[Janet]

Hi:

I have OmniFocus installed on three devices. A Mac running OSX Lion, an older iPhone (3g) and a new third generation iPad.

I sync all three devices through the OmniFocus sync server.

For some reason I end up with duplicate actions. An action I created on one device will end up with two or three duplicates after I've synced a few times. When I look at the duplicates in the Inspector, it is clear that they are complete duplicates of each other with the the same start and end times. I have to go through and delete them.

Is there any fix for this?

Janet

[Lizard]

The most common way this happens is when you have a repeating action. Checking off an action creates the next repetition of the action. So if you check off the same action on 2 different devices, each one will create a copy of the action, and you'll end up with 2 copies of the action. The way to avoid that is to not mark an action complete if you know you've already marked it on another device.

If repeating actions aren't involved in your case, then there might be something more nefarious going on. It may be easier to diagnose if you email our Support Ninjas: omnifocus@omnigroup.com

[whpalmer4]

The approach I use to prevent the error Lizard mentions is that I only check actions off on the device I used to see that I needed to do them.

[Janet]

I will try the thing of only checking "done" once for each action.

However, remembering to do things is why I use OmniFocus to begin with. So remembering not to check off something on one device that I've checked off on another is... You see it kind of defeats the purpose.

So consider this a feature request. If you check "done" on an action, and then check "done" to the same action on a different device, make it so that you don't end up with duplicate actions.

Janet.

[whpalmer4]

If you sync when you start using a different device, you shouldn't have the opportunity to check it off twice.

[Ellis]

Originally Posted by Janet

So consider this a feature request. If you check "done" on an action, and then check "done" to the same action on a different device, make it so that you don't end up with duplicate actions.

Janet.

+1 on this feature request. This duplicate actions issue is the main reasons I registered for the forums in the first place. As someone else has mentioned - it seems odd that this happens so often as the first thing that OF does typically is sync, I don't try to do anything until it has finished. I'm surprised this seems to happen to me so regularly but now I know the probable cause I'll be more careful.

[jwicks]

Originally Posted by Ellis

+1 on this feature request. This duplicate actions issue is the main reasons I registered for the forums in the first place. As someone else has mentioned - it seems odd that this happens so often as the first thing that OF does typically is sync, I don't try to do anything until it has finished. I'm surprised this seems to happen to me so regularly but now I know the probable cause I'll be more careful.

I third this request, and these folks' explanation of it. I agree it should be a feature rather than something we should be hyper-cognizant of ourselves as users. I understand the scenario, but surely the apps can be smart enough to realize what's going on and help users keep it clean. After all, the phenomenon is never something a user would activate on purpose.

Further, I have tried to always tick off an action at point of completion, but I don't always, always have Omnifocus on me in that moment, and I should not have to stop what I'm doing and go grab Omnifocus before I *do* something, as it is not always 100% convenient for me to do so, so in those cases there is still an opportunity for error, and this should be considered human.