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Chris Hemmings's avatar
Chris Hemmings
Copper Contributor
Sep 15, 2016

Outllook 2016 - Local Stored Mail Empties and Re-downloads when using multiple PCs

I have Outlook 2016 running on 3 PCs, a laptop and two desktops.

 

I have a company Exchange mail account which I access through the corporate VPN.

 

If I stick to using one PC I have no problem. When I open Outlook my mail folders are full. However, when I open Outlook 2016 on another PC it causes the mail folders to empty and the whole mail history starts to download from scratch, on all PCs.

 

I have checked registry settings for group policy Cached Exchange Mode  for syncwindowsetting and syncwindowsettingdays and both are set to zero.

 

Does anybody know what setting I can tweak to prevent this behaviour?

exchange
office 365
  • EWoodrick's avatar
    EWoodrick
    Iron Contributor
    Sep 15, 2016

    That is definitely abnormal behaviour. It is not what is supposed to happen. Somewhere it seems as if you have something set incorrectly. I know that is works because I probably have a dozen machines that have Outlook syncing to.

    Now it is expected that when you create a new profile, it will have an empty OST as it starts up and will have to download the mail, but it shoudn't impact the othe machines.

     

    • Just a couple of sanity questions.
    • You do not have any PSTs configured
    • You aren't pointing OSTs to a common location
    • Your profile isn't causing OSTs to be stored in a common location
    • You are using the new account wizard to create your profile
    • You are logged on to the workstation with your account
    • You are using Exchange connection type, not POP3 or IMAP4 or ActieSync.
    • Chris Hemmings's avatar
      Chris Hemmings
      Copper Contributor
      Sep 16, 2016

      Thanks for your reply Ed.

       

      Actually this problem started when I was unable to setup my company email account from home using EAS, I kept getting server not found. I work at home but access the company's servers via a VPN. So I took my laptop into the company premises and they managed to setup the Outllook 2016 OK from inside the company network.

       

      To setup my two home PCs I exported the account settings from the laptop registry and imported them into the registry of the desktop PCS. This worked fine except for the problem I have indicated.

       

      All three of my PCs have Win 10 and Office 2016 and the folder structures are exactly mirrored.

       

      Initially I did not have a PST configured but I did try that in attempting to resolve the problem.

       

      I have manually tried setting chached mode in the registry policies and account settings. Everything I have tried so far has failed.

       

      I believe the problem is linked to the fact that I used the identical registry account settings to set up the other PCS.

       

      Do you have any ideas?

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