Category: Outlook 2007

Outlook search returns No matches found

Symptoms

When you use Instant Search in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, Microsoft Outlook 2010, or Microsoft Outlook 2013, you receive the following message:

No matches found.

Or, only some of the expected results may be returned. If you view the Indexing Status dialog in Outlook, you may see the following message:

Search results may be incomplete because items are still being indexed.

This occurs even if you include search criteria for items that do match and Windows Desktop Search (WDS) is configured to index the Outlook Data (.pst) file or Offline Outlook Data (.ost) file.

Resolution

To troubleshoot Outlook Instant Search, follow these steps:

Make sure indexing is complete

Outlook 2007

In Outlook 2007, follow these steps to verify that indexing is complete:

  1. In Outlook, click Tools, Instant Search, and then click Instant Search.
  2. When the Microsoft Office Outlook dialog appears, you should see the following:Outlook has finished indexing all of your items.
    New items are indexed when they arrive.
    0 items remaining in “Mailbox -<username>”
    0 items remaining across all open mailboxes.
Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013

In Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013, follow these steps to verify that indexing is complete:

  1. In Outlook, click in the Search box.
  2. Click the Search tab, click Search Tools, and then click Indexing Status.
  3. When the Indexing Status dialog appears, you should see the following:Outlook has finished indexing all of your items.
    0 items remaining to be indexed.

If Outlook has not finished indexing all of your items, note the items remaining to be indexed, wait 5 minutes, and then check again. If the number of items did not decrease, continue to troubleshoot by using the steps in the following sections.

Make sure Indexing Options are configured correctly

When Outlook is installed, the .msg file type is associated with the Office Outlook MSG IFilter. This filter lets WDS index items that are stored in Outlook Data (.pst) and Offline Outlook Data (.ost) files. Outlook only uses an Offline Outlook Data (.ost) file when the profile is configured to connect to a Microsoft Exchange account that has Use Cached Exchange Mode enabled.

If you already configured Outlook to use an Exchange account that has Use Cached Exchange Mode enabled or you are using a non-Exchange email account that uses a .pst file, follow these steps to make sure that the indexing options are configured correctly.

  1. Exit Outlook.
  2. Open the Indexing Options.In Windows 8:

    On the Start screen, type Indexing Options, click Settings under Search, and then click Indexing Options.

    In Windows Vista and in Windows 7    :

    Click Start, type Indexing Options in the Start Search box, and then press Enter.

    Note If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password, or click Allow.

    In Windows XP:

    Click Start, click Settings, and then click Control Panel.

    Double-click Indexing Options.

    Note If Control Panel is in the Category view, click Performance and Maintenance, and then open Indexing Options.

  3. In the Indexing Options dialog box, click Advanced.
  4. Click the File Types tab.
  5. Scroll down until you find msg in the Extension column.
  6. Click msg.
  7. Make sure that the Index Properties and File Contents option is enabled.
  8. Click OK.
  9. Click Close.

Note Make sure the Filter Description column shows Office Outlook MSG IFilter. If the Filter Description column does not show Office Outlook MSG IFilter either the Windows Search service is not working correctly or Microsoft Outlook could not install the filters correctly. Contact Microsoft Support for help with this issue.

Make sure Outlook data is included in indexing

This section shows how to verify that Outlook data is being indexed. Try to use Windows Search to search for words or phrases that you expect to find in email messages.

Note This test does not apply to Outlook 2013. Outlook 2013 blocks the ability to search for Outlook items by using Windows Desktop Search.

If no email messages are returned, follow these steps to make sure Outlook data files are being indexed:

  1. Exit Outlook.
  2. Open the Indexing Options.In Windows 8:

    On the Start screen, type Indexing Options, click Settings under Search, and then click Indexing Options.

    In Windows Vista and in Windows 7    :

    Click Start, type Indexing Options in the Start Search box, and then press Enter.

    Note If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password, or click Allow.

    In Windows XP:

    Click Start, click Settings, and then click Control Panel.

    Double-click Indexing Options.

    Note If Control Panel is in the Category view, click Performance and Maintenance, and then open Indexing Options.

  3. In the Indexing Options dialog box, make sure that Microsoft Outlook is listed in the Included Locations column.
  4. If Microsoft Office Outlook is not listed, click Modify, and then click to enable the check box next to Outlook.
  5. Click OK.
  6. Click Close.

To make sure that Outlook is configured to return results from the expected data files, follow these steps:

Outlook 2007
  1. Start Outlook.
  2. Click Tools, click Instant Search, and then click Search Options.
  3. Click to add or remove data files.
Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013
  1. Start Outlook.
  2. Click in the Search box.
  3. Click the Search tab, click Search Tools, and then click Locations to Search.
  4. Click to add or remove data files.

Check the search scope

Even though Outlook can be configured to return results from specific data files, the search scope limits the search further. The search scope affects the immediate search that you perform. To check the search scope for your current search, follow these steps:

Outlook 2007

In Outlook 2007, follow these steps to check the search scope:

  1. In Outlook, click the drop-down arrow next to All Mail Items.
  2. Click to add or remove data files.
Outlook 2010

In Outlook 2010, follow these steps to check the search scope:

  1. In Outlook, click in the Search box.
  2. Click the Search tab.
  3. The Scope group shows the current scope. This can be any one of the following:All Mail Items
    Current Folder
    All Subfolders
    All Outlook Items
Outlook 2013

In Outlook 2013, follow these steps to check the search scope:

  1. In Outlook, click in the Search box.
  2. Click the Search tab.
  3. The Scope group shows the current scope. This can be any one of the following:All Mail Items
    Current Folder
    All Subfolders
    All Outlook Items

Additionally, Outlook 2013 lets you also change the scope by clicking the dropdown next to the Search box.

Outlook 2013 also lets you change the default scope. To change the default scope in Outlook 2013, follow these steps:

  1. Click File, and then click Options.
  2. In the Outlook Options dialog box, click Search.
  3. Under Results, set the Include results only from: to one of the following:Current folder
    Current folder. Current mailbox when searching from the inbox
    Current mailbox
    All mailboxes

Indexing does not finish

If indexing seems to be stuck and is incomplete, rebuild the search catalog. To rebuild the catalog, follow these steps:

  1. Exit Outlook.
  2. Open the Indexing Options.In Windows 8:

    On the Start screen, type Indexing Options, click Settings under Search, and then click Indexing Options.

    In Windows Vista and in Windows 7    :

    Click Start, type Indexing Options in the Start Search box, and then press Enter.

    Note If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password, or click Allow.

    In Windows XP:

    Click Start, click Settings, and then click Control Panel.

    Double-click Indexing Options.

    Note If Control Panel is in the Category view, click Performance and Maintenance, and then open Indexing Options.

  3. In the Indexing Options dialog box, click Modify, click to clear the check box next to Outlook, and then click OK.
  4. In the Indexing Options dialog box, click Advanced.
  5. In the Advanced Options dialog box, click Rebuild.
  6. Click OK.
  7. Click Close.

Outlook errors in the Application log

Outlook can log certain events to the Application log that are useful in troubleshooting search problems. To view these errors, run eventvwr.msc to start the Event Viewer.

Compare any errors against the following list.

Event ID Event Description
29 Reindex mailbox “The store <mailbox-name> is being re-pushed to the indexer for the following reason: <reason>.”

Outlook is completely reindexing a mailbox; one of the following reasons will be listed:

First connection to the indexer
This mailbox has never been run on Outlook 2007+ with indexing enabled

Newly created store
This is a newly created mailbox

Index reset, re-push entire store
Outlook detected the indexer catalog was reset; often occurs along with event 31 below

MAPI Start Page deleted
The user had previously elected to not index Outlook e-mail, or this is the first time Outlook has run for the user
30 Reconcile mailbox The store <mailbox-name> is being reconciled with the indexer for the following reason: <reason>.”

Outlook is triggering “reconciliation” for a mailbox for the reason given; Outlook will find all items that are not currently indexed and ask the indexer to index them; one of the following reasons will be listed:

The store was last opened with an older version
This mailbox was last opened by an earlier version of Outlook; a change to the mailbox may have been made necessitating minor reindexing to patch

The store was last opened on a different machine
The mailbox was last opened on a different computer; now that it’s back on this computer, Outlook needs to discover if any changes were made to the mailbox

Indexing was disabled and then re-enabled
Indexing of e-mail had previously been disabled; now that it’s re-enabled, Outlook needs to discover if any changes were made while indexing was disabled

Reconciliation in progress prior to upgrading, restarting
Reconciliation was previously running when Outlook last shutdown; reconciliation will now resume where it left off
31 Catalog reset The store <mailbox-name> has detected a catalog rebuild.”

The Windows Search index (aka “catalog”) has been rebuilt, forcing Outlook to reindex the entire mailbox; this can be triggered by a user going into the Indexing Options control panel and clicking the “Rebuild” button, or this can occur in rare conditions when the indexer catalog is unrecoverably corrupt
32 Catalog checkpoint The store <mailbox-name> has detected a catalog checkpoint.”

Outlook has detected a checkpoint from Windows Search; this is normal and should occur on a regular basis (roughly daily)
33 Checkpoint rollback The store <mailbox-name> has detected a catalog checkpoint rollback.”

Windows Search has requested Outlook to reindex all mails sine the last catalog checkpoint; the indexer likely was shut down uncleanly or encountered a minor corruption necessitating the rollback; if everything works out well, no mail items will be lost once the rollback completes
34 CSM connection error Failed to get the Crawl Scope Manager with error=<error code>.”

Outlook was unable to access the Windows Search APIs to access the Crawl Scope Manager (CSM); errors here are generated by the indexer and often indicate a corrupt CSM, necessitating a complete reset/reinstall of Windows Search to repair; error 0x00000001 typically indicates a corrupt CSM
35 CSM lookup error Failed to determine if the store is in the crawl scope (error=<error-code>).”

Outlook connected to the CSM but was unable to ask whether a specific store should be indexed
36 Entering error backoff Outlook Search has encountered an error and is temporarily disabling indexing for store <mailbox-name> (error=<error-code>).”

Outlook has received a critical error from Windows Search and is protecting itself by temporarily stopping to push items to the indexer; Outlook will periodically check with the indexer to see if the error has cleared; Outlook 2007 SP1 only
37 Leaving error backoff Outlook Search is re-enabling indexing for store <mailbox-name>.”

Outlook has detected that the previous error backoff event has been cleared and will resume normal indexing; Outlook 2007 SP1 only

Note Most of these events are mailbox-specific. Therefore, they may be logged multiples times, one time for each mounted mailbox. Additionally, some events provide a specific error code that is helpful duing debugging. Events 36 and 37 are only logged in Outlook 2007 SP1 and later versions, although Outlook 2007 RTM (Release to Manufacturing) also exhibits similar behavior.

Enable Outlook search logging

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

322756 How to back up and restore the registry in Windows

To enable search logging in Microsoft Outlook, set the following registry value in hexadecimal:

Path: HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOfficexx.0OutlookSearch

where xx.0 is 12.0 for Outlook 2007, 14.0 for Outlook 2010, and 15.0 for Outlook 2013

DWORD: EnableLogging
Value: ffff0000

The log files are generated at the following location:

%TEMP%outlook logging

You may see a log file for all accounts or data files in the Outlook profile. The following list includes a description of the log files:

Outlook.ost.log – where Outlook can be any store name, such as Archive Folders. This is the most useful log filefor indexing errors.
Outlook.ost-qp.log – this log file is useful for diagnosing errors encountered while querying.
Outlook.ost-reconciliation.log – this log file details the tasks that are performed during the Outlook reconciliation proceess.
SemThing.log – this log file is used to diagnose query syntax errors.
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Best practices when using the Outlook Calendar

The Outlook Calendar fully integrates with email, contacts, and other features. This integration makes the Calendar component one of the most popular features of Outlook. In this article, we will guide you through the use of the Calendars various functions. In addition, we’ll introduce you to calendar improvements that are specifically targeted to make your experience more consistent.

Note    Many calendar enhancements were added to Outlook 2007 service packs. For this reason, our very first recommendation is that you make sure to use Outlook 2007 Service Pack 3 (SP3) or later. The sections below assume that you are using Outlook 2007 SP3, Outlook 2010, or Outlook 2013.

Forwarding meeting requests

If you’re using Outlook 2007, you should not forward meeting requests. This can result in lost or mismatched meetings. Instead, ask the meeting organizer to add the attendee to the original meeting request.

If you are using Outlook 2010 or newer and you’re a meeting attendee, you can forward a meeting to another person that is using Outlook 2010 or newer. This is possible because Outlook 2010 introduced the Meeting Forward Notification feature. When you use Outlook 2010 or newer to forward a meeting to someone that was not originally invited to the meeting, Outlook sends a meeting forward notification to the meeting organizer. When the organizer receives the meeting notification, the new attendee is added to the organizer’s meeting. If existing attendees need to know that an additional attendee was added to the meeting, then the organizer must open the meeting and send a meeting update to all of the attendees.

Note   If you want to let someone know about a meeting, but not invite them, simply drag the meeting request from your calendar to the Mail icon on the lower left side of Outlook. This opens an email with information about the meeting that you can send out. Note that this email doesn’t add the recipient(s) to the meeting, and only contains meeting information such as date, time, subject and agenda.

For Microsoft Exchange users

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 also introduced Meeting Forward Notifications as part of the Calendar Attendant feature. If you use Outlook to connect to a mailbox on an Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2010 or Exchange Server 2013 organization, meeting forward notification behavior may be subject to Exchange settings, if configured by the Exchange Administrator. For example, the Exchange Administrator can prevent meeting forward notification from being sent to remote domains.

We generally recommend that an attendee not forward a meeting if they are not in the same Exchange organization as the organizer, unless all of the following conditions are true:

  • The attendee is using Microsoft Outlook 2010 or newer.
  • The attendee’s Exchange Administrator allows meeting forward notifications to be sent to remote domains.
  • The organizer is using a Microsoft Outlook client.

In the case of an attendee that uses a non-Exchange mail system, we generally recommend not forwarding a meeting, unless all of the following conditions are true:

  • The attendee is using Microsoft Outlook 2010 or newer.
  • The organizer is using a Microsoft Outlook client.

If for any reason the organizer does not receive the meeting forward notification, the meeting attendees are not added to the organizer’s meeting. If the organizer subsequently changes the meeting and sends out an update, the update is only sent to the original invitees. The attendees that earlier received the forwarded copy of the meeting will not receive the update.

If the above limitations prevent you from successfully and from consistently forwarding meeting invitations, it is best to simply ask the meeting organizer to add the desired attendees. It is important to ask the meeting organizer to add the desired attendees if you are not certain that both your and the desired attendees’ environments meet the above conditions.

Note    Outlook Delegates do not receive Meeting Forward Notifications.

Process all meeting requests and cancellations

Although you can delete a meeting request directly from your Inbox, you should properly process the meeting request by either accepting or declining it. Always use the Remove from Calendar command to process meeting cancellations. Avoid processing meetings directly from the Calendar module.

Working with recurring meetings

Set end dates and limit the number of occurrences

Outlook makes it easy to schedule a meeting that has multiple regular occurrences. We recommend that you 1) always set an end date and 2) limit the recurring series to a specific number of occurrences. Truthfully, recurring meetings are going to require modifications at one point or another. Over time, attendees are added to or removed from a single occurrence. The meeting location or time changes due to vacation dates or unforeseen circumstances. Outlook saves each of these unique changes as a meeting exception. Meetings with a very large number of exceptions result in a meeting series that is difficult to manage. Additionally, it can introduce unexpected behavior. You can always create a new meeting series when the current one ends. When thinking about the number of occurrences, consider the frequency. In the period of a year, a twice a week meeting will have about 90 more occurrences than a monthly meeting during that same period.

End a recurring meeting before the original end date

Although you can cancel a recurring meeting, a better option is to change the end date for the series. This allows you and the attendees to keep a record of the meetings that occurred in the past. If you cancel the recurring meeting altogether, that history is lost. The best option is to set a new end date and then send the update to all attendees. This ends the meeting series early, while keeping a record of previous meetings.

Note    If you end the meeting series early, exceptions associated with the recurring meeting are lost, To learn more about exceptions, see the “Set end dates and limit the number of occurrences” section.

For more information about cancelling all future meetings in a series, see: Cancel all future meetings in a series

Change the organizer

Outlook does not provide a way to change a meeting organizer. To change the meeting organizer of a recurring meeting, end the recurring meeting. To do this, set an earlier end date and send the update to all attendees. After you complete this step, the new organizer should create a new recurring meeting.

For more information about setting an earlier end date, also see: Cancel a meeting

Avoid using a recurring meeting to share attachments

Attachments add to the complexity of recurring meeting exceptions. Each exception contains its own copy of the attachments. As exceptions are added to recurring meetings, new copies of the attachments are created. If you make changes to one set of attachments, these changes do not propagate to the other exceptions. If you require that all attendees have the most recent copy of changes for any given meeting, share the documents via a sharing service, such as OneDrive. Enterprise users can take advantage of SharePoint or other shared file server on the network.

Prevent inconsistencies in meeting notes

If you make a change to the meeting time, date, location or attendee list, and then attempt to save the meeting, Outlook only offers you two choices. Send the meeting update to all attendees or cancel the changes. This design ensures that the copy of the meeting is consistent for all attendees. However, the Notes field is not considered a critical field. Therefore, you can save changes to the Notes field without sending the update to all attendees.

Important    If you intended to use these as personal notes, any subsequent change that requires sending the meeting update will include the Notes content. To prevent accidental disclosure, store your notes elsewhere.

The same goes for meeting attendees. As a meeting attendee, you can also store your own notes in your copy of the meeting. However, if you accept a subsequent full meeting update from the organizer, your notes may be overwritten.

Avoid copying meetings

By design, Outlook removes any links between a copied meeting and the original meeting. This greatly contributes to preventing inconsistencies. Newer versions of Outlook add the text string “Copy:” to the subject. This makes it easy to identify meeting copies.

Actions related to copied meetings yield unexpected results, therefore avoid copying meetings. This applies to both meetings copied from another user’s calendar, as well as those copied from another calendar folder that you own.

For more information about how to move meetings that you organized to another calendar folder, see:

How to move Outlook meetings without losing the option to “Send Update”

Maintain devices that connect to your calendar

Make sure that any device that connects to your Calendar has all of the latest updates installed. Some devices use Exchange ActiveSync to synchronize the Calendar and other folders. These devices include Windows Phone, Windows RT, Apple iOS and Android devices. Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry devices and others can also synchronize with the Calendar.

For more information about some of the known issues, see: Current issues with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and third-party devices.

Note    In some cases, multiple Outlook clients and devices may modify items at the same time, which can introduce conflicts. To minimize the likelihood, do not process the same item on two or more clients or devices within a relatively short period.

Maintain add-ins that integrate with Outlook

Most, if not all Outlook add-ins, access Outlook data. An add-in may change an Outlook item that you are editing at the same time, whether in Outlook or on another device. This can introduce conflicts. To minimize the likelihood, make sure to install the latest updates for any add-ins or programs that integrate with Outlook. Uninstall or disable any of these programs and add-ins that you do not use or that do not need to integrate with Outlook.

Note    In some cases, multiple Outlook clients and devices may modify items at the same time, which can introduce conflicts. To minimize the likelihood, do not process the same item on two or more clients or devices within a relatively short period.

Additional recommendations for Microsoft Exchange users

Working in a manager/delegate scenario

If your organization allows it, configure Outlook to connect to your Exchange mailbox using Cached Exchange Mode. This provides the best performance.

Newer versions of Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Entourage, and Microsoft Outlook for Mac include many improvements to the delegate feature. For more information about these versions, see:

Outlook delegate feature in mixed versions of Microsoft Outlook and Entourage

Limit the number of delegates

Outlook does not limit the number of delegates that you can add. However, we recommend that you only grant Editor permissions to one (1) delegate. This allows you to track when and how a meeting was processed. Considering the fact that a delegate can use multiple devices to access your data, having many delegates with Editor permissions makes it very difficult to determine why meetings are missing or out of date.

Even if you only grant Editor permissions to one delegate, avoid adding a large number of delegates with Reviewer or Contributor permissions. This is because adding large numbers of delegates may exhaust other resources. For example, the 32K limit for rule data may be reached. When you add a delegate, various changes take place:

  • Outlook applies permissions to relevant folders.
  • The PublicDelegates Active Directory attribute is updated to add “Send on Behalf of” permissions to the delegate.
  • Outlook adds the delegate to a forward rule on the manager’s mailbox. This forwards meeting requests to the delegate.
  • Outlook saves additional delegate information in the manager’s mailbox.

Each of these component areas may have different limits. Nearing these limits can affect performance and stability.

Notes    During development and testing of the product, Microsoft used a maximum of four (4) delegates. Additionally, the delegates only used Outlook. Devices were not included in the testing.

If the delegate with Editor permissions must be replaced either temporarily or indefinitely, change the permissions from Editor to Reviewer or none. Then, grant Editor permissions to the new or backup delegate.

“The profile name you entered already exists” when creating a new mail profile.

Scenario:  You get the error message below when trying to add a new mail profile in Outlook.

“The profile name you entered already exists”

Solution: Delete an Outlook Mail Profile from the Registry and then Restart

  1. Open the Registry by going to Start–>Search or Start–>Run and typing in regedit.
  2. Navigate to:  HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindows NTCurrent VersionWindows Messaging SubsystemProfiles{ProfileName}
  3. Delete the profile in which you want to remove
  4. Restart the computer

Outlook Error: “The Delegates settings were not saved correctly. Cannot activate send-on-behalf-of list. You do not have sufficient permission to perform this operation on this object.”

Scenario:  You receive the following error in Outlook when trying to Add/Modify Delegates within Outlook:

Error:  The Delegates settings were not saved correctly. Cannot activate send-on-behalf-of list. You do not have sufficient permission to perform this operation on this object.

Resolution: Add the IgnoreSOBError with a value of 1 in the registry.

    1. Click Start, and then click Run.
    2. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password or click Continue.
  1. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
    HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOfficex.0OutlookPreferences
    If you use policies, click the following subkey:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwarePoliciesMicrosoftOfficex.0OutlookPreferences

    Note: x.0 in the above registry key represents your Outlook version. Please use one of the following values.

    Outlook 2013: 15.0
    Outlook 2010: 14.0
    Outlook 2007: 12.0
    Outlook 2003: 11.0

  2. After you select the subkey that is specified in step 3, click New on the Edit menu, and then click DWORD Value.
  3. Type IgnoreSOBError, and then press Enter.
  4. Right-click IgnoreSOBError, and then click Modify.
  5. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
  6. On the File menu, click Exit to exit Registry Editor.

Emails in users “Inbox” are automatically moved to a folder (not created by user), labeled “Junk”

Scenario:

A new email arrives, it sits in the “Inbox” anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes before it moves to a folder labeled “Junk”. This is not the default “Junk E-Mail” folder in Outlook/OWA.

Issue:

Client has a Samsung Galaxy device configured to view users mailbox.

Solution: 

  1. Go into the E-Mail application on the Samsung Galaxy
  2. Press the Menu Key, select Settings, then General Settings
  3. Select Spam addresses and remove any addresses that should not be in there, such as your corporate domain.

Outlook is unable to connect to the proxy server. (Error Code 0)

Scenario:  Users using Microsoft Outlook receive a pop up saying that Outlook is unable to connect to the proxy server. The exact error is:

There is a problem with the proxy server’s security certificate. The name on this security certificate is invalid or does not match the name of the target site mail.domain.com.  

Outlook is unable to connect to the proxy server. (Error Code 0) 

Resolution:  We noticed that the Certificate Principal Name had a invalid value in the Outlook Profile.  In our case it showed a ‘-‘ in the field for ‘Only connect to proxy servers that have this principal name in their certificate:’.  When we ran this command-let in Exchange Shell: Get-Outlook Provider, we saw there was a ‘-‘ for the Server and CertPrincipalName property.  This was causing autodiscover to hand this value out to Outlook Clients.  We resolved by resetting these values to $null:

Set-OutlookProvider EXPR  -server $null -CertPrincipalName $null

Re-Enabling PST functionality in your Outlook session.

Scenario:  You cannot open or create a PST within your Outlook.  The options are missing OR it does not allow to complete a PST operation. If you try to Integrate SharePoint with your Outlook, you may receive the following error:

Outlook cannot add the folder because creating a new Outlook data file (.pst) file isn’t allowed on this computer.


Solution:  The registry has a DisablePST value that is set to not allow PST functionality.  The data for this key is:
0 = Enables PST functionality
1 = Disable PST Functionality Completely
2 = Disables creating PST’s, but allows to open PST’s.

1. Open up the registry (regedit).
2. Click on Edit-Find and type in DisablePST. Perform a find.  Keep hitting F3 to perform a ‘find next’ if this doesn’t take you directly to the key.
3. Delete the Key or Set it to the corresponding value.  Deleting the key or giving it a 0 are one in the same.

Searching it take you to a location similar to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftOffice<version>Outlook.   This location may be different if using a 64 bit version of Outlook.

Recommendations to avoid IOS Calendar Corruption with Exchange Mailboxes

Scenario: An entry on an IOS calendar shows incorrect times for an appointment, has disappeared, or is missing information, although the calendar entries in OWA and Outlook is correct. Specifically a single occurrence of a repeat appointment/meeting has one of the symptoms from above.

Recommendations from support:


1. Microsoft recommends running the same version of Outlook on all the computers. Mailbox owners and any delegates need to be using the same version of Outlook with the latest updates on all the computers that are used for calendaring. If you are in a mixed environment of Mac, Windows and iOS devices, each platform needs to be using the same version and each device should have the latest updates. 
2. Only one person should process meeting requests. Other people, computers or devices that receive the meeting request should ignore them, they should not delete or process them. Users should have a maximum of 2 delegates.
3. Manage your calendar exclusively from Outlook or OWA. Don’t accept, decline, modify or invite others to appointments from your mobile device. You can create new appointments on your mobile device.
4. Verify that the device has the latest iOS version installed. (Please verify this before adding the Exchange account to the device. Sometimes, new devices are running an older version of iOS, so it is a good habit to confirm that all updates are applied before adding Exchange accounts)
5. To change an entire series of meetings, cancel the original meeting and create a new one. To change one instance, cancel just that meeting and create a new one to replace it. Always put an end date on a recurring meeting.
6. A “corrupt” meeting will remain that way until you delete it. If it is a recurring appointment, delete all occurrences and reschedule it.
7. When scheduling a recurring meeting, Microsoft recommends setting the end date no more than 6 months. If you need to schedule a meeting for a longer period, start a new recurring meeting.

8. Making multiple changes to recurring events can contribute to unexpected results.

Allow this website to configure server settings

​Issue: Customer gets a prompt while in Outlook saying
“Allow this website to configure user@user.edu server settings ?
https://autodiscover.domain.edu/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml. Your account was redirected to this website for settings. You should only allow settings sources you know and trust
Resolution: Click on Don’t ask me about this website again box. Click on Allow
In some cases, recreating the profile can fix the issue