Can't send meeting invitations (En 12.1.3, Ex 2003)

[Mike...@officeformac.com]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel
Email Client: Exchange

Subject says it... after updating to the latest version of Entourage any attempt to send a meeting invitation results in "Unexpected data was encountered... Mail could not be sent." Error code is -17997.

Screenshot at <http://www.screencast.com/t/AqxVJLHtc>

If there are specific Exchange hotfixes implicated in this issue I can check server patch levels to troubleshoot.

[Chris Watson]

You're not the only one experiencing this problem, Mike. I'm having the same
issue following the update. Looking forward to hearing any suggested fixes
for it!

Chris

in article 59b5d...@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw, Mike...@officeformac.com
at Mike...@officeformac.com wrote on 10/16/08 11:18 AM:

[Unknown]

I also have this error!

[Unknown]

Sadly, I have also run into this same error. I filled a help request w/ the MS Office 2008 team, but it was rejected due to entourage -> exchange issues needing to be handled by Professional Support.

I am using En 12.1.3 and communicating to w/ an Exchange 2003 environment.

[ka...@officeformac.com]

Include me. I just updated to 12.1.3 and am connecting to Exchange 2003.

[Unknown]

1 more update on this.

While attempting to send the meeting request, I ran a wireshark packet capture to look at the http communications to the exchange/owa server and see if there were any interesting error messages communicated during the http traffic (there is an internal owa server that listens on both tcp/80 and tcp/443 successfully for entourage -> exchange communications).

Interestingly, there was not even an attempt at http communication initiated from the entourage client. the ethernet capture was completely silent on client-> server communication.

As such, I'd tentatively observer that the error is generated within entourage prior to attempt at transmission rather than being some form of incompatibility during client-> server communication.

[Unknown]

Same issue here as well. Is there any way to uninstall the update?

[Unknown]

Same issue here :-(
Actually this makes entourage completely unusable

[Unknown]

Ran into the same issue this morning after applying the 12.1.3 update.

[Unknown]

Same issue. WTF?! Seriously, this has created havoc at work, as I depend on the meeting scheduling features.

Microsoft: please fix ASAP. This is definitely related to the 12.1.3 update.

Exchange 2003, 12.1.3

[Unknown]

If this means anything, 12.1.3 works under Exchange 2007.

[Unknown]

Thank you for reporting, we are looking into this issue. We'd appreciate if you could answer to the following questions:

- Does this repro on Exchange 2003 only, or has anyone seen this on Exchange 2007, too?
- Is your Entourage identity configured with only 1 account, or do you have more than one account?
- If more than one, do you have more than one Exchange account configured for your identity, or just one, and other accounts are POP/IMAP/Hotmail?
- Is the Drafts folder visible under your Exchange account?
- Does this happen for all Entourage-created meeting invites? Does it happen for meeting updates? Does it happen also for meeting responses?
- Does it repro when the meeting has been created using other client (Outlook/OWA), synced to Entourage and then updated from there?

Any other information that you can provide would be very helpful.

Regards,
Jacek Suliga, MacBU Entourage

[Unknown]

I am having this problem, too.

Does this repro on Exchange 2003 only, or has anyone seen this on Exchange
2007, too?

I am using 2003.

Is your Entourage identity configured with only 1 account, or do you have
more than one account?

One only (though I use Open Other User's Folder to see one other account).

Does this happen for all Entourage-created meeting invites?

So far. I have tried only three.

- Does it repro when the meeting has been created using other client (Outlook/OWA), synced to Entourage and then updated from there?

Yes. Just tried with a meeting created in O2K3 SP3.

[Unknown]

Thank you for reporting, we are looking into this issue. We'd appreciate
if you could answer to the following questions:

- Does this repro on Exchange 2003 only, or has anyone seen this on Exchange
2007, too?

-We only use Exchange 2003

- Is your Entourage identity configured with only 1 account, or do you

have more than one account?

-More than one: 2 Exchange and 2 IMAP

- If more than one, do you have more than one Exchange account configured
for your identity, or just one, and other accounts are POP/IMAP/Hotmail?

-2 Exchange and 2 IMAP (GMAIL and ME.com)

- Is the Drafts folder visible under your Exchange account?

-Yes

- Does this happen for all Entourage-created meeting invites? Does it
happen for meeting updates? Does it happen also for meeting responses?

-All Meeting related invites/Updates/Responces

- Does it repro when the meeting has been created using other client (Outlook/OWA),
synced to Entourage and then updated from there?

-Yes, it seems to always happen

Any other information that you can provide would be very helpful.

-In the interum, is there a way to uninstall this update?

[Unknown]

Sorry, corrected info:

- Is your Entourage identity configured with only 1 account, or do you have more than one account?

- If more than one, do you have more than one Exchange account configured for your identity, or just one, and other accounts are POP/IMAP/Hotmail?

Three accounts: 1 Exchange and 2 IMAP.

[Chris Watson]

Hi Jacek:

- Our company is using Exchange 2003
- One Entourage identity
- One Exchange account, several POP accounts
- Yes, I can see the Drafts folder in the Exchange account
- I am unable to send any invitations I create and am unable to reply to any
invitations or updated received from other Entourage users
- I am unable to respond to invitations or updates sent from MS Outlook
users.

I'm using Mac OS 10.5.5. Thanks,

Chris

in article 59b5d...@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw, Jacek Suliga at wrote on
10/17/08 12:48 PM:

[Unknown]

- Does this repro on Exchange 2003 only, or has anyone seen this on Exchange 2007, too?

I only have E2k3 to test against.

- Is your Entourage identity configured with only 1 account, or do you have more than one account?

3 accounts: 1 exchange, 2 IMAP. The 2 IMAP accounts can send meeting requests w/out issues.

- If more than one, do you have more than one Exchange account configured for your identity, or just one, and other accounts are POP/IMAP/Hotmail?

Only 1 account is Exchange-based. The other 2 are IMAP.

- Is the Drafts folder visible under your Exchange account?

Yes. The drafts folder is visible. the meeting request email does not show up in the Drafts folder. it does show up in my calendar, flagged as "invitation has not been sent."

- Does this happen for all Entourage-created meeting invites? Does it happen for meeting updates? Does it happen also for meeting responses?

I can successfully send entourage meeting requests from my IMAP account. From my exchange account, I can successfully send meeting responses. From my exchange account, I cannot send meeting updates (when I attempt to update a meeting I had previously sent out).

- Does it repro when the meeting has been created using other client (Outlook/OWA), synced to Entourage and then updated from there?

Yes, the error is reproduced for this scenario as well. I can successfully create/send meeting requests from Outlook 2007. When I attempt to update and send an update to invitees from entourage, the same error occurs.

Any other information that you can provide would be very helpful.

as mentioned above, the error is generated immediately upon attempt to send from the client. my packet capture never even detects an attempt to send a tcp request to the exchange/owa server.

[tjf...@officeformac.com]

Sorry for the last post in mistake... here's my answers

Q: Does this repro on Exchange 2003 only, or has anyone seen this on Exchange 2007, too?

A: Our company uses Exchange as hosted by Microsoft. I don't know what version.

Q: Is your Entourage identity configured with only 1 account, or do you have more than one account?

A: My account USED to be configured for more than one account, but now is configured for one Exchange account.

Q: If more than one, do you have more than one Exchange account configured for your identity, or just one, and other accounts are POP/IMAP/Hotmail?

A: Per previous comment: N/A

Q: Is the Drafts folder visible under your Exchange account?

A: Yes

Q: Does this happen for all Entourage-created meeting invites? Does it happen for meeting updates? Does it happen also for meeting responses?

A: I haven't tried invites or updates. It happens for all meeting responses.

Q: Does it repro when the meeting has been created using other client (Outlook/OWA), synced to Entourage and then updated from there?

A: Haven't tried this.

[tjf...@officeformac.com]

- Does this repro on Exchange 2003 only, or has anyone seen this on Exchange 2007, too?

- Is your Entourage identity configured with only 1 account, or do you have more than one account?
- If more than one, do you have more than one Exchange account configured for your identity, or just one, and other accounts are POP/IMAP/Hotmail?
- Is the Drafts folder visible under your Exchange account?
- Does this happen for all Entourage-created meeting invites? Does it happen for meeting updates? Does it happen also for meeting responses?
- Does it repro when the meeting has been created using other client (Outlook/OWA), synced to Entourage and then updated from there?

[Unknown]

Does this repro on Exchange 2003 only, or has anyone seen this on Exchange 2007, too?

USING EXCHANGE 2007, HERE

- Is your Entourage identity configured with only 1 account, or do you have more than one account?

ONE ACCOUNT

- If more than one, do you have more than one Exchange account configured for your identity, or just one, and other accounts are POP/IMAP/Hotmail?

ONE EXCHANGE ACCOUNT, A COUPLE OF IMAP AND POP

- Is the Drafts folder visible under your Exchange account?

DRAFTS FOLDER VISIBLE

- Does this happen for all Entourage-created meeting invites? Does it happen for meeting updates? Does it happen also for meeting responses?

I CAN RECEIVE INVITES, MESSAGES, ETC BUT I CANNOT SEND UPDATES, EMAILS OR MEETINGS FROM ENTOURAGE

- Does it repro when the meeting has been created using other client (Outlook/OWA), synced to Entourage and then updated from there?

I CANNOT UPDATE ANY MEETING FROM ENTOURAGE- WHEN I UPDATED A MEETING IN OWA, THE MEETING SHOWS UP TWICE ON ENTOURAGE NOW

[Unknown]

This is happening to me after the 12.1.3 update. Not able to send meeting invites 2007, too?
USING EXCHANGE 2003

- Is your Entourage identity configured with only 1 account, or do you have more than one account?

MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS (ONE EXCHANGE AND ONE POP)

- If more than one, do you have more than one Exchange account configured for your identity, or just one, and other accounts are POP/IMAP/Hotmail?
ONE EXCHANGE ACCOUNT, A COUPLE OF IMAP AND POP

- Is the Drafts folder visible under your Exchange account?
DRAFTS FOLDER VISIBLE

- Does this happen for all Entourage-created meeting invites? Does it happen for meeting updates? Does it happen also for meeting responses?

I CAN RECEIVE INVITES, MESSAGES, ETC BUT I CANNOT SEND MEETING INVITES FROM ENTOURAGE

- Does it repro when the meeting has been created using other client (Outlook/OWA), synced to Entourage and then updated from there?

COULDN'T TEST THIS

[Unknown]

- Does this repro on Exchange 2003 only, or has anyone seen this on Exchange
2007, too?

Only tried on Exchange Server 2003

- Is your Entourage identity configured with only 1 account, or do you
have more than one account?

1 only

- If more than one, do you have more than one Exchange account configured
for your identity, or just one, and other accounts are POP/IMAP/Hotmail?

- Is the Drafts folder visible under your Exchange account? - Does this

happen for all Entourage-created meeting invites? Does it happen for meeting
updates? Does it happen also for meeting responses?

All calendar-related emails.

- Does it repro when the meeting has been created using other client (Outlook/OWA),
synced to Entourage and then updated from there?

Yes.

[Unknown]

This is a critical bug - please provide daily reports.

1 account; exchange 2003; see draft folder; only happens if I invite someone to a meeting; happens 100% of the time. Does not happen using the same account via webmail or windows outlook. So it's an entourage bug.

I guess it is not possible to uninstall the update without a full cd install - since that question was not answered.

[Unknown]

Same exact problem here.

Exchange 2003
Only one identity and only one exchange account

error happens on every meeting invite.

please help...

[m...@officeformac.com]

Same problem here.. Embarrassing... no QA on releases anymore... Shame on me for trusting the update.

1 exchange account, 2003, see draft folder, 100% error rate (all stuck in my Outbox), happens only in Entourage after the update

[rav...@officeformac.com]

> Thank you for reporting, we are looking into this issue. We'd appreciate if you could answer to the following questions:
>

> - Does this repro on Exchange 2003 only, or has anyone seen this on Exchange 2007, too?

Exchange 2007, SP1 + rollup 3 applied

> - Is your Entourage identity configured with only 1 account, or do you have more than one account?

One account only

> - If more than one, do you have more than one Exchange account configured for your identity, or just one, and other accounts are POP/IMAP/Hotmail?
> - Is the Drafts folder visible under your Exchange account?

Yes

> - Does this happen for all Entourage-created meeting invites? Does it happen for meeting updates? Does it happen also for meeting responses?

Meeting invites, yes
Meeting updates, yes

> - Does it repro when the meeting has been created using other client (Outlook/OWA), synced to Entourage and then updated from there?
>

OWA works for updating and scheduling meetings. Syncs fine from Exchange.

> Any other information that you can provide would be very helpful.

Exchange 2007 infrastructure:

SSL: yes
Backend access allowed: no

[Mike...@officeformac.com]

- Does this repro on Exchange 2003 only, or has anyone seen this on Exchange 2007, too?

I only have Ex2003 to test against, but as you see from the other respondents there are 2007 users having the same issue.

- Is your Entourage identity configured with only 1 account, or do you have more than one account?

>1 acct

- If more than one, do you have more than one Exchange account configured for your identity, or just one, and other accounts are POP/IMAP/Hotmail?

Only one Exchange, others are IMAP and POP.

- Is the Drafts folder visible under your Exchange account?

Yep

- Does this happen for all Entourage-created meeting invites? Does it happen for meeting updates? Does it happen also for meeting responses?

Yes, don't know, yes.

- Does it repro when the meeting has been created using other client (Outlook/OWA), synced to Entourage and then updated from there?

Don't know.

[Powere...@officeformac.com]

PLEASE PROVIDE DAILY UPDATES.

Same problem started for me at the 12.1.3 update. Effects all Mac/entourage computers on the exchange server. This is a MAJOR issue for my company and if not corrected soon, we may be forced to find a non microsoft solution. Happens for New meeting notices, updates, and accepts. Responses all hang in the outbox and returns error -17997 message. Meanwhile directed all others at the company to reject the update.

What's the easiest way to undo the update?

[Unknown]

The invite message just sits in the outbox - unable to send.

Might have found a manual workaround...

1. Setup and send out your meeting invite as normal
2. Go to the outbox folder and find the meeting invite.
3. Move the message from the outbox folder to drafts folder
4. Open message and send.
It will now send.... But I am unable to confirm the receipt. Feedback?

[Diane Ross]

"Powere...@officeformac.com" wrote:

>
> What's the easiest way to undo the update?

The only way to revert is to use "Remove Office" and re-install. If you have
backup, you can restore.

Future options:

1) Archive (zip) your Office folder before updating
2) Use SuperDuper! Feature called Sandbox (see below)
3) Use Time Machine to restore
4) Create a backup using software like CCC or SuperDuper!

We've discussed using SuperDuper!(backup software) before, but this is an
excellent time to remind users about a feature it has that protects you from
updates that go bad. It copies applications like Office in the root
application folder. I keep most of my other non-Apple applications in the
User's folder. These are not copied over.

One of the options in SuperDuper! is to create what the author calls a
"Sandbox". It's used to revert to pre-update state of your OS. Here's a
description of how this option works:

A Sandbox is a bootable copy of your system, stored on another hard drive or
partition, that shares your personal documents and data with the original.
With SuperDuper!, you actually use the Sandbox as your startup volume. You
can safely install any system updates, drivers or programs in the Sandbox,
without worrying about what might happen to your system. If anything goes
wrong, you can simply start up from the original system. SuperDuper! has
preserved it in its original, pre-disaster state but all your new and
changed personal documents are totally up to date. Within minutes, you're up
and running again without having to go through a difficult and
time-consuming restore process.

SuperDuper! Is $27.95. I雋 not affiliated with the product. Just a satisfied
user. <http://www.shirt-pocket.com/>

--
Diane

[Unknown]

Same issue here... no idea what version of exchange were using, only one account and identity set up in entourage.

[Eric_...@officeformac.com]

Darn -- just devastated to hear this wasn't properly tested before it was released. Well, here's hoping an emergency fix follows shortly.

[Andy...@officeformac.com]

Hey folks,

We (Microsoft) are aware there's an issue with the 12.1.3 update that impacts users who have configured IMAP or POP accounts in conjunction with their Microsoft Exchange Server account. The MacBU is working to address the issue and will share an update on the ETA as soon as possible.

-Andy

[Unknown]

Andy,

Do you guys have a work around in the meantime? Were dyin' here...

-J

[Unknown]

Couple of notes:
1. Issue is not limited to having another account beyond your exchange account as I am having this problem with Exchange 2003 and only my exchange account programmed in.
2. Time Machine is your friend, I successfully reverted back to my previous version by deleting then restoring the Microsoft Office 2008 folder along with the /Library/Application Support/Microsoft folder. Meeting planners are now back up and running and I didn't have to restore a backup of my folders, just the software.

[Ash Savage]

Hi All,

As Frankie mentioned earlier, we have tested and confirmed that dragging
the message from the outbox to the drafts folder and sending from there can
be used as a temporary workaround. More information will be available soon.

Ash Savage - Microsoft

"Mike...@officeformac.com" wrote:

> Version: 2008
> Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
> Processor: Intel
> Email Client: Exchange
>
> Subject says it... after updating to the latest version of Entourage any attempt to send a meeting invitation results in "Unexpected data was encountered... Mail could not be sent." Error code is -17997.
>
> Screenshot at <http://www.screencast.com/t/AqxVJLHtc>
>
> If there are specific Exchange hotfixes implicated in this issue I can check server patch levels to troubleshoot.
>

[Jacek_...@officeformac.com]

Another workaround could be recreating your identity from scratch and creating the Exchange account(s) first, BEFORE any non-Exchange accounts.

Please bear with us, official information and recommendation should follow soon. Thank you for all the reports which helped us repro and identify the issue.

Jacek Suliga, MacBU Entourage

[Unknown]

Frankie's workaround may work for sending invites, but it doesn't seem to work for responding to invites.

[Chris Watson]

in article 59b5d...@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw, ABrom at ABrom wrote on
10/20/08 9:49 PM:

> Frankie's workaround may work for sending invites, but it doesn't seem to work
> for responding to invites.

Are you sure the response isn't being sent, even if it looks like it didn't?
The workaround seems to be working except that the message moves from the
Drafts folder back into the Outbox. However, the response was apparently
sent.

Definitely odd but better than nothing.

[Mike...@officeformac.com]

For a quick summary of this issue you can visit the Entourage Help Blog:

<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>

Kudos to Will for all his hard work on supporting Entourage users, and thanks to Jacek, Ash and Andy for quick & official responses to an emerging issue. It means something to see the MS product team on a support forum, and I for one appreciate it.

What's worrisome about this particular bug, though, is the fact that it slipped through -- I wonder which team (Mac BU or Exchange) is responsible for the testing suite for Exchange functionality on Entourage builds, and whether there is a structural blind spot that resulted in no test being performed for calendar invites with an Exchange + POP/IMAP configuration.

Pre-release use of Entourage 12.1.3 inside the MacBU should have revealed the bug... but chances are, Microsoft policy forbids using Entourage to access secondary accounts outside the Exchange forest, exactly the configuration that triggers the issue. :-(

This is all armchair speculation, of course, but whenever such a showstopping, reproducible and obvious issue makes it into a point release, it's worth asking questions about the underlying processes that caused it to fly underneath the radar.

[Ta...@officeformac.com]

> Thank you for reporting, we are looking into this issue. We'd appreciate if you could answer to the following questions:
>

> - Does this repro on Exchange 2003 only, or has anyone seen this on Exchange 2007, too?

I'm on Exchange 2003

> - Is your Entourage identity configured with only 1 account, or do you have more than one account?

Only one account

> - If more than one, do you have more than one Exchange account configured for your identity, or just one, and other accounts are POP/IMAP/Hotmail?

> - Is the Drafts folder visible under your Exchange account?

Yes

> - Does this happen for all Entourage-created meeting invites? Does it happen for meeting updates? Does it happen also for meeting responses?

Happened with sending invites & responding to invites; haven't had a chance to send updates yet.

> - Does it repro when the meeting has been created using other client (Outlook/OWA), synced to Entourage and then updated from there?
>

> Any other information that you can provide would be very helpful.
>

[Unknown]

I have a suggestion! How about losing Entourage and porting Outlook to Mac?

Entourage Sucks!

[Unknown]

I am running on Exchange 2007, and I only have ONE account configured, the exchange account.

[Andy...@officeformac.com]

A quick update for everyone. We are still working on the issue inside the MacBU. The workarounds shared here and on the blogs do help alleviate the problem for most users but obviously they're frustrating. Hopefully we'll have more to share with you in the next few days.

-Andy

[Unknown]

-Andy

Just for info, I have the problem here in an environment of about 1600 employees (although not all macs of course). What affects me more than not being able to schedule meetings (could use draft folder workaround, but usually just go to a PC to be sure) is not being able to accept meetings (same bad data error msg). My phone is ringing all day 'are you coming to my meeting or not'. Just don't have time to deal with this proactively, and no the workaround doesn't work for mtg accepts. Perhaps someone could walk us through a succinct rollback approach. Unfortunately, the MacBook Pros came out right after the update, so my time machine data got reset. BTW, I do appreciate hugely this forum and the participation of the MVP's. I see that the issue is being dealt with in an 'escalated' manner, and we are receiving unsolicited status updates (though would like to see more detailed info). Thank you for that.

[Unknown]

Happens with MOSS hosted Exchange 2007, with only Exchange configured and only for meeting updates and response, not new meeting requests. Dragging to drafts and resending works. This was not happening before the latest update.

Thank you for reporting, we are looking into this issue. We'd appreciate
if you could answer to the following questions:

- Does this repro on Exchange 2003 only, or has anyone seen this on Exchange

2007, too? - Is your Entourage identity configured with only 1 account,
or do you have more than one account? - If more than one, do you have

more than one Exchange account configured for your identity, or just one,
and other accounts are POP/IMAP/Hotmail? - Is the Drafts folder visible

under your Exchange account? - Does this happen for all Entourage-created

meeting invites? Does it happen for meeting updates? Does it happen also

for meeting responses? - Does it repro when the meeting has been created

[Diane Ross]

"FSantore" wrote:

> Perhaps someone could walk us through a succinct rollback approach.

I'm not sure exactly how this works in a corporate environment, but I always
advise, users to archive (zip) their Office folder before updating. Easy to
delete the bad updated Microsoft Office folder and revert to the archived
copy.

There is no uninstall or revert process offered. These directions are
included in every MSFT update:

To remove this update
This update does not include an uninstall feature. To restore your
application to its original state, delete it from your hard disk, reinstall
it from your original installation disk, and then install the updates that
you want.

1) Install from the DVD
2) Update to:
12.1.0 (SP1) <---this is a combo updater
12.1.1
12.1.2

AutoUpdater should show the updates as needed. Obviously, stop at the 12.1.3
update for now.

See other options for reverting in this blog entry:

Revert to a previous version after a bad update
<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2008/10/revert_to_a_previous_version.html>

Following these tips, you won't get caught by scripts that don't quit and
your install should work correctly.

Under Help select "check for updates." When AutoUpdater shows up in the
Dock, select to "keep in dock"

Log out/in and hold Shift key down to disable all startup items.

Select the AutoUpdater in the Dock and download the updater. Run the updater
and restart. Restart between each update.

--
Diane

[Robin Jackson]

On 22/10/2008 01:41, in article
C523C4E4.2EDC7%di...@invalid.entourage.mvps.org, "Diane Ross"
<di...@invalid.entourage.mvps.org> wrote:

Hmmm

I did not realise this was all I needed to do a SuperDuper image copy before
an upgrade but I was assuming there would be updated Libraries and all sorts
of things.

Everything being contained in the one folder made it a doddle to revert.

I just grabbed my SuperDuper copy pre upgraded, deleted the Microsoft Office
folder on my hard disk and replaced it with the older version.

Rebooted, emptied trash and EVERYTHING IS WORKING AGAIN!!!!!!

Thanks for the tip.

Robin

I ALWAYS do a

[Shad...@officeformac.com]

The workaround doesn't seem to work for sending acceptance notifications for calendar invites either. Has anyone managed to use the workaround for acceptance notifications?

[Unknown]

This started occurring for me immediately after upgrading to Entourage 12.1.3

Appears to be a problem with the MS Office 2008 Update.

[Unknown]

"FSantore" wrote:

> Perhaps someone could walk us through a succinct rollback approach.

"Diane" wrote 1) Install from the DVD 2) Update to: 12.1.0 (SP1) <---this

is a combo updater 12.1.1 12.1.2

This is straightforward enough. Thanks for the info. I'll be doing this later today unless this thread indicates a fix coming tomorrow. I'm assuming we are a couple weeks to a month from resolution. It might be nice to consider a 12.1.4 that just backs out 12.1.3, since there has to be a large portion of the user base that like me started with their highly capable yet PC-centric Exchange technician, but unlike me never located this discussion, and are now in very awkward discussions with IT managers conveying firmly 'this is why we want you on the corporate PC standard platform'. Shiver. . . thank goodness for google searches!

[Unknown]

This isn't confined to Echange. We use Kerio for mail service and have EXACTLY the same issue in sending invitations.

[Diane Ross]

"Robin Jackson" wrote:

> I did not realise this was all I needed to do a SuperDuper image copy before
> an upgrade but I was assuming there would be updated Libraries and all sorts
> of things.
>
> Everything being contained in the one folder made it a doddle to revert.
>
> I just grabbed my SuperDuper copy pre upgraded, deleted the Microsoft Office
> folder on my hard disk and replaced it with the older version.
>
> Rebooted, emptied trash and EVERYTHING IS WORKING AGAIN!!!!!!
>
> Thanks for the tip.

Glad to know that worked for you.

--
Diane

[Chris Watson]

in article C524E2BF.2EED8%di...@invalid.entourage.mvps.org, Diane Ross at
di...@invalid.entourage.mvps.org wrote on 10/22/08 5:01 PM:

If you're a Time Machine user, it works like a snap as well.

[Sorcer...@officeformac.com]

> - Does this repro on Exchange 2003 only, or has anyone seen this on Exchange 2007, too? Reply - I am on 2003.
> - Is your Entourage identity configured with only 1 account, or do you have more than one account? reply - one exchange account plus three POPs
> - If more than one, do you have more than one Exchange account configured for your identity, or just one, and other accounts are POP/IMAP/Hotmail? Reply - only one exchange account.
> - Is the Drafts folder visible under your Exchange account? Reply - yes.
> - Does this happen for all Entourage-created meeting invites? Does it happen for meeting updates? Does it happen also for meeting responses? Reply - all meeting invites, updates, and for responses as well.

> - Does it repro when the meeting has been created using other client (Outlook/OWA), synced to Entourage and then updated from there?

> Reply - sorry, unable to answer this.

[Be...@officeformac.com]

> The workaround doesn't seem to work for sending acceptance notifications for calendar invites either. Has anyone managed to use the workaround for acceptance notifications?

l'm having the same problem with acceptance notifications as well, we run exchange 2007 and 50 of my users are on Mac's

has anyone found a workaround for this as yet?

[Unknown]

> - Does this repro on Exchange 2003 only, or has anyone seen this on
Exchange 2007, too? Reply - I am on 2003. > - Is your Entourage identity
configured with only 1 account, or do you have more than one account?

reply - one exchange account plus three POPs ONE ONLY > - If more than

one, do you have more than one Exchange account configured for your identity,
or just one, and other accounts are POP/IMAP/Hotmail? Reply - only one
exchange account. > - Is the Drafts folder visible under your Exchange

account? Reply - yes. YES > - Does this happen for all Entourage-created

meeting invites? Does it happen for meeting updates? Does it happen also
for meeting responses? Reply - all meeting invites, updates, and for responses

as well. ALLLLLLL!!!! > - Does it repro when the meeting has been created

using other client (Outlook/OWA), synced to Entourage and then updated
from there? > Reply - sorry, unable to answer this. > Any other information
that you can provide would be very helpful. > > Regards, > Jacek Suliga,
MacBU Entourage

THIS IS A SERIOUS ISSUE>>>>>>>can't beleive you guys can't duplicate this!

[William Smith [MVP]]

cmb wrote:

> THIS IS A SERIOUS ISSUE>>>>>>>can't beleive you guys can't duplicate this!

If you would have bothered to read a bit further then you'd see at least
three folks from MacBU have been responding to comments and posting
updates. One of them reported two days ago that they have reproduced and
identified the problem.

That tells me they are treating this issue very seriously indeed.

You always have the option to uninstall Office 2008 and update back to
12.1.2. If you have backups then folks have reported (earlier in this
thread) that they have been successful simply replacing their Microsoft
Office 2008 folder in the Applications folder with a pre-12.1.3 backup.

--

bill

Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>

Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>

YouTalk <http://nine.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/youtalk>
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/meck>

[Bi...@officeformac.com]

Same problem here on Exchange 2003 and NO other IMAP or POP account installed.

[Bie...@officeformac.com]

I had the same problem (not able to send invitations)...
I restored my Office2008-folder to the date before the update-install by using time machine.
It worked perfectly.

Biehli

[Unknown]

Same issue, only have exchange account no POP3 or IMAP acocunts.

Do not have backup and reinstalling Office is not an option at the moment as users mailboxes are too large to resync and only want to do this as a last resort.

[Justin Beek]

Has anyone noticed if just 10.5.5 Macs are affected?

We have noticed that 10.5.4 Macs aren't seeing this error after the update.

Upgrading to 10.5.5 AFTER Entourage 12.1.3 seems to avoid the error also.

Justin Beek

On 10/16/08 10:18 AM, in article 59b5d...@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw,
"Mike...@officeformac.com" <Mike...@officeformac.com> wrote:

> Version: 2008
> Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
> Processor: Intel
> Email Client: Exchange

[Unknown]

Me too (same as everyone has described), and what a pain... I just had to send a message to several hundred users to make sure this bug doesn't lock us all up.

What fun being first.

; P

[Unknown]

Has anyone noticed if just 10.5.5 Macs are affected?

We have noticed that 10.5.4 Macs aren't seeing this error after the update.

Upgrading to 10.5.5 AFTER Entourage 12.1.3 seems to avoid the error also.

Justin Beek

On 10/16/08 10:18 AM, in article 59b5d...@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw,

"Mike...@officeformac.com" wrote:

> Version: 2008 > Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) > Processor:
Intel > Email Client: Exchange > > Subject says it... after updating to
the latest version of Entourage any > attempt to send a meeting invitation
results in "Unexpected data was > encountered... Mail could not be sent."

Error code is -17997. > > Screenshot at > > If there are specific Exchange

hotfixes implicated in this issue I can check > server patch levels to
troubleshoot.

This is not only 10.5.5 macs. I have had the same results on a 10.4.11 mac as well. These are on exchange server 2003.

[Doug_...@officeformac.com]

Is there an expected fix date from Microsftt yet?

Seems they have reproduced the problem already and it is a critical problem for those of us heavy users.

[Unknown]

We also suffer from this bug. We have Exchange 2007.
It seems that if existing Office (one with account already defined) is updated then the bug exist.

If you create a new (Mac OS X) account and then define your Entourage accout there Entourage seems to work. So the bug seems to relate to an existing Entourage account that does not work anymore after 12.1.3 update.

[Greg Hughes]

So, can anyone confirm whether a workaround consisting of simply
removing the account profile from an affected install of Entourage and
then adding it back (and allowing the server to re-sync data to the
client) would resolve the issue? That would at least be preferable to
removing, reinstalling and repatching all of Office.

My setup is on a hosted/shared Exchange 2007 instance, and I cannot
send meeting responses even with the drag-to-drafts workaround.

Thanks.

greg

[bb...@officeformac.com]

hey MSFT team...any update yet?

[Unknown]

I tried re-installing the 10.5.5 combo updater - it didn't help.

[Unknown]

I am having the same problem - exchange 2003, only one account, can see drafts but the work around does not work.

[Unknown]

I am having the same problem. Exchange 2003. The workaround of taking the the meeting invite from Output to Drafts did not work. The good news is that my calendar is freeing up. The bad news is that it's freeing up for the wrong reason! When does Microsoft expect to deliver a patch?

[Roberto Franceschetti]

On 10/24/08 5:40 PM, in article 59b5d...@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw, "" <>
wrote:

It's usually useless saying "me too", but this is really unacceptable. We're
having the same issue of course, and the fact that MS is aware of it, is
able to reproduce is, and is not releasing a fix is pathetic. The blog
mentions "nearly two dozens users" reporting the problem in the forum. Yeah
right... How many are having the same issue but like me until 5 minutes ago
were not going to post a "me too"? Thousands, maybe tens of thousands of
users affected, and after more than a week still no patches?

And I don't want to hear "we (MS) need to test it". One application -
Entourage is affected, you don't have to worry about the whole OS as if we
were running Windows. This is a Mac... Only worry about your app and nothing
else.

--
Roberto Franceschetti
LogSat Software
http://www.logsat.com

[Diane Ross]

"Roberto Franceschetti" wrote:

> It's usually useless saying "me too", but this is really unacceptable.

MacBU is working to get the fix out ASAP. Please be patient. In the mean
time, if you have a backup of the previous version, just replace the Office
folder in applications.

--
Diane

[Ash Savage]

Hi All,

MacBU has identified the root cause and is working on an update to correct
the issue. The release date has not been determined yet, but given the
severity of the issues, it will be as released with urgency. Once final
testing and code reviews are completed, an update will be available through
the Office 2008 auto-update tool and on mactopia http://www.microsoft.com/mac

In the mean time please use one of the suggested workarounds:

1. Recreating your identity from scratch and creating the Exchange
account(s) first, BEFORE any non-Exchange accounts.

2. Dragging the message from the outbox to the drafts folder and sending
from there can
be used as a temporary workaround. ONLY for SENDING invites.

Thanks,

Ash Savage - Microsoft - MacBU

[Unknown]

> "FSantore" wrote: >> Perhaps someone could walk us through a succinct
rollback approach. > >"Diane" wrote > 1) Install from the DVD > 2) Update

to: > 12.1.0 (SP1) > 12.1.1 > 12.1.2

This is straightforward enough. Thanks for the info.

Unfortunately, on my MacBook Pro Unibody late 2008, Autoupdate will suggest 12.1.3 after 12.1.0 (sp1). Tried multiple times. Also, not sure the safe boot 'tips' are that good, the system crawls in this mode, and Autoupdate generated multiple errors. There were also DB errors that went away once all extensions were enabled. So I take back the straightforward assertion. I'm now at 12.1.0 which has eliminated the topic deficiencies, but I vaguely remember 12.1.1-2 gave me things I cared about, such as you could see the corporate GAL again.

[Diane Ross]

"FSantore" wrote:

> Autoupdate will suggest 12.1.3 after 12.1.0

It shouldn't since 12.1.2 is not a combo and is required before you can
install 12.1.3.

I have links posted here:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/downloads/mactopia_dl.html>

--
Diane

[William Smith [MVP]]

Diane Ross wrote:

>> Autoupdate will suggest 12.1.3 after 12.1.0
>
> It shouldn't since 12.1.2 is not a combo and is required before you can
> install 12.1.3.

Just had the pleasure of installing Office 2008 brand new on my new
MacBook Pro. He's correct. The AutoUpdate currently installs these
updates from a 12.0.0 install from DVD:

AutoUpdate 2.2.0
Office Update 12.1.0
Office Update 12.1.3

12.1.3 must be a mini-combo updater, although I've never heard of this
before. This may be MacBU's new approach to releasing combo updaters.

I must say that it's much more convenient.

[Diane Ross]

I could have sworn that the 12.1.3 wasn't a combo. Usually, I consider a
combo an updater that takes you from the beginning to the current, but this
is a first a mini combo.

I do have the links to the previous updaters posted so Mactopia still has
the info though it's now hidden.

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/downloads/mactopia_dl.html>

--
Diane

[Unknown]

So, can anyone confirm whether a workaround consisting of simply removing
the account profile from an affected install of Entourage and then adding
it back (and allowing the server to re-sync data to the client) would
resolve the issue?

That does not unfortunately work. I just tried it.
I did not try to compact the database or anything. I just removed the account, restarted Entourage and recreated my exchange account.

Now I get Proxy error: Error: -18498/ "The proxy cannot fulfill the request."

Resending from Drafts folder works now. It did not work before.

So apparently you have to create a new database before you can send calendar events. That I do not want to do as I have too much email in my On My Computer folders.

[Unknown]

Hope you guys can fix this soon-ish. Hang in there! In the meantime, I'm sending/replying to Calendar events via the web (OWA) or on the iPhone.

[Unknown]

Over 10 days and no resolution. I didn't even realize I was having this problem until I noticed a dozen meeting acceptances/invites stacked up in my inbox (accepting a meeting doesn't give warning and doesn't send acceptance either).

the MacBU needs to get Entourage whipped into shape quickly because the small annoyances in usability and this but are killing my business performance.

Sad to say I'm about to stop using entourage and switch back to outlook running in Fusion. Sad Sad day for a Mac user, but I'm reaching my death by a thousand paper cuts point of no return.

Outlook in Fusion for work email; Thunderbird for all my personal email...

[William Smith [MVP]]

latoga wrote:

> Over 10 days and no resolution. I didn't even realize I was having
> this problem until I noticed a dozen meeting acceptances/invites
> stacked up in my inbox (accepting a meeting doesn't give warning and
> doesn't send acceptance either).
>
> the MacBU needs to get Entourage whipped into shape quickly because
> the small annoyances in usability and this but are killing my
> business performance.

Nothing is making you continue to use Entourage 12.1.3. Downgrading to
12.1.2 may take some effort but it's not painful. I would recommend you
do this to alleviate the annoyance of the bug.

If you have a Time Machine backup of your Microsoft Office 2008
application folder then by all means restore that.

Hope this helps!

[Unknown]

It's right. More than 10 days and no solution for that issue.
What will be the time for a fix? Days, month, years?
Pls. tell the community anything of the timelime.
Hope we'll hear something soon!

--
murli

[Unknown]

I run a virtual Windows machine and use Outlook; unpleasant, inefficient, but effective.

[Unknown]

Add me to the list.

- Server 2003
- One account, my identity
- I can see Drafts
- I cleared the Calender cache but it did not correct the situation
_ I am the only MAC user. All other are Outlook users.

[Unknown]

Here are my answers

Thank you for reporting, we are looking into this issue. We'd appreciate
if you could answer to the following questions:

- Does this repro on Exchange 2003 only, or has anyone seen this on Exchange
2007, too? This is occurring between Entourage 12.1.3 and Exchange 2007
hosted by Microsoft Managed Services.

- Is your Entourage identity configured with only 1 account, or do you
have more than one account? I have a Mobile Me account using IMAP in addition
to my corporate Exchange account.

- If more than one, do you have more than one Exchange account configured
for your identity, or just one, and other accounts are POP/IMAP/Hotmail?
Only one Exchange account

- Is the Drafts folder visible under your Exchange account? Yes, the Drafts
folder is visible under my Exchange account

- Does this happen for all Entourage-created meeting invites? Does it
happen for meeting updates? Does it happen also for meeting responses?
It happens for seems to be happening for all meeting notifications (replies,
updates, new meetings, etc)

- Does it repro when the meeting has been created using other client (Outlook/OWA),
synced to Entourage and then updated from there? Unknown. I am happy to
test this between Entourage and Outlook or Entourage and OWA if you can
describe what you are looking for. Post here and I can contact you.

It would be really great to have this fixed. I am not the only corporate user at my enterprise who is experiencing all sorts of confusion around what meetings are updated and which are not. To echo other users, this is not really functional. I have gone back to Outlook for calendaring.

[Diane Ross]

"murlibrumm" wrote:

> It's right. More than 10 days and no solution for that issue.
> What will be the time for a fix? Days, month, years?

I would imagine that they want to be doubly sure it fixed before posting.
I'm also guessing that the update might have to take into consideration that
the old one was installed and how to deal with that so the new files can
work. Building an installer is much more complicated than any of us can
imagine. If it were easy we wouldn't be having so many problems with the
Office 2008 installers.

Everyone that had a backup copy of Office 2008 v 12.1.2 simply reverted. If
you don't have a backup setup, then this is a good time to start. See this
blog article for help:

Revert to a previous version after a bad update
<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2008/10/revert_to_a_previous_version.html>

Reported Oct 20:

MacBU has identified the root cause and is working on an update to correct
the issue. The release date has not been determined yet, but given the
severity of the issues, it will be as released with urgency. Once final
testing and code reviews are completed, an update will be available through

the Office 2008 auto-update tool and on Mactopia

In the mean time please use one of the suggested workarounds:

1. Recreating your identity from scratch and creating the Exchange
account(s) first, BEFORE any non-Exchange accounts.
2. Dragging the message from the outbox to the drafts folder and sending
from there can be used as a temporary workaround. ONLY for SENDING invites.
Thanks, Ash Savage - Microsoft - MacBU

--
Diane

[Unknown]

"murlibrumm" wrote:

> It's right. More than 10 days and no solution for that issue. > What
will be the time for a fix? Days, month, years?

I would imagine that they want to be doubly sure it fixed before posting.
I'm also guessing that the update might have to take into consideration
that the old one was installed and how to deal with that so the new files
can work. Building an installer is much more complicated than any of us
can imagine. If it were easy we wouldn't be having so many problems with
the Office 2008 installers.

It's OK and I understand that almost. But from my perpective of view such a bug may not happend in a released version of a popupar product like MS Office for mac. There must have been any test before the release, right? I think that the community feels a little bit angry, because the main thing using entourage is to manage appointments within a huge of users in an exchange stucture. And sorry .... but this is definitly not possible with this release.

Everyone that had a backup copy of Office 2008 v 12.1.2 simply reverted.
If you don't have a backup setup, then this is a good time to start. See
this blog article for help:

Revert to a previous version after a bad update

Thank you for the hint with the backup. Be sure that I have one. But for me this could not be the solution. Therefore my question. How long will it take to fix this. Is it worth to do that workaround. I mean the restore of the 12.1.2 Version. As you surly know, this takes longer than a few minutes.

And last but not least, we all have to do our business and not really time to act with workaround, due to the reason that a released update will only partially work.

This are just my two cents to that issue! And I'll hope that the fix will arrive soon.

--
murlibrumm

[Unknown]

The rollback using Time Machine is TOTALLY painless and offers complete relief for the time being!

[rber...@officeformac.com]

I have time machine backup. Exactly what do I need to restore? Do I need to do anything special so that I do not loose my current mail after reverting to the previous version of Entourage?

Thank you.,

[Diane Ross]

"murlibrumm" wrote:

> It's OK and I understand that almost. But from my perpective of view such a
> bug may not happend in a released version of a popupar product like MS Office
> for mac. There must have been any test before the release, right? I think that
> the community feels a little bit angry, because the main thing using entourage
> is to manage appointments within a huge of users in an exchange stucture. And
> sorry .... but this is definitly not possible with this release.

I understand your frustrations, but I'm a user just like you. I'm sure
Microsoft knows this is a huge mistake, but if you ever want to let MSFT
know your feelings, you need to send feedback directly to them.

When working in Office, you can use the łSend Feedback˛ option under the
Help menu in all of the Office applications.

>
> Thank you for the hint with the backup. Be sure that I have one. But for me
> this could not be the solution. Therefore my question. How long will it take
> to fix this. Is it worth to do that workaround. I mean the restore of the
> 12.1.2 Version. As you surly know, this takes longer than a few minutes.

Rolling back using the remove and reinstall then update is not easy.
Reverting to a backup copy is painless and quick.

>
> And last but not least, we all have to do our business and not really time to
> act with workaround, due to the reason that a released update will only
> partially work.
>
> This are just my two cents to that issue! And I'll hope that the fix will
> arrive soon.

We all do.

--
Diane

[Diane Ross]

"rber...@officeformac.com" wrote:

You need to restore the Office 2008 folder in applications. You are not
doing anything to the Microsoft User Data folder that contains your mail.

--
Diane

[rber...@officeformac.com]

I just did the Time Machine restore. It worked great. I am operational again. Yea for Apple! As far as Microsoft, I am quite disappointed in the fact that such a severe bug existed.

Since a large portion of the Microsoft business is focused on business users, I am certain that they understand how difficult it for users not to be able to schedule meetings. I am therefore rather surprised they they have not demonstrated any sense of urgency to address this issue which is so vital to many users.

[William Smith [MVP]]

rber...@officeformac.com wrote:

Actually, at least three folks from Microsoft have been posting within
this thread addressing this issue. That's never happened before. These
newsgroups are not an official channel of communications.

I would like to see something posted on their Mac Mojo blog
<http://www.officeformac.com/blog/> and have made that request to my
contacts at MacBU. Maybe they will post something. Maybe not. But that's
the best place to get information from the horse's mouth.

Stay tuned to the Entourage Help Blog (see link in my sig) for updates
of the situation. Diane has been pretty on top of posting new tidbits as
she finds them. I'll post too if she doesn't find them first. Something
is up usually the same day as news is released.

[Unknown]

General: If I or the users send an invite, it won't send the first time, but if we open it from the Outbox it will send. However, responses to invites will not send at all.

- Is your Entourage identity configured with only 1 account, or do you
have more than one account?

I have seen it with both - one account(Exchange) and more than one (Exchange + IMAP or POP)

- If more than one, do you have more than one Exchange account configured
for your identity, or just one, and other accounts are POP/IMAP/Hotmail?

Just one Exchange, no known second Exchange accounts, some external IMAP or POP accounts. Our users do have others' calendars viewable (both users and public folders)

- Is the Drafts folder visible under your Exchange account?

Yes

- Does this happen for all Entourage-created meeting invites? Does it

happen for meeting updates? Does it happen also for meeting responses?

Yes, but as above, invites can be made to send, replies can not.

- Does it repro when the meeting has been created using other client (Outlook/OWA),
synced to Entourage and then updated from there?

Yes. Can not respond to an event made in OWA.

[Unknown]

I am getting a similar issue but mine is simply that I cannot figure out how to get entourage to send out meeting invites. I only use Imap to a standard server no Exchange. I thought I had this working before and all of a suddent people were not getting my meeting invites.

Am I crazy should entourage send out meeting invites even when not on exchange?

[Andy...@officeformac.com]

Just to let everyone know, 12.1.4 should now be available and corrects this issue. We've been cranking on the fix, testing, and it's release ever since it was it was first posted on these forums.

<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx?pid=Mactopia_Office2008&fid=910BDFBE-8575-4F3A-AF07-8E61FD153650#viewer>

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

On Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:48:05 -0500, Andy...@officeformac.com wrote
(in article <59b5d...@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw>):

>
> Just to let everyone know, 12.1.4 should now be available and corrects this
> issue. We've been cranking on the fix, testing, and it's release ever since
> it was it was first posted on these forums.

I don't see it yet on Auto-Update, but it sure is on Mactopia in the Download
section.
Thanks a lot for the good news Andy,

Corentin

--
--- Mac:MS MVP http://www.cortig.net/wordpress/ ---
http://www.mvps.org - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
MVPs are not MS employees - Les MVP ne travaillent pas pour MS
Remove "NoSpam" to e-mail me - Retirez "NoSpam" pour m'écrire

[Mike...@officeformac.com]

Thank you Andy!

> Just to let everyone know, 12.1.4 should now be available and corrects this issue. We've been cranking on the fix, testing, and it's release ever since it was it was first posted on these forums.
>

> <http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx?pid=Mactopia_Office2008&fid=910BDFBE-8575-4F3A-AF07-8E61FD153650#viewer>

[Unknown]

NICE! Thank you so much, I was losing my mind.