Inbox not synchronized on Outlook 2003 with RPC over HTTP   

Dear all,

We have a problem with a couple of our Outlook users in Germany. They are 
connected to our Exchange 2003 server with Outlook 2003 with RPC over HTTP. 
Email is send and recieved without a problem, but the inbox is not 
synchronized. When I go to the tab Synchronization I see that the offline 
folder contains 2 items, the server folder contains 0 items. I tried 
recreating the OST file, recreating the profile, reinstalling Outlook 2003, 
installing all new SP's and updates, but nothing helps. It must have 
something to do with the Exchange account not being the default account on 
this machine (email is delivered to a personal (POP3) folder). The other 
thing I found out is that that status is "waiting to update this folder" for 
a couple of minutes. One of the last things I tried was creating a new 
profile and putting this Exchange account as only account and after that it 
works OK. But as soon as I add a new (POP3) account to it and adjust the 
settings so that new mail is delivered to the POP3 account, the problems are 
back...
By the way, the subfolders are synchronized OK.

Can anyone help us?

date: Tue, 19 Feb 2008 05:14:03 -0800   author:   Erik

Re: Inbox not synchronized on Outlook 2003 with RPC over HTTP   

Erik  wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> We have a problem with a couple of our Outlook users in Germany. They
> are connected to our Exchange 2003 server with Outlook 2003 with RPC
> over HTTP. Email is send and recieved without a problem, but the
> inbox is not synchronized. When I go to the tab Synchronization I see
> that the offline folder contains 2 items, the server folder contains
> 0 items. I tried recreating the OST file, recreating the profile,
> reinstalling Outlook 2003, installing all new SP's and updates, but
> nothing helps. It must have something to do with the Exchange account
> not being the default account on this machine (email is delivered to
> a personal (POP3) folder). The other thing I found out is that that
> status is "waiting to update this folder" for a couple of minutes.
> One of the last things I tried was creating a new profile and putting
> this Exchange account as only account and after that it works OK. But
> as soon as I add a new (POP3) account to it and adjust the settings
> so that new mail is delivered to the POP3 account, the problems are
> back...
> By the way, the subfolders are synchronized OK.
>
> Can anyone help us?

How many items in the inbox? If it's a lot, and this is a remote user, 
they'll have to wait a long time for the first sync.

Don't set up POP3 accounts or change anything. Make sure Outlook is fully 
patched to SP3, and also that Windows is patched. Check the Sync Issues 
folder for errors, too.

date: Tue, 19 Feb 2008 09:42:02 -0500   author:   Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]

Re: Inbox not synchronized on Outlook 2003 with RPC over HTTP   

There are about 5 items in their mailbox, so that shouldn't be a problem.
As long as I don't add the POP account everything works fine, but when I add 
the POP account it gives those problems. The problem is that their primary 
email is from the a POP account, so I do have to add that account.
I also get errors in the sync issues folder, but at the moment it is empty, 
so I can't give you an example of it. Windows XP and Office 2003 are all 
updated to the latest Microsft updates...
Hope you can help...

"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]" wrote:

> Erik  wrote:
> > Dear all,
> >
> > We have a problem with a couple of our Outlook users in Germany. They
> > are connected to our Exchange 2003 server with Outlook 2003 with RPC
> > over HTTP. Email is send and recieved without a problem, but the
> > inbox is not synchronized. When I go to the tab Synchronization I see
> > that the offline folder contains 2 items, the server folder contains
> > 0 items. I tried recreating the OST file, recreating the profile,
> > reinstalling Outlook 2003, installing all new SP's and updates, but
> > nothing helps. It must have something to do with the Exchange account
> > not being the default account on this machine (email is delivered to
> > a personal (POP3) folder). The other thing I found out is that that
> > status is "waiting to update this folder" for a couple of minutes.
> > One of the last things I tried was creating a new profile and putting
> > this Exchange account as only account and after that it works OK. But
> > as soon as I add a new (POP3) account to it and adjust the settings
> > so that new mail is delivered to the POP3 account, the problems are
> > back...
> > By the way, the subfolders are synchronized OK.
> >
> > Can anyone help us?
> 
> How many items in the inbox? If it's a lot, and this is a remote user, 
> they'll have to wait a long time for the first sync.
> 
> Don't set up POP3 accounts or change anything. Make sure Outlook is fully 
> patched to SP3, and also that Windows is patched. Check the Sync Issues 
> folder for errors, too. 
> 
> 
>

date: Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:57:00 -0800   author:   Erik

Re: Inbox not synchronized on Outlook 2003 with RPC over HTTP   

Erik  wrote:
> There are about 5 items in their mailbox, so that shouldn't be a
> problem. As long as I don't add the POP account everything works
> fine, but when I add the POP account it gives those problems. The
> problem is that their primary email is from the a POP account, so I
> do have to add that account.
> I also get errors in the sync issues folder, but at the moment it is
> empty, so I can't give you an example of it. Windows XP and Office
> 2003 are all updated to the latest Microsft updates...
> Hope you can help...

Hmmm. I can't say, as the problem is clearly related to an Internet Mail 
account, which is not going to be an Exchange issue but an Outlook one. You 
could try posting a new (updated) message in microsoft.public.outlook, but 
instead, I strongly suggest you change the setup so that there are *no* 
Internet mail accounts in use for any of your users. Not only is it 
inefficient (and in your case, error prone) it's also a security hazard. All 
mail coming into your Exchange server mailboxes should be going through your 
Exchange server for delivery and scanning and whatnot.

If there's a registered domain name that your company owns which is used for 
these POP accounts, change it so it's being hosted on the Exchange server, 
and set up separate recipient policies for filtering if you don't want 
everyone in the company to have addresses on that domain (or if you want 
these users to have a different default/reply address).

Mixing & matching account types in Outlook is nearly always a bad idea, in 
my experience!

>
> "Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]" wrote:
>
>> Erik  wrote:
>>> Dear all,
>>>
>>> We have a problem with a couple of our Outlook users in Germany.
>>> They are connected to our Exchange 2003 server with Outlook 2003
>>> with RPC over HTTP. Email is send and recieved without a problem,
>>> but the inbox is not synchronized. When I go to the tab
>>> Synchronization I see that the offline folder contains 2 items, the
>>> server folder contains 0 items. I tried recreating the OST file,
>>> recreating the profile, reinstalling Outlook 2003, installing all
>>> new SP's and updates, but nothing helps. It must have something to
>>> do with the Exchange account not being the default account on this
>>> machine (email is delivered to a personal (POP3) folder). The other
>>> thing I found out is that that status is "waiting to update this
>>> folder" for a couple of minutes. One of the last things I tried was
>>> creating a new profile and putting this Exchange account as only
>>> account and after that it works OK. But as soon as I add a new
>>> (POP3) account to it and adjust the settings so that new mail is
>>> delivered to the POP3 account, the problems are back...
>>> By the way, the subfolders are synchronized OK.
>>>
>>> Can anyone help us?
>>
>> How many items in the inbox? If it's a lot, and this is a remote
>> user, they'll have to wait a long time for the first sync.
>>
>> Don't set up POP3 accounts or change anything. Make sure Outlook is
>> fully patched to SP3, and also that Windows is patched. Check the
>> Sync Issues folder for errors, too.

date: Wed, 20 Feb 2008 10:08:32 -0500   author:   Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]