Calendar appts show in web client, not Outlook

[ja98]

ZCS 5.0.12_GA_2789.RHEL5_64
Outlook 2007 SP2, ZCO 5.0.2992.16
(also with Outlook 2007 SP1, Outlook 2003 and ZCO 5.0.12)

This issue is reported a few times a month in my environment: A calendar appointment will show in the web client, but it does not sync with Outlook.

The other day we noticed two recurring appointments in a resource calendar that do not sync to Outlook. Any users with whom this resource calendar has been shared do not see either of these two appointments in Outlook.

I even created an Outlook profile for the resource account and allowed it to completely sync. Neither of the two appointments appear in Outlook. One of the two appointments generates a "Local Failure Notice" email message.

These two appointments have been around for months and probably have been updated a few times. I can't say when they stopped syncing with Outlook.

The usual workaround is to delete and recreate the appointment. That's not ideal, of course, as it undermines user confidence in their calendar's accuracy.

I have ZCO logs for anyone willing to look at them. The appointment that generated the Local Failure Notice logs these entries (assuming I'm deciphering the logs correctly):

16-06-2009 12:35:16.503 [5104]: Zimbra::Mail::ZimbraApptToOOMAppt::MakeExceptionTo Recurrence. could not find occurrence for this date

16-06-2009 12:35:16.503 [5104]: Zimbra::Mail::ZimbraApptToOOMAppt:ealWithExcepti ons. MakeExceptionToRecurrence() failed on [1 of 1]

16-06-2009 12:35:16.503 [5104]: Zimbra::Mail::ZimbraApptToOOMAppt::Convert. ERROR - DealWithExceptions() failed.

16-06-2009 12:35:16.503 [5104]: Appointment conversion failed: could not find occurrence for this date(TZID=(GMT-08.00) Pacific Time (US & Canada):20090409T140000 Main appt time zone: Pacific Time (US & Canada))ERROR - Problem processing an exception. Inconsistencies may result

16-06-2009 12:35:16.503 [5104]: Zimbra::Mail::OOMHelper::Logoff.16-06-2009 12:35:16.768 [5104]: Zimbra::Sync::SaxHandlers::SyncSAXHandler::CreateA ppointment. done conversion

16-06-2009 12:35:16.768 [5104]: Zimbra::Sync::SaxHandlers::SyncSAXHandler::CreateA ppointment. ERROR - Appt or Task Conversion Failed.

16-06-2009 12:35:16.768 [5104]: Zimbra::Sync::SaxHandlers::SyncSAXHandler::CreateA ppointment. deleting message with mid [286], because calendar conversion failed.

My untrained eye has yet to spot any log entries related to the second appintment.

Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

[fsiegel]

Since it's 5.0.16, the local failure should have the xml, and maybe the mime in the local failure. If you send that, we can determine why the appointment is getting the local failure. It's usually bad ICAL data that Outlook can't handle. The .ics is also probably in the ZCO log.

Or you could find that appt on the server, do a Show Original in the web client, and send that.

As for the second appt, do you mean the one with the CreateAppointment error? That's probably the same one.

[ja98]

I have attached the .xml files included with the Local Failure Notice. They are associated with the first appointment I mentioned in my original post. I would appreciate your anaysis.

The second appointment did not generate a Local Failure Notice. Unfortunately, we have deleted and recreated the two appointments in question, so I cannot do a Show Original on that second appointment. The next time this occurs I'll take a look at that and re-post.

Thank you!

[fsiegel]

Well -- I see what's happening in that first appointment, but I don't know why. Perhaps you can remember some history of this appointment, but it's possible that a previous bug caused the behavior.

The CS Staff Meeting occurs every Thursday. In the text, I see that there was an original meeting that started on May 1, 2008. Then there was another one that started on June 18, 2009. In the .xml, there is a recurrence-id of 4/9/2009. This occurs before 6/18/2009, so Outlook cannot find that occurrence. Because these inconsistencies can cause sync problems on later modifications, we don't want weird messages like this to show in Outlook, so we issue the local failure and don't sync it to Outlook.

I'm not sure how we decided there was a recurrence id of 4/9 on a meeting that started on 6/18. It may depend on how the data came to us (migration, some other client, etc.), and how that original 5/1 meeting was deleted.

IN ANY CASE, FOR THE 5.0.17 RELEASE, I HAD ALREADY FIXED BUG 37833 WHICH DEALS WITH THIS EXACT SCENARIO. THERE'S NO POINT IN ISSUING THIS LOCAL FAILURE, AS IT SHOULDN'T REALLY AFFECT THINGS, SINCE THE ANOMALY WAS IN THE PAST. SO IN ZCO 5.0.17 WE WILL SYNC MEETINGS LIKE THIS TO OUTLOOK WITHOUT LOCAL FAILURES.