OFocus Mac: Actions completed in iCal show in inbox [Fix coming in v1.7]
 

Hello,

since several weeks I'm experiencing a weird situation during iCal syncs. After some of my Cal syncs, over half of the actions have been shifted to the Inbox. They keep their project and context assignments.

I'm able to correct this by the adjust function (I don't know the exact English name; in German it is called "Bereinigen"). But the action hierarchies are destroyed. Therefore a lot of manual work remains to correct this behaviour. :mad:

This doesn't happen with every iCal sync. I'm using Missing Sync for Windows Mobile to transfer all tasks and (iCal) events to my PDA. But as this error happens even when Missing Sync wasn't used between two iCal syncs in OmniFocus, I'm believing, the reason is within OmniFocus.

I've rebuilt the database and archived old actions to relieve the database. But this didn't help. Is there something else, I can do?

We would have to take a look at your database to be sure, but I suspect you're running into [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showpost.php?p=52416&postcount=2"]this problem[/URL]. Missing Sync is probably removing the URL that we use to identify each action. (We do this in case you change the name, or have two actions with the same name.)

If the URL we placed there gets removed, the entry looks like a brand-new item, which we place in the inbox.

If I'm correct, this (unfortunately) isn't something we can fix on our end; the structure of the iCal to-do database works fine when it's syncing with one other product. If two or more applications both try to do so, problems begin to occur. It just isn't designed in a way that handle the situation gracefully.

Thank you for your response. You gave the right direction for further testing.

It seems, that the reason is outside OmniFocus. But currently I'm not sure if it is MissingSync or the synchronization with MobileMe. I've completed many syncs with OmniFocus, MobileMe and Missing Sync. But the error did appear only once:

At first I did an iCal-sync in OmniFocus, no problem. Then I did a sync in MissingSync for iCal Tasks and afterwards with MobileMe, no problem with both of them. But after some hours I initiated a sync with MissingSync again. Not tasks were change or added in OmniFocus, iCal and MobileMe. MissingSync indicated, that it deleted all tasks on the device (which device, I can't say) and wrote the same amount of task onto the device.

Before I started the iCal-sync in OmniFocus I checked the tasks in iCal. And as you said, the URL was deleted or changed. But I can't say, what was responsible for the change, which forced MissingSync to delete the tasks and rewrite them. Especially a lot of synchs were completed without the problem.

Nevertheless, after this check I did the iCal-sync in OmniFocus and voila, a lot of tasks (but not all!) were shifted to the inbox. After the correction, I'm now synching without the error for nearly 3 days.

Now, I've completed another series of tests, in which the synchronization of iCal tasks within MissingSync for windows mobile and with MobileMe were deactivated. That means, only OmniFocus was syncing with iCal.

The error occured again. :eek: After some (not all) synchronization with iCal, a subset of actions in OmniFocus were moved to the inbox. Its curious that not all actions were affected. Nearly half of all actions keep their location within the assigned projects. I noticed, that it were always the same actions, which will be moved to the inbox.

Therefore I'm not able to have the actions with me (except for printing them, which is not a real option for me). Neither can I synchronize them with my PDA nor can I seem them on MobileMe in the internet, when I'm traveling.

Hm. I'm not sure what's going on - I can't think of any other folks that have described something like this where OmniFocus was the only thing syncing.

If you zip up your database and send it to the [EMAIL="omnifocus@omnigroup.com"]support ninjas[/EMAIL], we can take a look and determine what's happening.

(Your database is stored in <your home folder>/Library/Application Support/OmniFocus)

This sounds a lot like a bug which is scheduled to be fixed in 1.7, <bug://bugs/46136> (completed items from iCal sync are re-appearing in Inbox, but disappear upon clean-up).

I don't think we'll need your database, but it might be helpful to get some information from your debug logs. Our support ninjas can tell you exactly what we need and how to find it: contact them at [email]omnifocus@omnigroup.com[/email].

Re-titling the thread to describe the problem Ken mentions.

I have the same problem. When I sync with iCal appears a
a window about the problem and some completed actions appears in the inbox. I have to delete it because duplicates my data.


This is the window:

[IMG]http://img.skitch.com/20091005-eg9ejb5sfjip9snuxw49127jb6.jpg[/IMG]

I have discovered that this is a problem with Apple mail. The tasks in Mail are creating problems in many of the task management software that I am testing. When Mail fires up then it puts new tags in the iCal todos. This causes the OminiFocus to then sync and place back in the in box.

Is there going to be a fix for this soon? I truly would like to settle on your product and make a purchase.

I'll point our QA guys at this, but if Mail is altering our data, it's unlikely that we'll be able to fix this on our end.