Outlook Contacts "invalid entryid" error after edit on iPod Touch and sync

Question

There are a few threads about this in the iPhone discussion, but so far nothing on the iPod Touch side and I'm encountering it in both Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007 after testing on two different computers.
Issue:
1. Create or edit a contact on the iPod Touch
2. Sync with Outlook Contacts
3. You are no longer able to access the added or edited contact's e-mail address when composing e-mail. If you select the contact's properties from the e-mail interface, you receive an error message that an "invalid entryid was passed."
My discovery:
Deleting data from the "Display as" field in the Contact will fix the problem.
1. In the Contacts folder, open the contact with the problem.
2. Delete all data from the "Display as" field (displays with Email field).
3. Select any other field on the Contact form - "Display as" will automatically re-populate
4. Save the contact. Problem solved.
Not sure how iTunes sync is corrupting this, but thought I'd share the discovery since suggestions in the iPhone discussion involve exporting, deleting, and importing affected contacts.

Answer 1

Quick fix method for those who really can't be bothered with any manual methods. Below is a macro for Outlook that will, starting with the currently selected contact folder and including subfolders (mobileme groups), reset all email display names which effectively fixes the EntryID issue. There's no error checking, it's pretty raw but does the job. Hope it helps.
<STARTMACROCODE>
Option Explicit
Sub FixEntryIDs()
Call FixEntryID
End Sub
Sub FixEntryID(Optional ByVal contacts As folder)
Dim item As ContactItem
Dim subf As folder
Dim changed As Boolean
If IsMissing(contacts) Or contacts Is Nothing Then
Set contacts = ActiveExplorer.CurrentFolder
End If
For Each item In contacts.Items
changed = False
If Len(item.Email1DisplayName) Then
changed = True
item.Email1DisplayName = ""
End If
If Len(item.Email2DisplayName) Then
changed = True
item.Email2DisplayName = ""
End If
If Len(item.Email3DisplayName) Then
changed = True
item.Email3DisplayName = ""
End If
If changed Then
Call item.Save
End If
Next
For Each subf In contacts.Folders
Call FixEntryID(subf)
Next
End Sub