Troubleshooting with CRM Mail Merge: Part 2

Continuing on the troubleshooting portion of the CRM Mail Merge, I have some common errors and resolutions below.

Scenarios

Scenario 1:

Mail Merge from Outlook prompts to download, like it would from Internet Explorer.

This can be caused by the Internet Explorer setting “Delete browsing history on exit”.  This removes the CRM cookie and as a result the web version of Mail Merge is launched.

Also, make sure there are no custom Macros within Office Word. (This could also cause CRM activities to not be created)

Scenario 2: 

"An error occurred during Microsoft Dynamics CRM mail merge" when using multiple marketing lists with many members in the list

This can be caused by a registry key that governs how many items can be in the message queue. The message queue is basically a bucket of pending operations for which applications can process those requests. This may need to be increased.

To do this, try the following:

1. Open Regedit (start| run| regedit)

2. Navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows

3. Edit the registry key USERPostMessageLimit.

4. Change the value from its default of 10000 to 20000.

5. Close Regedit

6. Restart the machine.

Scenario 3:

Mail Merge does not start from the Web Client.

In the Internet Options: Security| Trusted Sites| Custom level settings, confirm the following settings are set.  In order for this, CRM must be in the trusted sites:

If you are using CRM Online, you will want *.dynamics.com and *.live.com in the Trusted Sites.

• In ActiveX controls and plug-ins section

o Selected “Enable” on “Initialize and script ActiveX controls not marked as safe for…”

o Selected “Disable” on “Only allow approved domains to use Active X…”

• In Miscellaneous

o Selected “Enable” on “Launching applications and unsafe files”

o Selected “Enable” on “Allow scripting of Microsoft web browser control”

Scenario 4:

"An error has occurred in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mail Merge" when creating a quick campaign to over 5,000 recipients.

There is a SQL CE limitation that will cause this to fail. Try running in batches under 5,000

Here are some CRM 4.0 KB articles and troubleshooting steps as well:

Error message when you perform a mail merge from an entity in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0: "An error has occurred in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mail Merge"

Scenario 1:

When performing a Mail Merge within Outlook, from the CRM Mail Merge window, click OK and get the following error message:

"An error has occurred in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mail Merge"

Try the following:

1. Close Outlook, clear Internet Explorer cache, and close all Internet Explorer windows. Then attempt to perform the Mail Merge from the Internet Explorer client.

If Internet Explorer Mail Merge works, but Outlook Mail Merge does not

Verify MSXML is working correctly

Look in the registry for the two following keys and their values.

MSXML 5.0 (XP – Vista)

1. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Msxml2.DOMDocument.5.0\CLSID = (default){88D969E5-F192-11D4-A65F-0040963251E5}

2. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{88D969E5-F192-11D4-A65F-0040963251E5}\InProcServer32 = (default)[path]\msxml5.dll

Test MSXML 5.0

Make sure you can access the path in registry location #2 above.  Also take a look and make sure that msxml5.dll exists in the following folder C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE11\msxml5.dll

If the two registry keys exist and the msxml5.dll file exists at that location, then perform the following steps to confirm it is working correctly.

1. Launch Word. New document is created by default.

2. Press Alt+F11 to show VBA IDE.

3. Tools | References, check Microsoft XML, v5.0. Press OK. If you can't find it, that is a problem. Press Browse and find the DLL directly with the file path listed above (C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE11\msxml5.dll ) to try to correct.

4. Choose Insert | Module. New Code window should appear.

5. Add this code to the module:

Sub Test()

Dim oXML As MSXML2.DOMDocument50

Set oXML = New MSXML2.DOMDocument50

MsgBox oXML.validateOnParse

End Sub

6. Place cursor inside the macro, and press F5 to run. See if you get message box or an error. If an error, find out which (screen shot, etc.).  It should return a message saying ‘True’

If you are getting an error with this VBA app test, you can try reinstalling MSXML 5.0 or Office. 

Check multiple Office versions installed

There can be some problems if multiple versions of Office are installed or some components from one version of Office and some components from another version of Office.  For example, say Outlook 2007 is installed and Word 2003 is installed.  It is best to have a single complete install on the system.

Check to make sure Internet Explorer has not marked the CRM Addin to be disabled.

HKU\S-1-5-21-152811819-1914660996-3886675179-2160\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Stats\{E19EA63A-8B6F-4AA3-9013-3DE5EBAFD7BF}\iexplore\Blocked

If the flag property is set to 0, the CRM Addin is blocked from executing.  Set the value to 4, close IE windows and then attempted the Mail Merge again.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd433050(VS.85).aspx

This could probably happen in more restrictive environments as well.  It is also possible that there was a dialog when first executing this addin after installation and the user clicked ‘No’ to not run or allow this component to run.

Also, verify if 64-bit Version of Internet Explorer is being launched instead of 32-bit

This was previously identified as a windows issue with two solutions available through support.

Scenario 2:

When selecting multiple contacts for a mail merge, only 1 mail merge record is sent.

Verify the "Send Marketing Materials" settings on the contact records

Scenario 3:

No e-mail via mail merge option available

Go to Settings| Administration| System Settings| Marketing and make sure the checkbox is marked for  "Enable Direct E-mail via Mail Merge"

More Information:

Additional troubleshooting steps include:

• Create a new or blank template, as templates can be damaged
• Make sure there are no custom Macros enabled in Word
• Try closing IE, Outlook, and Word instances. Even though they appear closed, verify through Task Manager and try the merge again
• Many of the CRM Mail Merge issues seemed to occur in 4.0 and not so many with CRM 2011. Either way, make sure you are on the latest Update Rollup for testing purposes
• The normal.dotm file can become corrupt as well. This can be renamed and when Word starts, it will be recreated. This is in the following location: %appdata%\roaming\Microsoft\Templates\normal.dotm