Microsoft Recovering From Outlook Outage

The Outlook.com webmail service form Microsoft has been suffering from serious outages that have lasted for more than seven hours. This outage has added to the frustration of the Outlook.com customers. The issue started at 10 AM ET and affected the Outlook.com, the People address book of Outlook mail service, and the cloud storage service of Microsoft that is referred to as SkyDrive. The issues related to SkyDrive were resolved after four hours and Microsoft now says that, after seven hours of these Outlook problems, they have found a solution to the Outlook.com problem.

The Microsoft engineering team has brought most of the services back online as per a recent status message. The rest of the services that have issues with them are being gradually brought up. Microsoft warns the Outlook users that the mobile access to the Outlook.com still has some issues. The mobile users will be still having problems synchronizing. This recent outage seems to be widespread and sporadic among the Outlook.com users. Some of the users had no issues, but later ran into Outlook problems and outages at the later stage of the Outage.

This problem comes just after Microsoft boasted about the 400 million users of the service, and just six months after Outlook.com suffered from sixteen hours long issues, which was caused by a firmware upgrade at the datacenter of Microsoft. It is not yet clear if the overheating of the datacenters is involved in this latest outage. Many of the technical websites are trying to reach out to Microsoft to know and confirm the root cause of the issue. Microsoft had blamed this outage as an unexplained incident. They said that only a smaller number of the users were affected by the issue, but they did not provide further details on the outage.

Even though only small portions of the users were affected, the outage caused inconvenience to millions of users. Microsoft had transferred all the users of its other web emails, including the hotmail.com and msn.com to Outlook, as part of their attempt to outshine Yahoo mail and Gmail from Google. Microsoft does not have the details on the cause of the outage, but a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to The Verge that they have restored web access to all users. He also added that the Microsoft engineering team is working to restore full mobile access to the users as quickly as possible. If you wish to know more on this outage, you can contact our tech support team.

Fixing Issues With Outlook Add-Ons

Microsoft Outlook is much used as an email client by many computer users around the world. Installing third party add-ons to the program can lead to a disproportionately high number of connection issues in it. If you think that third party add-ons are causing Outlook problems, you can follow the steps discussed in this article to fix the issues with the third party add-ons. The easiest way to do this is to start the Outlook program in Safe mode. When the Outlook program is started in Safe mode, all the add-ons will be disabled.

To do this, you will have to shut the Outlook program completely by selecting File-Exit and then pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete to reach Task Manager. If you find that running the Outlook program in Safe mode fixes the connection issues that you were having, the next step to be done is to restart the Outlook program normally and then disable or remove the installed add-ins. There are mainly two areas where you need to check - Exchange Client Extensions and COM+ Add-ins.

For Outlook 2010

Open the Outlook program and go to File – Options – Add-ins. Click on the Go button that is located at the bottom part of the window.

For Outlook 2007

In the Outlook window, go to Tools– Trust Center – Add-ins. Select COM Add-ins and then click on the Go button.

For Outlook 2003

In Outlook, select Tools –Options, then click on Other tab and click on the Advanced Options button. Click on the button COM Add-Ins that is located at the bottom of the screen.

You will reach a window that shows you the list of Add-ons installed in the program. You can start by disabling everything except Microsoft Exchange Unified Messaging, Microsoft Outlook Mobile Service, Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server Colleague Import Add-in and Microsoft VBA for Outlook Add-in. You may then click on the OK button.

After that,

In Outlook 2010, you do not have to do any steps.

In Outlook 2007, go to Tools– Trust Center – Add-ins, choose Exchange Client Extensions and then click on the Go button.

In Outlook 2003, select Tools –Options, click on Other tab and then Advanced Options button. Then click on Add-In Manager.

These are the steps to resolve Outlook problems that are caused by the add-ons in the program. If you have any more doubts, you can contact our tech support team for further help.

Adjusting Settings For Scheduling Meetings In Outlook

Microsoft Outlook is an application that is used by many. Home users as well as business professional alike use this wonderful application. It has many features and functions that are very handy. A recurring pattern is used when recurring meetings are setup. However, it is good to know that the dates can be adjusted. The updated appointments can be sent to others and on their calendars, the appointments will be present. By following the below guidelines, scheduling meetings can be done easily.

Making A Single Meeting Within A Series

• Launch the Microsoft Outlook. Below Mailbox, the Calendar icon will be present. Select it.
• The day of the week the recurring meeting is scheduled for will be visible. Select it. Search and find the recurring meeting appointment and double click it.
• The radio button corresponding to this occurrence has to be selected.
• Next to the start time, the first pull down list will be present and you need to select it and choose the date of the meeting.
• The Save And Close button has to be selected. The Send Update button has to be used if you have requested people to your meeting.

Making All Meetings Within A Series

• Access the Microsoft Outlook. Below mailbox, the Calendar icon will be present. Choose it.
• The recurring meeting appointment will be present. Search and double click it.
• The radio button corresponding to open the series will be present. Select it.
• At the top of the window, the recurrence button will be present. Select it.
• Corresponding to the correct day of the week, a check box will be present and you need to check mark it.
• Corresponding to the incorrect day of the meeting, a check box will be present and it should not be check marked.
• Select the OK button.
• The Save and Close button has to be selected. The send update button has to be used if you have requested people to your meeting.

By following the above-mentioned guidelines, the settings for scheduling meetings can be adjusted easily. If you have any Outlook problems, you can contact the Microsoft support website to resolve all your Outlook problems. The Microsoft support website provides the best Outlook help required for you.

Some Common Outlook Problems And Fixes

The contact folder of Microsoft Outlook is often prone to several problems due to numerous reasons. The integrated contact folder within Outlook can be used to get an account of the messages and files that has been sent and received as well as to identify the sender.

Most of the Outlook problems can be resolved using the Microsoft troubleshooting tools. This article lists out some of the basic reasons behind the Microsoft Outlook contact problems. Read on to find out what they are and how to troubleshoot them!

Corrupted contact files

Corrupted files can sometimes cause the application not to work.  File corruption can occur due to many reasons such as faulty updates and external applications affecting Outlook. The corrupted contact files cannot be used or accessed in the future. Unfortunately, Outlook programs do not notify you when the contact files are corrupted. Instead, you will have to find and repair such files with the help of Outlook Repairing Scan tool.

Not able to open attachments

The Outlook application can also be used to safeguard your email account from potential harmful programs. Sometimes the attachments you receive along with emails from a trusted source that you already have as a contact, cannot be opened. You will receive an error message saying that the files downloaded can cause harm to your computer. In such a scenario, you can access the file manually by saving the file to your computer. Attachments with .XML extension are more prone to such issues.

Unable to use or locate folders
Sometimes the Outlook programs fail to connect with the contact files as there is no link established between the personal file folder and the Outlook application. Now use the import function named Import and Export to manually import your contact files into the Outlook account. This will also initiate the connection between the .pst files and the contacts folder. Make sure to search the contact files using the file extension .pst. Now you can save the changes made, by restarting the Outlook application and the new folder changes will take effect.

By understanding the root cause of Microsoft Outlook problems, you can employ the right troubleshooting steps to quickly fix the issue. If you want to know more about Microsoft Outlook and its various troubleshooting steps, you may go through the Outlook Help menu or visit Microsoft Support Center online and get more assistance.