Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Archived)

Outlook Client, Tracked Email synchronization, and Deleted Items

(0) Share

Report

Posted on by Community Member

Using Outlook 2010/2013 Client with CRM Connector, what should happen in the following scenario:

- User receives an email from a new contact which is not in CRM.

- User clicks on Set Regarding to associate and Track that email in CRM

- Immediately deletes the email from their inbox

Assuming that the delete happens prior to the background sync process which copies the items to CRM, will CRM pick up the items in the Deleted Items folder?

This is for CRM 2013 using the direct Exchange-CRM integration.

*This post is locked for comments

I have the same question (0)

All responses (15)

Answers (0)

Suggested answer

Aldo Macedo on at

Like (0)

Report

Hello Deglende,

It depends, if you configure in CRM Online create contacts automatically when email is tracked will do this, if you are using Server Side Sync synchronization will be executed automatically if not will depend in Outlook and CRM synchronization configuration.

You can verify your settings inside CRM Online and for CRM Outlook; search for diagnostics tool in your pc to enable desired options.

If you want to know how CRM Outlook and tracking works you can see Aaron Richards Blog:

http://community.dynamics.com/crm/b/dynamicscrmsupportblog/archive/2012/10/10/crm-email-tracking-part-1.aspx

http://community.dynamics.com/crm/b/dynamicscrmsupportblog/archive/2012/10/11/crm-e-mail-tracking-part-2.aspx

http://community.dynamics.com/crm/b/dynamicscrmsupportblog/archive/2012/10/11/crm-e-mail-tracking-part-3-tagging.aspx

Best regards,

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Community Member on at

Like (0)

Report

Thanks Aldo.

Auto-creation of Contacts is not enabled.

I guess that another way of asking the question is if the Outlook CRM Connector process scans the Deleted Items folder when sync'ing with CRM.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Community Member on at

Like (0)

Report

Also, this is an On-premises deployment, but I don't think that matters for this issue.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

Aldo Macedo on at

Like (0)

Report
Hello Dglende,

This also applies to On-premise deployment.

When you track your emails from Outlook, an activity of type Email will be created in CRM and saved in the database. You can delete the email from Outlook, and the email will still exist in CRM. All the information about recipients will be saved in the email activity.

Deleting records that have been tracked with CRM for Outlook

You can use Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook to track email messages, contacts, tasks, and appointments. When you track an item, a copy of that record is saved as an activity in Microsoft Dynamics CRM and synchronized with the Outlook record. More information: Overview of tracking records in CRM for Outlook.

The following rules apply whether you synchronize records with CRM for Outlook or server-side synchronization.

Email messages

Deleting a tracked email message in Outlook does not delete the email message from Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Deleting an email message in Microsoft Dynamics CRM does not delete the tracked message from Outlook.

If you stop tracking an email message in Outlook, CRM for Outlook asks whether you want to delete the email message in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Appointments

Deleting a tracked appointment in Outlook deletes the appointment in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Deleting a tracked appointment in Microsoft Dynamics CRM deletes the appointment in Outlook if the following is true:

The appointment is current.

You are the owner or organizer of the appointment record.

If you stop tracking an appointment, CRM for Outlook asks whether you want to delete the appointment from Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The appointment record is deleted in Microsoft Dynamics CRM if the following is true:

The appointment is current.

You are the owner of the appointment record.

Contacts

Deleting a tracked contact in Outlook does not delete the contact record from Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

If you are not the owner of the contact record, deleting a contact from Microsoft Dynamics CRM deletes the tracked contact from Outlook.

If you are the owner of the contact record, deleting a contact from Microsoft Dynamics CRM does not delete the contact from Outlook.

If you are the owner of the contact record, and you stop tracking the contact, CRM for Outlook asks whether you want to delete the contact record from Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

If you are not the owner of the contact record and you stop tracking the contact, Microsoft Dynamics CRM deletes the contact record.

Tasks

Deleting a tracked task in Outlook deletes the task activity record in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Deleting the task activity record in Microsoft Dynamics CRM deletes the task in Outlook if the task is current.

If you stop tracking the task, CRM for Outlook asks whether you want to delete the task in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

CRM uses SubscriptionTrackingDeletedObject DB to indicate which elements where deleted in CRM, when there is a synchronization between CRM and CRM Outlook this table will indicate if a register was deleted and update CRM database.

There is a deletion service triggered every 90 days to update DB elements:

The deletion service maintenance operation now cleans up subscription tracking records for deleted metadata objects as they expire.

• If Outlook does not sync for 90 days, the job will remove the subscription with CRM.

• Cleanup POA records. Un-sharing of record(s) do not remove the records in the POA table, it will stay there for 90 days and it will clean up by the deletion job.

• Cleanup failed/stuck workflows for the record(s) synchronize with Outlook.

References:

blogs.msdn.com/.../crm-2013-maintenance-jobs.aspx

blogs.msdn.com/.../10283745.aspx

blogs.msdn.com/.../more-details-on-dynamics-crm-2011-async-service-maintenance-jobs.aspx

blogs.msdn.com/.../new-crm-for-outlook-basics-ebook-joins-growing-family-of-dynamics-crm-ebooks.aspx

social.msdn.microsoft.com/.../deleting-and-tracking-of-emails-from-outlook

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/crm-customer-center/deleting-records-that-have-been-tracked-with-crm-for-outlook.aspx

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Drew Poggemann 4 on at

Like (0)

Report

Hi Aldo,

I am not sure I understand this option for contacts.

"If you are not the owner of the contact record and you stop tracking the contact, Microsoft Dynamics CRM deletes the contact record."

It makes it sound that if I extend to track contacts that I do not own in my Outlook (by maybe putting in rule to pull all contacts locally for a marketing list) and I choose to not track this contact it will delete the contact from CRM? This does not make sense to me unless I am just not thinking of the right use case... Do you know why this would be setup to do this?

Thanks much,

Drew

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

Aldo Macedo on at

Like (0)

Report

Hello Drew,

There are two conditions for contacts:

-If you are not the owner of the contact record and you stop tracking the contact, Microsoft Dynamics CRM deletes the contact record.

-If you are the owner of the contact record, and you stop tracking the contact, Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook asks whether you want to delete the contact record from Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

rc.crm.dynamics.com/.../ug_ol_track_in_crm.htm

CRM Outlook has a local DB where data is stored, what this means is that if you are not the owner of the contact record and stop tracking the contact, this will be deleted from contact records for CRM but this contact will remain active if owner don't delete this, the purpose is to don't have duplicated contacts in CRM.

If you are the owner of the contact CRM Outlook will ask if you want to delete this record.

An example could be:

Contact A with Owner A

User B tracks contact A, temp register is created. User B decides to stop tracking Contact A so this register will be deleted but Contact A will be available for Owner A, when owner A untrack Contact A will indicate if wants to delete or not contact.

www.microsoft.com/.../track-outlook-contacts-in-crm-for-outlook.aspx

www.microsoft.com/.../deleting-records-that-have-been-tracked-with-crm-for-outlook.aspx

Hope this can be useful

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Drew Poggemann 4 on at

Like (0)

Report

Hi Aldo, sorry this is very confusing to me. There is one contact record in CRM if one person is tracking or 5 people are tracking right? The documentation says if I am not the owner and I stop tracking it will delete the contact from CRM which means it is gone for everyone. I don't understand your scenario since you said it would still be available for the owner. Sorry for my confusion here, just doesn't make sense to me and I want to be clear.

Thanks for your assistance.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

Drew Poggemann 4 on at

Like (1)

Report
For anyone that is interested, I did more testing here on an instance to verify that my theory was correct that documentation is either "unclear" or "inaccurate"

Documentation Link

https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/dynamics/crm-customer-center/deleting-records-that-have-been-tracked-with-crm-for-outlook.aspx

States the following:

If you are not the owner of the contact record and you stop tracking the contact, Microsoft Dynamics CRM deletes the contact record.

This is not the case from my testing and I am glad as this would not make sense to me. The result is the contact becomes a local contact and is not tracked in CRM anymore but DOES NOT delete the contact from CRM.

Steps I executed to verify this here:

1. Setup Outlook Client for Server Side Synchronization to my CRM Online 2015 (Update 1) environment

2. Went into CRM and changed my Options on the synchronization filters or the "My Outlook Contacts" to include all active contacts, not just the ones I owned

3. Outlook then synchronized all the active contacts successfully and they all showed in the "Contacts" area of Outlook

4. I did a number of tests here to verify the synchronization:

a. Choose to "Untrack" a contact that I was not the owner of in CRM. This changed the contact to a local contact and I could make updates to the contact and they did not synchronize with CRM.

b. Chose to "Delete" a tracked contact from my Outlook that I was not the owner of in CRM. The contact disappeared from my Contacts and did NOT AFFECT the contact in CRM in any way. Note, no idea how I would ever see that contact again in Outlook if I wanted to :) Maybe option somewhere that I do not know about...

5. All other testing I did with making updates in CRM or local to Outlook synchronized as expected.

I will open a case with Microsoft to address the documentation and update, but wanted to wait for any feedback from the community at large first.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Aldo Macedo on at

Like (0)

Report

Hello Drew,

Thanks for testing scenario and sharing these results.

Contact will be not deleted in CRM because it belongs to the owner. When you stop tracking the contact a local copy will remain but this should not affect contact in CRM it will be not desired if someone else stop tracking a contact in CRM Outlook and it is deleted for Contact Owner.

Documentation is not clear but this is related with POA table Principal Object Access Table that has a relationship for every record in CRM and permissions to see determined records, if user stop tracking a contact in CRM the InheritedAccessRightsMask should be modified for second user so there will be no relationship with this register to detect that is not being tracked for second user.

You could use following link to provide feedback in CRM:

connect.microsoft.com/.../Feedback and ask for update documentation or verify with support engineer this documentation update.

Conclusion:

if user that is not the owner of the record stop tracking contact this will not delete it from CRM, just will delete tracking relationship for user that stop tracking contact.

If you already deleted a contact in Outlook and want to see this contact again you should request owner to share this contact and then sync with CRM Outlook or if you have an email with this contact you can create contact from it or track it again.

If there is an update for support team or documentation update please let me know.

Best regards,

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
rowdy146 125 on at

Like (0)

Report

Drew,

did you get any updates from MS regarding the contact-tracking behavior?

Thanks & best regards,

Oliver

Was this reply helpful? Yes No