Outlook connector sync errors on 4.5.1

[russgalleywood]

Although I don't use it myself because I can't stand Outlook, many of our employees want to use Outlook, (crazy I know)!

We are now on Version 4.5.1_GA_660.RHEL4 and using the Outlook connector from it, (4.5.0_GA_611_4.5.115.msi).

I only actually launched Zimbra into live use on our Network a couple of weeks ago and am generally very happy with it.
I installed the connector on the relevant PC's, all using either Win2K or WinXP with Office 2003 and allowed each to synchronise with the user's profile on Zimbra. This worked fine but after a day or two some of the users were not receiving the latest mail from their Zimbra profiles, it was as though Outlook was no longer looking at Zimbra or had the wrong details.
If I go into 'Email Options' within Outlook and have a look at the details with which we are connecting to the Zimbra Server I get an error on clicking on 'OK' whether I change anything or not (an unknown error has occurred, error code: 0x80040119). I use the actual IP address of the Zimbra server as opposed to the DNS name for the 'Server Name' box and just the Users name in the 'Email Address' box (i.e russ instead of russ@domain.com). This seems to work fine on most of our PC's. This error occurs on both non-synchronising machines as well as ones which have a working Zimbra connector installed.

Does any of this sound familiar to anyone else?
I don't know if it is just Outlook itself which is at fault or our Network somehow.

After the sychronising fault originally occurred, everything has been running smoothly, my Outlook still crashes at least once a day but I put this down to my PC and Outlook just being extremely buggy.

I would probably have just forgotten about the error in fact but it hadn't happened again this morning on one PC. This was synchronising fine up until last night, the one thing I changed was to test External Authentication through the Zimbra Admin UI with a mind to forcing Active Directory passwords on our Zimbra users. This works fine by the way but has this in some way caused the fault? Could this have caused Outlook to lose the connection to Zimbra? If so, is there a way of reconnecting to it without uninstalling and reinstalling the Connector itself and having to synchronise Outlook from scratch again?

Sorry this is so long but wanted to give all the details!

Thanks for any help

Russ

[phoenix]

Did you try the resolution suggested by MS in this KB article?

Actually, I'd suggest installing 4.5.2 (server and connector) and seeing how many of the problems (if any) still exist. Zimbra 4.5.2 should be released (very) soon.

[russgalleywood]

Thanks Bill,

I'll try and repair my Outlook and wait for 4.5.2. I'll report back after if I still have the issues.

[rexxe]

I'm having the same issue. Currently on 4.5.1, Outlook no longer synchs up with the server and when I close Outlook it crashes. I looked at the error and it is definitely the Zimbra connector that is causing the issue. I'm going to upgrade to 4.5.2 tonight, but to be honest, I'm a bit disappointed.

[sam]

There were a few 4.5.1 bugs that krept in last minute. 4.5.2 should fix your issues. If it doesn't, make sure to open a case with zimbra support.

[azilber]

Originally Posted by sam

There were a few 4.5.1 bugs that krept in last minute. 4.5.2 should fix your issues. If it doesn't, make sure to open a case with zimbra support.

I'm currently running 4.5.1 as well (But the 4.5.2 connector), and I'm wondering if it's worth upgrading or waiting till 5.0? 4.5.1 has bugs to be sure, but it's not crippling (at least not as crippling as a borked upgrade would be). How elegantly does 4.5.2 handle upgrades?

I'll have to do a test upgrade anyway to test..

[russgalleywood]

To be honest I have managed to convince quite a few Users here to use the Zimbra interface instead as it is much better than Outlook in my opinion.
Unfortunately, there will always be those Users who refuse to use anything that ins't made by Microsoft and who get the shakes when I mention the words 'Linux' or 'Web Interface'!

If only there was Tasks and IMAP Mailfolder sharing it would be a pretty perfect interface I think.

[marcineczek]

Hi,

I have find out, that Office 2003 + SP2 + rest of the patches nad fixes works much better then Office 2003 without any patches and fixes.
Maybe this is a way?

[russgalleywood]

Originally Posted by marcineczek

Hi,

I have find out, that Office 2003 + SP2 + rest of the patches nad fixes works much better then Office 2003 without any patches and fixes.
Maybe this is a way?

You really think it makes a big difference?

Have you tried this on more than one machine/install?

I have now had many users with a erratic connection to Zimbra through Outlook.
I have managed to convince most of them to just use the Zimbra interface instead.

But I will try and check if all the Outlook installs on our machines are up to date as you suggest.
Thanks
Russ

[marcineczek]

Hi,

If we are talking about the network related problems - like to much traffice without any reason to-from Outlook - to-from Zimbra, then yes, it makes a real diffrence.

In my network the following method was implemented:
- update Windows and Office via Microsoft Update website
http://update.microsoft.com/microsof....aspx?ln=en-us
- reboot
- copy Outlook files (pst) to the other place - just a backup
- installation of Zimbra plugin

In case of a problem with network traffic - process was like this:
- update Windows and Office via Microsoft Update website
http://update.microsoft.com/microsof....aspx?ln=en-us
- reboot
- uninstall Zimbra
- reinstallation of Zimbra plugin.

In every single cases it was resolve problems with network traffic. IMHO SP2 for 2003 is a 'must have'. The other 'must have' is Windows Installer 3.1
which can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en
SP2 - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

First of course goes Windows Installer 3.1, the SP2. I am not sure if the SP2 has Windows Installer 3.1.

all the best