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Outlook Offline Folders & Offline mode

How do I use Outlook in Offline (Folders) mode?

What are Offline Folders?

How to create, compact, repair or delete Offline Folders

How to Set User-Defined Folders for Offline Use?

How to synchronize Offline Folders

How to Work with Public Folders Offline

Offline Address Book (OAB)

How do I use Outlook in Offline (Folders) mode?
[These instructions are for Outlook 2003.]

If you have not already done so, create an Offline Folder file (.ost).

To enable Offline Folders:

Launch Outlook.

On the "Tools" menu, click "E-Mail Accounts", click "View or change existing e-mail accounts", and then click "Next".

In the "Outlook processes e-mail for these accounts in the following order" list, click "Microsoft Exchange Server", and then click "Change"

Click "More Settings".

Click the "Advanced" tab, and then click "Offline Folder File Settings".

In the File box, type the path to the file you want to use as the .ost file.
The default file name is Outlook.ost. If this file already exists, you are prompted for a new name. You should not use an OST file that was previously used. You may wish to first delete the existing file and create a new "outlook.ost".
Once you have created the offline file, Outlook will be able to download data to it.

To manually control Offline Folder state:

Launch Outlook.

On the "Tools" menu, click "E-Mail Accounts", click "View or change existing e-mail accounts", and then click "Next".

In the "Outlook processes e-mail for these accounts in the following order" list, click "Microsoft Exchange Server", and then click "Change"

Click "More Settings".

Now you are on the General tab. From here, do one of the following:

To always start Outlook offline, click "Manually control connection state", and then click "Work offline and use dial-up networking".

To choose each time you start Outlook whether to work offline or online, click "Manually control connection state", and then select the "Choose the connection type when starting" check box.

To always connect to the network, click "Manually control connection state", and then click "Connect with the network".

To have Outlook automatically detect whether you can connect or not, click "Automatically detect connection state". If Outlook is unable to connect with your server, it opens in Offline mode automatically.
Note To specify the amount of time to wait for a response from the server before you are notified to retry or work offline, type a number in the Seconds until server connection timeout box.

Once Offline Folder are set up, you can also control Offline mode by going to the File menu and toggling the Offline Mode entry.

What are Offline Folders?
When you use Outlook in Offline mode, you can work in Outlook as if you were connected to server when you are not. Offline Folders allow you to compose emails, make updates to items such as Contacts and Calendar, etc., when you are unable to have a network or internet connection, such as on an airplane. Once you are connected to a network again, Outlook will synchronize these changes with your mailbox on the Exchange Server, including sending messages that are waiting in the Outbox.

In order for Offline mode to work, Outlook creates an Offline Storage file (OST) on your computer. When you first enable Offline Folders, all the information in your Exchange Server mailbox is copied to this file. The size of the OST file is proportional to the amount of data in your Exchange mailbox. This initial one-time process can take a long while for larger mailboxes.

Please note

Like Personal Folder files (.pst files), the .ost file can be become corrupted and can be compacted to save space on your computer.
Large mailboxes (hundreds of megabytes or gigabytes) with thousands of messages or other items are more likely to experience poor performance or corruption problems.
You cannot use an .ost file that has previously been used with a different mailbox.
Extensive use of Offline Folders and offline synchronization may cause performance issues using an Outlook client to connect to the Exchange server.
If you have Terminal Services installed on Windows 2000 Server computer you will not be able to install and use Offline folders and Offline address book.

How to create, compact, repair or delete Offline Folders
This document has these sections;

How to create an Offline Folder (.OST) file

How to compact an Offline Folder (.OST) file

How to repair and Offline Folder (.OST) file

How to delete a Offline Folder (.OST) file

How to create an Offline Folder (.OST) file:

For Outlook 2000

On the Tools menu, click Services.

Select Microsoft Exchange Server and then click Properties.

On the Advanced tab make sure Enable Offline Access is selected and click Offline Folder File Settings.

Type the path to the file that you want to use as the offline folder file. If you receive the message "<.ost filename> could not be found. Would you like to create it?" click OK.

For Outlook 2002/2003

On the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts, click View or change existing mail accounts, and then click Next.

In the Outlook processes email for these accounts in the following order box, click Microsoft Exchange Server, and then click Change.

Click More Settings.

Click the Advanced tab, and then click Offline Folder File Settings.

In the File box, type the path to the file that you want to use as the .ost file and then click OK. The default name is Outlook.ost. If this file already exists, you will receive a prompt for a new name.

If you receive the message below, click OK:
<path> <filename>.ost could not be found. Would you like to create it?
where <path> represents the path to the ost file and <filename> represents the name of the ost file.

Click OK, Next, and then click Finish.

Please note: Outlook must be connected to the Exchange Server computer for the initial creation and synchronization of the Offline Folder file.

How to compact my Offline Folder (.OST) file:

On the Tools menu, click "E-mail accounts", click "View or change existing e-mail accounts", and then click "Next".

In the "Outlook processes e-mail for these accounts in the following order" list, select "Microsoft Exchange Server", and then click "Change".

Click "More Settings".

Click the "Advanced" tab, and then click Offline Folder File Settings.
Click Compact Now.
Notes

To delete an item from both the online and offline folders, select the item, and then press DELETE.
If you are using a Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail account in Cached Exchange Mode, only the selected folder will be cleared from the local .ost file. The items on the server will be downloaded again to the .ost file on the next synchronization if the folder is selected under Folder Options in Send/Receive Settings for the Exchange e-mail account.
When you use Cached Exchange Mode, public folders favorites are not synchronized by default. If you choose to synchronize public folders, the size of your Offline Folder file (.ost) may increase significantly.

How to repair Offline Folder (.OST) file:

If you get error messages when synchronizing your Offline Folder file (.ost) in Microsoft Office Outlook with your mailbox on a Microsoft Exchange Server, use the OST Integrity Check tool (Scanost.exe) to check your file. You must connect to your Exchange server so the tool can scan your mailbox folders and items. If you previously set up Outlook to automatically start offline, the OST Integrity Check tool won't be able to access your Exchange server. Therefore, before you run the tool, you need to temporarily change your startup settings.

Steps to repair the OST file:

Quit Outlook if it is running.

Double-click Scanost.exe, located at drive:\Program Files\Common Files\System\MSMAPI\LocaleID folder - where LocaleID is the locale identifier (LCID) for the installation of Microsoft Office. The LCID for English - United States is 1033.
If you set up Outlook to prompt for a profile, the tool will also prompt you for one. In the Profile Name list, click the profile that contains the .ost you want to check.
If you are prompted to Connect or Work Offline, click Connect.

Select the options you want.
To have the tool automatically resolve discrepancies it finds during the scan, select the Repair Errors check box. If this check box is cleared, the tool will log the problems but not make the necessary corrections.

Click Begin Scan.
Note To view the scan log, start Outlook, and then open the Deleted Items folder. The tool does not scan the Deleted Items folder. Any problems will be noted in a message with the Subject "OST Integrity Check."

How to delete Offline Folder (.OST) file:

Sometimes an OST file becomes corrupted beyond repair or repair is not desirable. In this case, it can be deleted. After it had been deleted, you may need to recreate it as a new file as described above before Outlook will work properly.

Quit Outlook if it is running.

From the Start menu, go to Run.

In the Run window, enter this command in the "Open:" field and click OK:

"%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\"
You may want to cut-and-paste that information for accuracy and ease.

In the Explorer window, locate the OST file to deleted. Select it and press delete on your keyboard or use the Delete icon on the toolbar.

How to Set User-Defined Folders for Offline Use?
After you created an Offline Folder File all of the standard Outlook folders Inbox, Outbox, Deleted Items, Sent Items, Calendar, Contacts, Journal, Notes and Tasks on the Exchange Server computer are ready for offline use. You cannot selectively choose which of these folders will be available for offline use and which will not be.

To set any user-defined folders for offline use in Outlook 2000, follow these steps:

Right-click the user-defined folder, and then click Properties on the shortcut menu.
On the Synchronization tab, click to select the When offline or online check box under This folder is available.
Click OK.

To set any user-defined folders for offline use in Outlook 2002/2003, follow these steps:

On the Tools menu, click Send/Receive Settings, and then click Define Send/Receive Groups.
Mark Include this group in send/receive (F9) option.
Click All Accounts, and then click the Edit button.
Click to select the folders that you would like available offline including any Public folders that you have in your Favorites folder.
Click OK, and then click Close.

How to synchronize Offline Folders
When you synchronize, a log file appears as a message in your Deleted Items folder. This log file contains information such as the time that you synchronized, the names of the folders that were synchronized, and the number of items that were added.

To synchronize offline folders in Outlook 2000, use one of the following methods:

Synchronizing a Specific Folder:

Click to select the folder that you want to synchronize, choose Synchronize on the Tools menu, and select This Folder.

Synchronizing All Folders:

On the Tools menu, click Synchronize, and then click All Folders to synchronize all your offline folders.

Synchronizing a Group of Folder

To synchronize a group of folders, first make sure that the folders are available for offline use. Then point to Synchronize on the Tools menu, click Offline Folder Settings, and then click the folders that you want to group for synchronization.

Automatically Synchronizing All Folders When You Quit Outlook:

On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Mail Services tab.
Under Mail Options, click to select the Enable Offline Access check box, and then click to select the When online, synchronize all folders upon exiting check box.
Click OK.

All folders that are available offline are automatically synchronized when you quit Outlook.

To synchronize offline folders in Outlook 2002/2003/2007, use one of the following methods:

Scheduled Synchronization:

On the Tools menu, click Define Send/Receive Groups.

Click All Accounts.

Under When Outlook is Offline, click to select Schedule and automatic send/receive every X minutes. Select whatever time that you want.

Click Close.

Synchronizing a Specific Folder:

To synchronize a specific folder, click to select the folder that you want to synchronize, point to Send/Receive on the Tools menu, and then click This Folder. You can also use Shift+F9.

Synchronizing All Folders:

To synchronize all your offline folders, you can either click the Send/Receive button on the Standard toolbar, and then press the F9 key, or on the Tools Menu, point to Send/Receive, and then click Send and Receive All.

Automatically Synchronizing All Folders When You Quit Outlook:

On the Tools menu, click Send/Receive Settings, and then click Define Send/Receive Groups.
In the Send/Receive Groups dialog box, click to select the Perform An Automatic Send/Receive When Exiting check box.
Click Close.

All folders that are available offline are automatically synchronized when you quit Outlook.

How to Work with Public Folders Offline
To work with Public Folders offline, please use the additional feature of Cached Exchange Mode:
1. In Outlook please expand the folder list, right-click the Public Folder that you want to work offline with, choose "Add to Favorites", give it a display name in Favorites folder and hit “Add”, give it a display name in favorites folder.
2. In your Outlook navigate to "Tools" > "E-mail Accounts" > "View or change existing e-mail account", hit "Next", then go to "Change" > "More Settings" > "Advanced" tab > Check box "Download Public folder Favorites".
This will create a local copy of this Public Folder and will let you work with it offline in Cached Exchange Mode.
Note that Cached Exchange Mode is to be on to enable this feature.

Offline Address Book (OAB)
OAB for Exchange 2003/2007 users is generated immediately when your account is created but becomes available only after maintenance tasks completed on Exchange server.

To check whether OAB is available for download:

Outlook 2000:

On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Mail Services tab.
Select the Enable offline access check box and click Offline Folder Settings button
Select Download Offline Address Book check box, click Settings button
Make sure that "\[accountName]" is displayed in the Choose Address Book dropdown at the bottom.

Outlook 2002/2003/2007:

On the Tools menu, click Send/Receive, and then click the Download Address Book button.
Make sure that "\[accountName]" is displayed in the Choose Address Book dropdown at the bottom.

Please note that OAB is refreshed daily.

It is important to synchronize and download the Address Book before you log off the Exchange Server computer. This is particularly important the first time to ensure that all your offline folders are updated.

To download your Address Book:

Outlook 2000:

On the Tools menu, click Synchronize, and then click Download Address Book.

Outlook 2002/2003/2007:

On the Tools menu, click Send/Receive, and then click the Download Address Book button.

Under Information to download, select either the Full details or No details option, depending on your preference, and then click OK.