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A boss yells at you when he sees RED X shows up on his BlackBerry Curve? And you start wondering what could have gone wrong. Then you started to troubleshoot. You wipe his device, re-activate, wipe again and set multiple meeting requests, test and test and nothing happen. You then dig further into system and start thinking logically:-

1. When the accepting attempt fails from the BlackBerry, what is the error message displayed (at the top of the screen, if you re-open the item after it fails and scroll to the top)?
2. Was the appointment a basic, single one or a recurring one with exceptions?
3. Is the meeting organizer from Public Folder Calendar?
4. Has the boss always had this problem or did it begin recently?
5. How many Delegated User(s) or Assistant(s) have access to his/ her mailbox?
6. What configuration exists between the boss and the Assistant or the Delegated User?
7. Do any others users have similar settings and configurations just like the boss but do not have this issue?

While there are multiple possiblities that may contribute to this, you can test all the scenario you want with Outlook and try to reproduce the error in your BB device but there are just too many ways and is virtually not possible to mimic every single usage scenario. The key factor that causes this behavior is the lost track of EntryID between BlackBerry Enterprise Server and Outlook Meeting Regeneration feature (via Exchange). BES will no longer able to retrieve the lost EntryID and thus generating error (the RED X) back to BB device user, which always happened to be your CEO… good luck.

The purpose of this post is to reproduce the error and for your convenience when it comes to troubleshooting and finding the root cause. The test was conducted in controlled environment. I have also remove all the ‘noise’ in the log. Please grasp the concept and understand how it happened. There are bug fixes, hot fixes, service packs and workarounds but most importantly we need to educate ourselves and the user the Best Practices when dealing with calendar items.

Reported Issue:
When BlackBerry device responding to meeting  request, it failed with X mark.

Issue Reproduction: (We managed to reproduce the symptom in a controlled environment.)

• We mimic the setup of owner mailbox and specify a delegated user account.
• We then conduct series of users’ (both BlackBerry device user which is also the mailbox owner and Delegated user) actions.
• We observed the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) log file, SERVERNAME_MAGT_XX_YYYMMDD_0001.txt
  Please refer to attached log below for details.

Cause Summary:

• Multiple users receive meeting requests for a mailbox owner and multiple changes were made to the meeting invites.
• Outlook will update save a new copy of item with new EntryID, BES lost track of original EntryID and thus generating message error back to device.
• Device will then show X mark.
• This is by system design of how MS Outlook (Meeting Regeneration) and Exchange server collaboration features handle multiple copies of single meeting item.

Resolution:

• No immediate resolution available as it is by default a system design although there are hot fix/ bug fix and OFFICE 2003 Service Pack 2 which address similar issues. However, these KB articles only applies to OFFICE 2003 version (at time of this writing).

Workaround:

• Configure Owner’s Calendar as Read Only so as to prevent meeting items from modification inadvertently.
• If this does not work, we will then introduce a registry hack in Outlook for all the delegates and mailbox owner to disable meeting regeneration.

Best Practices:

• As this issue only occurs to user’s mailbox which also has delegation feature turn ON, we suggest to minimize the number of delegates to owner’s Calendar.
• Follow and practice best practices in responding, creating and editing meeting request as per this KB899704

Useful Links and Resources:

• KB 04081 - Meeting request acceptance fails on the BlackBerry smartphone when meeting regeneration is turned on
• KB 894470 - A meeting is removed from your Outlook Calendar after you accept the meeting and then delete the accepted meeting request
• KB 899704 - Description of common scenarios in which Calendar information may be removed from the Calendar or may be inaccurate
• KB 899919 - Developer information about the calendar changes in Outlook 2003 Service Pack 2, in Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2, and in later versions of Exchange Server and of Outlook
• KB 906669 - Issues that are fixed in Exchange Server 2003 SP2

BES LOG - Test Sample