Skip navigation

Stanford University

Stanford Email & Calendar: Known Issues

Stanford Email & Calendar Known Issues

The Stanford Email & Calendar implementation team has uncovered some problems and we're working with the vendor to fix or mitigate them. Here are some known issues that may affect your experience.

Calendar issues

Issue Workaround
Share permissions granted to "All Authenticated Users" cannot be modified from the web client. Please submit a HelpSU request to request an update to your permissions.
An email message is always sent for every appointment that is created, updated, or deleted. This is normal behavior for a message-based calendar tool like Exchange or Zimbra. Be aware that in order for the item to appear or change on the other attendee's calendars, a message must be sent.
Stanford Calendar does not have "Work Hours" like Sundial, so meetings can be scheduled outside of your normal business day. You can add a recurring meeting with the Show as field set to "Out of Office" to your schedule for hours outside of your normal business day. This will show you as unavailable during those hours.
Stanford Calendar does not have a Group Agenda function like Sundial. Use the Schedule view (next to the Month view) to see several calendars side by side. You can add any calendar listed in your left-hand column. For calendars you don't have a link to, create an appointment and use the Schedule tab to review the free/busy status for all attendees.
Stanford Calendar does not have email reminders.

Stanford Calendar only has popup reminders. Reminders can be set at various increments up to 18 hours in advance of the appointment.

Note: If you change an Appointment to an All Day Appointment, it will default to an 18 hour reminder instead of your usual default reminder setting. We recommending selecting All Day Appointment when you create a new item to avoid this issue.

Only your Calendar (primary calendar) will sync with a Treo 650 or Windows Mobile 6 device.

Put all meetings that you need to display on your mobile device onto your primary calendar (Calendar).

NOTE: The iPhone can sync multiple calendars.

For iPhone users with calendar synchronization, appointments are missing on the calendar. If you receive an invitation on your iPhone and Delete it, then the appointment is deleted rather than just deleting the invitation. You can avoid this by going to Calendar>Preferences and verifying that the Delete invite on reply checkbox is checked in webmail. Also, do not delete invitations from your iPhone.
iPhone (3.0 software only): If a meeting is declined from the iPhone, it disappears from the iPhone calendar. We recommend accepting or declining meetings from the web client or a connected desktop client for best results.
No wildcard search for locations and resources. Search on a single word rather than multiple words. This allows the search to find all likely locations and resources rather than returning zero results.
When a location or resource declines the meeting (due to a double-booking) or when you do not have permission to book a location or resource, you cannot tell from the calendar that your meeting request has been declined or denied. Always verify room availability on the Schedule tab prior to saving. Review your calendar messages to verify your location and resource reservations. The message will say "You do not have permission"¯ if you cannot book the resource. The message will say your booking has been declined if there is a conflict.
Users with Admin rights to a resource can grant a share to view or manage the resource calendar, but cannot manage the scheduling rights. (Scheduling rights include who can request a reservation for a location or resource.) Submit a HelpSU request to have the Scheduling rights updated by IT Services.
iCal cannot be used to manage shared calendars. If you put an appointment on a shared calendar you have manager access to, you are listed as the organizer and the owner of the calendar cannot edit the appointment. This is an Apple issue and may be resolved in a later release of the Mac OS. For managing others calendars, we recommend using the web client for best results.
iCal only shows events one month in the past and one year in the future. This setting was implemented because synchronization was too slow with the full history involved. Use the web client to access dates outside of this range.
The organizer of a meeting cannot decline or delete the meeting. A planned attendee should be used as the organizer for the appointment.
Safari 4 users unable to focus their cursor in a field. Use alternate browser such as Firefox.

Email issues

Issue Workaround
The Outlook Connector processes the initial calendar synchronization very slowly. This is significantly improved in the latest release. Download the latest version of the Outlook Connector. Allow the initial synchronization to run for a long time (1-3 hours). Additionally, you can now set it to sync the GAL automatically or manually, or turn off GAL synchronization. If you have further issues, please submit a HelpSU request.
After running the Outlook Connector, the old PST file is not reopened by default. See the Outlook Connector page for instructions to reopen the PST file manually.
When WebAuth times out, if you are composing a message you get a dialog that says "Are you sure you wish to navigate away from this page?" If you click OK, your message may be lost after returning to webmail. Click Cancel and then copy and paste your email to a clipboard or text editor. When the message pops up again, click OK and return to webmail. Check the Drafts folder for you message. If it was not saved, compose the message again by pasting your text back in to a new message.
When an email is opened in a separate pop-out window, the reply and forward buttons are missing. Reply or forward messages from the Reading Pane view.
Email sorting only works for the Subject and Date columns. Use the Advanced search to find messages rather than sorting and scrolling through the messages.
When creating a Contact Group, any contact added without an email address will be combined with another entry in the contact group. Add email addresses directly using the Address Entry field.
A few Blackberry users report that they have trouble receiving their mail after the migration. This occurs when the Blackberry is not properly set as sunetid.pobox.stanford.edu. Go to Manage internet mail>Email accounts. Find your Stanford email account and click Edit. Scroll down and click on Advanced settings. In the Email server dialog box enter: yourSUnetID.pobox.stanford.edu. Click Save. The changes take about 3-4 hours before you receive your Stanford mail on your Blackberry.
IMAP users may see two sets of Sent, Drafts, Junk, and Trash folders after the migration. See the Having Two Sent, Drafts, Junk, and Trash Folders page.
Eudora users configured for IMAP experience some issues including errors when opening folders other than the Inbox, problems with the Trash folder, and errors indicating that filters cannot be run. See the Email Programs After Migration page for step-by-step instructions to fix these issues.
Outlook Express users configured for IMAP experience some errors regarding subfolders. See the Email Programs After Migration page for step-by-step instructions to fix these issues.
Filter Rule names from webmail did not convert. Filters are labeled RULE1, RULE2, RULE3 etc. Rename Filter in Preferences>Mail Filters.

Fixed issues

Zimbra release 5.0.18 (released into Stanford on 8/21/09)

Issue Resolution
Appointment window with a large number of invitees has no scroll bar, so notes cannot be seen. The attendees list now has a scroll bar, as needed.
In iCal, instances in a series that are cancelled stay on the calendar, but show with a strikethrough font. Cancelled instances now disappear in iCal, similar to behavior in the web client.
iCal (Mac OSX 10.5.7 only): Meeting requests created in iCal do not go out to attendees. Attendees appear to be invited, but no email message is ever sent and the item does not appear on their calendar. Meeting requests from iCal are now sent via email and the item appears on the calendar of all invited attendees.
When reviewing Edit Properties, Public grants do not display in the list of share permissions. Share permissions granted to Public cannot be modified from the web client. Using Edit Properties, you can now see permission granted to Public and may revoke the authority.
When reviewing Edit Properties, "All Authenticated Users" grants do not display in the list of share permissions. Share permissions were granted to "All Authenticated Users" based on “Default: Any Unlisted Person” access rights in Sundial. Using Edit Properties, "All Authenticated Users" permissions now displays. To edit or revoke share permission to "All Authenticated Users," please submit a HelpSU request.
Locations and resources declines the entire series if busy for a single instance. The calendar now accepts the meetings for all instances it can, and sends you an email with a list of dates that it cannot schedule so that you can easily find an alternate location for that instance.
Meetings that were moved from one calendar to another changed back to "Needs Action" status. Testing confirms that appointment reply status is maintained as the appointment is moved from one calendar to another.

Zimbra release 5.0.15 (released into Stanford on 3/27/09)

Issue Resolution
Mobile devices using an activesync connection see messages that had been marked for deletion by an IMAP client. Mobile devices using an activesync connection no longer see messages that had been marked for deletion by an IMAP client.
iCal synchronization via the iSync Connector is very slow. iCal synchronization has been limited to a range of dates one month in the past and one year in the future. This improves the performance.
iCal users can only manage meetings sent to their primary email address. iCal users can now respond to appointments sent to any valid form of their @stanford.edu email address.
The iPhone was not successfully syncing all calendar data. Testing shows that all meetings now display. This includes new meetings and meetings migrated from Sundial.
Outlook Connector was very slow. Performance is significantly improved. Download the latest version of the Outlook Connector. Additionally, you can now set it to sync the GAL automatically or manually, or turn off GAL synchronization for faster performance.
Stanford Calendar allowed double-booking of resources when the newly created meeting overlaps a portion of an existing meeting. Testing confirms that this no longer occurs in the latest release.
Declined meetings could not be hidden. They faded to a shadow, but still displayed on the calendar. Now you can right-click (or Ctrl+click on a Mac) and select Delete. Remember to Decline the meeting prior to deleting it or the meeting organizer will not know your attendance status.

Zimbra release 5.0.12 (released into Stanford on 1/29/09)

Issue Resolution
When the end date of a recurring meeting changes to an earlier date, exceptions to the series are not removed. Exceptions to recurring meetings are now deleted with the rest of the meeting dates when they are beyond the revised end date for that meeting.
Adding a new attendee to a single instance of a recurring meeting caused all meetings in the series to appear on attendee calendar. Testing shows that attendee is apppropriately added to the single instance.
Cancellation of meeting with invalid invitee email address removed the meeting from originators calendar only, leaving it on all attendees calendars. Testing confirms the event is removed from the originator's calendar and removed from all valid email addresses. The originator receives a bounce message for any invalid email addresses.
Search for appointments was not working. Appointments display on the calendar. Depending on the view, you may not have any results in the current view. Switch to Month view for best results when searching.

Zimbra release 5.0.10 (released into Stanford on 9/30/08)

Issue Resolution
Searching automatically started with a blank search when you click the Find Attendees tab on an appointment or the To button in an email. Search still starts immediately, but ends almost instantly. Significant performance improvement.

For Additional Assistance

  • If you are using Outlook or Apple Mail, you may want to consider trying the Outlook Connector or iSync Connector. For assistance, submit a HelpSU request and we'll be happy to guide you through this set-up.
  • Need more information on features? See emailcalendar.stanford.edu or click the application Help link located in the upper-right corner of the page.
  • If you are experiencing a problem or think you may have found a bug, please report it immediately via HelpSU. We'll be happy to assist you.
Last modified Friday, 04-Sep-2009 02:23:21 PM

Stanford University Home Page