Outlook 2003 Only Opens Offline

[RichB]

I am unable to open Outlook, other than offline. I am connected to my
company's LAN, but Outlook will open "online". If I hit send/receive, emails
download, then it goes back offline. I have set Outlook to promt me whether
to work offline or not up opening, but it does not. I removed the .ost file
and tried reating a new profile, but I can't create a new profile because it
says the exchange server cannot be reached. I am usinf Office 2003 pro SP2.
ANy ideas? I thought it might be spyware or a virus, but I'm not finding
anything. Also, other people can load my exchange acount without issues.

 

[Reb]

Have you checked to see if "Work Offline" is selected on the File menu?

 

[RichB]

Yes, but that option is actually missinf under file. I uninstalled 2003 and
wiped the registry. Reinstall seems to have worked for now anyway, but work
offline is still missing. I'm thinking that something in the registry got
whacked and was forcing offline. Any ideas? I have someone else I work with
that has the same issue.

 

[Reb]

Found this in the Help file:
If you do not see the Work Offline command on the File menu, do the following:
In the Navigation Pane (Navigation Pane: The column on the left side of the
Outlook window that includes panes such as Shortcuts or Mail and the
shortcuts or folders within each pane. Click a folder to show the items in
the folder.), right-click the Exchange Server e-mail account, and then click
Properties for "Mailbox - <user name>".
Note The Exchange Server account usually appears as Mailbox - <user name>.

Click Advanced.
Click the Advanced tab.
Click Offline Folder File Settings.
Click Disable Offline Use.
Quit and restart Microsoft Outlook.

 

[RichB]

In these instances, if I disabled offline use, Outlook ould not open at all
because it couldn't see the exchange server. I also couldn't create a new
profile because when I typed in the server name, it said it was unreachable
and couldn't create the profile.

 

[farva_06]

Been having this issue as well. Here's what fixed it for me:

1. Open file explorer (you need to make sure show hidden files and folders is checked in folder options)

2. For win XP navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\%userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
For win 7 it will be C:\Users\%userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\

3. In that folder there should be a file with .ost as the extension. By default it will be named Outlook.ost, but that depends on what your Outlook profile is named.

4. Rename that file to outlook_old.ost (make sure you have any MS office applications closed).

5. Re-open Outlook and it will start re-building your profile, and updating your inbox (may take a while depending on the size of your mailbox).

6. If all went well outlook should be connected to Exchange, and will connect every time you open it, that is until your profile gets corrupted again.