8. Outlook Problems

Outlook couldn’t autodiscover my account
Autodiscover relies on a DNS entry of the form "autodiscover.emailsuffix.ox.ac.uk" which needs to be an alias for autodiscoverredirect.nexus.ox.ac.uk. We contacted ITSS in batches with text similar to the below: 
                        As I hope you're well aware, we are proceeding well with early 
                        adopters to the (Exchange) Nexus groupware service right now. This message
                        concerns units that have Outlook users. Please read on, even  if you only
                        have a few Outlook users, as this may make their and your  lives a little
                        easier.  
                        
                        Outlook 2007 can be configured so that it discovers all of its 
                        'technical' server settings automatically. This is called "autodiscover"  and
                        can make life a lot easier for users and their support staff. 
                        See  Outlook 2007 for a little background. 
                        
                        In order for Autodiscover to work, every domain that is also an
                        email domain needs to register an alias (not an A record) pointing to 
                        autodiscoverredirect.nexus.ox.ac.uk. 
                        
                        For example, the @oucs.ox.ac.uk domain
                        needs an alias record of  autodiscover.oucs.ox.ac.uk in the DNS.

[modification to original note] Note that the situation below no longer exists - IT staff can use the regular DNS interface to enter their autodiscover alias in the alias section without any OUCS involvement

                        We feel that we should not create these uninvited, so please could you email
                        (hostmaster email link) with a 
                        request to create an alias for the domain that you administer? For your Outlook 2007 
                        users, it will make an enormous difference in the easy configuration of the client.
                        
                        If you could do this soon, we will have a good chance of creating the aliases before 
                        your users are scheduled to be migrated. 
                        
                        As a final note, we expect that Outlook users - who are currently  connected to Herald 
                        via IMAP - will not need to change any settings at the time of the migration (as 
                        username.herald.ox.ac.uk will route initially). However, in order to gain all of the 
                        benefits of Exchange (the calendar, tasks, out of office, etc. etc.), the settings should  
                        be changed to connect via 'Outlook Anywhere'.
                        
                        With Outlook 2007, autodiscover is the most  painless way of achieving this.

Autodiscovery can also fail if the account is not found in the Global Address List. See My account does not appear in the Global Address List above.

I can't see free/busy information in Outlook 2007
 This was often caused by the lack of an autodiscover alias in the DNS. Please see the above item 'Outlook cannot autodiscover my account' as this could have resolved the issue. Note that free/busy information provision works differently in Outlook 2003 and you may not see the problem with that client (although the information can be less up to date).
My off-line address book is not being downloaded in Outlook 2007
 One cause of this problem was also the lack of an autodiscover alias in the DNS. Please see the above item 'Outlook cannot autodiscover my account' as this could resolve the issue.
Out of office problem: "the server is currently unavailable"
With Outlook 2007 (but not 2003), you could have seen the following message when trying to amend your ‘Out of Office’ settings via Tools - Out of Office Assistant:

Your Out of Office settings cannot be displayed, because the server is currently unavailable. Try again later.

This may also have been caused by the lack of an autodiscover alias in the DNS. Please see the above item 'Outlook cannot autodiscover my account' as this could resolve the issue. Note that the easy work-around was to set up the Out of Office information in Outlook Web Access.

 Repeated Password Prompt
 With an Outlook Anywhere connection via Outlook 2010 it offered a method to cache your password and avoid a prompt each time Outlook was started.
 Emailing a recently migrated collegue failed
If the failure information included diagnostic text similar to: 
                        From: Microsoft Exchange
 
                        Sent: 21 July 2009 15:07 

                        To: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 

                        Subject: Undeliverable: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 
                        
                        Delivery has failed to these recipients or distribution lists: 
                        
                        Test User<mailto:IMCEAEX-_O%3DNEXUS_OU%3DEXCHANGE%2B20ADMINISTRATIVE%
                        2B20GROUP%2B20%2B28FYDIBOHF23SPDLT%2B29_CN%3DRECIPIENTS_CN%
                        3DTestuser1@ad.oak.ox.ac.uk> 
                        
                        The recipient's e-mail address was not found
                        in the recipient's e-mail system. Microsoft Exchange will not try to redeliver
                        this message for you. Please check the e-mail address and try resending this
                        message, or provide the following diagnostic text to your system administrator.
                        

                        
                        Sent by Microsoft Exchange Server 2007

The solution to this issue can be found on the non-delivery page.

Outlook does not reconnect via IMAP after migration
 On some machines using Outlook, a seamless migration for IMAP client users was not possible. It appeared that domain-joined machines did not correctly remember the IMAP credentials after the account has been migrated to Nexus: they needed to be re-entered. After re-entering the credentials IMAP worked as before, but folders may have needed to be resubscribed.

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