I'm an end user Running Outlook 2007 and SmarterMail Enterprise v4.3.273. Yesterday I installed Smartermail Sync v2.0.2728 for the first time and tested syncing up my Outlook 2007 items. As I've a lot of Contacts, Tasks and Calendar items, it took a while to sync, but seemed to work well. However, on 2nd sync I noticed it still took a similar length of time to complete the sync, even though I'd only changed a couple of calendar items. Maybe that's normal? I was asked to decide which task to retain for a couple of conflicting tasks, (which incidentally I hadn't changed since the previous sync) but no other warnings appeared.
However, I then noticed that my Outlook 2007 "Deleted items" folder contained around 40 of my past and future appointments from my Calendar. I quickly checked my Outlook calendar and those appointments were all still there, and they also were there when I checked the calendar in my SmarterMail account. However, I then noticed that the appointment versions as contained in the Deleted Items folder all contained within the appointment notes, either some bold text, or hyperlinked text, or small images such as icons or maps that I'd copied from elsewhere. In the versions now in my Outlook 2007 Calendar, the notes were completely in plain text and any images had been removed.
I assume what's happening here is that, as Smartermail cannot handle such rich text, HTML, or images within its appointment notes, it removes them, and unfortunately when I next run a sync it is replacing my original appointments in Outlook with the plain text ones from SmarterMail. However, I cannot be sure of this, as oddly I found that some of my other Outlook appointments which contained bold text or hyperlinks seemed to have remained intact within my Outlook calendar. It was only certain appointments this had happened to. I could not find what else the appointments which Smartermail Sync had deleted had in common.
I tested further, by putting the appointments with the advanced formatting back into my Outlook Calendar, deleting the plain text duplicates which Smartermail Sync had inserted, and syncing again. However, once again I found a whole bunch of rich text appointments in Outlook's Deleted items folder, and it seemed to be the same ones as before which it had deleted.
I have no problem with my appointments having advanced formatting and images removed when I view them on the SmarterMail Webmail calendar, but I DO need to retain Outlook's advanced formatting options within the appointments when viewed within Outlook, so I can include such things as bold text, hyperlinks to websites, and even maps within some of my appointments when viewed within Outlook.
This issue has therefore really put me off using Smartermail Sync, which is a great shame as otherwise I thought it was a great product.
Are you aware of this problem, and is there a work-around I could use? If not, what's the best way to make SmarterMail Sync sync everything else in Outlook, but not sync my calendar items?
Thanks
Gareth