Category: Outlook 2010

Scenario: Customer is running Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2013 servers in coexistence. The servers have the latest rollups and patches. Users using Outlook 2013 with mailbox on Exchange 2013 are not able to edit calendar of an Exchange 2010 mailbox user.

Note that customer is running Windows 7(sp1) and Outlook 2013 sp1

Resolution:  Run windows update and ensure Outlook and Office 2013 are all patched to this version: 15.0.4615.1000

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

Add a Calendar Meeting in Outlook through Powershell

The link at the bottom of this blog contains a good script that will allow you to create calendar meetings in Outlook through PowerShell.  This was helpful when I had to buildup a calendar in size to simulate another users exchange calendar for testing.    Below are the changes I made to the script so I could add attachments into newly created calendar appointments.  I know-I know, we shouldn’t be adding attachments into the appointment directly, hence the reason for the simulation of the problems the user is experiencing that needs to be proven.

I added this parameter/variable in the list of parameters:
    # Attachment Location, to hold value similart to: C:folderattachment.jpg
    [string] $file

I added this scriptlet to the Process:     
         $attachment = new-object System.Net.Mail.Attachment $file
         $newCalenderItem.Attachments.Add($file)

Boom. Now I can run the following command to create an appointment and add an attachment to build up the size of the calendar:

Add-CalendarMeeting -Subject “test recurring219” -Location “Steves Cube” -Body “Test” -MeetingStart “5/14/2014 18:00” -MeetingDuration 30  -file “C:UsersusernameDesktopfileabstract.jpg”

Link to the Original Script for download.

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.

Process Meeting Requests Automatically from a Exchange user Mailbox

Scenario: If you have a normal Exchange user mailbox that is not a resource, you can configure Outlook to process the meeting request automatically.  To do so, perform the following within Outlook:

Click on File–>Options
1. Navigate to Mail–>Tracking. Make sure there is a check mark in Automatically process meeting requests and responses to meeting requests and polls.
2. Navigate to Calendar–>Automatic accept or decline. From here you can select from the menu how you wish to automatically process meeting requests:

  • Automatically accept meeting requests and remove canceled meetings
  • Automatically decline meeting requests that conflict with an existing appointment or meeting
  • Automatically decline recurring meeting requests
Outlook uses a sniffer that is an idle process to process meeting requests.  Only one machine can process sniffer requests. It only runs when Outlook is idle — if its never idle it will never run.

Troubleshooting:

1.  Disable Outlook Addin’s and try again.
2.  Use the /sniff or the /cleansniff when opening outlook.
3.  Check the property PR_Processed with MFCMAPI on the mail message.

Error: You need more memory or system resources. Please close some Windows and try again.

Problem when trying to open the mail app in the control panel or if opening outlook with many profiles.

To resolved rename the following key to something else.

Outlook 2010 and older:

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWindows Messaging Subsystem

 Outlook 2013:

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice15.0OutlookProfiles

Disable Outlook Auto-Mapping with Mailboxes

If you wish to give a user full access to a mailbox, but do not want to have the mailbox auto-map into the users Outlook profile, assign the full access permission with with the -AutoMapping parameter.

Add-MailboxPermission mailboxname -user username -accessrights fullaccess -AutoMapping $false

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.