Outlook Sync (OLS) v2.1.3.0 Update Release Notes

About This Document:
This document details new release Notes to the Outlook Sync (OLS) Changes made August 9, 2021

Prerequisites:

Outlook Sync installed, Local PC administrative rights permission

1.1       Purpose

This version of Outlook sync has four different upgrades involved. The purpose of this update is to facilitate the user and also provides more information about the sync process and the errors that the user encounter

1.2       Scope

• Enhanced - Notifying the user when the user logged out automatically behind the scenes. This would help user be clear about the sync process not being processed behind the scenes. User can manually login again to start sync process.
• Bug Fix - When user creates a calendar invite. And this calendar item is synced by OLS, the status of the calendar is changed to busy automatically.
• Enhanced – OLS is being enhanced to log detail of which email is initiated and which email responded with an error message etc., Using these logs, finding a problem user is facing becomes lot easier which saves time for debugging process.
• Enhanced – OLS is being enhanced to time out a sync process and mark the email as error. The default sync time out is 5 min. Due to this OLS avoids a hang state while syncing an erroneous email.
• Fixed – Broken URL from Help Document of AkkenCloud Outlook Sync

1.3       Project Prerequisites

• .NET Framework v4.6.2
• Outlook Desktop Software.

1.4        Assumptions

Users that follow the below guide are assumed to have Administrator permissions of the computer.

2.1 User Notifications

Outlook Sync has enhanced to display system notification in certain specialized scenarios like logging off from OLS behind the scenes. Using these notifications, user would be able to get the information more intimidatingly now. Other scenarios are when there is a sync error captured, when an email was not able to be parsed for a given period, when an email sync resulted with an error from AkkenCloud services etc.,

Below is the sample notification displayed when a log off is kicked behind the scenes.

2.2 Appointment status bug fix

In the previous version when an all-day appointment is created and OLS syncs this appointment, the appointment status is being modified to “Busy”. Due to this the internal employees of the organization are not able to schedule an appointment throughout the day. This has been fixed. Now if the appointment is synced using OLS the status will be carry forwarded. That means if the status of the appointment is busy before sync, status remains same after the sync as well.

2.3 Diagnostic logs

OLS has been enhanced to log functional events of emails sync and user logins. During the email sync, these logs are added into various stages to make it easy to debug and fetch the details of the sync process of an email.

User can enable these logs from Email settings under Options of Outlook Sync. Below are the steps for viewing the log settings.

Note: As the name depicts, these settings must be enabled only in the presence of an administrator.

2.4 Handling Erroneous emails

Due to the data present in an email or the way Outlook handled the email, at times, Outlook sync would no be able to parse an email and export/sync to AkkenCloud. During this scenario, OLS could not understand why an email is not being synced and the program hangs.

OLS is being enhanced to detect these sync process time outs by a diagnostic sub routine. The default time out value is 5 min. If the time out is hit, email is marked as “Error” and the exported note as “Sync session times out”. Thereafter Outlook sync skips these emails in the sync process (Auto sync and sync all processes). The diagnostic routine not only changes the export status on the email but also dismantles the process that is in a Hang state.

Below is the exported columns and the exported note for detected emails. User can how ever select the email and sync if they intended the email to be added into activities. If this process gets hanged, restart Outlook and copy paste the content in the intended contact/candidate.

Note: Handling of erroneous emails happens only in auto sync process. During the sync selected and sync all, user will have to identify the email and skip syncing the email again.

2.5 Fixed Broken Help action buttons

AkkenCloud Outlook Sync help/user guide has been updated in the Outlook Sync product site. OLS help action button is broken and is fixed to point to this user guide. When user clicks on Help, the user guide is opened in default browser of the user. Below is the image for the same.

2.6 Auto Updating

• If yes is clicked, the installation process starts with downloading the necessary files for the installation as shown in the below image. If no is clicked, the installation is saved for later and OLS prompts the user for the installation when the outlook is opened next time.