Microsoft Outlook - Online Status not showing

[SajeshNair]

Hello,

I am having trouble with my Outlook client not displaying the online status of individuals in the 'TO' and 'CC' sections. This was previously working for me, but it has recently stopped functioning. I have tried various solutions that I found online, but none of them have fixed the issue.

Has anyone else encountered this problem with Outlook and found a solution? I would greatly appreciate any suggestions or advice.

See the missing status in TO & CC

Teams has this option selected

Outlook has this option selected

Thank you.

[#2]

@SajeshNair 

Yes, indeed. Had this on some clients and finally found the solution - which is pretty silly.
Here it turned out, that this is / was again an issue that we owe to Microsoft's renaming resp. re-design craze.

Solution:

1.) Close Outlook
2.) Switch to MS-Teams and toggle the "Try the new Teams" once and wait until Teams restarted.
3.) Start Outlook and check if Online-Status is now displayed again (which was the case here).
4.) Close Outlook again
5.) Switch to Teams and Toggle that "Try the new Teams" option once more and wait again until Teams reloaded.
6.) Start Outlook again
7.) Have some fun

I assume that it happens when users are togglin' between new and "old" teams (which i still prefer) while Outlook is running. This somehow messes up with Outlook. 

[#3]

@ll4mat, thank you for the response.

I just tried out all the steps you had suggested. Unfortunately, it did not help in my case.

[#4]

@SajeshNair 

Well... in the case we just had, the option "Display online status next to name" was also grayed out on affected devices (still enabled, but greyed out) and the online status wasn't displayed anymore at all in Outlook. So i guess your issue is not quite the same.

The only other idea I can think of is the Com-Addins.
So perhaps check whether the Teams Com add-in might be deactivated in Outlook.

[#5]

@ll4mat 

I did check the Com-Addins and found that the Teams Add-in is available. While inspecting the version, I could see that my Outlook is 32-bit and my teams is 64-bit. Could that have an impact on not showing the online status.

NOTE: The Online status shows correctly for the 'Sender' of the email. Its only affecting the people who are in the 'TO' & 'CC' fields.

[#6]

@SajeshNair

You might give that one a try using the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant (SaRA): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/troubleshoot/teams-im-presence/issues-with-presence...

Otherwhise i guess you (or your admin) should create a Microsoft Support request in Teams-Admin center like mentioned in that article.

Also there are some known Issues mentioned there.
Quote:

• Outlook currently shows Status unknown for federated (external) Teams contacts.
• In the 32-bit version of Outlook, the presence status icons related to "Out of Office" aren't currently displayed.
• When a user sets up automatic Out of Office replies in Outlook, the presence status icon in Outlook doesn't match Teams. Others see the presence status of this user as Away or Offline in Outlook, but as Out of Office in Teams.

[#7]

@ll4mat Thanks for the suggestions.

So, I gave the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant a spin. It dropped some hints about checking Registry values and making sure the tlb file is in the right place. I dove into those details, double-checking everything.

Then, in a last-ditch effort, I ditched the 32-bit Office and went for the 64-bit version, thinking it would be the magic fix. Turns out, not so much – the issue is still hanging around.

Interesting thing is my coworkers do not have such an issue. We all use the same software and the updates are controlled by the administrator.