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'Unknown Error' When Synchronizing Appointments in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Outlook Client

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This article helps you resolve the problem that occurs when you synchronize an appointment to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Outlook client.

Applies to:   Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
Original KB number:   2797386

Symptoms

When synchronizing an appointment to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Outlook client, the following error occurs:

An unknown error occurred while synchronizing data to Outlook.

When client tracing is enabled, the following stack error appears:

[2012-12-17 16:30:41.530] Process:OUTLOOK |Organization:721c66ca-xxxx-40d2-8857-7f9f46bec876 |Thread: 26 |Category: Application.Outlook |User: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 |Level: Error |ReqId: | SchedulableActivityForOutlook.GenerateCrmPartyInfo ilOffset = 0x5E at SchedulableActivityForOutlook. GenerateCrmPartyInfo (String entityId, Object messageItem, IDynamicEntityForOutlook dynamicEntity) ilOffset = 0x5E at ThreadsSupport.ExecuteThreadProc(ThreadProc threadProc, IntPtr parameter) ilOffset = 0x0
Exception occurred during outlook interop: System.FormatException: The specified string is not in the form required for an e-mail address.
at System.Net.Mail.MailAddressParser.ReadCfwsAndThrowIfIncomplete(String data, Int32 index) at System.Net.Mail.MailAddressParser.ParseDomain(String data, Int32& index) at System.Net.Mail.MailAddressParser.ParseAddress(String data, Boolean expectMultipleAddresses, Int32& index) at System.Net.Mail.MailAddressParser.ParseAddress(String data) at System.Net.Mail.MailAddress..ctor(String address, String displayName, Encoding displayNameEncoding) at Microsoft.Crm.Outlook.OutlookItemWrapper.DecodeRecipientEmailAddress(PropValue mapiEntryId, PropValue altId, PropValue emailValue, PropValue emailType, String& displayName) at Microsoft.Crm.Outlook.OutlookItemWrapper.GetOutlookRecipients(Object itemWrapper, Object messageItem) at Microsoft.Crm.Outlook.OutlookItemWrapper.GenerateCrmPartyInfo(Guid entityId, IClientOrganizationContext context, Object messageItem, IDynamicEntityForOutlook dynamicEntity) at Microsoft.Crm.Application.SMWrappers.SchedulableActivityForOutlook.GenerateCrmPartyInfo(String entityId, Object messageItem, IDynamicEntityForOutlook dynamicEntity)

Cause

This is caused by the Required Attendees field being absent from the Appointment form. While this field cannot be removed from the form in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, previous versions of Microsoft Dynamics CRM did allow the Required Attendees attribute to be removed. As a result, this issue may only occur in organizations that were upgraded from Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 or 4.0 to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.

When the field is missing and a record added to an appointment does not have a value in the e-mail address field, the AddressUsed field in the ActivityPartyBase table is set to a value of EMAIL_ADDRESS. As the field is not NULL or populated with a valid e-mail address, Outlook reports an unknown error when syncing the appointment to the client.

Resolution

Add the Required Attendees field back to the Appointment form:

  1. Navigate to Settings, click Customizations, click Customize the System, click Entities, click Appointment, and then click Forms.
  2. Open up the main Appointment form that your environment is using. By default, this is the Information form.
  3. Select the Required Attendees field from the Field Explorer list on the right and drag it into the form where desired.
  4. If preferred, you may click Change Properties while the field is selected and uncheck the Visible by default option to make the field hidden on the form.
  5. In the ribbon, click Save, and then click Publish.

Once the Required Attendees field is added back to the Appointment form, you can query the ORG_MSCRM database to find any existing appointments where the issue is present using the following steps:

  1. Open Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio and choose New Query in the ribbon.
  2. Choose your ORG_MSCRM database from the dropdown list in the ribbon.
  3. Within the query window, type: SELECT * FROM ActivityPartyBase WHERE AddressUsed = 'EMAIL_ADDRESS'.
  4. In the event that this displays results, the records that are affected can be identified by referencing the PartyIdName column.

Any records that are displayed in the results of the previous step can be fixed with the following steps:

  1. Open a record that is displaying EMAIL_ADDRESS within the AddressUsed column in the previous steps.
  2. Change the E-mail field to a temporary e-mail address and click Save in the ribbon to save the record.
  3. Remove the temporary e-mail address you just added to the E-mail field and click Save in the ribbon to save the record again.