The following articles were included in our Exchange Messaging Outlook (EMO) newsletter published on June 7, 2018.
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Today's Highlights:
- How to hide extra contact folders in Outlook
- Expand all folders
- How to find calendars (or other lost folders)
- Create a recurring appointment that excludes weekends
How to hide extra contact folders in Outlook
Many years ago Microsoft added a feature to Outlook.com that gave users the opportunity to link various online contact sources, such as Gmail, Facebook, Twitter and others with Outlook.com accounts. This created additional contact folders in the mailbox, one for each linked service. This service is no longer available but, unfortunately, the folders remain in the mailbox. These folders are visible in both Outlook desktop and on smartphones but are hidden in Outlook on the web.
I’m starting to hear from users who have these empty contacts folders in Outlook but are unable to delete them. A few seconds after deleting the folder, it pops back into view in Outlook.
The solution: hide the folders using MFCMAPI.
I have instructions to hide one folder at a time at How to Hide or Delete Outlook's Default Folders but if you have multiple accounts in your profile, each with some of these extra folder, it takes a little longer to hide all of the folders if you use MFCMAPI. If you use a macro, its pretty fast to select a folder and run the macro multiple times but running a macro once on all folders in the profile is even faster.
The new version of the Hide Folders macro checks all mailboxes in the profile for a list of folder names and hides any of the folders it finds. The code to search for the folders is from Michael Bauer at VBOffice.net, merging his Find a Folder by its Name macro with the Hide Folders macro.
If you have other folders you want to hide, you can add the folder name to the array, comma separated and wrapped in quotes. The macro will work with any folder but you should only hide folders you and Outlook never use, as Outlook may move mail into the folder, which you’ll never see when the folder is hidden, or Outlook may unhide the folder later.
Get the code sample at How to hide LinkedIn, Facebook, Google and other extra contact folders in Outlook.com
Expand all folders
I’ve had several people ask how to keep the Online archive folders expanded in Outlook.
A user imported several PST files into his online archive (Exchange Online/Office 365) in Outlook 2016. When he closes Outlook and re-opens it, his online archive and all its folders are collapsed. If he expands them all (the view he wants) , the online archive folders are collapsed when he opens Outlook again. Is there a way to make sure that whenever he opens Outlook, his online archive folders will stay expanded?
Well, you have two choices. If you can use a macro, Michael Bauer has a macro for that. Expand All Folders. (You’ll need to change ExpandDefaultStoreOnly = True to False to expand all folders in your profile.)
If you can’t use a macro, you’ll need to expand the mailbox manually. Select the top-level folder, “Online Archive – username”, and press the * key on the numeric keypad twice.
This keyboard shortcut will work on any folders in your mailbox. The shortcut to collapse all folders is the minus key (also on the numeric keypad).
How to find calendars (or other lost folders)
I'm sure I've mentioned this little trick to locate lost folders before, but its a favorite of mine and I had two users this week who needed to find lost folders.
One user had extra calendars which were firing reminders. The other user just had too many subfolders and needed to find a folder. When he searched, the In Folder field had the folder name but not the folder path.
I'm getting notifications from THREE different calendars. When I open each individual reminder I see that two are accessing "calendar (copy)" AND "calendar 1" . I don’t see these calendars in my folder list. How do I locate them so I can delete their contents?
Finding a folder is easy as long as you can find an item that is in the folder. Since you have the reminders, it’ll take just a few seconds to locate the calendar.
Open the reminder then press Ctrl+Shift+S to open Advanced Find. Click Browse and you’ll see where the folder is.
My best guess with this limited information is the calendars are in a trash folder. If you use iCloud and an IMAP account is set as default, it moves the Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks folders to the IMAP account’s Trash folder, to lessen the chances you’ll create items in those folders. Other sync utilities may do the same.
This Advanced Find trick works on any Outlook item to show you where the folder is, of course, you need to be able to find something in the folder before you can find the folder.
Create a recurring appointment that excludes weekends
An Outlook user wanted to create appointment that spanned Thursday - Monday but skipped the weekend days. While you can't create a multiday event that skips dates that fall within the beginning and end dates, you can create a recurring event.
Is there a way to create a Thursday to Monday appointment and exclude Saturday and Sunday? Or do I have to create two separate appointments, one for Thursday - Friday and the other for Monday
Yes, you can create a recurring appointment for this pattern. Choose the Weekly recurrence and select Thursday, Friday, and Monday. Set the start date for Thursday. If you only need the appointment for those 3 days, set it to end after 3 occurrences.
New & Updated Exchange KB Articles
ActiveSync clients cannot connect or synchronizing is delayed in an Exchange Server environment
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4337638
Culture element is added in the wrong order when you use the ResolveNames operation in EWS in Exchange Server 2010
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4012911
Description of the security update for Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 and 2016: May 8, 2018
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4092041
Email is still sent to the Inbox when the sender is deleted from the trusted contacts list in Exchange Server 2016
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4015213
EWS connections proxied from Exchange Server 2016 to 2010 can access all 2010's mailboxes
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4054456
Hybrid F/B looks up fails between Exchange Server 2016 CU8 and O365
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4058297
Office 365 Hybrid Configuration Wizard fails on Exchange Server 2016 CU7
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4051381
PostalAddressIndex property isn't returning the correct value in Exchange Server 2016
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4012994
PowerShell cmdlet/parameter combinations don't work with Exchange Server
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4295103
RecipientViewRoot cmdlet does not work for sibling domains in Exchange Server 2016
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4055953
Synchronization fails after mailbox items changed via EWS calls in cached mode Outlook client
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4093129
The mailbox usage status bar in OWA shows wrong mailbox usage
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4054513
Update Rollup 20 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 3
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4073537
Update Rollup 21 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 3
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4091243
Users cannot expand folders or see complete calendar data even though they have full permissions
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4293584
New & Updated Office 365 KB Articles
Archive folder is automatically added to your Office 365 mailbox
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4010182
Global Customer Service phone numbers
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4051701
How can my company create Office 365 demos
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4295001
How do I earn Office 365 internal-use rights benefits
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4295023
Scanning your Outlook configuration by using the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant (SaRA) for Office 365
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4055050
Hybrid free/busy lookups fail between Exchange Server 2016 CU8 and O365
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4058297
June 5, 2018, update for Office 2016 (KB4022156)
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4022156
Mailbox audit logging is not enabled in Office 365 dedicated/ITAR (vNext)
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4040031
Office 2019 perpetual volume license products available as Click-to-Run
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4086177
DLP policy tips in Security and Compliance Center don't work in OWA/Outlook
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4229971
Office 365 is changing its build numbers to a five-digit format
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4257084
Preparing for the mandatory use of TLS 1.2 in Office 365
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4057306
Update Rollup 4 for System Center 2016 Service Manager
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4024038
New & Updated Outlook KB Articles
June 5, 2018, update for Office 2016 (KB4022156)
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4022156
June 5, 2018, update for Office 2016 Language Interface Pack (KB4018370)
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4018370
PostalAddressIndex property isn't returning the correct value in Exchange Server 2016
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4012994
Synchronization is unsuccessful after mailbox items are changed through EWS calls in cached-mode Outlook client
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4093129
You can't sign in after you update to Office 2016 build 16.0.7967 or a later version on Windows 10
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4025962
Other Resources
How to hide LinkedIn, Facebook, Google and other extra contact folders in Outlook.com
How to hide extra Contact folders, left from previously linking contact sources with Outlook.com accounts, so they aren't visible in Outlook or on smartphones.
Is the Image Preview Secure?
A user asked how to turn off attachment preview. No, not the option that displays the attachment in the reading pane, and no, he wasn’t asking about blocked external content. He wanted to disable the thumbnail preview that is used on images attached to email.
Moving an Exchange Offline Data File (*.ost)
How to move an Outlook offline data file (.ost) typically used by Exchange servers, but also used by IMAP accounts with Outlook 2013 and up.
The (good) Autocomplete list is back
How to restore the old autocomplete list format, replacing the new Recent/Other Suggestions list.
Use VBA to create a Mail Merge from Excel
How to create a macro that reads values from an Excel worksheet and sends a mail merge, replacing unique values in an Outlook template with values in the worksheet and send the message From an address in the worksheet.
Office 2019 Preview is ready for Commercial customers
More information on Office 2019 and information for organizations that plan to deploy the perpetual (volume licensed) version of Office 2019 when it's released later this year.