Recurring Task not updating in assignors list of tasks

I have an interesting issue. A client uses shared tasks within Outlook to manage recurring events and scheduled, well, tasks between staff members. It has been brought to my attention that recurring tasks are not working as expected, can anyone help?

The problem is that if a recurring task is created and assigned to a user (both now using Outlook 2013) if the task is updated in the main list the task doesn't appear to update to the next iteration. For example if a task is created to re-occur every Thursday if I completed today's task it still shows as 0% completed on the the assignors list.

If the user goes into the shared tasks list that is available and selects the user manually to see open tasks. They can see that it has been closed and completed correctly. 

Upon initial completion the assignor also gets the email to say that said task is marked complete.

April 2nd, 2015 10:15am

Hi,

To make the question more clear, let's say user A created a recurring task and assigned the task to user B. When user B completed today's task, it still shows as 0% completed on user A's Task list, am I correct?

If this is the case, I'd like to say that this is the default behavior of a recurring task.

If you assign a recurring task, a copy of the task will remain in your task list, but it will not be updated. If you select the "Send me a status report when this task is complete" check box, you will receive a status report for each completed occurrence of the task. If you absolutely need to track the status of recurring tasks in Outlook, you have to manually create and assign each instance as a separate task.

Regards,

Steve Fan

Forum Support

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April 6th, 2015 10:56pm

Firstly thanks for the assistance. 

To make the question more clear, let's say user A created a recurring task and assigned the task to user B. When user B completed today's task, it still shows as 0% completed on user A's Task list, am I correct?

That is correct. The reason I believed it to be an issue, is that User A has assigned a recurring task to User C and when User C updates the current version of the task, the task information is then updated for User A. I believe one of the issues is that the date doesn't update to the latest variant of the task. 

For example User A sets a recurring weekly task to start on the 1st of April 2015, when User B completes this task the date on User A's machine stays as 1st of April 2015 rather than changing to 8th April 2015.  Is that still considered to be the normal behavior for a recurring task.



April 7th, 2015 5:03am

Thank you for the update. Kindly notice that in case of assigning recurring task to another someone you will find that the option "Keep an updated copy of this Task on my Task List" is unavailable and a recurring task request that you assigned to another user does not update in your task list, this is by design and there is no option to change it. This is documented in the NOTE section under "Assign a task to someone" heading in the following article:

https://support.office.com/en-sg/article/Create-and-track-assigned-tasks-cdc1a3de-4e4c-44f6-8921-77a8cd43e971

I don't know why user A can see the task updates from user C, but this is not possible in theory. I notice that you mentioned "shared tasks", do you mean the tasks folder is shared to the users and users can see the tasks folder from their own Outlook? If so, was user A checking the recurring task in his own task list or user C's task list?

Regards,

Steve Fan

Forum Support

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April 7th, 2015 11:06pm

Just wanted to say hi and check if there is anything that I can do for you on this problem. If so, please do not hesitate to let me know and I will be happy to help.

Best Regards,

Steve Fan

Forum Support

April 12th, 2015 9:59pm
Steve, you have been brilliant. I have let my end user know the score in regards to this issue. If I do have any other questions you will be the first person to ask. 
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April 13th, 2015 7:31am

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