Outlook Connector reports "connecting" but does not connect

[Matthew Gargett]

I'm not sure that you will get the ost copy to work too simply...

the ost is an open file and will be locked - to copy this you will need to have VSS (shadow copy) working to image the partition and copy from the partition - vista has VSS installed - so its just a matter of getting the command line queries going - should be able to find these in a Google search (I can assist if you like). If you are using XP - you will need to download the VSHADOW SDK and use that - again run from command line...

Alternatively - what I do - is install Synctoy 2.0 (beta) and set up a contrib. sync to the end location for backup. For this to work though, I close outlook down each night...

I hope this gets you started on the ost copy/backup...

 

[Simon]

Well I have had the exact same problem and I cannot explain the problems it's caused as I was designing formemail and spent 2 days scratching my head and rewriting the code!

I have no fix for this - I bet you this problem is much more widespread than we think!

I don't think there is any point in uninstall/reinstall (although I have now done this twice). The fault is clearly on the outlook connector server.

I'll just have to go back to checking my hotmail again! drat!

 

[Matthew Gargett]

its uncool that it didn't work...

did you uninstall the old connector first and download/install the updated version... Although there wasn't a specific request in the install notes to HAVE to uninstall I do just to be sure - especially with these add-ons...

Are you getting anything other than "connecting" in the "server status" in outlook now?

There is also an install log in the ../documents and settings/../temp/ (../users/../appdata/local/temp/ in vista) - Microsoft Office Outlook Connector.txt. Please do not post this as it may contain sensitive info - but review and look for any cause on install failure...

At an outside - the Outlook connector log is under:
../documents and settings/../temp/OLC/ (../users/../appdata/local/temp/OLC/ in vista)

it only reports that same as the report in outlook...

See how you go - tell me if it helps?


matt

 

[Julia]

I uninstalled and reinstalled and now I cannot open Outlook at all. It says
an extention failed to initialize. Cannot open file: extend.dat. The file
may not exist, you may not have permission to open it, or it may be open in
another program.

This is really difficult. I appreciate your help though.

 

[Matthew Gargett]

there may be a failed outlook process running still - download the sysinternals software suite - run the "process explorer" utility and kill all of the outlook processes...

try to open outlook again...

if all else fails - open outlook in "safe" mode and disable the OLC add-on - close outlook and open again

tell me how you go...

 

[Nduku]

So I am not the only one with the problem? I hope the guys from Microsoft can
assist because I have tried everything to no avail.

Is there a specific reason for their silence in this regard? It almost two
days the problem has been posted. Are they going to assist their customers?

 

[Brian Tillman]

So I am not the only one with the problem? I hope the guys from
Microsoft can assist because I have tried everything to no avail.

Is there a specific reason for their silence in this regard? It
almost two days the problem has been posted. Are they going to assist
their customers?

I don't know what "silence" you mean because there are a ton of messages in
this thread.

Gathering from the many reports (and the several reports of a fix), I dare
say Microsoft finally is enforcing the shutdown of WebDav. The solution,
which which appears to work for most, is to download te newest Outlook
Connector. The beta, released on July 23, allows calendar sync.
<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...B1-DF0A-46E1-AA93-7D4870871ECF&displaylang=en>

 

[Deke]

It works for me as well.

I can't believe the support these clowns provide. No wonder UNIX is gaining
share on the desktop every year!

Thanks Greg!

 

[Whacker]

Back of the net!! It worked for me too. Just wondering what the cause was?

 

[Julia]

I got the program sysinternals software suite but I don't know which are the
outlook processes.

When I open outlook it says unable to display the folder at the top left and
a message pops up in the middle that says "Business Contact Manager could not
complete your last action or actions. Please try again."
I click OK and behind it on the screen it says "Cannot display the folder.
Out of memory or system resources. Close some windows or programs and try
again."

I have cleared everything I can. I obviously have some process running that
needs to stop but I don't know how? Help Matt!!!!

I also now cannot access my folders. It says that my memory is full

 

[Julia]

Also when it says send and receive completed the message says that it could
not connect Outlook encountered a problem and at the bottom right in Server
status it says "Storage quota is not available!"

 

[Matt]

SAME problem.

Live.com account sends OK but does NOT receive
Hotmail.com works perfectly ..weird

I connect to both through outlook connector. Haven't tried the reinstall yet.

 

[Matthew Gargett]

hello again

when you say cleared out everything you can - do you remember what you cleared out - from where? did you disable any outlook add-ons? did you start outlook in safe mode ( "start menu"\run... at the run command type "outlook /safe")? does outlook start OK and do the problems still show up

if you can get outlook running - try to "detect and repair" it - from the help menu. If you can get that far and repair outlook - try to open it again. If that fails - uninstall the OLC and leave it off for the time being.

when looking for the outlook processes with Process Explorer - first close outlook, then from the app "Process Explorer" - order by the Process column and look for any processes called - "Outlook.exe" (may be capitalised). If you find any - kill them from within Process Explorer - right click and select "Kill Process" from the pop-up menu item.

the next thing to look into is what this memory/system resources issue is... From the task manager - check the free RAM under the performance tab - are you really out of RAM - or is this related to the outlook issue? If you are out of RAM - you will need to find what process is using it all - task manager is good for this under the "Processes" tab - add in the column with name like memory (or ?Peak?) working set difference between XP and vista - check to see which processes are taking up all of the space - if it is OK - maybe reply back with the ones that are using up a large amount of space...

apart from the OLC connection - what other types of email accounst do you have - exchange/POP3? the storage quota limit sounds like the OLC - if this is the case then uninstall it for the time being - lets get outlook fine and dandy first...

again - tell me how you go?

matt

 

[ColonelBlinky]

This worked in part until i discovered that the re-occuring appointments
where stopping the calendar from synchronising still, but inbox and contacts
where fine.

if you have a few re-occurring events/appointments change your calendar to
the category veiw or similar to list all entries in your calendar and not
just the active ones. Add the "Modified" field as a column so you can track
which ones you have changes. open each event and go into the "reocurrance"
button to view the settings are still what they should (they had not chnaged
for me) then click OK.

By doing nothing but OK'ing the occurance on each even with not changed and
hitting F9 to re-synch...calendar was fine after they where all done. The
modified date was changed even though i made no changes (but something did)
and there for i could track it.

Now how did i find this out...well there is 2 days of my life i won't get
back but suffice to say after a lot of reading on the web as the support
system failed to recognised the product ID and trial and error i came up with
this.

As a paying premium subscriber I new this was not the free mail problem
other were having and for refernce i am on XPsp3 Outlook 2003 both fully
patched etc etc.

the instructions make some significant assumptions on the level of knowledge
of the audience. the F1 button in outlook should help with the detail
procedures of what i mentioned below. if not post a reply and I'll see what i
can do to help out.

EXPORT you whole mail box to a PST where you can get to it easy. Your
mail/folders and contacts should come back, but just in case.

create a new Outlook profile and set it to prompt to choose, that way if
this does not work you still got your orginal profile + a pst backup.

setup the new profile and connect using your primary hotmail, msn, Live
account only via the http option (I had a few + a pop3 one)

when you restart you should be prompted to use the outlook connector instead
and then wait for it too synch i had a 170MB so did not take to long. if
this does not worked I suggest uninstalling outlook connector (i had
installed twice?) and doing another profile again to be sure and then install
12.1 OC after the initial http has been successfull.

if all is ok so far you outlook connector will be using calendar.live.com
instead now but your calendar is empty but inbox and contacts have come
across, so all i did was open the exported pst and copy back in the calendar
events and any that was reocurring open it only with the reoccurance settings
and OK'd them again. your have to set your hotmail accout to use the Live
CAlendar Beta too...so you don't any more sych errors and you can confirm
with test appointments things are going back and forth using the F9 to force
a synch (don't forget to setup and automatic send/recieve)

I then used the normal month veiw with "My Calendar" and the PST Calendar
open side by side in a month view and scrolled back a month or two and
forward 12 months dragging and copying across anything that was missed.
note: single one-off appoinments did not give me a synch error in the
calendar at all.

There all fixed.

i few things that I am annoyed with:
* why the did reocurring appointments be such a problem
* why did I have to upgrade to 12.1 to get to worked and be forced to use
Live Calendar as it does not have "Tasks" and "Notes" which I use a lot.
* why did the online support not recognise the Product ID
* why why why did I not get an email in my hotmail account informing be of
th eup coming change... I mean what ever they did was significant to break a
lot of people how about some proper change managment communication with your
customers.

That's it for off to defrag my brain in front of the TV and good luck to
anyone else still with a problem.

 

[Robbie]

This works for me too - thanks Matthew.

 

[thassman]

I've found same problem yesterday (hadn't downloaded since 7/22/08) and had
been trying to figure it out - Thanks I'll give this a try

 

[Michelle]

I've been having the same syncing issues since last Wed (7/24)... thanks for
the helpful advice! It worked for me.

 

[Laura]

Hi Brian,
Can we download and install the beta connector without uninstalling the
older version of connector? I've uninstalled and reinstalled an older
version of connector now a few times and I've also tried adding my account
over and over again and now my outlook is really confusing and cluttered. if
I need to uninstall do I also need to delete my live.com folders and pretend
as if I'm synching from scratch? since we have started having this problem
my mail is all out of synch now. some things i was able to still send from
outlook and some i had to send from the hotmail site so i'm trying to see how
much cleanup and saving i need to do to protect myself from losing messages
first. please advise.
Thank you.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Can we download and install the beta connector without uninstalling
the older version of connector?

I think the newer version will overwrite the older.

 

[DarylG2]

I have been fighting this issue the same as all of you. I have the Outlook
live subscription paying $60 a year. If I can receive my email in Outlook or
get any support from microsoft I guess I am going to have to cancel my
service. This sucks, you pay for something and have to go over a month with
no resolution, no way to contact support, sad..sad..sad..