Hi Wayne,
I can share you a possibly cause and the resolution for your incident:
+ Cause
When contacts are synchronized from Microsoft Dynamics CRM to your Outlook, the Outlook plugin creates matching contact records in your Outlook account. Problems start to occur if you re-install Outlook, or migrate to an Outlook installation on a new workstation.
Here’s where the duplicate contact records come from:
1. When the CRM for Outlook plugin synchronizes for the first time, it creates synced CRM contacts in Outlook
2. Outlook is installed on a new workstation or is uninstalled and re-installed on the same workstation
3. The new installation of Outlook sees the contact records, but does not know anything about the synchronization, so they turn into normal Outlook contact records
4. When the CRM for Outlook plugin synchronizes for the first time on the new installation, it creates new synced CRM contacts in Outlook.
5. CRM’s Duplicate Detection Rules only apply when synchronizing from Outlook to CRM and not from CRM to Outlook, so it assumes all the contacts are new
6. Now, Outlook has duplicate contact records for all originally synced CRM contacts: An Outlook copy and a CRM synced copy
Left unchecked over the course of several years, you may end up with two, three or more copies of the same contact record! How many times have you upgraded workstations or wiped and re-installed since you’ve been synchronizing with CRM?
+ Prevention
In order to avoid creating duplicate contacts, a little advance planning is necessary. Before you upgrade workstations or uninstall Outlook, follow these steps in your original Outlook client:
1. Open the Personal Options settings screen for the CRM plugin
2. On the Synchronization tab, click Outlook Filters
3. Select all the filters, and click Deactivate
4. Synchronize with CRM, and all synchronized Outlook records will disappear
5. Set up your new Outlook installation, install the CRM plugin
6. Follow steps 1-4 again, but confirm the filters are Activated
7. Now, Outlook is synchronized with CRM with all your expected records, and there will not be duplicates
Please let me know if this information was useful.
+Electronic Source:
- Preventing Duplicate Contacts in Dynamics CRM and Outlook | thinketg.com/preventing-duplicate-contacts-in-dynamics-crm-and-outlook
Best Regards,
