Problem:
User needs to reconfigure Outlook on a PC after being migrated to Exchange Online.
Resolution:
User may need to adjust some settings in Outlook to log into Exchange Online and/or for optimal performance.
Steps:
1. After your mailbox has been migrated to Office 365/Exchange Online, close Outlook and Jabber if they are open. (Optional) For best results, completely restart your PC.
2. Open Outlook. In most cases, it should connect without any additional prompts. If you receive a message like the one below when opening Outlook, click “OK”. Wait a minute or two, then close Outlook and restart it. You should not receive this message again.
How to handle login prompts
In some cases, you may receive a login prompt like this (or similar depending on your version of Outlook) when opening Outlook or when opening a shared calendar or mailbox:
If you receive this, make sure the username is entered as username@win.uthscsa.edu (like shown above). Then enter your password. If you do not want to get this prompt again, check the “Remember my credentials” checkbox. (If you don’t check the box, you may receive this prompt each time you open Outlook.) Then click “OK”.
If you instead receive a pop-up that does not allow you to change the user name, click the “Use another account” option, then enter your username as username@win.uthscsa.edu, enter your password, check “Remember my credentials”, and click “OK”.
If you receive a “WebEx mapi component” pop-up (like the one below), this is caused by Jabber not being able to connect to Outlook to read your calendar. Close Jabber and re-open it after you have Outlook working properly. You should not receive this pop-up again.
Poor performance/Cached mode settings
If you notice performance issues (slow response, hanging), you are probably in “online mode”. Because Exchange Online is hosted on servers located across the Internet, the route to those servers is subject to occasional network congestion. If Outlook is in online mode, this congestion can cause it to become unresponsive because Outlook in this case requires a continuous (synchronous) connection to the server in order to view and act on the contents of your mailbox.
To resolve this, you need to switch your Outlook connection to “cached mode”. When in cached mode, Outlook creates a copy of your mailbox contents on your hard drive and then synchronizes it with the server in the background periodically. This obfuscates any network disruptions.
To switch to cached mode, follow these steps:
1. In Outlook, go to the “File” tab at the top left:
2. Then go to the “Account Settings” drop-down and click “Account Settings...”
3. On the “Email” tab, click to select your account, then click the “Change...” button:
4. Check this checkbox:
5. Adjust the “Mail to keep offline” slider to your preference. (Note that this does not mean that items in your mailbox older than the time you select will be deleted; they just will not be cached locally, so if you need to access them, Outlook will have to contact the server directly for them.)
6. Click “Next”, “Finish”, and “Close” to exit.
7. Close and re-start Outlook. It will take a few minutes the first time you open Outlook to download all of your mailbox content, especially if you selected a long period of time to keep offline in step 5 above.
How to resolve Public Folders error
If you try to access Public Folders and get a “Cannot display the folder” error, do the following:
1. In Outlook, go to the “File” tab at the top left:
2. Then go to the “Account Settings” drop-down and click “Account Settings...”
3. On the “Email” tab, click to select your account, then click the “Change...” button:
4. Click the “More Settings...” button.
5. On the “Advanced” tab, check the “Download Public Folder Favorites” checkbox:
6. Click “OK”, “Next”, “Finish”, and/or “Close” as necessary to close out of the settings screens.
7. Close and restart Outlook. You should now be able to access Public Folders.
How to resolve shared mailbox/calendar issues
If you access a shared mailbox or calendar and notice that you are not seeing updates made to the shared resource by others or your updates are not being seen by others, follow these steps:
1. In Outlook, go to the “File” tab at the top left:
2. Then go to the “Account Settings” drop-down and click “Account Settings...”
3. On the “Email” tab, click to select your account, then click the “Change...” button:
4. Click the “More Settings...” button.
5. Then, on the “Advanced” tab, uncheck the “Download shared folders” option:
6. Click “OK”, “Next”, “Finish”, and/or “Close” as necessary to close out of the settings screens.
For additional articles on Exchange Online, click here.
If you need further assistance, please contact the Service Desk at 210-567-7777.