resolve this issue, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 931270: Error message when you use the Microsoft Dynamics CRM client for Microsoft Office Outlook: "Microsoft Office Outlook has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience" or you may wish to install all of the current updates at once. See 925874: An update for the 2007 daylight saving time changes is available for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 and for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 client for Outlook. This update includes a roll-up of previous updates and hotfixes.

There are several reasons that this might occur:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 client for Microsoft Office Outlook uses the time zone set in Microsoft Office Outlook. Microsoft Dynamics CRM uses the time zone set on the computer running Microsoft Dynamics CRM or for the individual user. If they are different, this can cause issues. To resolve this conflict, the system administrator needs to sign into Microsoft Dynamics CRM as the user that was used for installation, and, in the user’s record, change the time zone to match the time zone in Outlook.

This can happen when you have sent a message and received a response to it while you are offline with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Microsoft Dynamics CRM did not have an opportunity to synchronize with the sent message before the response was received. Missed messages do not have the icon. You can track the message in Microsoft Dynamics CRM by clicking Track in CRM, and then selecting a Regarding record.

When tasks and appointments with attachments are synchronized between the Microsoft Dynamics CRM server and Microsoft Dynamics CRM client for Outlook, the attachments do not synchronize, but continue to exist with the original item. To retain the attachment with the activity record, save the file to the local drive of your computer, and then manually add the attachment to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM record.

If you attach a file to a Microsoft Dynamics CRM record when you are working offline, the attached files must be available in the same location when you synchronize your data so that they can be uploaded to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM database. For example, if you are visiting a customer and you borrow a disk with a file that you want to attach to the customer's record, first copy the file to your local hard drive, and then attach it from there. After you've synchronized the data and the attachment file has been uploaded to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM database, you can delete the local copy.

There are several reasons why this message may occur:

Not all errors can be fixed. For example, if a parent account has been deleted by another while you were offline. For these types of errors, delete the records, try to synchronize again, and then re-enter the data manually into Microsoft Dynamics CRM, while online. Some data may require changes.

There are many factors that contribute to the speed of synchronization between Microsoft Dynamics CRM client for Outlook and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Initial synchronizations are typically slow because you are populating the entire local database.

The speed of subsequent synchronizations depends on the amount of data that you are synchronizing. The best strategy for speedier synchronizations is to reduce the amount of data. Here are a few suggestions that might help speed up synchronizations:

This usually occurs if you were offline before you upgraded and made changes to Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and then a synchronization error occurred and you chose to go online anyway. This can also occur if you were offline when you upgraded your Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 client for Microsoft Office Outlook. If you have changes that were not synchronized to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM server and you want to upgrade, you can do one of the following:

During the upgrade process, Microsoft Dynamics CRM creates rules for Outlook. This message can be safely ignored. Click Yes to continue.

The desktop version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM client for Outlook does not support changes made while offline. If your Microsoft Dynamics CRM server is still version 1.2, go online and synchronize your data. Then try upgrading again. If your Microsoft Dynamics CRM server has been upgraded to version 3.0, you must upgrade to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 laptop client for Microsoft Office Outlook while offline. After upgrading, go online and synchronize your data.