[itdiscuss] SharePoint Outlook integration

[Scott Ehly]

We're looking for help with Task List integration between SharePoint and Outlook. We have a customized task list (custom columns added) in SharePoint that we want to use as the shared staff task/issues list. Currently, if a task is updated in Outlook, the Send and Receive that posts back to SharePoint is giving an error stating that SharePoint will not accept a blank value for Status.

We believe that this has been caused because we had the audacity to modify the Task Status Site Column to add potential status values. Realizing this, we have since attempted to restore the list to its original state, but to no avail. There is now a disconnect between SharePoint and Outlook for this field and also Priority where the same mistake was made in the Site Columns Gallery.

It seems like this may be related to content types, but we just don't know and have found no documentation to either confirm or deny this assessment.

We have seen evidence that this integration works on SharePoint sites where the Site Columns have be left unmolested. Does anyone know how to recover the Site Column Gallery without going to the extreme of re implementing the entire SharePoint site?

Bonus Round:
We also made the mistake of tweaking the Description column (fortunately on the list level and not in the Site Gallery). Now when a task is viewed in Outlook, the Rich Text is seen as HTML tags embedded in the test. If the task is  updated in Outlook, it will carry this corruption to SharePoint. If it is corrected, the problem goes away for that task unless someone else connects to Outlook for the first time and it starts all over.
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