Danger- Outlook Birthday's & Treo 650

CraigG65 · 11/29/2004, 02:33 AM

If I am correct some Treo 650 users that sync with Outlook 2003 may have some problems with close friends and family.

It seems that the Treo 650 does not like to sync a recurring- yearly- all day appointment that includes an apostrophe. However this problem will only happen if it is the first or only re-occurring appointment for the day.

What does this have to do with close friends and family? Think about this-
Typically it is the special occasions that will have an apostrophe and are yearly re-occurring such as "John's Birthday" or "Jan's Anniversary".

Many people will not realize this because at first glance many of your birthdays and anniversaries seem to have synced. However take a closer look. Find one occasion with all of the above characteristics and it will not be on the Treo 650. Remove the apostrophe in outlook and then re-sync- there it is.

Only 10 hours of research to crack this one!

SeldomVisitor · 11/29/2004, 07:41 AM

That's a really strange data-driven software bug.

In fact, a really REALLY strange bug.

Ya SURE that's why certain items aren't synced?

CraigG65 · 11/29/2004, 10:27 AM

I am certain- at least on my end. Has anyone else checked for this problem?

CraigG65 · 11/29/2004, 11:56 AM

Can someone confirm this problem. I am using Outlook 2003.
Simply enter an "apointment" that is set up as a "yearly recurring" "all day" event and contains an apostrophe in the name. Exactly as you would set up a Birthday just make sure the apostrophe exists ie- "John's Birthday".

Also make sure that it is the only recurring event for that day.

skydivewags · 11/29/2004, 04:57 PM

I am having the problem also, it seems that I need the event to have "no time" but I cann't see that option on Outlook, so I changed the event to have a time, and then changed it to no time on my palm, and then it worked. It will then come up as "all day" in Outlook, but it stays in the palm as "no time".

By the way, I am using Outlook 2000.

Tried some more, It seems that if I redue the event, and start the first occurrence some day in the future, rather then it being in the past, then it will show up in the palm. This will take some more experimenting. And by the way, this sucks!!!! I have a palm to remind me of things, not for me to hunt and peck for missed events!

CraigG65 · 11/29/2004, 07:09 PM

I spoke with Palm One today. They confirmed that an apostrophe in a recurring event is indeed problematic.

When I first called the customer service rep put me on hold so he could speak to a level two tech. When he returned he tried to convince me that an apostrophe is just an unacceptable character. He came just shy of saying that it is normal for the event not to synch! ***- how ridiculous is that?

When I pushed him for an article on this he put me on hold again. He then came back and sent me to an article located deep in the bowels of the Palm One website that spoke about an unrelated issue involving a date book entry pre 1970 that contains an asterisk.

When he saw that was not going to cut it (my problem being an apostrophe on any date- his being an asterisk pre 1970) he put me on hold again. He came back on the phone and did a little back pedaling. He acknowledged that it is a problem and that he would have to email me additional info on the issue.

What amazed me is that he tried three times to convince me that it is completely acceptable- having an apostrophe in a recurring yearly event should not lead to some events not synching. After all my Treo 600 did not have a problem with this and I would venture to say that there is not nor has there ever been a single PDA that only randomly synchronizes events that contain an apostrophe in the description. I guarantee someone is going to have a terrible story to tell in the coming days or weeks if this is not rectified.

For now I guess I will use my Treo 600 for my events and my Treo 650 for everything else. If I stick the two of them back to back only the thickness changes.

Treo_Addict_Tex · 11/29/2004, 08:06 PM

That's beat.

SeldomVisitor · 11/29/2004, 08:30 PM

That's weird.

Bob VA · 12/01/2004, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CraigG65

If I am correct some Treo 650 users that sync with Outlook 2003 may have some problems with close friends and family.

It seems that the Treo 650 does not like to sync a recurring- yearly- all day appointment that includes an apostrophe. However this problem will only happen if it is the first or only re-occurring appointment for the day.

What does this have to do with close friends and family? Think about this-
Typically it is the special occasions that will have an apostrophe and are yearly re-occurring such as "John's Birthday" or "Jan's Anniversary".

Many people will not realize this because at first glance many of your birthdays and anniversaries seem to have synced. However take a closer look. Find one occasion with all of the above characteristics and it will not be on the Treo 650. Remove the apostrophe in outlook and then re-sync- there it is.

Only 10 hours of research to crack this one!

I was just fighting with this issue. DAMN!! 3 hours later. Very strange, but you ROCK! Thanks

mikec · 12/01/2004, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CraigG65

I spoke with Palm One today. They confirmed that an apostrophe in a recurring event is indeed problematic.

When I first called the customer service rep put me on hold so he could speak to a level two tech. When he returned he tried to convince me that an apostrophe is just an unacceptable character. He came just shy of saying that it is normal for the event not to synch! ***- how ridiculous is that?

When I pushed him for an article on this he put me on hold again. He then came back and sent me to an article located deep in the bowels of the Palm One website that spoke about an unrelated issue involving a date book entry pre 1970 that contains an asterisk.

When he saw that was not going to cut it (my problem being an apostrophe on any date- his being an asterisk pre 1970) he put me on hold again. He came back on the phone and did a little back pedaling. He acknowledged that it is a problem and that he would have to email me additional info on the issue.

What amazed me is that he tried three times to convince me that it is completely acceptable- having an apostrophe in a recurring yearly event should not lead to some events not synching. After all my Treo 600 did not have a problem with this and I would venture to say that there is not nor has there ever been a single PDA that only randomly synchronizes events that contain an apostrophe in the description. I guarantee someone is going to have a terrible story to tell in the coming days or weeks if this is not rectified.

For now I guess I will use my Treo 600 for my events and my Treo 650 for everything else. If I stick the two of them back to back only the thickness changes.

Unbelievable....wait, this is PalmOne....completely believable.

JFCOAC....all my birthdays and anniversaries have apostrophes.

I guess dumping Chupura wasn't such a slick move. Jeez, this is so basic, it makes me fear what else is goofed.

DrDoom · 12/01/2004, 07:07 PM

You know, you try to be loyal to a company. You stick up for them, and defend them when detractors say "they screwed up this" or "they screwed up that". You chalk it up to nit-picking, diw-wits, and you move on. You know what? This sucks. Every damn one of my birthdays has an apostrophe in it. This is so incredibly stupid. So, I want to be sure I'm getting this straight. When I get my special new toy on Friday, and rush home to sync it with my Outlook on the laptop, its NOT going to put those events that have an apostrophe in them on my calender? I...I...I don't know what to say. Guess I should head back to the Sprint store and look at the PPC offerings again. We'll see.

skydivewags · 12/01/2004, 10:22 PM

Most of mine showed up, their have to be several reasons, mentioned earlier that make them not show up.

CraigG65 · 12/02/2004, 03:30 AM

Here is the issue. Some apostrophe events will show up. Which actually makes it worse because many people will not realize right away that some are missing.

I deduced that if there is a recurring event (that does not contain an apostrophe) that appears first on the callendar on the same day in question then the event with the apostrophe will synch.

I deleted all of my apostophe reccurring events. After a day I was sick of looking at events that looked like "Johns Birthday" so I went back and used a *. So now I have John*s Birthday. Who would have thought that a * is an acceptable character in the english language and an ' is not? Palm One?

ERicJ · 12/02/2004, 03:38 AM

I think this has been in the PalmOne Knowledge Library for a while. If this link doesn't work search for Solution ID: 25922.

ERic

kitmoni · 12/02/2004, 04:19 PM

THIS IS FOR OUTLOOK 2003. I have not tested it with any other versions of Outlook. Lets assume there are two types of birthdays you would want to see on your calendar. (1) A birthday that is associated with someone in your CONTACTS; (2) A birthday that is not associated with anyone in Outlook.

First, the Outlook Contacts "Birthday" field maps to the Treo Contacts "Birthday" field. Yea! In Outlook, when you use the Birthday field for a contact, it shows up in Outlook's Calendar as "John Doe's Birthday." If you use Outlook Contacts to record the birthdays of your contacts (rather than Treo Contacts), then the following will happen (which is a good thing):

(a) The Treo Contacts "Birthday" field will show the data you entered in the Outlook Contacts "Birthday" field (i.e. 4/1/1969).

(b) The Outlook Calendar will show the birthday as "John Doe's Birthday."

(c) The Treo Calendar will show the birthday as "John Doe", with the little birthday cake icon.

This eliminates the apostrophe issue for birthdays that exist for people in your contacts.

For all others, just follow the instructions in this thread, meaning make sure you don't use " 's Birthday " or the Palm Conduit will strip it.

IT IS KEY (based on my own testing) that you make this "Birthday Field" editing on your contacts in OUTLOOK, not on your Treo. If I did it the other way around on my system I created some duplicates. In theory this should be easy to go through Outlook in "Month" view and note all birthdays. Then just decide which ones associate with a contact entry and go from there.

I hope this explanation isn't too confusing. Yes it's frustrating that we would have to go through this extra step. But, if I've learned anything valuable in life, it is...

YOU CAN'T HAVE EVERYTHING...

Where would you put it?

skydivewags · 12/25/2004, 04:08 AM

OK, I read this thread long ago, ( in Treo 650 time that is ) and I took the ('s) out of every birthday on my Outlook calendar, and that didn't change anything, I still had some show up on the Treo, and some didn't. I also read the link to this issue on the Palm one site, and that said the same as several of you have said here. But again taking the apostrophe out of the event did nothing for me.

However the steps outlined by KitMoni worked like a charm. What a pain, I keep a lot of friends and relatives birthdays in Outlook, and this will take some time to complete, as I am scared I will lose the ones that do show up, so I will do them all.

It also amazes me that when companies make features like this, they stop short of making it really cool. Since you put in the persons birth date, they should have it calculate their age, and display that.

Geckotek · 12/25/2004, 11:04 AM

Hate to sound stupid, but I can't tell exactly what steps he's saying to take. I have tons of contacts in Outlook w/ Birthdays that are already recorded in Outlook and synched to the Contacts in Treo.

Since they already exist, what step am I supposed to take to fix them?

skydivewags · 12/25/2004, 09:17 PM

If they show up in the Treo, consider yourself lucky. About half of mine don't show up. One thing to check is if they show up for a couple different years, if so, you should be good. No need to do anything.

Markito · 01/06/2005, 01:19 PM

This REALLY should become a "Sticky".
Many Treo owners are going to miss important birthdays, etc.
My guess is that most folks still don't know about this.
Mods, PLEASE stickify this thread.
Thank you,

LouisW · 01/06/2005, 01:31 PM

Just remember that birthdays (when entered in the contact info) show up in the Treo 650 Calendar (but not when you use a 3rd party calendar such as Datebook5).