Tuesday, June 16, 2015

CRM Outlook Client Troubleshooting

I've spent a measurable portion of my life troubleshooting errors from the CRM Outlook client from version 2011, 2013 and 2015.  It's been a very buggy experience for us, but we've put up with it because we need to track our emails in CRM.  I've put together a few ideas I've learned over the years and some thing you can check if you're having issues too.

General Pointers
  • Permissions: You'll need at least these permissions to use the Outlook client.  There undoubtedly more, but here's what I've come across.  
    • Sync to Outlook (Business Management tab)
    • Go Offline in Outlook (Business Management tab), if you want people to go offline.  
    • Create, Append, Assign permissions on Activity
    • Append To permissions to any entity with an email address field
  • Offline capability for CRM for Outlook (entity setting): Leave this setting disabled on the entity level unless you actually want to take this entity offline.  Otherwise it creates offline filters for the user behind the scenes and may create more burden on the system.  
  • View Pinning: Views in the Outlook client have a small pushpin icon, that when clicked, will automatically keep the view open whenever Outlook is opened.  It also downloads all of the records in the view and caches them on the user's computer.  If you pin multiple large views it can slow down the system.  
  • Group Mailboxes: Shared mailboxes (e.g., support@company.com) generally can't have their emails tracked directly within the group inbox.  The Outlook client can only sync with a user's default mailbox on one computer.  The workaround is to forward the email to your personal inbox to track it.  

Troubleshooting 

General Troubleshooting: My first go-to for troubleshooting for cryptic error messages is to enable tracing.

  1. Enable tracing on the user's computer: Start > All Programs > Microsoft Dynamics CRM > Diagnostics > Advanced Troubleshooting tab > Check the Tracing box
  2. Wait until the error happens
  3. Disable tracing
  4. Retrieve trace log files from C:/Users/[user]/AppData/Local/Microsoft/MSCRM/Traces
  5. View log using CRM Trace Log Reader tool.  Do a web search for Dynamics CRM Trace Reader.  It's a simple executable that organizes the content of these trace files in a readable format.  

Here are some error messages I've come across and what I know of them.

An unknown error occurred while synchronizing data to Outlook.Item Name=[Email Subject]
I've seen this error when users try to track an email from a shared, group inbox that is not their personal inbox configured to sync with CRM.

The requested record was not found or you do not have sufficient permissions to view it.
For me this has been a permissions error.  Enable tracing using the steps above and look for a privilege error.

Only items in the default Microsoft Outlook store can be promoted to Microsoft Dynamics CRM.Item Name =[Email Subject]
We've received this when trying to track emails in a shared group mailbox or exchange folder.  The only workaround I'm aware of is to forward messages to your personal mailbox for tracking.

This email will be tracked in CRM.  
I've seen this message in the email address sometimes when tracking it.  Then it will just stay in that state forever.  After much troubleshooting I found out that this appears when you have the email open, but use the Track button in the main Outlook window.  It will then only be tracked in CRM if you forward or reply to the email.  This seems like a bug that Microsoft should fix.  My guess is that when you have the email open, CRM thinks it's a draft waiting to be sent.  To avoid this, if you have the email open, use the Track button in the email.  If the email is not open, select the email and use the Track button in the main Outlook window.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Jay,

    I am getting below error, when i try to add a contact from outlook and setting parent for the same.
    "An unknown error occurred while synchronizing data to Outlook."

    Please can you guide me to resolve this issue.

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete