The Social connector will be removed from Office 365 / 2019 in mid-2020. This will remove the People pane from Outlook.
Much of the original Social connector is gone from Outlook: all of the "social providers" (Facebook, LinkedIn, SharePoint integration) were removed. All that is left is (in my opinion) the best, most useful piece: the people pane with it's recent messages results.
People Pane Search
Windows Desktop Search is required for the people pane's search to work. When it's not installed, messages and events associated with the email address will not be found and the people pane will be empty.
The people pane will list the last 50 messages from the selected person, as well as attachments and meetings with that person.
Troubleshooting
If the people pane is not working you need to verify it is enabled. In Outlook 2010 and newer, go to File, Options, Add-ins. Is it listed in the Disabled or Inactive Application Add-ins sections?
If in the Inactive section: click the Go button at the bottom of the Add-ins dialog to open the COM Add-ins dialog.
Locate the Outlook Social Connector in the list and check the box to enable it.
If it is listed as disabled, select Disabled Add-ins from the dropdown at the bottom of the dialog and then press Go.
If the Social Connector won't stay loaded, see Always Load an Outlook Addin for instructions on how to force it to always load.
In Outlook 2007, look in Tools, Trust Center, Add-ins. The dialog is identical to Outlook 2010 and up. You can also check for disabled add-ins from the Help, Disabled Items menu. If listed, select the add-in and click the Enable button.
More Information
- Certificate Error in Outlook's Social Connector
- Emails are not shown in the People Pane (Fixed)
- Goodbye, SharePoint Social Connector
- Help! My Contacts are being updated!
- Is the People Pane secure?
- LinkedIn Social Connector Provider: Gone
- Outlook's Social Connector
- Outlook's Social Connector and Contacts Sync
- Stop Showing Contact Pictures in Messages
- Troubleshooting Outlook's Social Connector
From Microsoft:
Developing an Outlook Social Connector Provider (for Developers)
OSC: Synchronizing Friends and Activities (for Developers)
Description of the Outlook Social Connector update: July 13, 2010
Craig says
Seems to me an invasion into my account for other people to see stuff I've been working on. Does turning off and disabling the "Outlook Social Connector" under COM Add-ins also disable sharing of my information to others?
Gary Bouchard says
Jeremy says
Do you know what would be causing problems with Outlook Social Connector on Outlook 2013 with Linked In. At first login, it might show the connected profiles associated with an email addres, then it will just stop working. I don't know if it is an Outlook problem, or a LinkedIn problem.
Diane Poremsky says
It's hard to say where the problem lies. Because I haven't seen any complaints about it yet, I'm guessing it's a problem on your end - probably with Outlook but it could be a network problem instead. I would start with a repair of Office and see if it fixes it.