Dynamics CRM Outlook client: Settings that affect Synchronization & Tracking

Gustavo Longo

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About the series

This series will introduce you to two major areas related to Outlook Synchronization in Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook:

Concepts & Rules

Troubleshooting

Dynamics CRM Outlook client: Highlights and Simple Methodology for troubleshooting
Dynamics CRM Outlook client: Simple list of Troubleshooting Tools
Dynamics CRM Outlook client: Synchronization Scenarios - Changes to items in Outlook (ACT)
Dynamics CRM Outlook client: Synchronization Scenarios - Changes to items in Dynamics CRM (ACT)
Dynamics CRM Outlook client: Synchronization Scenarios - Track an item in Outlook (ACT)
Dynamics CRM Outlook client: Synchronization Scenarios - Merging overlapping changes

Introduction

In order to further understand the Outlook Synchronization, let’s look at the settings that affect synchronization and tracking of the Outlook Synchronization.

This article is basically a summary of the settings that affect synchronization and tracking.

For further details, see the related articles for each option.

Settings

There are several settings that affect synchronization and tracking, concerning to server and client side.

Those are focused on Personal Options, Diagnostics tool, System Settings, Synchronization Filters, Field Mapping and OrgDBOrgSettings.

Personal Options

To open the Set Personal Options dialog box:

In Dynamics CRM for Outlook, on the File menu, click CRM, and then click Options.

-Or-

In CRM, click the Settings button in the upper-right corner of the screen, and then click Options.

Path	Setting
Set Personal Options dialog box - Synchronization tab	Synchronize Microsoft Dynamics CRM items with Outlook or Exchange
	Manage your offline filters and take your information offline in CRM for Outlook
	Update the company field for Outlook contacts
	Set synchronization client
	Schedule automatic synchronization with Outlook
Set Personal Options dialog box - Address Book tab	Select how email recipients are reconciled with Microsoft Dynamics CRM records
Set Personal Options dialog box - Local Data tab	Select how often to update local data
Set Personal Options dialog box - Local Data tab	Select how duplicate records should be handled during synchronization
Set Personal Options dialog box – Email tab	Select how Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook should integrate email with Microsoft Dynamics CRM (*)
	Select the email messages to track in Microsoft Dynamics CRM
	Automatically create records in Microsoft Dynamics CRM

(*) - Some options are equivalents between Dynamics CRM for Outlook and Diagnostic tool, such as:

"Allow Microsoft Dynamics to send email using Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook" is the same option "Background Send Email" from Diagnostic tool
"Check incoming email in Outlook and determine whether an email should be linked and saved as a Microsoft Dynamics CRM record" is the same option "Background Track Email" from Diagnostic tool

Diagnostics tool

To open the Microsoft CRM Dynamics Diagnostics tool:

In the client machine with Dynamics CRM for Outlook, navigate to Windows menu.
Search for “Diagnostics” and open the Diagnostics tool.

Path	Setting
Diagnostics Tool - Synchronization Troubleshooting tab	Outlook Synchronization
	Background Send E-Mail
	Background Track E-Mail
	Automatic E-Mail Tagging

System Settings

To open the System Settings dialog box:

Make sure that you have the System Administrator or System Customizer security role or equivalent permissions.
Go to Settings > Administration.
Choose the System Settings > Synchronization tab.

Path	Setting
System Settings dialog box - Synchronization tab	Synchronize Microsoft Dynamics CRM items with Outlook or Exchange
	Manage your offline filters and take your information offline in CRM for Outlook
	Configure general synchronization rules for your entire organization for appointments, contacts, and tasks
System Settings dialog box - Outlook tab	Set email promotion options for Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook (*)
	Set whether users can schedule synchronization in Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook
	Set whether users can update their local data in the background Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook
	Set schedule for address book synchronization Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook
System Settings dialog box - Email tab	Email processing for unapproved users and queues
	Configure email correlation/Configure folder-level tracking and email correlation)
	Set tracking options for emails between CRM users

(*) - This is what controls whether the client will check incoming e-mail. If marked to yes, it uses the time configured in the following two settings to check for incoming e-mails that need to be tracked. This can be overridden at the Personal Options level if they have this unmarked.

The following options are related to E-mail Tagging as well:

Perform checks as new email is received (TagMaxAgressiveCycles)
Promote incoming email every (TagPollingPeriod)

These settings impact both Background Receive and E-mail Tagging.

Synchronization Filters

Microsoft Dynamics CRM uses online synchronization filters to determine which records (appointments, contacts, or tasks (mainly)) to synchronize between CRM and Microsoft Outlook.

Email is not included in the synchronization filters because email is controlled by when the email is created in CRM.

All the filters by default are set to active.

After copying to Outlook, any change to these records, either in CRM or in Outlook, will be synced to the other system based on the filters.

It is important to know that disabling the filters, after the items have already synced, will not remove the records from the Outlook.

Field Mapping

Data mappings between various entities in Outlook and CRM are used by the Outlook synchronization process to determine and propagate changes to and from CRM and Outlook.

The data mappings between Outlook entities and CRM entities are customizable if you have both server and client on versions CRM 2015 or later.

Highlights:

The control is at the entity type level.
You cannot configure the field synchronization at a more granular level such as user, team, or business unit level.
You cannot add additional fields to sync.
These settings are not solution aware.

OrgDBOrgSettings

Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides the OrgDBOrgSettings tool that gives administrators the ability to implement specific updates that were previously reserved for registry implementations.

Useful OrgDBOrgSettings towards tracing and email tracking.

Option Name	Default Value	Description
VerboseErrorsOnPromoteToCRM	0	Enables verbose user error messaging when tracking items from Outlook to Dynamics CRM: 0 – Disabled 1 – Enabled
ClientDisableTrackingForReplyForwardEmails	False	Enables a user not to automatically track replies and forwarded email messages
OverrideTrackInCrmBehaviour	0	When this option is Enabled (1), the "Track in CRM" button functions as the Set Regarding button
SendEmailSynchronously	0	Define the way that email will be sent: 0 – Asynchronously 1 – Synchronously
AllowPromoteDuplicates	False	Define if is allowed the promotion of duplicate records
OverrideV5SenderConflictResolution	False	Define the behavior when multiple records with the same email address exist in the Dynamics CRM Organization and email is automatically tracked: False – E-mails are tracked to the first record created True – E-mails are not tracked automatically if there are multiple records with the same email address