The following articles were included in our Exchange Messaging Outlook (EMO) newsletter published on January 19, 2017.
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Today's Highlights:
- Outlook.com: Switch Account to Microsoft Exchange Now
- Copy Appointments to a Second Calendar
- Office 365 Mailbox Size Increase
- Reminder: Office 365 Home Subscriptions Giveaway
Outlook.com: Switch Account to Microsoft Exchange Now
Anyone who is using Outlook 2013 or Outlook 2016 to connect to their Outlook.com account who has not removed the Outlook.com EAS account from their profile and added it back using auto account setup, will need to make the change ASAP. Microsoft is in the process of blocking Outlook desktop as an Exchange Active Sync (EAS) client for Outlook.com users.
This protocol was blocked for Office 365 business users against Exchange Online (and in on-premise Exchange Servers) because it offered a very poor user experience. EAS was designed to provide a good experience using the lightweight mail clients found on smartphones and not well suited to Outlook but it was enabled for Outlook.com accounts to make migration to the new server easier.
However, due to issues that are amplified by having many people use Outlook EAS, Microsoft is shutting EAS access off for all Outlook desktop users. Smartphone apps are not affected, they will still be able to using EAS. Only Outlook desktop is affected.
Using the full Microsoft Exchange to connect is by far the best option, with full access to all Outlook and Exchange features available in consumer accounts. Some users switched back to EAS to avoid an Outlook.com bug where, under certain, specific conditions, all replies where sent using the Outlook.com account. These users will need to remove the EAS account from their profile and use auto account setup to add it back. (To work around the bug, users can set a pst file as default if they want to avoid selecting the correct account each time they reply.)
If an account is blocked before a user makes the switch, the account will stop syncing. When EAS is shut off, Microsoft will put an email into the mailbox telling the user to remove the account and reconnect to Outlook.com.
Switching to Microsoft Exchange account type is simple to do: after verifying any folders labeled 'this computer only' are empty, go to File, Account Settings, Email tab and Remove the Exchange Active Sync account. Click New and type in your email address then click Next. The name and password fields can be left blank for Outlook.com and Office 365 Exchange accounts. Outlook will ask for your password if it doesn't find it in the Windows Credential Manager. Your name is picked up from your Microsoft account.
Also, a reminder for Outlook 2007 users connecting to Outlook.com or Office 365 Exchange: you'll need to upgrade before October 31 2017 as Outlook 2007 will no longer connect using Microsoft Exchange account type. POP and IMAP will be supported but are email only, calendar and contacts will stop syncing.
Copy Appointments to a Second Calendar
Several users had this request:
I need to add an event to two calendars at once (e.g. my personal calendar and a shared departmental calendar). I'm currently creating the event in the first calendar, then copy and paste it in the second calendar. Is there an easier method?
Possibly. Outlook has a Copy to My Calendar button which will save a couple of steps but it doesn't have an option to duplicate all newly created events to your personal calendar automatically.
To use Copy to My Calendar, create the event on the shared calendar then click the Copy to My Calendar button instead of Save and Close. This creates a copy on your calendar and you'll be asked if you want to save changes to add it to the current calendar. If you click Save (Ctrl+S) before Copy to My Calendar, you'll avoid the save changes dialog.
When the shared calendar is in a mailbox or is a mail-enabled Public Folder, using a meeting request to invite the calendar works, but the event will show up as tentative on the shared calendar. To auto accept, a shared mailbox can be converted to a resource mailbox and auto accept enabled.
If you can use a macro, I have one that will copy events between calendars. The macro and instructions are at Copy New Appointments to Another Calendar using VBA
Office 365 Mailbox Size Increase
Mailbox quotas for E3 and E5 accounts is increasing to 100 GB, with all other Office 365 Exchange mailboxes remaining at 50 GB, including Business, E1, shared, resource, group and public folder mailboxes. Administrators don't need to do anything to increase the size of existing mailboxes, as the change rolls out, mailbox sizes will be increased automatically.
A list of all mailbox quota sizes is at Exchange Online Limits - Mailbox storage limits. Additionally, this page lists the limits for other Office 365 features.
Reminder: Office 365 Home Subscriptions Giveaway
Reminder: I have 5 Office 365 Home subscriptions and 2 Office 365 Personal subscriptions to give away. The requirements to enter are easy: send an email to dec2016@slipstick.com to enter. I'll draw names at the end of January 2017.
More information on Office 365 Home subscriptions is at Office 365 Home.
New & Updated Exchange KB Articles
Meeting request isn't removed from Inbox after response from Calendar
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/3137329
Other Resources
Use VBA to Export Exchange GAL to Excel
A VBA code sample to export Exchange GAL entries to an Excel worksheet.