Troubleshooting Offline Synchronization with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 for Outlook

So you are deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 for Outlook, and when you go offline, one of the following happens.

1. The offline synchronization stops/freezes
2. You receive the error "Failed move data for entity [EntityName] during action saInsert, countRows=[CountNumber]. Contact your system administrator for assistance"
3. You see the following error in the event log:  "An error occurred during Offline Synchronization.  Try going offline again, or restart Microsoft Outlook. SoapException happened Request timed out.."

These kinds of errors can be pretty frustrating.  However, the following simple troubleshooting process can usually help identify the problem and how to solve it.

1. In Outlook, go to CRM-->Modify local data groups

2. Deactivate all rules.  Select all local data rules and click the red square "deactivate" icon

3.  Re-activate one rule.  After the rule is activated, go off-line, then go on-line.

4.  Repeat # 3 for each rule, until you come across the rule that is causing the issue (the problem re-appears).

5.  In Microsoft Dynamics CRM, test the logic of this local data rule using advanced find.  This will probably show you what the problem is--for example, if your query criteria is too complex to run efficiently, it may be timing out.

6.  Recreate the rule.  For example, if you found that you have a rule that contains multiple related entities in the query criteria and multiple conditions grouped by "or," and this logic was too complex to be run without timing out, you may want to split this rule into multiple rules, one for each criteria.  You can have multiple local data rules per entity, and it will work, as long as they don't conflict.

I have found that this troubleshooting process can identify the problem rule in many cases where offline synchronization with CRM 4.0 is failing.

For additional troubleshooting suggestions for offline synchronization, see KB 916165.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft CRM,Dynamics CRM,Outlook 2007,offline,synchronization,troubleshooting

Comments

[Logique Technologies]

looking for crm solutions

[S]

hi ,
i have created quote in offline mode.
My quote entity has a custom attribute called '_NetPrice'

I am creating a quote from a asp.net application which in turns uses CRM SDK to create quote.

When i go online and try to synchronize the data the custom attribute value do not gets reflected to main CRM database.
I queries the local sql express database and the value for the custom attribute in non null value.
Any idea why this happens ?

[Joel Lindstrom]

I'm not sure that I understand your question. If you are saying that offline data is not synching to the custom attribute, there are several things that you can try. For one, Update rollup 7 has much improved offline/online synchronization and will give you more detail if there is a reason that data is not synchronizing.

Does your asp.net application for quotes work offline (are all of the asp files on the local machine)? if you have an application that is updating the offline database, you need to make sure that all of the entities involved are set to go offline, and that they have adequate sync rules, and that the user has adequate permissions. If plugins are involved, you also need to have the plugin registered in the registry.

To troubleshoot, I would take the client offline and then manually (without the custom app) duplicate the process it goes through--update the fields that it updates. This will show you if there are any errors in the process, and if so, you can identify what needs to be fixed.