Issue with Access communicating with Outlook

Hi,

I have a piece of software which has an access driven backend and frontend. It has a diary within it which the appointments can be exported to Outlook.

This function of it exporting to Outlook works fine and I have tested it on a number of machines both Vista and XP and all OK. However, I have 2 users which are running on Vista with Office Basic on them and they keep having issues with exporting their appointments to Outlook. Sometimes it works, but most of the time it doesnt throwing up the following error message:

error # -2147221233 with the message 'The message you specified cannot be found'

The software uses VBA commands to export the appointments from the diary to Outlooks Diary, and as I have tested this on a number of other machines I am confident that it isn't anything to do with the code but more specific to the 2 users machines.

I initially thought it was something to do with another piece of software interfering with the communication between the 2 programs, and switched off the anti-virus software but this had no affect.

I opened up the task manager and under the processes tab ordered the list through the CPU usage and tried to track what other programs started running when I started this export process but couldnt find anything unusual.

I have searched google repeatedly with this error message but cant find a solution anywhere

Any suggestions on why this could be happening would be much appreciated.

Many thanks

 

I am assuming your application is actually a packaged Access product which utilizes the "Runtime" version of Access.

This may be tough to resolve, but I have some "general" suggestions of possible causes.

1. There are known bugs associated with integrating Access 2007 with Outlook 2007's PST database. Some (related to sending or retrieving calendar info) even result in a Access crash. As a developer, I would not consider building a reliable application which depends on such a relationship.

2. There are a few known issues with non-ultimate versions of Vista with some Office 2007 functions. I am curious to know what version of Vista is running on those boxes.

3. Since it is running with a packaged version of Access Runtime, it should not matter what suite of Office the two suspect boxes are running as long as Outlook is installed. If it is Outlook 2007, whereas the others may be running Outlook 2003, that could be the problem.

4. I would suggest running Process Monitor (procmon) and capturing the log as a CSV. That may reveal more about what is not working.

5. I would need to know more specifics about what OS and Office version (2003 or 2007) is being used on the working and non working boxes.

6. In the end, it may well end up needing to be sent back to your developer for resolution. The problem with packaged applications like this is you generally lose the opportunity to step through the code for debugging purposes.

 

Yes it does utilize access runtime, it is actually access runtime 2002.

The version of Vista that is being Run on the machine which doesn't work is Vista Business SP1. And the Vista machine which this does work on is Vista Home Premium.

Both Vista machines have office 2007 installed on them. My Vista machine that works has Outlook from the Ultimate office package, I'm not entirely sure what Office package the Vista machine with the problem has on it though I know it is either Ultimate or Basic. Could this be the issue if it is Basic??

I will use your suggestion on running a process monitor to see if this reveals something to me.

Machines that Work:

Vista Home Premium; Office 2007 Ultimate SP1
XP Professional Version 2 SP3; Office 2003

Machine Not Working:

Vista Business SP1
Office 2007 Basic

Regards