Exchange: Outlook client and OWA issues and resolutions

General resolution steps

• Determine version and Service Pack of Outlook installed: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928116
• Compact OST.
• Try moving the OST file (in the profile offline folder settings)
• Try creating new Outlook profile
• Try creating new Windows profile
• Try logging into the computer as yourself and creating a profile to see if the issue reoccurs
• Try doing Offie Diagnostics from Help menu
• Try doing a Repair
• Try Doing a Office Add/Remove Components and select a new component - this can sometimes do something that a repair does not.
• Download the freeware "OutlookTools" which shows information about your Outlook installation and allows you to empty Outlook temporary folders, run scanpst, scanost, set startup switches, configure Desktop Alert, modify list of blocked attachments and so forth.

Try uninstalling and reinstalling Outlook.

Problem: Client cannot send to a personal distribution list that is in their Outlook contacts and receives "an unexpected error has occured".

Resolutions:

1. Most commonly this is because the entry in the nickname cache has become corrupted. Simply delete the cached entry from the list when it appears.
2. Another reason might be that the personal distribution list has become corrupted. Try renaming the distribution list, which may resolve the issue. Also try recreating the distribution list.

Problem: Client is trying to book a meeting room and receives the error: "Resource declined your meeting because it is recurring. You must book each meeting separately with this resouce". You may not necessarily be booking a recurring meeting.

Resolutions:

1. Issue is most likely that the delegates have been corrupted on the resource mailbox. Open the resource mailbox in question. Remove the delegates and save the changes. Readd the delegates again with the required permissions. This should resolve the issue.
2. Check Rules and Alerts for any rules that may be forwarding meeting requests. This can cause an email to be returned to the sender that says the email was forwarded to such and such.
3. Is is potentially free/busy corruption of the resource mailbox calendar. This is a resolution provided by Microsoft PSS according to http://69.33.231.210/blog/2004/12/cannot-book-resource-outlook-thinks.html. PSS says this can occur if multiple people directly update a calendar at roughly the same time. This causes a number of attempts to simultaneously update the free/busy which then corrupts free/busy. PSS says users should not be directly updating calendars in resources, but through meeting requests. To resolve, change a resource scheduling parameter from Outlook. For instance, uncheck "Decline conflicting meeting requests". This generates fresh free/busy info for the resource. You can then go back and check it again - the free/busy info will get refreshed yet again.
4. Try regenerating free/busy data for the resource mailbox by creating an Outlook profile for it. Run Outlook /cleanfreebusy.
5. If you are running Outlook 2002 (XP) you should check out the article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817420 to check whether a fix applies.
6. As per MS KB 312433, try adding the user back in as a delegate, and try to add the same permissions as they previously had. If the original delegate has been removed, try adding another user instead. Restart Outlook. Clear the "Send meeting requests and responses only to my delegates, not to me" Remove the delegate that you previously added. Restart Outlook. Send a meeting request and check if the problem is resolved.
7. See KB 252800 if Schedule+ 97 is installed.
8. If using Exchange 5.5, Exchange 2000, or Exchange 2003, follow the instructions as per MS KB 312433 to use mdbvu32.exe to remove the hidden delegate from the mailbox. Download mdbvu32.exe from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3d1c7482-4c6e-4ec5-983e-127100d71376&displaylang=en or http://www.chicagotech.net/exchange/exchange2007tools.htm.
9. If using Exchange 2007, use MFCMAPI instead which can be downloaded from http://mfcmapi.codeplex.com/releases/view/45245.
10. Download MFCMAPI. Create an online profile in Outlook. Open MFCMAPI and select the profile to use. Double click the mailbox name. In the left hand pane, expand root container then Top of Information Store. Right click the Inbox and select Display Rules Table... In the top pane, find the rule that contains "Schedule+ EMS Interface" in the PR_RULE_PROVIDER column, and double click it. In the bottom pane, right click PR_RULE_ACTIONS.... and select Edit Property. Copy and paste the contents to notepad and do a search for the ghost delegate. If the ghost delegate exists in here, delete the entire "Schedul+ EMS Interface" rule. This will disable all delegates and they will need to be readded to Outlook. If the ghost delegate is not here, search all other rules in the rules table for the name of the ghost delegate. In my case, I found a rule with the conspicuous name "which is a meeting invitation or update". When searching the PR_RULES_ACTION property for the ghost delegate, I was able to find it there. This is the rule that you should then consider deleting in order to resolve the issue.
11. Allen Song on an MS forum had this to say: To troubleshoot it, please first verify the non-existent user has been deleted completely by using ADSI Edit tool. If no clue in there, please turn to the delegate issue. Please understand that the delegate is represented by a rule that is hidden in the mailbox.
    The solution consists of two parts: Deletion of the delegate rules in the "Schedule" folder and secondly, removing the receive folder specification for the IPM.SCHEDULE.MEETING class.
    1, Remove the old delegate rules by:============a. Launch MFCMapi against the mailbox with an Online mode profileb. Choose Session -> Logon and Display Store tablec. Choose the Profile and choose OKd. Double click the mailbox storee. Expand Root Containerf. Right-click "Schedule" and choose "Open Associated Contents Table"g. Delete any messages in this table.
    2, Remove the ReceiveFolder Association by:============a. Launch MFCMapi against the mailbox with an Online mode profileb. Choose Session -> Logon and Display Store tablec. Choose the Profile and choose OKd. Double click the mailbox storee. Expand Root containerf. Ensure the Receive Folder association is set by going to MDB -> Display -> Receive Folder Table.f1. If the mapping is set, you should see one object in this list with the Message Class of IPM.SCHEDULE.MEETINGf2. Close the Receive Folder Tableg. Right-click "Schedule" and choose "Set Receive Folder"h. Enter "IPM.SCHEDULE.MEETING" in the box (without the quotes)i. Click "Delete Association"j. Click OK.k. Repeat step "f" above to ensure that the IPM.SCHEDULE.MEETING association is gone.
    After both of these steps, if you have set new delegate, you may still have to re-establish the new delegation one time to have it take effect.

Then in a separate posting, Allan Song wrote:

1. Please check whether the below thread can help you:http://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/exchangesvrclients/thread/df98a5f6-74f6-4550-9e42-0b226f788199/Additionally, I would like to share the steps about how to delete Schedule+EMS Interface with you as below:
   1. Download MFCMAPI using the following link:http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=55fdffd7-1878-4637-9808-1e21abb3ae37&DisplayLang=en
   2. Launch MFCMAPI Editor3. From the Session Menu, choose Logon and dispaly store table4. Double click the mailbox (Mailbox-)5. Expand Root container, and Top of Information Store6. Right click the Inbox, and choose "Display Rules Table"7. This will open a new windows and will display the rules configured on this mailbox. The rules will be listed in the top half of this window. 8. In the top window of the Rules table, under "PR_Rule_Provider"column delete the entry with display name "Schedule+EMS Interface"10. Right click the Delegate Rule mentioned above ("Schedule+EMS Interface") and then chose Delete. This will delete the rule from the mailbox.

Problem: You receive the following error message:

---------------------------
Microsoft Office Outlook
---------------------------
Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window. The set of folders cannot be opened. The file d:\data\outlook\misos\outlook1.ost cannot be accessed. You must connect to Microsoft Exchange at least once before you can use your offline folder file.

Problem: You receive messages when starting Outlook in cached mode that Outlook is entering recovery mode. If you press "continue" it will continue to open the mailbox but in Online mode, not cached mode.

Resolutions:

• Ensure "full" permissions are assigned to the user in question on the OST file and the folder containing it.
• If running Office 2003, upgrading to Office 2007 has been shown to resolve this issue.
• Exit Outlook and rename the OST file. Open Outlook and let it recreate the OST file.
• Move the OST to another location (Edit the Outlook profile and select "Offline folder settings" button to do this.
• Try recreating the Outlook profile
• Try recreating the Outlook profile and in the midst of creating the profile, check the path that the OST will be created at. If it contains a %username% or other variable in it, try replacing the path with one that contains no variables. Also make sure the destination has "full" access for the user.

Problem: Only a couple of recent emails, or no emails are appearing when in OWA. However all emails are appearing in the full Outlook client.

• Almost guaranteed this is because Outlook somewhere (or a mobile device) is configured to download new emails into a PST file rather than the Inbox on the server. So in actual fact there are no emails on the server to be seen.

Problem: Issues connecting to Outlook via a VPN connection:

• The firewall or network device on the home network may not be passing NetBIOS traffic. It is also possible to be a name resolution issue with DNS or WINS.

Problem: Unable to connect to OWA

OWA issues can be difficult to pick up sometimes. The errors however can give a clue as to the issues. Here are some common solutions to OWA issues:

• If OWA is coming up with authentication issues, ensure that ISA and Exchange are talking the correct authentication protocol. For example, if ISA is using FBA then ensure Exchange OWA / ECP virtual directories are set to Basic + Windows Integrated rather than FBA.
• If OWA is looping when trying to load the page (and sometimes also returns an authentication error message), this is a classic symptom of the webpage HTTP redirector being set incorrectly. Ensure the HTTP redirector is not trying to redirect back to itself. This is a common mistake that people make in their attempt to redirect HTTP to HTTPS on the IIS on the Client Access Server. Turn off the HTTP redirection and try again.
• If OWA complains about chain of certificates not being trusted, then you know most likely the ISA/TMG server does not trust the certificate that is on the Exchange server. If you browse to the Exchange website from the ISA/TMG server, it may appear to work (importing a certificate in one manner appears to make the error disappear in Internet Exporer, but does not mean ISA/TMG will trust the certificate) so do not use this as a reliable testing method. Go directly into the "Certificates" MMC console and check the Trusted Root Authorities for the certificate in question. If it is not a self-signed certificate, then also make sure all certificates in the chain are listed in the Trusted Root Authorities.

Problem: Outlook client returns error "Not specified" when trying to send/forward/create an email message.

Error message indicates a compatibility issue. In this case it may be that two versions of MS Word are installed, and Outlook is trying to use the wrong one. In this case it may not find the libraries that it needs. Try uninstalling the older version of Word and make sure it is the same version as Outlook that is left installed, if possible.

Problem: Outlook client returns error "Not implemented" when trying to send/forward/create an email message.

This may be that the installation has been corrupted or maybe some components missing? Maybe some prerequsites?

This has been resolved by repairing the product that is installed. Doing a complete uninstall and reinstall should also do the trick. Repair may not always work.

Problem: Outlook client returns error "an internal support function returned an error" when trying to send/forward/create an email message.

• Try reading http://support.microsoft.com/kb/222329 - this issue may be caused by a DL in the Outlook Address Book having the same name as a DL in the GAL. This would be resolved by renaming the DL in the OAB.
• Try reading http://support.microsoft.com/kb/259182 - this issue may occur if the user does not have read permissions on all OABs that are listed when you open the Global Address List and display address lists from the drop-down list.. This is resolved by either providing the permissions to the OAB in question or by removing the OAB from being displayed in the address book.

Problem: "MSVCR71.DLL was not found" error when starting Outlook 2007.

This issue occurs because the MSVCR71.dll and MSVCP71.DLL are missing from the computer.

• Copy these files across from a computer that is working. Preferably this computer would be running same version of Windows and Outlook. Restart Oulook. This time no error should appear on startup.

Note from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/abx4dbyh(VS.71).aspx:

What is the difference between msvcrt.dll and msvcr71.dll?
The msvcrt.dll is now a "known DLL," meaning that it is a system component owned and built by Windows. It is intended for future use only by system-level components. An application should use and redistribute msvcr71.dll, and it should avoid placing a copy or using an existing copy of msvcr71.dll in the system directory. Instead, the application should keep a copy of msvcr71.dll in its application directory with the program executable. Any application built with Visual C++ .NET using the /MD switch will necessarily use msvcr71.dll.

Unable to find a mailbox in the address book or connect to a shared mailbox

• Check that the "Hidden from Address Book" is not checked on the mailbox
• If the mailbox has been created recently and is residing on Exchange 2003 or earlier, you will need to wait for the RUS to update the object, or manually kick off the RUS.
• If the mailbox is on Exchange 2007 and has been migrated recently, it may have not updated its status correctly. Make a slight change on the object, such as adding or removing a space from the Address and click Apply. This should cause the object to come back into the GAL.

Outlook blocked access to the following potentially unsafe attachments

This is due to certain attachment types being blocked in Outlook. Level 1 attachments are blocked and level 2 attachments require you to save to disk first. This "issue" can occur in Office 2000 SR1 or any later version of Office. The security was vamped up in Office 2003 SP3 and again in Office 2007. The reasoning given by Microsoft can be found at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/blocked-attachments-in-outlook-HA001229952.aspx

Potential solutions:

• Use a file share to share files that may be considerec http://support.microsoft.com/kb/284414/
• Modify the registry or create a group policy using the Office ADM files to downgrade a level 1 attachment to level 2 so it can be saved to disk. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926512/ and http://support.microsoft.com/kb/829982
• If you are trying to open an Outlook message template (.OFT) then see the next section in this document.

Outlook blocked access to the following potentially unsafe attachments

The custom form could not be opened. An Outlook form will be used instead

• If you are trying to open an Outlook message template (.OFT) in Office 2007, you will find that you cannot open it directly. Even if you save to disk first, you cannot double click the OFT file and open it. There is currently no known workaround other than opening it using the following steps:
  
  1. Right click on the .OFT attachment and select "Save as..."
  2. Save to a location such as "Desktop"
  3. In Outlook, select the File menu --> New --> Choose Form...
  4. Select "User Templates in File System" from the drop-down list
  5. Click "Browse" and browse to the folder containing the new form and click OK. E.g. "Desktop"
  6. Select the Outlook template from the list that is displayed and click Open.
  
• If you are trying to open an Outlook message template (.OFT) in Office 2003 SP3, you will also find that you cannot open it directly. You can however revert the security settings to what was in Office 2003 SP2 and therefore allowing you to open the template file:
  
  Create the following keys in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Options\Mail"
  AllowTNEFtoCreateProps"=dword:00000000"
  AllowMSGFilestoCreateProps"=dword:00000001

Meeting request shows "on behalf of" the message organizer

This occurs if a recipient of a meeting request then forwards the meeting request. This is considered normal behaviour. It is best practice to not forward meeting requests if you are not the meeting organizer. Replying to a meeting request does not show "on behalf of".

• http://msmvps.com/blogs/outlook/archive/2007/09/21/organizing-meetings.aspx
• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/899704

Logging in to OWA using the /exchange extension results in an error when accessing an Exchange 2007 mailbox.

You get this 500 - Internal Server error while you access Outlook Web Access from https://CASServer.domainname.com/exchange while https://CASServer.domainname.com/owa works fine.

This happens when you have seperate Exchange 2007 Mailbox and CAS servers. Ideally the request should be redirected to /owa but you get 500 - Internal Server Error right after typing in your credentials in the forms login page.

This happens due to the fact that redirection is not working because ISAPI Extensions are not installed on the Mailbox Server. ISAPI extensions handle specific incoming requests to the IIS server. Extensions are loaded when they are first needed and kept in memory until the host process shuts down.

To fix this issue, please install the ISAPI Extensions on the mailbox server. Here is the command that you have to run from the EMS to install them:

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-ISAPI-Ext

Make sure to do an IISRESET after this.

(from http://smarthost.blogspot.com/2008/07/500-internal-server-error-when-using.html)

This solution has been confirmed to be a solution.